Copyright and the Biblical Canon

The New Testament is preserved in about 25,000 ancient manuscripts in many languages (principally Greek, but also Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic and others) found all around the Mediterranean. How did we get 25,000 copies of a text, stored in many diverse (off-site) locations, in any number of media (languages)? By rampant copying and duplication.

Even before the advent of duplicating machinery like photocopiers and computers, Christians spread the New Testament text across Europe, Asia and Africa. Not only that, but they did it so well that the text has can generally be considered reliable.

It’s hard to make an appeal to what the Bible says “in the original” when it is made up of thousands of varying manuscripts like this. However, through the exciting and incredibly nerdy science of textual criticism, that’s the endeavor promises to do: a reliable reconstruction from a diverse set of near-duplicates. (Textual criticism’s methods are not essentially different from making computer backups, CRC’s, or diffs.)

Without the freedom to share and the freedom to back up or to copy, there would be no Bible. If the Church in Rome had decided never to make a copy of Paul’s letter or to share it with nearby churches, we would certainly have no record of it today. If Mark decided that Matthew and Luke had to pay exorbitant royalties to make their derivative gospels, Christians would be poorer for it.

It is notable that Christian Gnostics, who focused on keeping their doctrines and teachings secret, had their documents lost, quite literally, to the sands of time. Only 20th century archaeologists have now been able to find their hidden witness.

To be Christian is to owe a debt to forerunners who duplicated and copied freely and without concern. We owe it to them to be interested in the same causes today.