"We have 5,800+ Greek manuscripts of the New Testament."
Technically true but the headline number hides huge variation.
Evidence card
The rating is tied to the stated evidence, the stated caveat, and the named source trail below.
What's actually true
The official INTF Liste catalogues roughly 5,800 Greek New Testament manuscripts (papyri, uncials, minuscules and lectionaries). This is genuinely far more than any other ancient text.
What gets left out
About two-thirds are minuscules from the 9th century onwards, and about a third are tiny fragments. The number of manuscripts from the first three centuries is more like a few dozen, and only a handful are substantial. The 5,800 number is real, but using it to claim 'we have the New Testament certainly preserved from the 1st century' overstates the case.
Source trail
Named scholarship, catalogues, or projects used for this claim rating.