DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Not one original survives; every Bible rests on copies of copies. Paul even signs off one letter 'See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand' (Galatians 6:11) — a reminder that letters were usually dictated to a scribe and then copied onward.
Why it’s interesting
This is why the whole discipline of textual criticism exists: comparing thousands of later copies to work back toward the earliest wording. Far from a secret, it's printed in the footnotes of nearly every study Bible.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.