Did the Original Bible Manuscripts Claim Jesus Was God?
Head from a statue of Diocletian at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the bestseller Holy Blood, Holy Grail , the authors claim that in A.D. 303 Emperor Diocletian destroyed all Christian writings that could be found. That's why, they assert, there are no New Testament manuscripts prior to the fourth century . Later, Emperor Constantine commissioned new versions of these documents, which allowed the "custodians of orthodoxy to revise, edit, and rewrite their material as they saw fit." It was at this point that "most of the crucial alterations in the New Testament were probably made and Jesus assumed the unique status he has enjoyed ever since." Titus 2:11-14 In response to this book, Dr. Daniel B. Wallace , a New Testament Greek scholar, says, "Do these authors know anything about history at all? Diocletian did not destroy all the Christian manuscripts. He did destroy several, but mostly in the East and South. As far