without finding a single copy that contained either an addition to, or an omission from, any other?

It is obvious that even if such a feat were attainable, one could still contend that someone had gathered the manuscripts together and altered parts of their wording; hence they cannot plausibly claim that the text has remained wholly unchanged. And if the gathering itself is impossible, then no one can truthfully assert: “I know for certain that every copy of these books agrees, word for word, with every other copy that exists throughout the seven regions of the earth in that same language—let alone across seventy-two different languages.” How much further from the truth, then, is the claim: “I know that the disciples spoke all these tongues, and that their very phrasing has survived intact to this day.”

It is likewise evident that, were a person able to assemble all existing manuscripts of a single work—be it on medicine, mathematics, geometry, grammar, jurisprudence, or hadith—altering some of their wording would still be easier than comparing the wording of every manuscript with that of every other. Such exhaustive collation is, in ordinary circumstances, beyond human capacity: it is either impossible or exceedingly difficult—especially when the task is undertaken by only two individuals, each of whom must relay to the other the wording