If you are wondering if the copies we have of the Bible today are reliable, then you should know that there are more copies of the Bible and parts of the Bible than of any other piece of ancient literature. This is important because once an original document has been lost or worn out by use, the only record we have of it are copies. Since neither the copying machine nor the printing press existed at the time, these copies were meticulously duplicated by hand and passed down through the centuries. When copy after copy of a document is made by hand, there are bound to be some errors that creep in over time, but by comparing all of the copies that exist (the oldest, the best, ancient translations of the Bible made into other languages, etc.) scholars have concluded that the Bible we have today is extremely reliable. There is more evidence for the reliability of the Bible than for other respected ancient works of literature like the writings of Plato and Aristotle. There are, in fact, thousands of more copies. God promised to preserve His words, once they were given, for all generations.
“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” (Psalm 12:6-7)
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
If God was able to create the universe, is it unreasonable to believe that He could preserve His words? Men have tried to destroy the Bible through the centuries but it has remained. The 16th Century French writer Voltaire said, “It took twelve ignorant fishermen to establish Christianity; I will show the world how one Frenchman can destroy it.” After his death, Voltaire's house was used as a Bible storehouse and his printing press was used to print Bibles. The Bible remains the world's best selling book. Though it has been banned and suppressed by governments over the centuries (for example, the translator of the first printed English New Testament that had been translated from the original Greek, William Tyndale, was strangled to death and burned at the stake) yet God has preserved His words for us today.
Tyndale's translation started a wave of scholarship that lead to the 1611 King James Version. The men who translated it included many of England's finest Greek and Hebrew scholars. We have no reason to doubt that the Bible we have today is an accurate, preserved and well-translated copy of the original words of God.