Editing New Testament (section)

==Early manuscripts==
[[File:Papyrus Bodmer VIII.jpg|thumb|Papyrus Bodmer VIII, at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, showing 1 and 2 Peter.]]
[[File:Codex Regius (019).JPG|thumb|The [[Codex Regius (New Testament)|Codex Regius (L or '''019''')]], an 8th-century Greek manuscript of the New Testament with strong affinities to [[Codex Vaticanus]].]]
{{Main|New Testament manuscripts}}

Like other literature from [[classical antiquity|antiquity]], the text of the New Testament was (prior to the advent of the [[printing press]]) preserved and transmitted in [[manuscripts]]. Manuscripts containing at least a part of the New Testament number in the thousands. The earliest of these (like manuscripts containing other literature) are often very fragmentarily preserved. Some of these fragments have even been thought to date as early as the 2nd century (i.e., [[Papyrus 90]], [[Papyrus 98]], [[Papyrus 104]], and famously [[Rylands Library Papyrus P52]], though the early date of the latter has recently been called into question).<ref>For the initial dating of P52, see {{harvnb|Roberts|1935}} and {{harvnb|Bell|Skeat|1935}}. Though see now {{harvnb|Nongbri|2005}} and {{harvnb|Martinez|2009}}.</ref>