Did Plato ever exist?
Plato wrote about 427-347 Be. The first manuscript that we've got is 900 AD-1200 year gap in terms of the manuscripts coming down. Thucydides in his Wars, 496- 406 was when he wrote. The earliest copy that we've got in existence is 1000 AD.
That means there's a 1400 year time span from the time that he wrote to the first manuscript that exists today!!!!
Sophocles wrote about 496-406 Be. The earliest copy is dated at 1000 AD. There's a 1400 year time span. And yet they all say that basically we have an accurate account of what these authors originally wrote and said. But they'll come to the New Testament and say, "We haven't got accurate stuff. You Christians just believe anything, don't you? The time span from the time that the writers wrote to the first copies that you have is so long that we can't believe that you have accurate historical information." How long is it, by the way?
Let me give you a couple of ideas here.
In Egypt they found five verses from the Gospel of John. They are dated as being written at 117 AD. It's called the John Ryland's Papyrus. Obviously these are copies, but if John wrote and ended his book at 80 AD, that means that the time from the time that he wrote and the copy that got down that they found that's dated 117 is 37 years.
Thirty-seven years…… versus….. 1400 years over here.
They have no doubt that what this guy said over here is right. Thirty-seven years over here! Thirty-seven years! But they say, "Well, you know .. .! mean, look what happened in between the gaposus where you don't have the Apostle John sitting there writing. We just have a copy." Thirty-seven years old. The ink is hardly dry!!!
The Bodmer Papyri, dated at 175 to 225, contain most of the Gospel of Luke and most of the Gospel of John. That would mean that these are only 110 years away from the Apostles. The Chester Beatty Papyri are dated at 250 AD. Three Codices that contain most of the New Testament. This would put them at 180 years from the time of the Apostles. The major manuscripts that have the whole Bible, the Codex Vatican us, dated at 325 AD, and Codex Sinaiticus at 350 AD. These would be only 255 years away from the Apostles.
If you will not accept the New Testament writers as giving accurate historical information, what are you going to have to do with Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides and Sophocles? You're going to have to chuck 'em. I don't know any classical scholar, in order to not deal with the New Testament, is willing to chuck the entire classics. They're not that biased.
Ankerberg Theological Research Institute, John Ankerberg Show