_Fifth._—Our Gospels and Acts before the close of the second century of our era were translated into other languages, and the Syriac, Coptic and Latin versions which have come down to us with some imperfections and slight variations, are in substantial agreement with our present version in all that is material. A translation of a given date presumably represents a text of greater age than itself. Hence the manuscripts from which these translations were made were older than the year two hundred, and probably older than the year one hundred and fifty. _Sixth._—The early and continued multiplication of copies affords strong evidence. Those who copied from originals deemed authentic would certainly endeavor to make exact copies. As these Memoirs were read in all the churches, and, doubtless, in Christian families and Christian schools, they soon became very numerous. There was fraternal intercourse between the churches. Any substantial difference in the copies would be noticed. Any such differences would be transmitted in copies made from these copies, and so on, to the manuscripts which have reached us. The number of copies before the tenth persecution (commenced A.D. 300, and lasting ten years) must have reached many thousands.[8] So complete was then supposed to be the extinction of Christianity, that coins were struck and inscriptions set up, recording the fact, that the “Christian superstition” was now utterly exterminated, and the worship of the gods restored by Diocletian, who assumed the name of Jupiter, and Maximian, who took that of Hercules. This persecution, in addition to the destruction of life, was specially[9] directed to the destruction of copies of the Scriptures.