In support
of the claim the Bible has been preserved (with 99.5% accuracy), Christina
Darlington wrote offered this piece of purported evidence:
36,000+
quotations of
the New Testament from the early Church Fathers before the 4th century, are
enough to be able to reconstruct the entire New Testament, except 11
insignificant verses. (Christina R. Darlington, Misguided by Mormonism But Redeemed by God’s Grace: Leaving the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for Biblical Christianity [2d ed.;
2019], 132)
As with so
much of her book, this proves Darlington has never researched the accuracy of
the popular Protestant claims she parrots in her book. The reality is that,
when the patristic quotations are examined, only 46% of the New Testament could
be reconstructed, not all but 11 verses.
The claim is
based on a distortion of the work of David Dalrymple from 1780-1784 where he
found that 3,620 verses of the New Testament could be reconstructed from the
writings of the Church Fathers, meaning 54% (4,336 verses) of the New Testament
are missing. 11 verses would represent 0.138%. Darlington is off by a scale of
x394(!)
There was a
project that was undertaken by Rev. Edward Burton in 1832, but his claim was all but 11
verses, not of the New Testament, but the opening 2 chapters of the Gospel of
John could be reconstructed from the writings of Tertullian and Origen, though
this is a far cry from the apologetic Darlington uncritically repeats. See his
Sermons, Preached Before the University of Oxford, p. 36. Taking this claim at face
value, that means 65 out of 76 verses from these two chapters can be reconstructed (85.5%,
not 99.5%[!]).
Such a claim shows that Darlington is simply repeating pro-Evangelical (not just anti-Mormon) claims uncritically and has not done a lick of research to check the accuracy thereof. Such speaks volumes of her (lack of) intellectual integrity and honesty.
For more articles addressing this specious claim, see:
Theo-sophical
Ruminations (blog), Modern
Myth: All but 11 verses of the NT could be constructed from the writings of the
early church fathers
Islamic
Awareness Website, Sir David
Dalrymple (Lord Hailes), The Patristic Citations Of The Ante-Nicene Church
Fathers And The Search For Eleven Missing Verses Of The New Testament
For previous responses to Darlington's book, see:
Listing of Responses to Christina R. Darlington's "Misguided by Mormonism"
