This article is the first in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It provides the basics on this science and art, answering such questions as these:
Did scribes make errors as they copied down holy Writ? If so, what kind of errors are they? Why wouldn’t God protect his Word from such errors? What’s the goal of the science and art of textual criticism? Should we even engage in criticism of the Bible? Isn’t that blasphemous? Should I trust the New Testament?
These questions and more are explored in a basic Question and Answer format, for ease of understanding. This article is written by a nonspecialist and is intended for the laity.
The entire series assumes the basic Christian doctrine of inspiration. The original authors of the New Testament were inspired. But we no longer have their very original manuscripts. Rather, they were transmitted by scribes and copyists who took their work seriously, but were not inspired as the original authors were. They made typical errors that all scribes and copyists do before the age of copy machines, word processors, and spell checks.
Textual criticism attempts to recover the originals, as much as humanly possible. Have textual critics succeeded? By any reckoning, we have 95% of the inspired words, and some scholars place the number as high as 99% (see Part Three and Question One). Where any uncertainties remain, they do not overturn New Testament doctrine, which is supported by other verses.
That is a remarkable achievement for any text coming out of the Greco-Roman world. Web readers need to know this, so they can be reassured about their Bible when they hear its critics misleading the public about the complete trustworthiness of Scripture. The New Testament (and the Old Testament) is a highly accurate, reliable, and faithful record of the words and ideas of the original authors, as inspired by God.
This article (and the entire series) is about the nonoriginal manuscripts. Let's educate ourselves about them so we won't be caught unprepared when the needlessly and heedlessly harsh critics appear in the media.
Since the question and answer is so fundamental, I have repeated them in the other parts in this series. It was written in common Greek of the first century, in a vocabulary and sentence structure that most people could understand. This is especially true of the four Gospels. Christianity is a missionary religion, so it had to use the language that everyone knew in the cities in the first century. And that language was Greek. Not much later, as Christianity expanded farther, scribes translated the Greek New Testament into other languages.
It must be emphasized that ancient Greek (even koiné or common Greek of the New Testament) is a remarkably precise and nuanced language. It was conditioned, after all, by the two greatest philosopher who ever lived: Plato and Aristotle, not to mention other great geniuses in the Greek-speaking world, such as Sophocles and Euripides. The New Testament authors, though not indebted to them directly, drew from this deep source, ancient Greek.
Webster’s Dictionary says that it means “the act of criticizing, usu[ally] negative.” This is the typical definition that first comes to mind because of its widespread use.
However, the third meaning in the dictionary is more relevant to New Testament criticism. It is “the scientific investigation of literary documents (as the Bible) in regards to such matters as origin, text, composition, character, or history.”
The two key words are “scientific investigation.” They do not mean negative criticism.
Further, this specialist in New Testament textual criticism says:
Textual critics . . . sort through these [New Testament] manuscripts and the variant readings therein in an effort to reconstruct the original wording of the Greek New Testament. (Comfort, Encountering, p. 289)
Note how he also states the goal in his definition: “to reconstruct the original wording.”
Next, the Oxford Classical Dictionary says that “textual criticism sets out to establish what a text originally said or meant to say.”
Another specialist says:
Textual criticism is the study of copies of any written work of which the autograph (the original) is unknown, with the purpose of ascertaining the original text (Greenlee, p. 1, emphasis original).
Finally, this specialist defines it thus:
Briefly stated, textual criticism is the science and art that seeks to determine the most reliable wording of a text. (emphasis original)
He goes on to say that it is a “science because specific rules govern the evaluation of various types of copyist errors and readings, but it is also an art because these rules cannot be rigorously applied in every situation” (Wegner, p. 24).
The abbreviations stand for manuscript (singular), manuscripts (plural) and New Testament, respectively. Hereafter, I will use them.
It means a range of readings or words or phrases or clauses that could be inserted into a verse. It is any difference in two or more MSS in a verse from the NT.
This textual critic says:
The details of which texts are composed (letters, words) are “readings,” and, accordingly, all readings that differ from the accepted text as central are usually variant readings or variants. The term . . . refers to the existence of a deviation between the accepted text and another text. (Wegner p. 309)
See Questions Nine and Fifteen, below, for examples.
Not according to the third definition in Webster’s Dictionary, quoted in Question Two. In fact, we would not even have a Bible if scholars did not sacrifice their time and energy to get things right. Therefore, just the opposite from the assumed answer is true. No one doing this hard work would be close to blasphemy.
Necessity goes to need, and there is a definite need to do this.
The NT was written by scribes before the age of printing presses, computers, word processing programs, email attachments, and faxes. If twenty persons, sitting in far different places and without communicating with each other, were to copy by hand all of the four Gospels from an exemplar (a MS from which a copy is made), it is one hundred percent certain that they would make errors. They might spell their for there or form instead of from or write answer for answered.
How do we establish the correct readings? The process would be tedious, but it could be done by collating the twenty handwritten MSS (note the word Latin word for “hand” in “manuscript”). Collation is the “comparison of one manuscript against a known printed text for the sake of producing a list of the differences” (Comfort, Encountering, p. 381). Most of the errors are accidental, such as spelling and omitting words and jumping from one line to another one below or above, as the copyist’s mind wanders or he gets distracted.
However, now let’s take away the exemplar of the four Gospels. We could produce the original or autograph by coming up with a list of differences. It is extremely rare to have two or more copyists making the same error in the same place and in the same way. Therefore, most of the twenty MSS would lead us to the autograph.
However, this brief example is highly simplified because it too neatly assumes one generation and one exemplar. The NT MSS were written over centuries and from different exemplars that range in quality. In fact, each book of the NT has its own history and audience at the beginning. It was only gradually, but early, that the whole NT as we know it was put together. But the example illustrates the essence of the task and goal of textual criticism: sorting out MSS and eliminating errors so we can find the original wording.
In short, it means the original MS. But according to a standard and longer definition, it means:
The authored manuscript, whether penned by the author, dictated by him, or endorsed by him. By comparison, the “original manuscript” is the archetypal exemplar from which other manuscripts were made for publication and distribution. This could be one-and-the-same with the autograph but not necessarily so, especially if editing occurred between the time of the author’s composition and publication. None of the original manuscripts of any book of the Bible are extant [exists and known] (Comfort, Encountering, p. 380).
As noted in that excerpt, these originals no longer exist; otherwise, we would not need to do textual criticism.
This textual critic offers a clear purpose or goal:
The purpose of textual criticism, classically defined, is to recover the original wording of an ancient text, no longer extant [existing and known] in its original form, by means of examining the extant manuscript copies and then applying the canons [rules] of the discipline for determining the wording most likely original. (Comfort, Encountering, p. 289)
Other textual critics say virtually the same thing. (See the excerpts in Question Two).
The vast majority of errors are accidental. Here are some examples that have been classified and labeled.
But are there some deliberate changes? Yes, but they amount to comparatively few and are not always difficult to correct.
Are there theological changes? Yes, and they also amount to comparatively few. Some scribes, motivated out of zeal or their need to protect doctrine, added or substituted or altered words, phrases, and clauses. Here is an example.
That is, according to some scribes, saying that Joseph was a parent of Jesus may imply that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. But the scribes’ “improvement” was unnecessary. It is possible to be a parent outside of physical procreation.
However, these “zealous improvements” do not negatively impact Christian doctrine because other passages in fact support a given doctrine. Other verses, for example, support the doctrine of the virgin Birth. Indeed, it is these undisputed verses supporting doctrine that inform the zealous scribe to “fudge” the text in the first place. The scribe needs a textual starting point before he slips in his “improvements,” long before theologians developed and crystallized theology, derived directly from the Bible.
All of these examples are adapted from Wegner, pp. 44-55, and Metzger and Ehrman, pp. 250-71. For other categories of variants, go to Part Three and Question One.
Broadly speaking, the technique and art of textual criticism is divided into two main approaches: examining the external and internal evidence.
The external approach studies the MSS themselves. How early or late are they? Where do they come from? How do they compare with known reliable ones? Do any of them depend on another, or not? Can they be put into families, as in a genealogy? What scribal style are they written in? Is the style early or late? Can it be used to pinpoint the date of other MSS?
Generally, the earlier and more numerous the MSS, the better, but the dating is not a fixed rule. Sometimes it may be assumed that a later MS (eighth or ninth century) may come directly from a reliable and early, but unknown, MS.
The internal approach evaluates the MSS’s words on the page and all the variants. It answers such questions as these: Are there spelling or grammatical characteristics that would favor one reading over the others? Does the author commonly use words, phrases, or clauses a certain way? Are there clearly accidental errors (see Question, Nine, above)? Is there an identifiable reason that a copyist would change a word or phrase? What is the overall theology of a NT author (Wegner, pp. 238-39)?
That number is misleading, because even the smallest spelling variant is counted. To use an example in English, a variant may be –ed after a word (answered) or without an –ed (answer). In Greek the word order of a sentence is much more flexible than in English. So if the word order changes in even the slightest way without changing the meaning (see Question Fifteen below, and Part Three, Question One), then this too is counted as a variant. Such trivial differences are counted in the grand total.
Plus, there are several million pages of manuscripts. If there are 500,000 variants (and that number is too high), then that would be much less than one variant per page, on average. Thus, saying that there are hundreds of thousands of variants turns the huge number of pages into a vice, when the huge number is in fact a virtue of NT MSS. Critics want us to believe that even more MS pages would make the NT less reliable, but that is wrongheaded.
So what is the total of more significant variants? It amounts to a surprisingly small percentage of the entire NT.
Most modern textual critics can agree on the bulk of the text (some 95 percent of it perhaps). It is the remaining 5 per cent or so where disputes occur and differing conclusions may be found. These discrepancies are the cause for most of the variants to be seen in the footnotes of our translations (Elliott and Moir, p. 8). Also, some scholars put the number as high as 99% (see Part Three, Question One). We nonspecialists do not have to debate over trivial variants. For us, the Scripture is 95-99% established. No other text coming out of the Greco-Roman world comes even close to this startling outcome, but a very, very far distant second.
This is significant because textual critics focus on a very small number of variants. This also means that after the five or so or one percent of variants have been worked through, we have essentially the Word of God in our hands.
These variants do not overturn or negate Christian doctrine. If one word or clause is being scrutinized in one verse, then the entire sweep of the New Testament supports basic doctrine, such as the deity of Christ (see Question Fifteen, below).
We need, therefore, to get a perspective. No one should doubt the Bible’s reliability in terms of the MS attestation.
Scholars (and all of us) look for shorthand ways to communicate. In the context of NT textual criticism, “witnesses” means all of the MSS, every early version or translation of the NT (usually from Greek into other languages), and the quotations of the NT in the writings of the church fathers (early Christian leaders).
The official listing (as of 2006) of the several important categories of Greek New Testament manuscripts can be summarized as follows:
Papyri...118
Majuscule MSS...317
Miniscule MSS...2877
Lectionary MSS...2433
Total...5745
Source: Papyri
Hat tip: Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace, p. 77.
Papyrus means writing material made from reed plants, in this case MSS that survive in fragments, but significant ones.
Majuscule (or uncials) denotes Greek MSS written in capital letters.
Miniscule indicates Greek MSS written in cursive.
And lectionary MSS mean books or lists of specific Biblical passages to be read (hence lectionary) in the church’s calendar. The MSS in the latter category need more detailed study, though the significant MSS have been used in textual criticism of the NT. Not mentioned here are the 20,000 or more different early versions, that is, translations, from original Greek into another language such as Latin, Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian.
Different scholars come to slightly different totals, but this chart gives us a clear idea of how many manuscripts scholars have to sort through.
After describing the poor showing of non-Christian MSS of ancient Roman authors, Metzger (and Ehrman, though this excerpt is found in the third edition without him) draws this conclusion about the richness and variety of the NT MSS:
In contrast with these figures [about non-Christian Roman writers], the textual critic of the New Testament is embarrassed by the wealth of material. Furthermore, the work of many ancient authors has been preserved only in manuscripts that date from the Middle Ages (sometimes the late Middle Ages), far removed from the time at which they lived and wrote. On the contrary, the time between the composition of the books of the New Testament and the earliest extant [existing] copies is relatively brief . . . several papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament are extant that were copied within a century or so after the composition of the original documents. (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 51)
It should be pointed out that a footnote to this excerpt says that most of the papyri are relatively fragmentary and the great majority of other MSS contain only the four Gospels or only the Epistles. However, these MSS may still be used to cross-check the others. It is much better to have many MSS than few, as in the case of the Greco-Roman non-Christian MSS.
Further, the quotations of the NT in the writings of the church fathers have not yet been factored into the calculations. Though this fertile area is undergoing detailed study, Metzger (and Ehrman, though this excerpt is found in the third edition without him) estimates:
Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament. (p. 126)
The quotations from the Church Fathers are significant in attesting to the reliability of the NT that we have in our possession.
Textual critics in fact see different levels of quality in MSS, and this is taken into account when they engage in their studies. For example, two scholars, Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, have five categories, but only the first three are mentioned here, for the latter two are for specialists and pertain to classifying the less reliable MSS (pp. 106 and 159).
I. Very special quality
II. Special quality
III. Distinctive character
Specialist may quibble over which MS belongs in which categories, but the main point here is to demonstrate that different levels of MS quality exist. Sometimes this fact is not always pointed out by skeptics, who may use a known weaker MS to score polemical points.
However, it should be noted that “the early church seems to have taken great care to monitor errant theology and their sacred texts” (Wegner, p. 38-39).
It poses challenges, but not confusion in a negative sense. With more MSS comes the risk of more scribal errors, but also the opportunity to cross-check the MSS and eliminate the errors. Scholars have to puzzle over a wide range of witnesses as they settle on the correct reading. The fourth edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek NT discusses some variants in one clause of Luke 16:21. It tells the story of the rich man and the poor man Lazarus. Should the verse include the word crumbs or not?
19 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.
There are three basic variants (genitive plural).
1. Tōn piptontōn means what fell; this is the best rendering according to the witnesses, so the New International Version uses it.
2. Tōn psichiōn tōn piptontōn means the crumbs that fell or the crumbs falling; the witnesses are strong, but not quite as strong as the first variant.
3. Tōn piptontōn psichiōn means the falling crumbs or perhaps also the crumbs falling; the witnesses for this variant are few.
Do these variants in Luke 16:21 cause confusion for the textual critic? No, but they pose a challenge. In this case, the challenge is overcome because critics have boiled down certain MSS that are the most accurate, and they support the first variant. Still, though, the scholars at United Bible Societies, an organization under which they have united to produce a highly accurate NT, rate their certainty about the correct reading in Luke 16:21 as “some degree of doubt” their letter B, as compared with “virtually certain” for their letter A. The letter C indicates “considerable degree of doubt.” To finish off their rating system, D signals a “very high degree of doubt” about the strength or weakness of their decision about a variant.
However, does this example of Luke 16:21 impact basic Christian doctrine negatively? Not in the slightest. Textual critics may wrestle with variants like these, but web readers do not need to do this in most cases. Sometimes a good translation of the NT will signal in the footnotes important variants, and readers should pay attention to them. Perhaps the footnotes mean that we should not be too dogmatic about specific verses here and there, though essential doctrines are not seriously called into question when all the witnesses are collated properly, doctrines such as the deity of Christ.
Before leaving Question Fifteen, this should be repeated and emphasized: by far the vast majority of variants discussed by specialists have nothing or little to do with the solid meat of Christian doctrine. Rather, they concern “crumbs,” so to speak. And no variant overturns Christian doctrine, such as the deity of Christ, which is supported by other verses.
This article was originally hosted at American Thinker.
The article later hosted by biblicalstudies.org.uk has been updated in other areas.
Aland, Kurt and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. 2nd ed. Trans. Erroll F. Rhodes. Eerdmans, 1989.
Black, David Alan, New Testament Textual Criticism: a Concise Guide. Baker, 1994.
--- ed. Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism. Baker, 2002.
Bruce, F. F. New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 5th ed. InterVarsity, 1960.
Comfort, Philip Wesley. The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament. Wipf and Stock (originally at Baker), 1992.
--- and David P. Barrett. The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. corrected and enlarged edition. Tyndale House, 2001.
Comfort, Philip W. Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism. Broadman and Holman, 2005.
Ehrman, Bart D. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. Oxford UP, 1993.
Elliott, Keith and Ian Moir. Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers. T & T Clark, 1995.
Epp, Eldon J. and Gordon D. Fee. Studies and Documents: Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1993.
Eldon J. Epp, “The Multivalence of the Term ‘Original Text’ in New Testament Textual Criticism.” Harvard Theological Review 92 (1999) 245-81.
Finegan, Jack. Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1974.
Fee, Gordon D. “The Textual Criticism of the New Testament,” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 1, pp. 419-33. Frank E. Gaebelein (ed.). Zondervan, 1979.
The Greek New Testament. Ed. Barbara Aland et al. Fourth ed. United Bible Societies, 2001.
Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. Rev. ed. Hendrickson, 1995.
Head, Peter M. “Christology and Textual Transmission: Reverential Alterations in the Synoptic Gospels.” Novum Testamentum 35 (1993) 105-29.
Komoszewski, J. Ed, M. James Sawyer and Daniel B. Wallace. Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel, 2006. See Chapters 4-8.
Metzger, Bruce M. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 3rd ed. Oxford UP, 1992.
--- and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. Oxford UP, 2005.
Parsons, Mikeal C. “A Christological Tendency in P75.” Journal of Biblical Literature 105/3 (1986) 463-479.
Roberts, Colin H. Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt, published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1979.
--- T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex. published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1983.
Wegner, Paul D. A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results. InterVarsity, 2006.
This article comes second in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It answers questions about the material and process of making the pages of a document, along with the scribal art of writing. What were the scribe’s utensils? How was a papyrus sheet or page made? What is parchment? Why wouldn’t God protect his Word from such complications? Should I trust the New Testament?
Let’s begin to answer those questions.
A papyrus manuscript comes from a reed plant. We get our word paper from the word papyrus. The plural of papyrus is papyri. Scribes in the ancient Mediterranean world, where Christianity first spread, used it as the material on which to write a variety of documents, ranging from personal letters to notes of legal minutes in a court proceeding. In our case, scribes used it to copy down the New Testament.
Bruce M. Metzger ranks as a top textual critic of the New Testament, and in the fourth edition of his book Bart D. Ehrman joins him. They give a description of the plant from which papyrus manuscripts are made.
Papyrus is an aquatic plant that grows most successfully in the still shallow marshlands (see Job 8:11, “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?”). Its broad roots stretches horizontally under the mud, and from this rise several strong stalks, triangular in cross section; short brown leaves protect the base. Papyrus is by far the tallest of the botanical Cyperus papyrus, growing to a height of 12 or 15 feet. At its top the stalk splits into a mass of strands (the umbel), and at the end of those the plant produces small brown flowers. The stalk of the papyrus plant has a tough green rind that contains an ivory white pith, which carries water and sustenance from the root to the flowering head. (Metzger and Ehrman. p. 4)
The plant produces a natural adhesive as it is pressed together.
Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, two of the most prominent New Testament textual critics of any generation, tell us where papyrus comes from.
In the early period New Testament texts were written on papyrus, as was all the literature of the time. This writing material was produced primarily (though not exclusively) in Egypt. (Aland and Aland, p. 75)
Aland and Aland say that the plant could grow to a height of six meters (longer than 12 or 15 feet, as stated by Metzger and Ehrman in the previous answer). Then Aland and Aland describe how the papyrus went from a plant to writing material.
Its thick stem was divided into sections and sharp tools were used to cut it lengthwise into wafer-thin strips. These strips were laid side by side to form a single layer with the fibers of the pith running parallel, and on top of it a second layer was placed with the fibers running at right angles to the first. The two layers were then moistened, pressed together, and smoothed down. Finally, any projecting fibers were trimmed off and the papyrus sheet was cut to a desired size. (p. 75)
See this slide show on how the reed plant was turned into a papyrus sheet.
Parchment is treated animal hide on which scribes wrote their texts, such as the Bible. The term parchment comes from the Greek word for the city Pergamum, “which was noted for its fine quality of this product” (Greenlee, p. 11).
This is also made of treated animal hide, calfskin, properly. It had a finer quality than parchment. But the two terms parchment and vellum are used interchangeably today.
The process required careful work.
The hide (theoretically of any animal, but usually of a goat or sheep) first had the hair and flesh removed by a solution of lime mordant, and was then trimmed to size, polished, and smoothed with chalk and pumice stone to prepare the surface for use. (Aland and Aland, p. 76)
The lines had to be drawn on the sheet (the lines were ready-made with a papyrus sheet because the fibers guided the scribe to write in straight lines). Drawing the lines on parchment was done by a metal stylus.
The line was drawn on the hair side, so that it still appears there as a depression and on the flesh side as a slight ridge (guide line for the columns in manuscripts were marked in the same way). The difference between the hair side and the flesh side posed a difficulty with parchment manuscripts, because the one side was darker in color and the other lighter. A conventional solution was found by arranging the four-sheet quire (which became standard) so that the hair side faced the hair side and the flesh side faced the flesh side. (Aland and Aland, p. 77)
It was “four sheets of paper (or papyrus or parchment) folded once and stitched at the fold. Scribes would use several quires to make up an entire codex,” an early form of the book as we know it (Comfort, Encountering, pp. 389-390).
Many sheep or goats were needed to produce about 200-250 folios or a leaf or a page for a codex manuscript.
One sheep or goat could provide only two folios [a leaf, which when folded, provided four pages, front and back, twice], i.e., only four folios of the finished manuscript, the size of which would be determined by the size of the animals. A manuscript containing a group of New Testament writings in the average format (about 200-250 folios of about 25 x 19 cm) required the hides of at least fifty to sixty sheep or goats. This would mean quite a good size flock. Manuscripts would often need to be larger to accommodate more than a single group of writing, and this would require a greater number of hides. (Aland and Aland, p. 77)
A manuscript of only a part of an original writing could cost a small fortune.
For a large manuscript (Codex Sinaiticus was originally at least 43 x 38 cm in size) or one particularly fine quality of parchment, the expense would have multiplied. In fact, a manuscript of the New Testament represented a small fortune because the preparation of the parchment was only the first step. Once it had been prepared there was still the writing of the text to be done . . . Clearly the manuscript must have been commissioned by persons of the upper classes who could afford to ignore the expense. (Aland and Aland, p. 77)
Often, the church commissioned the codex of parts or the entire New Testament.
Emperor Diocletian (ruled AD 284-305), who persecuted the church terribly, set the wages for scribes copying secular manuscripts:
At the rate of 25 denarii for 100 lines in writing of the first quality and 20 denarii for the same number of lines in writing of the second quality (what the difference was between the two qualities is not mentioned) . . . the cost of producing one complete Bible, such as Codex Sinaiticus, would have come to about 30,000 denarii, a sizeable sum notwithstanding steadily rising inflation. (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 26)
For the four Gospels, these are the wages in round numbers of the Roman denarius:
2,600 for Matthew
1,600 for Mark
2,800 for Luke
2,300 for John
The following precise figures are found in several ancient manuscripts of the four Gospels, respectively: 2,560, 1,616, 2,750, and 2,024 (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 26)
The Roman denarius was the standard currency in the empire, and an average worker, agricultural or urban, earned one per day, as long as the work did not run out or was not seasonal at best.
In no way could an average Christian afford a New Testament, not to mention one Gospel. He might be able to afford a small epistle, if he scrimped and saved money, but the cost of daily living would typically prove too high. This is why reading the Scriptures in church was essential throughout church history.
Christians today should be grateful that they can afford Bibles, even many translations.
This was used for wax tablets. It was made of metal, ivory, or bone. A writer pressed down lightly on the tablet, making impressions. As noted in Question Six, it could be used to draw lines on a prepared parchment. The stylus had a point on one end for writing, and a knob on the other end for correcting errors.
It is probable that both New Testament manuscripts and other documents were written with reed pens. “To make a reed pen, the reed stalk was dried, sharpened to a point on one end, and slit somewhat as a modern pen point is slit” (Greenlee, pp. 12-13). The pen had to be re-inked about every fourth or sixth letter (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 27, note 37).
The scribe needed some additional implements: a knife for making a new pen, “a whetstone for sharpening the knife, pumice stone for smoothing the parchment sheet and for sharpening the pen point, and a sponge for erasing and for wiping the pen point” (Greenlee, p. 13).
Two of the most common kinds were “ink made of lamp-black and gum dissolved in water, which produced very black writing; and ink made from nut-galls, which produced a fine rusty-brown color” (Greenlee p. 13). A nut-gall is also called an oak gall, which “is a curious ball-like tumor, about the size of a small marble, that grows mainly on the leaves or twigs of oak trees” (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 10-11).
Go online to the University of Michigan for a photo of a pen, an inkwell, and a papyrus from ancient Greco-Roman Egypt. Here is a photo of other writing material from the same site.
There were two main forms.
First, the roll or scroll:
In the Greco-Roman world, literary works were customarily published in the format of a scroll, made of papyrus or parchment. The papyrus scroll was made by gluing together, side by side, separate sheets of papyrus and then winding the long strip around a roller, thus producing a volume (a word derived from the Latin volumen, “something rolled up”). (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 12)
The length of a scroll works out nicely for the longer books of the New Testament.
The length of the papyrus roll was limited by considerations of convenience of handling it; the normal Greek literary roll seldom exceeded 35 feet in length. Ancient authors therefore would divide a long literary work into several “books,” each of which would be accommodated in one roll. The two longest books in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, would have filled an ordinary roll of 31 or 32 feet in length. Doubtless, this is one of the reasons why Luke and Acts were issued in two volumes. (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 12)
The scroll was arranged in a series of columns, each about 2 or 3 inches wide.
The scroll had its disadvantages, however. It was inconvenient to use, requiring two hands to roll it up or unwind it. Also, it was difficult to find a passage that the reader needed.
Second, the codex:
The codex is a leaf or page form of a book. It was made by folding a sheet of papyrus in the middle, and combining as many folded pages as needed, and then sewing together the folded ends.
Christians found that this form had a number of advantages over the roll: (1) it permitted all four Gospels or all of the Epistles of Paul to be bound in one book, a format that was impossible so long as the roll was used; (2) it facilitated the consultation of proof texts; (3) it was better adapted to receiving writing on both sides of the page, thus keeping the cost of production down. (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 13)
Metzger (and Ehrman, though the above excerpt and the following facts are found in the third edition without Ehrman) notes an economic advantage. The savings of the codex over the scroll was 44%. Combining the cost of the papyrus and the wages of the scribe would save about 26% (p. 14).
Uncial or majuscule
This is Greek capital letters. Both papyri and parchment were written on with uncials. This is also known as book-hand style. It was written without spaces between words, so a reader had to be careful as he read a text out loud.
“Cursive” comes from Latin for “running.” It was smaller, and the letters tended to run together. This style came into its own in the ninth century and later.
Metzger (and Ehrman, though this excerpt is found in Metzger’s third edition without Ehrman) explains the differences between uncial and cursive, both in use and purpose.
In antiquity, two styles of script for writing Greek were in general use: the book-hand and the cursive. Both have existed side by side; the book-hand is conservative, but the cursive can change very quickly, with forms that tend to invade the book-hand. The cursive, or “running,” hand could be written rapidly and was employed for non-literary, everyday documents, such as letters, accounts, receipts, petitions, deeds, and the like . . . Literary works, however, were written in the more formal style of book-hand, which was characterized by more deliberate and carefully executed letters, each one separate from the other—somewhat like writing in capital letters . . . (p. 17)
Again, we let Metzger (and Ehrman, though this excerpt is found in the third edition without him) speak as a premier specialist:
The advantages of using miniscule script are obvious. Miniscule letters, as the name suggests, are smaller than majuscules, and thus writing is more compact. Hence, when the minuscule hand was used, less parchment was required and therefore the book was more economical. Furthermore, a literary work could be produced that was less bulky and therefore easier to handle than a larger manuscript. Moreover, it was possible to write minuscule letters more rapidly than majuscules, and consequently books could be produced more quickly and more cheaply (p. 20).
This article was first hosted at American Thinker.
The article later hosted by biblicalstudies.org.uk has been updated in other areas.
Aland, Kurt and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. 2nd ed. Trans. Erroll F. Rhodes. Eerdmans, 1989.
Black, David Alan, New Testament Textual Criticism: a Concise Guide. Baker, 1994.
Comfort, Philip Wesley. The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament. Wipf and Stock (originally at Baker), 1992.
---. Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism. Broadman and Holman, 2005.
Elliott, Keith and Ian Moir. Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers. T & T Clark, 1995.
Finegan, Jack. Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1974.
Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. Rev. ed. Hendrickson, 1995.
Metzger, Bruce M. and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. Oxford UP, 2005.
Roberts, Colin H. Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt. Published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1979.
--- and T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex, published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1983.
Wegner, Paul D. A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results. InterVarsity, 2006.
This article is the third in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It provides basic facts on how some of the New Testament manuscripts were discovered and how they are classified. It answers such questions as these:
What does Oxyrhynchus mean? What do Beatty or Bodmer mean? What are the totals of the New Testament manuscripts? Were some of them destroyed during the persecution of the early church? Why wouldn’t God protect his Word from such complications? Should I trust the New Testament?
These questions and more are explored in a basic Question and Answer format, for ease of understanding. It is written by a nonspecialist and is intended for the laity.
As noted in Part One, NT stands for New Testament, MS stands for manuscript (singular), and MSS for manuscripts (plural).
As noted in the previous two parts, this article assumes the basics of the Christian doctrine of inspiration. The original authors were inspired, but we do not have their very originals. (Incidentally, no original manuscript of any book coming out of the Greco-Roman world exists today.) The original New Testament documents were transmitted by scribes, who were not inspired. But does this cast doubt on the New Testament? Not if we are reasonable. New Testament textual criticism attempts to purge out the less likely and decide on the most likely variants that evolved over the tedious process of copying.
They can be classified in this way:
I. Spelling differences and nonsense errors
This is by far the majority. For example, the name John in Greek can be spelled with two n's or one n. Nonsense errors can come from the fatigue of the scribe, such as spelling and (kai in Greek) for Lord (kyrios in Greek).
II. Differences that do not affect translation or that involve synonyms
This is also a sizeable chunk of the scribal variants. Two examples: Greek can use or not the definite article for proper nouns, such as Mary or the Mary. Also, the word order in Greek is much more flexible than it is in English, and this is counted in the grand total of variants, but they do not affect the meaning for us nonspecialists. Such is the nature of Greek back then.
III. Meaningful variants that are not viable
This category represents the third smallest number of variants, but it amounts to only a tiny fraction. For example, 1 Thessalonians 2:9 could read "the gospel of God" (found in most manuscripts) or "the gospel of Christ" (found in one late thirteenth century manuscript).
IV. Meaningful and viable
This represents only one percent of all variants. For example, the ending of the Gospel of Mark 16 is classified thus. Any reputable modern translation will mention that the best manuscripts do not support the longer ending. The reader should look at the New International Version, for example. Please go to Bible Gateway and type in Mark 16 and then John 7, and scroll down to the end of the page.
So what do these four categories of variants have in common? No variant overturns Christian doctrine, such as the deity of Christ, which is often supported by other verses. Skeptics appearing in the national media mislead the public about this. Also, the majority of variants are a concern for scholars, but not for average Bible readers, who need to know that our Bible is completely trustworthy. For us non-specialists, this means that only one percent of these variants are in play and are often noted in our translations. On the positive side, 99% of the Bible is established. Or if we combine the third and fourth categories, then only about 5% are relevant for us indirectly. This means that around 95% of the Bible is established. No text in the ancient Greco-Roman world comes close to this outcome, but a very far distant second.
As I wrote in the previous article in this series, the Bible is a highly reliable, accurate, and faithful record of the words and ideas of the original authors, as inspired by God.
Source: Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace, pp. 54-63.
Since the question and answer is so fundamental, I have repeated them in the other parts in this series. It was written in common Greek of the first century, in a vocabulary and sentence structure that most people could understand. This is especially true of the four Gospels. Christianity is a missionary religion, so it had to use the language that everyone knew in the cities in the first century. And that language was Greek. Not much later, as Christianity expanded farther, scribes translated the Greek New Testament into other languages.
It is likely that the original authors wrote their own books and epistles. But it is equally likely that at least some employed scribes to do this, as the authors dictated their words. For example, the scribe or amanuensis of Paul’s long Epistle to the Romans reveals himself: “I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord” (Rom. 16:22; see Gal. 6:11 and 1 Pe. 5:12).
We do not have enough information about the originals, but later scribes sometimes would include in their manuscript a complaint, such as the following:
He who does not know how to write supposes it to be no labor; but though only three fingers write, the whole body labors.
A traditional formula reads:
Writing bows one’s back, thrusts the ribs into one’s stomach, and fosters a general debility of the body.
Still another scribe wrote:
As travelers rejoice to see their home country, so also is the end of a book to those who toil [in writing].
An Armenian copyist says in a Gospel that “a heavy snow storm was raging and that the scribe’s ink froze, his hand became numb, and the pen fell from his fingers!”
Finally, manuscripts may end with gratitude:
“The end of the book; thanks be to God!”
(Source: Metzger and Ehrman, p. 29)
Yes, but it is unknown whether the originals had contractions or abbreviations. A short time after the originals, scribes used them mostly for sacred names (nomina sacra). Here are some examples, in transliterated English.
God = Theos → THS (Th in Greek is one letter)
Christ = Christos → CHS or CHR (Ch or Kh in Greek is one letter and is spoken as a hard c, as in cool)
Lord = Kurios → KS
Spirit = Pneuma → PNA
Jesus = Iēsous → IS or IĒ
After the scribe abbreviated or contracted the sacred names, he would draw a bar or line over the letters to signal a contraction.
One textual critic says of the sacred names: “Scribes wrote these names with special regard, and readers (lectors) uttered these names with special attention in church meetings as they read the Scriptures aloud” (Comfort, Encountering, p. 253)
See real-life abbreviations in a papyrus of a part of Paul’s epistles.
This is used only by modern scholars.
The “P” stands for papyrus, and the number indicates the individual papyrus that has been catalogued. Metzger and Ehrman say that a total of 116 papyri have been examined and catalogued (p. 48). All of the papyri, among many other manuscripts, have been used to produce the most highly accurate and reliable New Testament possible.
In being made (see this slide show on how), the reed plant produced horizontal and vertical lines, as the strips of the plant were laid horizontally and vertically, in two layers. Recto stands for the “front” of the papyrus sheet or page, with the horizontal lines. The verso is the “back” side of the same sheet or page, and its lines were vertical, so it was more difficult to write on that side.
It is a city in Egypt, on the west side of the Nile, about 125 miles south of Cairo. In 1897, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, two archaeologists, traveled to this city because they knew that a Christian community had flourished in the early centuries of Christianity. Egypt was naturally dry, so papyrus manuscripts could survive there, buried. They searched in cemeteries, tombs, churches, and monasteries, but they found a trash or rubbish heap, and carefully excavated it. They struck “papyrus gold,” so to speak. Philip W. Comfort, another prominent textual critic, describes the value of trash heaps, specifically for Grenfell and Hunt and the New Testament:
Manuscripts found in rubbish heaps are not “rubbish” per se or defective copies. When a manuscript became old and worn, it was customary to replace it with a fresh copy and discard the old one. Since the Egyptians are known to have disposed of such copies by putting them in rubbish heaps, excavators looking for ancient Egyptian papyri would search for ancient rubbish heaps in deserted sites on ground higher than the Nile River. Grenfell and Hunt’s choice of ancient rubbish heap at Oxyrhynchus was fortuitous, for it yielded that largest cache of papyri ever discovered. (Comfort, In Quest, p. 62)
Then Comfort tells us how long the excavations lasted.
Grenfell and Hunt excavated at Oxyrhynchus until 1907; the Italian exploration society (under G. Vitelli) continued the work there during the years 1910-14 and 1927-34 (Comfort, In Quest, p. 64).
Clearly the First World War (1914-1918) stopped the second dig, the first for the Italians.
The Oxyrhynchus papyri are different from the ones discovered at Nag Hammadi.
See this Website for more information on Oxyrhynchus papyri. Or do a Google search with “Oxyrhynchus.”
High-quality classical works were found, such as those of Homer and Pindar. But what about the New Testament?
In total, forty-six papyrus manuscripts containing portions of the New Testament have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus. (Comfort, Encountering, p. 64)
Oxyrhynchus is sometimes abbreviated as Oxy. or Ox.
Chester Beatty was an American living in Britain. He purchased papyri of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, found in Egypt in the early 1930s. The precise location of the discovery is a mystery because the Egyptian diggers and dealers would not reveal it. This find must not be confused with the Oxyrhynchus papyri or Nag Hammadi papyri. The University of Michigan also purchased some leaves of this sensational discovery.
Eight manuscripts of portions of the Greek Old Testament were found in codices (plural of codex), which is the forerunner of our book. All dates, in AD, refer to the time that the manuscripts were copied, not originally written.
Greek New Testament
This collection is housed in Dublin, Ireland, as the Chester Beatty Library.
He was a Swiss bibliophile and humanist who founded the Bodmer Library of World Literature, at Cologny, a suburb of Geneva (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 56).
He purchased papyri in 1952, discovered in Jabal Abu Manna, north of the Dishna plain, in Egypt. They are different from the Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi papyri.
All dates, in AD, refer to the century that the manuscripts were copied, not originally written.
The most famous discovery was done by Constantin von Tischendorf, a German who traveled to Egypt and then to the Sinai Peninsula in 1843, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine’s Monastery. He describes his discovery. Apparently, some parchments were thrown in the fire, until he rescued the remaining ones.
It was at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Convent of St. Catherine, that I discovered the pearl of all my researches. In visiting the library of the monastery, in the month of May, 1844, I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and wide basket full of old parchments; and the librarian, who was a man of information, told me that two heaps of papers like these, mouldered by time, had been already committed to the flames. What was my surprise to find amid this heap of papers a considerable number of sheets of a copy of the Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most ancient that I had ever seen. The authorities of the convent allowed me to possess myself of a third of these parchments, or about forty-three sheets, all the more readily as they were destined for the fire. But I could not get them to yield up possession of the remainder. The too lively satisfaction which I had displayed had aroused their suspicions as to the value of this manuscript. I transcribed a page of the text of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and enjoined on the monks to take religious care of all such remains which might fall in their way.
Then in 1853, Tischendorf returned to St. Catherine’s Monastery for more manuscripts. He concealed his joy, so as not arouse the suspicions of the steward of the monastery, who jealously guarded his ancient manuscripts.
And so saying, he [the Steward] took down from the corner of the room a bulky kind of volume, wrapped up in a red cloth, and laid it before me. I unrolled the cover, and discovered, to my great surprise, not only those very fragments which, fifteen years before, I had taken out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New Testament complete, and, in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of the Pastor of Hermas. Full of joy, which this time I had the self-command to conceal from the steward and the rest of the community, I asked, as if in a careless way, for permission to take the manuscript into my sleeping chamber to look over it more at leisure. There by myself I could give way to the transport of joy which I [felt]. I knew that I held in my hand the most precious Biblical treasure in existence—a document whose age and importance exceeded that of all the manuscripts which I had ever examined during twenty years' study of the subject. I cannot now, I confess, recall all the emotions which I felt in that exciting moment with such a diamond in my possession . . .
(Source)
He named the manuscript he discovered Codex Sinaiticus (or Aleph, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet). See this quick write-up.
Manuscript (singular) is abbreviated as MS and manuscripts (plural) as MSS. NT stands for New Testament. There are five main classifications, plus quotations from the church fathers.
Papyrus comes from a reed plant (see this slide show on how it is made). Scribes used majuscules and minuscules handwriting on this material. It is quite possible that the autograph (original) manuscripts of the New Testament were written on it, or perhaps on parchment, or both, but scholarship is unclear on this point. But papyrus was not very durable, so we do not have the originals now.
This Webpage on papyri, written by Dr. Peter M. Head, a prominent textual critic, lists the papyri and provides further links.
Here is a complete list of papyri. The page also has links to images.
This word performs a double duty. It means a handwriting style, but it “ordinarily designates [manuscripts] on parchment” (Greenlee, p. 27). It dominates from the fourth through the tenth centuries.
Generally speaking, the uncial MSS, especially the earlier ones, are the most dependable group of witnesses to the NT text. (Greenlee p. 28)
This page on uncials, also written up by Dr. Head, lists the major uncials, and has further links.
This page provides links to uncials on parchments, including links to photos.
Here is a study of Codex B (03) or Codex Vaticanus.
This page has facsimile photos of Codex Alexandrinus (02).
“By far the largest group of Greek NT MSS [is] those written in minuscule handwriting, thus dating from the ninth century and later. Most are on parchment” . . . (Greenlee, p. 33)
Generally, this group of witnesses may not be as reliable as the earlier ones, but this is not always true. A later manuscript may have a more reliable exemplar (now unknown) than an earlier manuscript.
Dr. Head also provides a list of the major minuscules.
This word comes from the Latin for reading.
These are MSS in which the Scriptures are written, not in ordinary sequence, but in sections arranged in units for reading in church services. In very ancient times certain scripture passages were designated as the reading for each day of the year and for special services and days. The lectionary MSS were then written to follow the sequence of readings, with the day and the week generally indicated at the beginning of each lection. (Greenlee, p. 35)
Finally, Dr. Head lists the major lectionaries.
Christianity is a missionary religion, so it needed to translate the NT in other languages from the original Greek. Here are some common ones, as Christianity spread out:
Latin (Itala), Syriac, Coptic (Egyptian), Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Gothic, Arabic, Persian, Slavonic, Frankish, Gothic, and Anglo-Saxon.
These versions are helpful in NT textual criticism because they can decide key words and phrases and clauses, provided they are easy to translate back into Greek. A Syriac version, for example, some of which are earlier than Greek MSS, help textual critics decide on variants.
The quotations of the NT in the writings of the church fathers have been studied in detail, but not all of them. Though this fertile area is undergoing more study, Metzger and Ehrman estimate that the quotations are extensive (though this quotation is found in the third edition before Ehrman joined Metzger for the fourth edition):
Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament. (p. 126)
This is significant in attesting to the reliability of the NT that we have in our possession. Also, the number of citations exceed a million. Metzger is right to say that the citations are "so extensive."
The official listing (as of 2006) of the several important categories of Greek New Testament manuscripts can be summarized as follows:
Papyri...118
Majuscule MSS...317
Miniscule MSS...2877
Lectionary MSS...2433
Total...5745
Source: Papyri
The summary gives us a clear idea of how many manuscripts scholars have to sort through.
Hat tip: Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace p. 77.
The totals gathered by Metzger (and Ehrman), cited in the previous Question, seem like a lot (and they are), but we could have benefited from many more manuscripts. Diocletian, a Roman Emperor who reigned from AD 284 to 305, ordered the destruction of church buildings and the Christian Scriptures in 303-304, but the persecution occurred before and continued after that date.
Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, two prominent leaders in textual criticism of any generation, explain the devastation this decree wreaked on the NT MSS.
The persecution of Diocletian left a deep scar not only in church history but also in the history of the New Testament text. Innumerable manuscripts were destroyed during the persecution and had to be replaced. Even more were needed to supply the flood of new churches which sprang up in the Age of Constantine [an Emperor who reigned immediately after Diocletian]. (Aland and Aland, p. 70)
This was a time of crisis. A “snitch” society developed. Non-Christians exposed the Christians and the whereabouts of their Scriptures. Some devout believers paid with their lives, protecting God’s Word. They deserve our admiration. We should honor them by honoring God’s Word in our lives. Honoring means reading and studying it.
I have asked and answered this question in the other parts in this series. Christians believe that God works through history and humans. C. S. Lewis’ preliminary study on miracles is relevant. Once the inspired original manuscripts get assimilated into history, they undergo the effects of time:
The moment [the newcomer, e.g. miracle] enters [Nature’s] realm, it obeys her laws. Miraculous wine will intoxicate, miraculous conception will lead to pregnancy, inspired books will suffer all the ordinary processes of textual corruption, miraculous bread will be digested. (Miracles: A Preliminary Study, p. 81)
However, these errors have been purged out (and continue to be), with very few remainders. Why can’t devout believers today conclude that God is in fact working through humans in the purging process? Isn’t this a kind of divine protection that is worked out over time and history?
I have also asked and answered this question in the other three articles in this four-part series on New Testament manuscripts, but it is repeated here since it is critical both for seekers and the devout. The persecution of the church may have devastated the number of manuscripts, but enough have survived to help us put together the original, as much as this can be done, by cross-checking and comparing the thousands we have.
Sir Frederick Kenyon (d. 1952), a premier NT textual critic of the first half of the twentieth century, is optimistic about the general result of all of the hard work done by many scholars.
It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God (qtd. in Wegner, p. 25).
Kenyon worked in an earlier generation, and other MSS have been found since his time. However, nothing has cropped up that challenges in a substantive way the meaning and content of the NT. “Still there are relatively few significant variants in the Bible, and among these variants there is very little difference in meaning and content” (Wegner, p. 25).
Christians should have gratitude, if I may intrude with my own opinion, for scholars putting in so much time and energy and for clarifying the NT. Somebody has to do this thankless yeoman’s work, done often behind the scenes, with no glamour.
Therefore, far from losing one’s confidence, it should grow.
See the final article in the series: The Manuscripts Tell the Story: the New Testament Is Reliable. It surveys the opinions of many specialists on New Testament textual criticism. They also are optimistic.
This article was originally hosted at American Thinker.
The article later hosted by biblicalstudies.org.uk has been updated in other areas.
Aland, Kurt and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. 2nd ed. Trans. Erroll F. Rhodes. Eerdmans, 1989.
Black, David Alan, New Testament Textual Criticism: a Concise Guide. Baker, 1994.
Comfort, Philip Wesley. The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament. Wipf and Stock (originally at Baker), 1992.
---. Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism. Broadman and Holman, 2005.
Elliott, Keith and Ian Moir. Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers. T & T Clark, 1995.
Finegan, Jack. Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1974.
Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. Rev. ed. Hendrickson, 1995.
Komoszewski, J. Ed, M. James Sawyer and Daniel B. Wallace. Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel, 2006. See Chapters 4-8.
Metzger, Bruce M. and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. Oxford UP, 2005.
Roberts, Colin H. Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt. Published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1979.
--- and T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex, published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1983.
Wegner, Paul D. A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results. InterVarsity, 2006.
This article, the fourth in a four-part series, has a focused goal. It provides evidence from the best New Testament textual critics that it is possible to reach back, as much as humanly possible, to the original (autograph) books and letters of the New Testament, though the originals no longer exist. And there are no originals of any classical text that has survived the ancient Greco-Roman world.
As noted in the previous parts, the entire series assumes the basic Christian doctrine of inspiration. The original authors of the New Testament were inspired. Their writings were transmitted by scribes and copyists who took their work seriously, but were not inspired as the original authors were. They made typical errors that all scribes and copyists do before the age of copy machines, word processors, and spell checks.
Textual criticism attempts to recover the originals, as much as humanly possible. Have textual critics succeeded? By any reckoning, we have 95% of the inspired words, and some scholars place the number as high as 99% (see Part Three, Question One). That is a remarkable achievement for any text coming out of the Greco-Roman world. Web readers need to know this, so they can be reassured about their Bible when they hear its critics misleading the public about the complete trustworthiness of Scripture.
When we hold in our hands the New Testament, we hold the Word of God, an accurate, reliable, and faithful record of the words and ideas of the original authors, as inspired by God.
A few New Testament textual critics, such as Bart D. Ehrman, who have frequent access to the national media, assert or imply that the New Testament has undergone such a degree of prejudicial corruption that its message and theology is shaky and biased. No one can be sure of its original doctrines, such as the deity of Christ.
However, many world-class textual critics disagree with him if not directly, then indirectly. So this article has the second goal of providing web readers with information that balances out hyper-skepticism employed by some scholars.
Three main facts give these reasonable textual critics their confidence.
First, we have a vast number of manuscripts. How is this an advantage? “The plethora of New Testament manuscripts is a great benefit when trying to determine the original reading of the New Testament, for it is easier to sift through and evaluate the various extant [existing and known] readings than to emend [correct] texts with no evidence” (Wegner, A Student’s Guide, p. 41)
Second, the New Testament has many, many more manuscripts backing it up than do classical texts, such as those written by Herodotus, Thucydides, Julius Caesar, Tacitus, and Livy. Moreover, the interval of time between the originals and the earliest copies is much shorter for the New Testament than for those classical texts, often by hundreds, even a thousand years.
The textual critics draw the right conclusion from this second fact: if scholars accept the classical texts as accurate, then why not accept the New Testament as accurate?
Third, the scribal variants do not overturn any doctrine. Where one word or clause in a verse may be scrutinized to determine the best reading among many variants, the entire sweep of the New Testament assures us that these doctrines stand on bedrock.
The textual critics about to be quoted repeat these three points in one way or another. It is time to bring their views into focus in one article for web readers.
In 1881 B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort produced a Greek New Testament from New Testament manuscripts. Their version is a landmark in textual criticism, though they did not have the advantage of the papyrus discoveries in the twentieth century. Before they analyzed the variant readings (differences in manuscripts), they wrote a brief chapter at the very beginning of their two-volume work. The manuscript differences are only a small fraction of all of the words in the New Testament. After following principles of correcting the variants, and setting aside the differences in spelling, they write:
The words in our opinion still subject to doubt only make up about one sixtieth of the whole New Testament (The New Testament in the Original Greek, Macmillan, 1881, vol. 1, p. 2).
But then they break down the variants even further, to one thousandth of the entire text:
The amount of what can in any sense be called substantial variation, is but a small fraction of the whole residuary variation, and can hardly form more than a thousandth part of the entire text [of the New Testament]. (vol. 1, p. 2)
Westcott and Hort explain their purpose of writing their three-page first chapter. The vast majority of the New Testament is in no need of discussion or correction.
We desire to make it clearly understood beforehand how much of the New Testament stands in no need of a textual critic’s labors. (vol. 1 p. 3)
Westcott and Hort explain the large goal of textual critics: To recover an exact copy of the original. Specifically, textual criticism’s progress consists in:
Recovering an exact copy of what was actually written on parchment or papyrus by the author of the book or amanuensis [scribe] (vol. 1, p. 3)
Finally, has the New Testament been restored, in their view, after their hard labor? What about all of the manuscripts? Classical ancient texts, such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Roman authors, seem to be restored easily and accepted as such without doubt. How does the New Testament measure up to them? Westcott and Hort write in volume two, at the end of their labors:
The apparent ease and simplicity with which many ancient texts are edited might be thought, on a hasty view, to imply that the New Testament cannot be restored with equal security. But this ease and simplicity is in fact the mark of evidence too scanty to be tested; whereas in the variety and fullness of the evidence on which it rests, the text of the New Testament stands absolutely and unapproachably alone among ancient prose writing (vol. 2, p. 561)
Westcott and Hort say here what other textual critics repeat again and again, as we will see in this article. Classical texts are accepted as genuine after they have gone through an editing process of purging out errors, but these texts have much fewer manuscripts behind them. On the other hand, the New Testament has far more manuscripts behind it, which works to its advantage. The more manuscripts, the better, because they can be cross-checked with others. (The problem emerges when there are only a few manuscripts.) Therefore, the New Testament should also be accepted as genuine and restored, even more so than classical texts.
Sir Frederick Kenyon (d. 1952), a premier New Testament textual critic of the first half of the twentieth century, is optimistic about the general result of all of the hard work done by many scholars.
It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God (qtd. in Paul D. Wegner, Textual Criticism of the Bible, p. 25).
After Kenyon labored, other manuscripts have been found since his time. However, nothing has cropped up that challenges in a substantive way the meaning and content of the New Testament. “Still there are relatively few significant variants in the Bible, and among these variants there is very little difference in meaning and content” (Wegner, p. 25).
Jack Finegan is Professor Emeritus (retired) of New Testament and Archeology at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. This is not a conservative institution. He wrote Encountering New Testament Manuscripts (Eerdmans, 1974). He opines that the work of the copyists or scribes was careful on the whole:
The work of the copyists of the NT [New Testament] was, on the whole, done with great care and fidelity. (p. 55)
The differences in the huge number of New Testament manuscripts can be overcome, and the writings and intentions of the original authors can be reached.
It is obviously desirable to try to discern among the variant reading that which is most probably the closest possible to what was written originally and what was intended by the original authors (p. 55)
Finally, Finegan sums up his study of the rigorous methods that must be followed (though not mechanically) to get back to the originals, as far as this is possible. Indeed, this has been the purpose of his entire book.
Indeed the entire book is intended to provide background for reading with understanding the texts that lie before us and for finding our way in them as far as possible toward the original word. (p. 187)
Note how he uses the singular word at the end. Textual critics quibble over the right word—and, yes, a phrase or clause—but they do not overturn basic Christian doctrine or the sweep of the entire New Testament or of a single book.
Gordon D. Fee wrote an introductory article in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary (vol. 1, Zondervan, 1979) on New Testament textual criticism. And he assumes that the original Greek New Testament can be reached (as much as is humanly possible), as the original authors intended their books and letters to be read. Thus, textual criticism accomplishes at least two tasks for the interpreter of the Bible.
(1) It helps to determine the authentic words of [a Biblical] author . . . (2) The majority of Christians have access to the NT [New Testament] only in translation, and the basic consideration in choosing a translation is its accuracy in representing the original text of the author. (pp. 419-20)
Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, two of the highest ranking textual critics of any generation, are not known for overstatements. Yet they say that the editors of the two main editions of the Greek New Testament (Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Societies) are likely satisfied with their achievements:
On the whole each of the editors is probably satisfied that the new text represents the best that can be achieved in the present state of knowledge . . . (p. 34).
They go on to say that their edited Greek texts enjoy widespread use in universities and in a variety of Christian confessions or denominations.
In any event, the new text is a reality, and as the text distributed by the United Bible Societies and by the corresponding offices of the Roman Catholic Church (an inconceivable situation until quite recently) it has rapidly become the commonly accepted text for research and study in universities and churches. (p. 35)
Of course, Aland and Aland are open to challenges, and perhaps a scholar will quibble with some variants (alternate readings) of verses here and there, but for the church, the Greek New Testament texts that the team of editors edited is completely acceptable (pp. 35-36).
In one sentence in 1979 Kurt Aland says of the Nestle-Aland Greek text:
The desired goal now appears to have been attained, to offer the writings of the New Testament in the form of the text that comes nearest to that which . . . [the New Testament authors and redactors] set out on their journey in the church of the first and second centuries. (Quoted in P. W. Comfort, Encountering the Manuscripts, p. 290)
It should be taken into account that the Alands stand in the tradition of German Biblical scholarship which is infused with heavy skepticism. It would be a mistake to interpret them as fundamentalists or supportive of a pure text through and through. But when they endorse a text as “the best that can be achieved in the present state of knowledge,” this is substantial. At least their Greek New Testaments enjoy the support and use of many different churches and universities.
In his introduction to textual criticism (New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide, Baker, 1994), he says that the huge number of witnesses (Greek manuscripts, ancient translations, and quotations from the church fathers) implies that we have the original text of the New Testament somewhere among all the words:
The sheer number of witnesses to the text of the New Testament makes it virtually certain that the original text has been preserved somewhere among the extant (existing) witnesses. (p. 24)
What does the large number of variants mean to Biblical doctrines? These variations may affect them, but a doctrine will always be supported by other passages, so there is no net loss. Black writes:
No biblical doctrine would go unsupported if a favorable reading was abandoned in favor of a more valid variant. This does not mean, as is sometimes said, that no doctrine of Scripture is affected by textual variation. Rather, a doctrine that is affected by textual variation will always be adequately supported by other passages. (p. 25)
J. Harold Greenlee wrote an introduction to textual criticism (Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism, rev. ed., Hendrickson, 1995). He briefly totals the number of manuscripts for non-Christian Greek and Roman authors (e.g. fifty manuscripts for the Greek tragedian Aeschylus; one hundred for the tragedian Sophocles; three for the Roman poet Catullus; a few hundred known for Cicero, Ovid, and Virgil). Then he provides us with the interval of time between these Greek and Roman authors and the existing manuscripts, which vary from three hundred years for a few Roman authors and to a thousand or more years for most of the Greek classical authors. The New Testament, on the other hand, has thousands of manuscripts and the interval is much shorter. With these data in the background, Greenlee draws this conclusion:
Since scholars [classicists] accept as generally trustworthy the writings of the ancient classics, even though the earliest manuscripts [MSS] were written so long after the original writings and the number of extant manuscripts [MSS] is in many instances so small, it is clear that the reliability of the text of the NT [New Testament] is likewise assumed. (p. 6)
Greenlee is exactly right. Every classicist accepts or assumes the reliability of non-Christian Greek and Roman authors. So why should we not accept and assume the reliability of the New Testament authors, especially when the number of manuscripts is much greater and the interval much shorter?
Ian Moir set out to write a non-technical introduction to textual criticism, but his sudden death stopped the project. J. K. Elliott, with the support of Moir’s family, completed the task from Moir’s notes. (Their book is Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament, T & T Clark, 1995). They cite the wide chronological gap between the originals of the Greek and Latin classics and their comparatively few surviving manuscripts. Classicists sometimes have to make educated guesses about a reading. However, as for the New Testament, they write:
It is worth stating now that unless a foolproof case can be made that all of the many surviving manuscripts have failed to preserve the original text, then it should not be necessary to resort to guesswork which can lead to a modern rewriting of the New Testament text. (p. 7)
As for the reliability of the New Testament and the task of the textual critic, they write, first, that about 95 percent of the Greek New Testament is settled.
Most modern textual critics agree on the bulk of the text (some 95 per cent, perhaps). It is the remaining 5 per cent or so where disputes occur and differing conclusions may be found. (p. 8).
Second, Elliott and Moir are optimistic about reaching back to the text of the first-century.
There are a few textual critics who are skeptical of our ever getting behind the text groupings that can be detected in the second and third centuries, but most textual critics are relatively optimistic that one can reach back to the texts of the first century. (p. 8)
They also caution us against the common assertion that variants in the Greek New Testament do not affect (their word) Christian doctrine (p. 3). They are right about this, if they use the light word affect. However, it is accurate to say that Christian doctrine is not impacted negatively, as if the variants overturn or deny a doctrine, such as the Virgin Birth or the deity of Christ.
Finally, Elliott and Moir state that New Testament textual critics have confidence that the original text can be recovered:
Not only do we have many manuscripts and many manuscripts of an early date but recent scholarly attempts to edit the New Testament text is done with the confidence that the original text is there to be discovered in the manuscripts. Sometimes editors reach different conclusions, sometimes an editorial judgment is questionable, but behind the debate the assumption is that the manuscripts, supported or supplemented by the version and by quotations in the writings of the [Church] Fathers, will yield the original text. (p. 94)
Philip W. Comfort is another prominent textual critic, writing books that introduce students to this science and art. In his Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament (Wipf and Stock, 1990, 1992), he quotes a few brief pessimistic pronouncements from textual critics, but then he is optimistic about the quest for recovering the original Greek New Testament.
I am optimistic because we have many early manuscripts of excellent quality and because our view of the early period has been getting clearer and clearer. I believe it is possible to recover the original text of the Greek New Testament. (p. 20)
Years later Comfort publishes another book on textual criticism (Encountering the Manuscripts, Broadman and Holman, 2005). His optimism does not seem to have flagged. He describes the difference among scholars on some variants that have an equal weight of manuscripts behind them, and maybe the scholars will never come to an agreement. But then Comfort puts this in perspective:
But this is, by no means, a large number of textual variants. And this should not cause us to abandon the task of recovering the original wording of the Greek New Testament. New insights have come and will keep coming, in the new form of actual documents, new methodologies, and new understandings. (p. 291-92)
Bruce M. Metzger (d. February 2007) is on the same level as Aland and Aland as textual critics. He wrote the first three editions of the Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (Oxford UP, 1964, 1968, 1992). For the fourth edition (2005) he was joined by Bart D. Ehrman. I quote from this edition, while noting that conclusions are found in the earlier editions.
In the preface to the first edition Metzger writes that the goal of textual criticism is to recover the original words.
The textual critic seeks to ascertain from the divergent copies which form of the text should be regarded as most nearly conforming to the original. (p. v)
After describing the poor showing of non-Christian manuscripts of ancient Roman authors, Metzger (and Ehrman, though the following passage exists in the third edition without him) draws this conclusion about the richness and variety of the New Testament manuscripts:
In contrast with these figures [about non-Christian Roman writers], the textual critic of the New Testament is embarrassed by the wealth of material. Furthermore, the work of many ancient authors has been preserved only in manuscripts that date from the Middle Ages (sometimes the late Middle Ages), far removed from the time at which they lived and wrote. On the contrary, the time between the composition of the books of the New Testament and the earliest extant [existing] copies is relatively brief . . . several papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament are extant that were copied within a century or so after the composition of the original documents. (Metzger and Ehrman, p. 51)
It should be pointed out that a footnote to this excerpt says that most of the papyri are relatively fragmentary and the great majority of other manuscripts contain only the four Gospels or only the Epistles. However, these manuscripts may still be used to cross-check the others. It is much better to have many manuscripts than few, as in the case of the Greco-Roman non-Christian manuscripts.
Further, the quotations of the New Testament in the writings of the church fathers have not yet been factored into the calculations. Though this fertile area is undergoing detailed study, Metzger (and Ehrman, though the following passage is found in the third edition without him) estimates:
Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament. (p. 126)
This is significant in attesting to the reliability of the New Testament that we have in our possession. To speak personally, this estimate by Metzger is stunning. He is saying that if our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were to be destroyed (this means, I assume, that the manuscripts would be destroyed), then we could reconstruct the New Testament from the quotations of the church fathers alone. For me, this fact by itself leaves no doubt about the reliability of the New Testament.
Sometimes academics need to get out from behind their computers and to dialogue with people other than their colleagues and students. Bruce Metzger graciously did this with Lee Strobel in the latter’s The Case for Christ (Zondervan, 1998). They met on a Saturday at Princeton University, where Metzger used to teach before his retirement. We listen in on four portions of their conversation.
First, Strobel asks why it is so important to have thousands of manuscript to support a document like the New Testament. Metzger replies:
Well, the more often you have copies that agree with each other, especially if they emerge from different geographical areas, the more you can cross-check them to figure out what the original document was like. The only way they’d agree would be where they went back genealogically in a family tree that represents the descent of the manuscripts. (p. 59)
Metzger says here that the copies would agree if and only if there really were originals. And the more manuscript copies we have, the better chance we have of finding the wording of the originals, after we sift through all of the manuscripts.
Second, Strobel asks Metzger about the comparison of the New Testament texts and later manuscripts with those of non-Christian texts and manuscripts, such as the Roman historian Tacitus, Jewish historian Josephus’ Jewish War, and Homer’s Iliad. “How does the New Testament stack up against well-known works of antiquity?” asks Strobel.
“Extremely well,” [Metzger] replied. “We can have great confidence in the fidelity with which this material has come down to us, especially compared with any other ancient literary work.” (p. 63).
Third, Strobel asks about the variations in the manuscripts. “Do they tend to be minor rather than substantive?”
“Yes, yes, that’s correct, and scholars work very carefully to try to resolve them by getting back to the original meaning. The more significant variations do not overthrow any doctrine of the church. Any good Bible will have notes that will alert the reader to variant readings of any consequence. But again, these are rare.” (p. 65).
Fourth and finally, Strobel asks what Metzger’s scholarship has done to his personal faith.
“Oh,” he said, sounding happy to discuss the topic, “it has increased the basis of my personal faith to see the firmness with which these materials have come down to us, with a multiplicity of copies, some of which are very, very ancient.” (p. 71).
Then Strobel started to ask, again, if scholarship has diluted Metzger’s faith.
He jumped in before I [Strobel] could finish my sentence. “On the contrary,” [Metzger] stressed, “it has built it. I’ve asked questions all my life. I’ve dug into the text, I’ve studied this thoroughly, and today I know with confidence that my trust in Jesus has been well placed.” . . . Then he added, for emphasis, “Very well placed.” (p. 71)
At the time of this interview Metzger was eighty-four years old. He is a highly regarded scholar from a wide spectrum of his colleagues. It is refreshing to see a man like this declare his faith openly.
Moisés Silva attended an academic conference in 2000, on which he was invited to comment or respond to other guest speakers (the book of this conference was published as Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism, ed. David A. Black, Baker Academic, 2002). At least one of the conference speakers was skeptical about recovering the original New Testament, but Silva affirms this possibility.
In conclusion, I would like to affirm . . . that the recovery of the original text (i.e. in its initial form, prior to the alterations produced in the copying process) remains the primary task of textual criticism [Silva briefly describes the difficulty in the process of recovery] . . . But neither these truths nor the admittedly great difficulties involved in recovering the autographic [original] words can be allowed to dissolve the concept of an original text. (p. 149)
Then Silva mentions that some variants may never be resolved to every critic’s satisfaction. But this should not deter the recovery process partly because of the advantage New Testament textual critics enjoy. What advantage?
But we cannot allow the exceptional [unresolved rare issues] to determine our course of action. Let us not forget that the distinctive challenges in our field are actually the result of enormous quantities of data (unavailable for other documents whose originality we take for granted!) and of extraordinary scholarly advances. Encouraged by this reality, we have plenty of good reasons to press on. (pp. 149-50)
As seen with other scholars quoted in this present article, Silva’s positive assessment is based, in part, on the thousands of New Testament manuscripts compared to the manuscripts of Greco-Roman and non-Christian texts. This numerical fact puts everything in perspective.
Paul D. Wegner’s book on textual criticism, A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible (InterVarsity, 2006), also affirms the reliability and accuracy of the Bible. In this passage he defines a variant; then in the last sentence he draws the natural inference about the Bible and its variants.
A variant is any difference between the texts in the numerous manuscripts of the Greek New Testament (e.g., spelling differences, missing or added words, different word order). Some variants are significant; for example, the last eleven verses of the Gospel of Mark. But the vast majority have little effect on the translation of a passage and are relatively insignificant, a fact that underscores how accurate our Bibles actually are. (p. 231)
As we have seen with the textual critics cited in this present article, Wegner puts the process of purging errors in perspective.
It is important to underscore two facts near the beginning of our discussion on New Testament textual criticism: (1) the verbal agreement between various New Testament manuscripts is closer than between many English translations of the New Testament, and (2) the percentage of variants in the New Testament is small . . . and no matter of doctrine hinges on a variant reading (p. 231)
The first fact is remarkable. The Greek manuscripts from divergent places and times agree more often than our English translations.
This next assessment by Wegner of both the Old and New Testaments expresses confidence in the reliability of the Bible.
It is humbling and reassuring to realize that the Old and New Testaments have been handed down through many generations as accurately and as completely as they have. Many scribes and copyists spent many countless hours copying and checking their work to ensure an accurate text for later generations. (p. 310).
Why did the scribes and copyists spend so many hours doing their job?
All of their effort was expended because they realized just how important the Word of God is and how crucial it is to maintain an accurate record of God’s revelations. (p. 310).
So what is the bottom line on textual criticism? Wegner writes:
Careful examination of these manuscripts has served to strengthen our assurance that modern Greek and Hebrew critical texts are very close to the original autographs, even though we do not have those autographs. (p. 301)
Two final, unnumbered questions:
Christians believe that God works through history and humans. C. S. Lewis’ preliminary study on miracles is relevant. Once the inspired original manuscripts get assimilated into history, they undergo the effects of time:
The moment [the newcomer, e.g. miracle] enters [Nature’s] realm, it obeys her laws. Miraculous wine will intoxicate, miraculous conception will lead to pregnancy, inspired books will suffer all the ordinary processes of textual corruption, miraculous bread will be digested. (Miracles: A Preliminary Study, p. 81)
Recall the twenty scribes (Part One, Question Six). What if you were one of them? Would you make mistakes? However, these errors have been purged out (and continue to be), with very few remainders. Why can’t devout believers today conclude that God is in fact working through humans in the purging process? Isn’t this a kind of divine protection that is worked out over time and history?
Let’s end on the words of Sir Frederick Kenyon (d. 1952), a premier NT Textual critic of the first half of the twentieth century. He’s optimistic about the general result of all of the hard work done by many scholars.
It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God (qtd. in Wegner, p. 25).
Kenyon worked in an earlier generation, and other MSS have been found since his time. However, nothing has cropped up that challenges in a substantive way the meaning and content of the NT. “Still there are relatively few significant variants in the Bible, and among these variants there is very little difference in meaning and content” (Wegner, p. 25).
Christians should have gratitude, if I may intrude with my own opinion, for scholars putting in so much time and energy and for clarifying the NT. Somebody has to do this thankless yeoman’s work, done often behind the scenes, with no glamour.
Therefore, far from losing your confidence, it should increase.
It must be pointed out that these scholars are not directly refuting a specific skeptic in the above quotations, for the most part. Instead, they have examined all of the evidence of the New Testament manuscripts and drawn similar conclusions, namely, that we have reached back as close to the originals as any human effort can. This positive result has been brought about in large part by the huge number of manuscripts, and by the short interval between the (now lost) originals and the nearest surviving manuscripts.
We may not have the very original books and letters of the New Testament (and no text today coming from the ancient world has the originals), but we can reconstruct it as accurately as possible in our present state of knowledge. If we consider Greco-Roman classics as accurate, though they do not have as many manuscripts so soon after the originals, then why not accept the New Testament as accurate?
After the arduous process of applying scientific methods to the New Testament to determine the best reading, where uncertainties remain, Christian doctrine is never overturned or negated. Where one verse may have a word or clause undergoing the arduous process of textual criticism, the entire sweep of the New Testament assures us that the doctrines stand on solid ground. The earliest church enjoyed high-level unanimity on such doctrines as the virgin birth and the deity of Christ.
We have come as close to the originals or autographs of the New Testament as is humanly possible, after textual critics have sifted through all of the evidence.
The Bible is the Word of God. We can put our confidence and trust in it.
This article was originally hosted at American Thinker.
The article later hosted by biblicalstudies.org.uk has been updated in other areas.
Aland, Kurt and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. 2nd ed. Trans. Erroll F. Rhodes. Eerdmans, 1989.
Black, David Alan, New Testament Textual Criticism: a Concise Guide. Baker, 1994.
--- ed. Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism. Baker, 2002.
Bruce, F. F. New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 5th ed. InterVarsity, 1960.
Comfort, Philip Wesley. The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament. Wipf and Stock (originally at Baker), 1992.
--- and David P. Barrett. The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. corrected and enlarged edition. Tyndale House, 2001.
Comfort, Philip W. Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism. Broadman and Holman, 2005.
Ehrman, Bart D. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. Oxford UP, 1993.
Elliott, Keith and Ian Moir. Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers. T & T Clark, 1995.
Epp, Eldon J. and Gordon D. Fee. Studies and Documents: Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1993.
Eldon J. Epp, “The Multivalence of the Term ‘Original Text’ in New Testament Textual Criticism.” Harvard Theological Review 92 (1999) 245-81.
Finegan, Jack. Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1974.
Fee, Gordon D. “The Textual Criticism of the New Testament,” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 1, pp. 419-33. Frank E. Gaebelein (ed.). Zondervan, 1979.
The Greek New Testament. Ed. Barbara Aland et al. Fourth ed. United Bible Societies, 2001.
Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. Rev. ed. Hendrickson, 1995.
Head, Peter M. “Christology and Textual Transmission: Reverential Alterations in the Synoptic Gospels.” Novum Testamentum 35 (1993) 105-29.
Komoszewski, J. Ed, M. James Sawyer and Daniel B. Wallace. Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel, 2006. See Chapters 4-8.
Metzger, Bruce M. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 3rd ed. Oxford UP, 1992.
--- and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. Oxford UP, 2005.
Parsons, Mikeal C. “A Christological Tendency in P75.” Journal of Biblical Literature 105/3 (1986) 463-479.
Roberts, Colin H. Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt, published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1979.
--- T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex. published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1983.
Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ. Zondervan, 1998.
Wegner, Paul D. A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results. InterVarsity, 2006.