Multiple Originals

Would you care to elaborate upon what you meant by this statement?

(Since there are no manuscripts that are in 100% agreement with each other, your statement can be interpretated to mean nothing has been preserved, which is not probably what you intended to convey.)

 

The answer is "the translation", in the sense that the 1611 English text of the Holy Bible compiled by King James' revision committees is the most preserved document in the history of the world.

The Authorized Version (a.k.a. the KJV) is more preserved in two dimensions: 'depth' and 'width'. The depth of the AV preservation includes many forms of media: beyond having been printed, it has also been captured by photgraphy, reduced onto microfilm, audio recorded, and electronically stored (not an exhaustive list). The width of its preservation is represented in the millions of printed copies, woven excerpts into commentary (books, magazines, TV and radio transcripts), and its ubiquitous digital presence. Even if a coordinated effort were launched to wipe the KJV out of existance, I believe that it would fail to discover and erase all KJV manifestations; and there is virtually no risk that the original English words could be corrupted beyond repair because there are so many sources from which to reconstitute the KJV text.

A couple of years ago I saw a handwritten copy of the KJV on notebook ruled paper offerred on Ebay. The woman that was selling her work explained that she had written it out of fear that all bound versions might be confiscated someday, while her loose sheet copy might avoid detection. Perhaps she had become convinced that all the various forms and reams of copies of the KJV could never be totally stamped out. (I considered bidding on it, in hope of analyzing the number of errors.)

Most ancient manuscripts now have also been photographed and digitally scanned. But these records are still more fragile in terms of their lack of multiplicity; it seems possible that by unfortunate circumstances an ancient manuscript could be lost completely, which indeed has occurred to some historic documents once recovered and in our possession.

 

Undoubtedly, God did oversee enough transcription to fulfill His purpose. But we have no reason to speculate that He provided further revelation in that process.

However, if one believes that any portion of a source manuscript is not authentic but that spurious portion has been preserved through theological tradition in our text, then we are essentially dealing with this issue. Let's assume for a moment that 1 John 5:7-8 is not authentic for sake of this argument; it has become so accepted by most that it cannot hardly be refuted now as being inspired scripture.