Agnostic New Testament textual and early Christianity scholar Dr. Bart D. Ehrman states God “didn’t preserve the words, the conclusion seemed inescapable to me that he hadn’t gone to the trouble of inspiring them.” The KJVO/TRO argues, “Because the Scriptures are forever relevant, they have been preserved down through the ages by God's special providence.”
What Do We Find When We Enter the Period of the Critical Text of the New Testament?
New Testament textual criticism goes back to Origen (185-254), in the third century of our common era. The historical roots of textual scholarship actually go back to the 3rd-century B.C.E. in the Library of Alexandria. We are going to the 18th-19th centuries for the purposes of this article.