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Greek Scholar Daniel Wallace said, “When the King James was done, it was especially based on about a half of a dozen manuscripts. The earliest of which was a thousand years after the New Testament was written. Today we have approximately 1000 times as many manuscripts that we know exist. And our earliest ones go all the way back to the 2nd century. …Within decades of when the New Testament was written.” Why is it significant that we have manuscripts that go back to within decades after the New Testament was written?
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The old testament pointed to the coming of Jesus Christ. So it’s important to have all the manuscripts. We can study and relate the old and new testament using the manuscripts to prove that Jesus Christ bears a true witness.
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The witness is more reliable when less time has passed between the event and the written statement about it. First person accounts are accepted in courts today as reliable as well. The less time has passed, there is less chance for inaccuracies or loss of information.
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I believe it is significant because it is a record of history that as years pass, the manuscripts do no change. It shows that there was importance and significance in copying/sharing/spreading God’s word and the testimony of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
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It is significant because there accounts would be more likely to be reliable because they took place more recently.
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If we have manuscripts that go back within decades of when the NT was written, we are able to make sure the newer manuscripts are accurate in nature compared to the older ones. This would ensure accuracy of the manuscript.