Reply #22: Well to inject myself into your conversation.

[zeemike]

You say the words of Jesus are doubtful because there are 4 Gospels and they differ.
but one must understand that under Jewish laws of the time witnesses to the truth were required....at least two, and it was held that if wittinesses told the exact same story they assumed that they had conspired to bear false wittness....and this is logical because no two people see events exactly the same way.
And the second point that you allude to is that sense the text was copied over and over for thousands of years it must have changed, and people added what they wanted and took out what they wanted.....However evidence does contradict that notion....the dead sea scrolls contain passages in the old testament that WERE copied all that time and remained unchanged....so we would have to conclude that at least the old testament was copied by the monks many times without change.
Speculating that monks put there own spin on it is not evidence.,and neither is finding difference in the testimony of wittinesses to an event.