A fair question to ask about writings from antiquity is about the many variants within all the various copies of the one document in question, or to notice that the evidence that we have about an event can seem to present contradictions to said historical event or narrative. So this episode will examine both issues, starting with the work of textual scholars.

Those scholars spend their lives becoming deeply comfortable with the original languages, materials used for writing, and other contextual information useful to determining how to deal with the variants. We will consider some of the rules used by textual experts.

As an example of the work of textual scholarship, we again reference new scholarship about Josephus. For the new research about Josephus, that book is called Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ. At least at the time of the writing of these show notes, you can download a free PDF here. We mention the specific text in question and you can read it here.

For the issue of contradictions, we bring back the story of the assassination of Julius Caesar and then spend time examining an historical event from the Second Punic Wars, when the Carthagian General Hannibal took an army from modern-day Spain to the Italian peninsula. To do that, his army had to cross both the Pyrenees mountains and the Alps. With war elephants!! We know both of these things happened, but within the evidence apparent contradictions occur. The Bible has those moments as well.

One core answer for those comes in the reality of how ancient biographies were consistently focused on telling something of value or import of the historical figure. They were not as focused on the precise detail of how the story is presented. In the end, what we try to present is that the overarching narrative is secure. We may have some details for which we may not be able to discern which set of details is correct, but no historian doubts the veracity of the narrative.