The multiple copies with variations help establish the original language text of Scripture.
Bannerman pointed out: "The belief that it was the word of God widely promulgated, necessarily caused a vastly greater multitude of copies of the Bible to be taken by transcribers to answer the demand, than in the case of any other book; and consequently there emerged from the increased number of transcriptions an increase in the number of the various readings differing from the original text" (Inspiration, pp. 514-515).
In his 1888 book, Baptist Basil Manly observed: "The number of manuscripts, which naturally increases the number of various readings to be noted, but also greatly increases the opportunity for detecting errors, and arriving with much confidence at the original text" (Bible Doctrine of Inspiration, p. 221).
Richard Watson wrote: “The more copies are multiplied and the more numerous the transcripts and translations from the original, the more likely is it, that the genuine text and the true original reading will be investigated and ascertained” (Theological Institutes, I, p. 140).
Wilbur Pickering asserted: “Although it is presumably true that every known MS has at least some careless copying errors, these can be readily isolated because the other MSS agree as to the correct reading” (Identity II, p. 121).
In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Gordon Clark noted: "Though it may seem at first strange to the
uninitiated, the more variants there are, the more nearly certain can one be that the text is original. If there were only one MS, and hence no variants, as was the case with Erasmus and the Apocalypse, there would be no possibility of ascertaining the original. There would be no method by which to discover where the scribe had made a mistake. . . . When there are variants among the longer parts that agree, one sees where the mistakes occurred, and in many instances can easily tell which variant is correct" (p. 31).
Instead of unsettling the text, each individual manuscript with its own slight variations becomes an independent witness and proof of the existence of the inspired originals.
Most of the variations are in matters of spelling, word order, number (singular or plural), verb tenses, person (first, second, or third), and substitution of synonyms.