If we only had a single manuscript of the New Testament, how many variants would we have? Well, none, of course! That sounds more like it. Or does it? If we only had one manuscript, we would have very little confidence that it accurately represents the original. A single manuscript could have been changed, and how would we know? We would have nothing with which to compare it. While the idea of having no variants may sound great, variants actually are a natural byproduct of having lots and lots of
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