The Bible was written on material that deteriorates, so it had to be copied and recopied by hand for hundreds of years before the invention of the printing press. This copying did not diminish the accuracy of the original Hebrew Bible, because of the unique nature of the copying process.
The Jews preserved Scripture as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. They meticulously kept track of every letter, syllable, word, sentence, and paragraph by counting each spearate division on every page and comparing all of the tallies with the original before allowing the page to be put into use. Scribes, lawyers, and massoretes were special classes of men within Jewish culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with perfect fidelity. If you compare the Bible with all other ancient writings, you will find it has more copies of the original manuscript, with less variation between manuscripts, than any other 10 pieces of classical literature combined.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, December 10.
