I am familiar with the work of the INTF. While it is true that the INTF have discovered nearly 5800 New Testament manuscripts that does not mean that they have 5800 complete New Testaments dating to the late first century. There are only partial remnants of writings dating to the late second and early third centuries which not surprisingly contain texts not in the canon of Scripture.
The vast majority of the manuscripts in the INTF collection date from the late fourth century to the 10th century. That the Eastern Church has maintained the use of Greek texts explains this.
Peace be with you
“I am familiar with the work of the INTF. While it is true that the INTF have discovered nearly 5800 New Testament manuscripts that does not mean that they have 5800 complete New Testaments dating to the late first century.”
I did not call them complete, or claim that they date as far back as the first century. I called it a strong record for the New Testament, due to the sheer number that have been discovered.
“There are only partial remnants of writings dating to the late second and early third centuries which not surprisingly contain texts not in the canon of Scripture.”
So, which of those non-canonical texts were Ignatius and Polycarp quoting as scripture, in the late 1st and into the second century, since everyone back then, apparently, couldn’t tell the difference between Matthew and the Gospel of Thomas?
By the way, have you actually READ the Gospel of Thomas or any of the Gnostic works? Thomas, as an example, literally copies straight from Matthew (out of context) and changes the wording and the sense slightly to make gibberish statements, which conclude that women cannot go to heaven until God turns them into men (because they’re cursed). Others retell Genesis, having 365 angels piecing together Adam one organ at a time, with Cain and Abel making an appearance as animal-faced children of the Demiurge. In still others, they imagine a whole pantheon of various other gods, and a Jesus who didn’t die on the cross.
But, apparently, since no one knows anything outside of the Roman Catholic Church (which still didn’t exist yet), the strong difference between the New Testament scripture and the Gnostic works was just too difficult for anyone who read the two.