CARBON 14 DATING & THE BIBLE Chris follows up an earlier show about the issue of paleography and whether or not it can be called a true "science." Some think that the dating of ancient manuscripts is done by chemical testing or by carbon 14 dating. Yet, in reality, this manner of dating (which has a history of questionable results) is not typically used for determining the age of Biblical manuscripts. In fact, all of the primary manuscripts used for both the Traditional Greek text and the Critical Text that followed, were dated according to "handwriting analysis" during the 19th century -- more than 50 years before carbon dating was ever developed.