Period of Confusion (to AD 400) The vast majority of the errors in the NT MSS occurred during the period that is also the most difficult to reconstruct—the first four Christian centuries. Much of the difficulty stems from the work of the earliest Christian copyists. In a time when the majority of people were illiterate and when Christianity periodically underwent severe persecution, there were probably few professionally trained scribes in the service of the church. Moreover, seldom were the scribes