The question
Read and compare
Open the Codex Sinaiticus project below. This project lets you view a very old handwritten Bible. Read its description and look at a page. Note its language, date and contents. What can it show you?
Evidence
An old Greek copy
The Codex Sinaiticus project dates this handwritten Bible to about the middle of the AD 300s. It has the oldest complete New Testament that still survives. That is the age of this copy, not the date when its books were first written.
Read about this old Bible →Evidence
Look closely at the page
A photo shows the page. A transcription is a typed record of its letters. Both help you study it, but you still need to work out what the words mean. The project also marks corrections. Check which words came from the first copyist and which were changed later.
Look at the handwritten pages →Evidence
Compare more than one source
An old copy, a translation, or a quotation may show that certain words were known. These sources do not all tell us the same thing. With 1 John 5:7, the Greek and Latin records show why dates, languages and nearby words matter.
Read about the Greek and Latin records →The strongest challenge
Can a later copy keep older words? Yes. The age of a copy is not always the age of its wording. But we still need evidence that those words are older. Something being possible does not make it proved.
What the evidence supports—and what remains open
One old copy cannot show us every earlier copy. It cannot prove that every word in it came from the first writer. Compare the records for each view. A speaker’s confidence is not proof.
Follow the evidence
What does the evidence show?
No score and no forced answer. Use the sources above to weigh the claim.
- Check the source. Read the linked passage or record in context. Note its edition, date and language where relevant.
- Test the explanation. Compare the strongest challenge with what the source actually shows. Which point does it support, and which point needs more evidence?
- Choose your next step. Record the question you still need answered below, then follow a source or the next related study.
Your study notebook
What do you think—and what is still unclear?
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