Bart Ehrman

Manuscript Evidence for the Seven Undisputed Letters

Can we really know what Paul wrote nearly 2,000 years ago? This post explores the earliest manuscripts, key textual variants, and what even secular scholars say about the reliability of Paul’s seven undisputed letters.

Whether you approach the Bible with faith or skepticism, the transmission of Paul’s seven undisputed letters offers a rare meeting point where historians and believers find surprising agreement. These seven letters—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon—are universally accepted by scholars as genuine works of Paul. But can we be confident that the words we read today are the same ones Paul wrote in the 50s AD?

What Manuscripts Do We Actually Have?

Before the invention of the printing press, texts were copied by hand. That led to thousands of variations over time. But for Paul’s seven undisputed letters, we have a remarkable collection of early manuscripts and translations.

Approximate counts by language:

Greek: ~900 manuscripts
Latin: 3,000–4,000+ manuscripts
Coptic: 200–300 manuscripts
Syriac: 200–300 manuscripts
Other languages (Armenian, Gothic, Ethiopic, etc.): ~500 combined

Bart Ehrman, an agnostic scholar, says:
“We have more manuscripts of the New Testament than any other book from antiquity—many thousands. And many of these manuscripts date from quite early times.”
(Misquoting Jesus, 2005)

The Earliest Manuscript: P46

The earliest confirmed manuscript of Paul’s seven letters is Papyrus 46 (P46), dated between 175–225 AD.

It was discovered in Egypt and now resides in both Dublin and Michigan. It originally had 104 leaves, but only 86 survive.

P46 includes the following:

Romans 5:17–16:27 (chapters 1–5:16 are missing)
1 Corinthians 1:1–15:58 (chapter 16 missing)
2 Corinthians 1:1–9:6 (chapters 9:7–13:13 missing)
Galatians: fully preserved
Philippians: fully preserved
1 Thessalonians: fully preserved
Philemon: not included—likely in the missing final leaves

Brent Nongbri, a secular papyrologist, says:
“There is little doubt that additional material once followed the current end of the manuscript.”

By 200 AD, Paul’s letters were already being copied and circulated as a collection—less than 150 years after they were written.

Manuscripts Between 200 and 325 AD

To bridge the gap between Paul and the major codices of the fourth century, we have three key papyrus fragments:

P30 (c. 225–250): 1 Thessalonians 4:12–5:18
P65 (c. 200–250): 1 Thessalonians 1:3–2:13
P87 (c. 250–300): Philemon 13–15, 24–25

These fragments confirm continued copying of Paul’s letters across different regions before Christianity was legalized.

Then Come the Codices

Two of the most important Greek Bibles appear shortly after 325 AD:

Codex Vaticanus (c. 325–350): Contains all 7 undisputed letters; preserved in the Vatican Library
Codex Sinaiticus (c. 330–360): Also contains all 7; discovered at St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai

Despite coming from different regions, they show strong agreement with each other and with earlier papyri like P46 and P87.

Early Translations

By the early 4th century, Paul’s letters had also been translated into major Christian languages:

Old Latin (c. 250–300): Includes Romans and Galatians
Coptic (Sahidic dialect) (c. 300–325): Includes Galatians
Syriac: Citations from the letters appear by the early 4th century

This wide translation effort confirms the value and authority of Paul’s letters in diverse early communities.

What About Textual Variants?

Across all manuscripts of Paul’s seven letters, scholars estimate about 7,000–8,000 textual variants. That number may sound high—until you consider that these variants are spread across thousands of manuscripts written by hand over centuries.

More importantly, the vast majority of these variants are completely insignificant—they affect spelling, word order, or have no impact on the meaning at all.

Two Examples of Insignificant Variants:

Romans 12:11

“Serve the Lord” vs. “Serve the Spirit”
🡒 The difference is one Greek word—both emphasize faithful living and make theological sense.

Galatians 1:3

“God our Father” vs. “God the Father”
🡒 Both readings are grammatically and doctrinally acceptable. No core teaching is affected.

Bart Ehrman comments:
“Most of the textual changes in our manuscripts are completely insignificant.”
(Misquoting Jesus, 2005)

But Are There Any That Matter?

Yes, a few variants are more significant. Here are five that are often discussed:

Romans 8:1

Short: “There is therefore now no condemnation…”
Long: adds “…who walk not according to the flesh…”
🡒 The longer phrase is likely borrowed from verse 4—a case of scribal harmonization.

1 Thessalonians 2:7

“We were gentle among you” vs. “We were like children among you”
🡒 The difference hinges on a single Greek letter. Both are consistent with Paul’s tone and message.

Galatians 2:12

Some manuscripts omit “certain men from James”
🡒 Possibly removed to soften the perceived tension between Paul and the Jerusalem church.

1 Corinthians 14:34–35

These verses about women keeping silent appear in different places in some manuscripts or are marked with symbols
🡒 Their placement suggests that some early copyists were unsure of their originality.

Romans 5:1

“We have peace…” vs. “Let us have peace…”
🡒 A single vowel shifts the tone from statement to exhortation—both readings are ancient and meaningful.

Even in these cases, none of the variants creates a contradiction or changes Christian doctrine. They are precisely the kind of variations you’d expect in a vast and ancient copying tradition.

Eldon J. Epp, a respected textual critic, concludes:
“The massive number of manuscripts gives us confidence in recovering a reliable text.”
(Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism, 2005)

Conclusion: We Can Know What Paul Wrote

Paul’s letters were written around 50 AD. By 200 AD, we have Papyrus 46. Between 200 and 325, we have fragmentary manuscripts and early translations. By 350, we have complete codices that show strong agreement with the earlier copies.

Despite being copied by hand for centuries, the content of Paul’s seven letters remains remarkably stable.

What we read today is—by all major accounts—what Paul wrote.

One of the most repeated claims in modern New Testament scholarship is that the early church gradually elevated Jesus to divine status. The argument often follows a literary timeline: Jesus starts out as a humble, misunderstood teacher in the Gospel of Mark (dated around AD 70) and ends up boldly identified as divine in the Gospel of John (around AD 90). That evolution, we’re told, reveals how Jesus went from man to God in the minds of believers.

But that narrative collapses when we examine the earliest Christian writings.

What’s the Real Timeline?

Even if we follow the timeline laid out by non-Christian scholars, the literary progression of early Christianity looks like this:

Early creeds, hymns, and poems — AD 30–45
Paul’s seven undisputed letters — AD 48–61
The Gospels — AD 70–100

If you want to know what the first Christians believed about Jesus, you don’t start with the Gospels. And you don’t even start with Paul’s theological reflections. You start with the traditions he inherited, many of which he quotes within his letters.

One of the clearest examples is a passage in Philippians 2:6–11, widely regarded as a pre-Pauline hymn.

Philippians 2:6–11 (ESV)

Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Why This Passage Matters

The structure and elevated language of Philippians 2:6–11 mark it as distinct from Paul’s usual prose. Nearly all scholars agree—this is not original to Paul, but a hymn he quotes from early Christian worship.

Even Bart Ehrman, a leading atheist scholar, wrote:

“This passage appears to embody an early Christian hymn… possibly dating to the 40s CE, and so within a decade or so of Jesus’ death.”
— How Jesus Became God (2014)

The late Gerd Lüdemann, also an atheist and a critical historian, wrote:

“The passage is a pre-Pauline hymn which was composed within a few years of Jesus’ death.”
— The Resurrection of Jesus (1994)

This means that before Paul ever penned his letters, Christians were already worshiping Jesus as preexistent, divine, and exalted by God.

A Chiastic Structure Reveals Its Heart

This passage follows a literary form known as a chiasm—a mirror-like pattern often used in ancient literature to center the most important idea.

Chiastic Structure:

A – Divine Lord
“Being in the form of God… equality with God”
B – Loss of all recognition
“Did not consider equality with God something to exploit… emptied himself”
C – Common name
“Taking the form of a servant… born in human likeness”
D – Obedient to death
“He humbled himself… even death on a cross”
C′ – Highest name
“God gave him the name that is above every name”
B′ – Universal recognition
“Every knee will bow… every tongue confess”
A′ – Divine Lord
“Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”

The centerpiece is Jesus’ obedient death, which leads to a universal recognition of his lordship—a direct quotation of Isaiah 45:23, where Yahweh declares:

“To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”

Paul deliberately applies this to Jesus, affirming that the early Christians saw him as sharing in Yahweh’s divine identity.

Jesus Didn’t Cling to Divinity—He Chose Humility

The hymn says Jesus was in the form of God (morphē theou) and had equality with God. Greek philosopher Aristotle explained the word morphē like this:

“The form (morphē) means the essence or reality of a thing—what it truly is.”
— Metaphysics 1032b1–2

So Jesus didn’t become divine—he was divine and chose to let go of that divine privilege.

Paul uses the word harpagmos, meaning “something to be seized or held onto.” Jesus didn’t need to seize equality with God—he already had it. And rather than cling to it, he let it go.

The Greek verbs “emptied himself” (ekenōsen) and “humbled himself” (etapeinōsen) are paired with the reflexive pronoun heauton (“himself”), showing that these were deliberate acts—Jesus chose to give himself.

Crucifixion: The Lowest Shame

Paul doesn’t merely say Jesus died—he highlights that it was “even death on a cross.” Crucifixion wasn’t just painful—it was socially degrading.

Seneca wrote:

“Can anyone be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree… in long-drawn-out agony?”
— Dialogues 6.20.3

Cicero called crucifixion:

“A most cruel and disgusting punishment.”
— Against Verres 2.5.66

And again:

“The very word ‘cross’ should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears.”
— Pro Rabirio 16

That Jesus willingly chose such a death, according to the hymn, is the very reason he is exalted above all.

Jewish Parallels to Exalted Figures

Though the Christ Hymn is unique, early Jewish literature gives us conceptual background:

1 Enoch 48:2–5
“The Son of Man… was chosen and hidden… all who dwell on earth shall worship before him.”
1 Enoch 69:26–29
“The Son of Man… all the kings shall fall down and worship him.”
4Q246 (Dead Sea Scrolls)
“He shall be called the Son of God… all nations shall serve him.”
Philo
“The Logos is the image of God, by which the whole world was created.”
— On Dreams 1.239
“God made man according to the image of his own Logos.”
— Questions on Genesis 2.62

These aren’t Christian writings. They show that Jewish thinkers had already envisioned preexistent, divine-like agents who could be exalted and worshipped—yet none describe such a figure choosing to suffer like Philippians 2 does.

Final Thought: Not a Gradual Climb—A Bold Declaration

Even if we accept the consensus of non-Christian scholars, the Christ Hymn brings us closest to the earliest Christian beliefs.

Long before the Gospels were written, Christians believed Jesus:

Preexisted in divine form
Humbled himself in obedience
Was crucified in shame
And was exalted and worshipped as Lord

That’s not a slow myth in the making.

That’s the foundation of the faith—fully formed, right from the start.

Living the Bible

Jason Conrad

How Accurate Are Paul’s Letters? What the Manuscripts and Scholars Say