nor is it known that all existing Gospel manuscripts are identical in wording, nor that all copies of the Psalms are identical in wording—let alone the remaining prophetic books.
It is perfectly obvious that the People of the Book cannot furnish any proof that every manuscript, in every language, in every corner of the earth, agrees word for word in all that survives of the prophetic writings. In fact, the very argument they cite to show that it would be impossible to alter all those manuscripts actually proves that it is impossible to know they are all identical.
So if they object, saying, “Who could possibly speak seventy-two languages? Who could exercise authority over the whole world—its kings, bishops, and scholars—so completely as to gain power over everyone in every land and gather the scriptures from the four corners of the earth in order to change them?”
We reply: “And who is the one who knows seventy-two languages, who rules the entire world—its kings, bishops, and scholars—so absolutely that he can collect every copy in existence throughout the earth, bring them all together, compare each manuscript (wherever it may be) with every other, and then find that the wording of every manuscript, in all seventy-two languages and from every region, is perfectly uniform with not a single variation?”
Claiming to have such comprehensive knowledge is even more impossible than claiming that every copy was altered, for