Editing Historicity of the Bible (section)

===Manuscripts and canons===
The Bible exists in multiple manuscripts, none of them an [[autograph (manuscript)|autograph]], and multiple [[biblical canon]]s, which do not completely agree on which books have sufficient authority to be included or their order. The early discussions about the exclusion or integration of various [[apocrypha]] involve an early idea about the historicity of the core.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDd4dQek-DsC&q=historizit%25C3%25A4t+der+bibel+apokryphen&pg=PA6|title=Theologie des Kanons: der christliche Kanon, seine Hermeneutik und die Historizität seiner Aussagen; die Lehren der Kirchenväter als Grundlegung der Lehre von der Heiligen Schrift|last=Grosse|first=Sven|year=2011|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3643800787|pages=91–92|language=de}}</ref> The [[Ionian Enlightenment]] influenced early patrons like [[Justin Martyr]] and [[Tertullian]]—both saw the biblical texts as being different from (and having more historicity than) the myths of other religions. [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] was aware of the difference between science and scripture and defended the historicity of the biblical texts, e.g., against claims of [[Faustus of Mileve]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grosse |first=Sven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDd4dQek-DsC&q=historizit%25C3%25A4t+der+bibel+apokryphen&pg=PA6 |title=Theologie des Kanons: der christliche Kanon, seine Hermeneutik und die Historizität seiner Aussagen; die Lehren der Kirchenväter als Grundlegung der Lehre von der Heiligen Schrift |date=2011 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3643800787 |page=94 |language=de |quote=One does not read in the Gospel that the Lord said: "I will send you the Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon." For He willed to make them Christians, not mathematicians. (Translation of the German Quote according to wikiquote)}}</ref>

Historians hold that the Bible should not be treated differently from other historical (or literary) sources from the ancient world. One may compare doubts about the historicity of, for example, [[Herodotus]]; the consequence of these discussions is not that historians shall have to stop using ancient sources for historical reconstruction, but need to be aware of the problems involved when doing so.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqJxkKy-cMMC&q=herodotus+ancient+sources+barstad&pg=PA41|title=History and the Hebrew Bible: Studies in Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography|last=Barstad|first=Hans M.|authorlink=Hans M. Barstad|date=2008|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3161498091|pages=40–42|language=en}}</ref>

Very few texts survive directly from antiquity: most have been copied—some, many times. To determine the accuracy of a copied manuscript, [[Textual criticism|textual critics]] examine the way the transcripts have passed through history to their [[wikt:extant|extant]] forms. The higher the consistency of the earliest texts, the greater their textual reliability, and the less chance that the content has been changed over the years. Multiple copies may also be grouped into [[Textual criticism#New Testament|text types]], with some types judged closer to the hypothetical original than others.