Historical reliability of the Gospels Historical reliability of the Gospels The historical reliability of the Gospels refers to the reliability and historic character of the four New Testament gospels as historical documents. Some believe that all four canonical gospels meet the five criteria for historical reliability; and others say that little in the gospels is considered to be historically reliable. Almost all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed, but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus, and the only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and
Textual variants in the New Testament text of the New Testament", Greek New Testament manuscripts have commonly been categorized into five groups. An abbreviated list of textual variants in the New Testament is given in this article (below). (see Isaiah 40:3) Textual variants in the New Testament Textual variants in the New Testament are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. Most of the variations are not significant and some common alterations include the deletion, rearrangement, repetition, or replacement of one