Some people, especially Christians and Muslims could make the argument that the Tipitaka is corrupt because of a larger gap from the Buddha’s parinibbana to the writing down of the Tipitaka. And they do make this argument.
I do believe that it is almost impossible to corrupt the Tipitaka through the years of oral preservation because of the rigorous oral methods the Theravada Sangha has and has practiced and is still practicing.
Can someone answer this argument they make, as to refute them?
This is one of the areas where EBT does show “some” merit. There are versions in the Āgamas which are strikingly similar… very similar. However, this field of study has sort of reversed its course from faith-affirming to doubt-creating by taking texts that have been translated into several languages from corrupt traditions as an authority, rather than taking the complete Pāḷi as an authority.
The texts were chanted in groups. They had different groups of specialization. They had the Dīgha reciters, the Majjhima reciters, etc. When multiple people chant the same thing, it is far easier than one person. Each monk chanting rechecks and reminds the other of the exact pronunciation and spelling (Sri Lankan is different from Myanmar pronunciation, but the letters are the same).
You can research RAID 5 and understand a little bit about redundancy.
Lastly, there are people in the world who are Tipiṭaka-dharas, and they are certified by having unbelievable memories. Not only that, there are people who have Historical Memories (HSAM) that are also unbelievable. It just comes down to those who have faith and those who lack faith. The question is… why bother speaking to these people?