{"id":14263,"date":"2020-09-09T15:07:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T19:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=14263"},"modified":"2020-09-13T22:22:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T02:22:22","slug":"generation-loss-the-case-for-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is generation loss? How does generation loss affect the information we have about Jesus, and whether or not he was real?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generation loss is the process of how we lose information over time. In a digital age, there is less chance for generation loss. However, generation loss did contribute to many lost information and documents in the time since Jesus. So what does this mean for the Bible, and the information we have in the gospels? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to find out how generation loss may help prove whether or not Jesus was real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Generation Loss<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the advent of digital reproduction processes, we no longer have to worry about quality or fidelity loss as we copy materials, whether music files, digital images, or word-processing documents. Even modern-day Xerox machines produce near-pristine copies of originals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we\u2019re dealing with ancient manuscripts, however, which had to be copied by hand onto fragile materials and transported on foot, the risk of corruption or loss is great<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, there are three interlinked reasons <\/strong>for us to trust that the gospels we have today are faithful to the originals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The oldest surviving copies of the gospels were made comparatively soon after the originals were written<\/strong>. Whereas the surviving copies of many ancient texts were made hundreds of years after the original\u2014for example, Tacitus\u2019s Annals of Imperial Rome <\/em>was written in the second century AD, but our oldest copy dates to 850 AD\u2014there are fragments of the New Testament preserved on papyrus dating to the second century AD. (The earliest copy of the New Testament that survives is a small fragment of the gospel of John dating to between 100 and 150 AD.)<\/li>
  2. There is a wealth of early New Testament material<\/strong>. When it comes to ancient texts, the lineage is typically sparse. Take the first-century historian, Josephus: In Greek, his native language, the only copies that exist date to the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries; the earliest version is a fourth-century Latin translation. The New Testament, on the other hand, boasts more than five thousand Greek manuscripts<\/strong>.<\/li>
  3. There is consistency among fragments in translation and from diverse geographical areas<\/strong>. In addition to the thousands of Greek fragments, early versions of the New Testament survive in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic, and other ancient languages. And in great numbers: For example, there are between 8,000 and 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    According to another esteemed scholar of the New Testament, F.F. Bruce, the New Testament is unparalleled in terms of the textual evidence for its accuracy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Discrepancies Among the Surviving Copies<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    There are certainly differences among the many ancient copies of the gospels as a result of generation loss (the highest estimates place the number of differences among the copies at 200,000). But these differences are by and large insignificant<\/strong>. For example, a great many differences occur because two Greek words are transposed (think \u201cgoes he\u201d instead of \u201che goes\u201d). But because Greek is an \u201cinflected\u201d language\u2014that is, each word\u2019s form indicates its part of speech\u2014these kinds of \u201cerrors\u201d have no effect on the text\u2019s meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And even more material variations\u2014for example, the fact that the earliest manuscripts of 1 John feature no mention of the Trinity\u2014don\u2019t undermine the key doctrines of the Church. In the case of the Trinity, although the earliest versions of 1 John don\u2019t mention it, other books (2 Corinthians, for instance) do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What is generation loss? How does generation loss affect the information we have about Jesus, and whether or not he was real? Generation loss is the process of how we lose information over time. In a digital age, there is less chance for generation loss. However, generation loss did contribute to many lost information and documents in the time since Jesus. So what does this mean for the Bible, and the information we have in the gospels? Keep reading to find out how generation loss may help prove whether or not Jesus was real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,39],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-14263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-history","tag-the-case-for-christ","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is generation loss? Over time, we lose some of the stories and information we once recorded. Here's why it matters for the Bible.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is generation loss? Over time, we lose some of the stories and information we once recorded. Here's why it matters for the Bible.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-09T19:07:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-14T02:22:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-09T19:07:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-14T02:22:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\"},\"wordCount\":575,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Case for Christ\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Education\",\"History\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\",\"name\":\"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-09T19:07:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-14T02:22:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is generation loss? Over time, we lose some of the stories and information we once recorded. Here's why it matters for the Bible.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus? - Shortform Books","description":"What is generation loss? Over time, we lose some of the stories and information we once recorded. Here's why it matters for the Bible.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?","og_description":"What is generation loss? Over time, we lose some of the stories and information we once recorded. Here's why it matters for the Bible.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-09-09T19:07:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-14T02:22:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?","datePublished":"2020-09-09T19:07:38+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-14T02:22:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/"},"wordCount":575,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The Case for Christ"],"articleSection":["Education","History"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/","name":"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-09T19:07:38+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-14T02:22:22+00:00","description":"What is generation loss? Over time, we lose some of the stories and information we once recorded. Here's why it matters for the Bible.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/generation-loss-the-case-for-christ\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Does Generation Loss Change How We See Jesus?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/generation-loss-case-for-christ-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14674,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263\/revisions\/14674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}