Expert: Dean Gade - 1/1/2007

Question
Where are the original manuscripts of the bible located?

Answer
At this time we believe that all original manuscripts are extinct.  The oldest of the rather complete manuscripts that we have seems to be a ninth century copy of a second century.    There are many "fragments" of various old manuscripts.

They are kept at various places:  such as the very reliable "Vaticanus"  is kept at the Vatican.  A comparable one is the Sinaiticus  and a great number of the Bedzae, Koine manuscripts and the  Hesychian,  Syriac translations.

When you study these, it is amazing how many manuscripts that there are AND  how little variation there is.   Most differences are "typos" as they were copied to be sent on to other churches.   There are also some additional words or missing words in some of them.

One of the best sources of studying this area is to find one of the many and ongoing editions of Nestle's "Novum Testamentum Graece".   This books present  the the full New Testament, listing the variations of manuscripts at the bottom of each page.

However, you will need to know Koine(or Classical) Greek to see what the differences are.