The accuracy of the transmission of the text can be checked owing to the accuracy of its chronology and through the comparison between the sum of the intermediate values and the total value indicated in the text. This kind of study showed that the most stable texts surveyed are those containing ritual instructions, which have led, for example, to the exact transmission of the Torah in the late Second Temple period. Thus, ancient texts, that are preserved in more than one copy, have been compared to determine how much variation occurs between manuscripts. The transmission of many historical and chronological data (reigns, lifetimes, long periods, etc.) as well as many proper names, is necessarily flawed, unless one believing in an (unlikely) scribes infallibility.
