Textual Criticism

This outline is heavily indebted to the excellent work of Bruce Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, Text of the New Testament.

Textual Criticism

A Brief Introduction

I. The Need

1. Establishing the text of the New Testament is a necessary endeavor, even if it is not discussed much.

a. None of the original documents of the New Testament exists.

b. The many documents that we possess are copies (and copies of copies) and they differ from one another. In view of this, textual criticism is inevitable.

c. The Bibles that we possess are the fruit of textual criticism.

2. Textual criticism is the discipline of comparing texts to come as close as possible to the original texts.

3. Textual criticism is as much as science as an art.

4. After some experience, a student of the New Testament can conduct responsible textual criticism.

II. Documents

1. Papyrus is an aquatic plant, which grows very well in marshlands. It can grow as much as 12 – 15 feet in height. It is also a plant that has many usages and can even be eaten, but its most famous usage was as a source for writing. After the outer rind is taken off, the inner pith is cut into strips. These strips are put on a table vertically and then other strips are put on top of them horizontally. By beating the vertical and horizontal strips together, the two layers become one.  At this point it is dried under pressure. Finally, the sheet is smoothed out for writing.

2. Parchment is made from the skins of cattle, sheep, goats and other animals. After a selection process, the parchmenter removes the hairs from the animal and dips the skins into a vat of lime solution for 3-10 days. At this point, the skins are draped and this begins a second round of scraping away the hairs and residual flesh. Finally the skin is stretched out, dried, and smoothed out for writing.

a. A story of Hellenistic rivalry. According to Pliny the Elder (NH 13.21), King Eumenes of Pergamum planned to make a library that would rival the great library of Alexandria. This did not settle well with Ptolemy Epiphanes (205-182 B.C.). Rivalries were huge in the Hellenistic world. For this reason, Ptolemy prohibited papyri to be exported to stem Eumenes’ ambitions. It was this embargo that forced Eumenes to ramp up production of parchment.[1]

3. Scroll. When parchments or papyri are glued together, the scroll is formed.  The scroll did not usually exceed the length of 35 feet for practical reasons.  The Book of Acts and Luke would have probably been around 30 feet in length. This also explains why Luke and Acts are written in two separate books.

4. Codex. Soon Christians discovered how difficult it was to use scrolls. Therefore, they created something called a codex (book) in the second century. Christians formed the codex by folding papyri or parchment in the middle and sewing the pages together. The advantages were numerous.

a. First of all there was ease of use. More material could be contained in a single source, parallel texts could also be created, and writing on both sides was natural. Of course, there were also financial benefits.

5. Writings

a. Majuscles – all capital letters.

b. Minuscules – smaller than majuscles and are written in cursive.

c. Scriptio continua. There were no spaces between words and until around the 8th century. There was also very limited punctuation. This could obviously create a certain amount of confusion. The words, “GODISNOWHERE,” are a case in point.

6. Chapter Divisions. The earliest chapter divisions are from the 4th century (Codex Vaticanus). For example, there are 170 sections in Matthew.

7. Some Statistics: 116 Papyri, 310 Majuscule MSS, 2877 Minuscule MSS, and 2432 Lectionary MSS.

III. Some Important Witnesses

1. Papyri

a. P45, 46, 47 The Chester Beatty papyri contain most of the New Testament books. P45 contains 30 leaves, P46 86 leaves, and P47 10 leaves. These are dated to around They were written in the middle 200s. Also it is notable that P47 closely resembles Codex Sinaiticus.

b. P52 Although this papyrus is very small, it is an important witness to the gospel of John (dated to the first half of the 100s). It was found in a small town along the Nile River far from where the gospel of John was probably written, Ephesus. The dating of John, therefore, can be pushed back much earlier than once thought.

2. Majuscules

a. Sin. Lobegott Friedrich Constantin von Tischendorf discovered Codex Sinaiticus at the monastery of St. Catherine (1859). The entire New Testament is preserved (the only one), and it dates to the 300s. The story of this discovery is remarkable. In 1844 when Tischendorf began his journey to collect manuscripts, he came to the monastery of St. Catherine. He noticed some leaves in the garbage, which were actually parts of the LXX. The monks casually stated that other leaves were thrown into the fire. When he arrived again in 1859, he gave a copy of a new edition of the LXX to the steward of the monastery. The steward replied that he had a copy too. Tischendorf asked to see it and what he beheld was groundbreaking. That night Tischendorf did not sleep a wink as he red through this codex. He wrote in his diary: “quippe domire nefas videbatur.”

b. Codex Alexandrinus (A) is a codex that dates to the 400’s and it ranks with Sinaiticus and Vaticanus as one of the great treasures. However, unlike Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus contains also most of the Old Testament. Alexandrinus is an example of the Alexandrian text type.

c. Codex Vaticanus (B) is another work that dates to the 400’s. The unadorned character of the writing suggests that it is earlier than Alexandrinus. Some scholars have even suggested that Vaticanus might have been one of the 50 Bibles that Constantine commissioned to be written. Vaticanus is also an example of the Alexandrian text type.

d. Codex Ephraemi (C) dates to the 400’s, but it was written over with 38 ascetical treatises and a number of sermons of St. Ephraem (palimpsest).

e. Codex Bezae (D) dates to the 400’s and contains both Greek and Latin facing each other. This work is characterized by great variations, free additions and occasional omissions. It is representative of the Western text type.

3. Minuscule. When studying manuscripts, it is important to keep in mind that sometimes these manuscripts have family resemblances.

a. MS 28 dates to the 1000s. It contains the four gospels and written somewhat carelessly.

b. MS 565 is one of the most beautiful of manuscripts. It is kept in the public library at St. Petersburg. It is written in gold letters and purple vellum and probably dates to the 800s.

IV. Other Versions

1. Syriac – “No branch of the Early Church has done more than the Syriac-speaking. In our European libraries we have Syriac Bible MSS from Lebanon, Egypt, Sinai, Mesopotamia, Armenia, India, and even China.”[2]

a. The Old Syriac version of the gospels exists in two manuscripts. These manuscripts were probably copied in the 4th and 5th centuries, but they probably reflect much earlier texts.

b. The Peshitta or the Syriac Vulgate is the standardized version of the Scriptures of the Eastern and Western Syriac speaking church. More than 350 manuscripts of the Peshitta exist.

2. Latin

a. Old Latin. Latin translations of the Bible probably started very early. No Old Latin New Testament exists, but numerous fragments.

b. In view of the many different versions of the Latin Bible, in 382 Pope Damascus requested Jerome to create a standard version, which was later called, the Vulgate.

3. Coptic is the tail end of ancient Egyptian and it can be broken down into two dialects: Sahidic and Bohairic.

a. Around the beginning of the 3rd century, portions of the New Testament were translated into Sahidic. During the next 100 years, the whole New Testament was translated.

b. The Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC acquired a large collection of these texts.

4. Gothic.

a. Ulfias, known as “the apostle to the Goths” translated the Bible into Goth from Greek. He even created the Gothic alphabet.

5. Armenian.

a. There are many manuscripts of the Armenian text. Only Latin manuscripts are more numerous.

6. Georgian.

a. Very little is known about the Georgian versions. These people lived in the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian Sea.

7. Ethiopic.

a. Ethiopic manuscripts dates range from as early as 4th and as late as 7th centuries. However, the earlier manuscripts that exists date from the 10th century. Most are from the 15th century and later.

8. Patristic Quotations.

a. “Indeed, so extensive of 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.”[3]

b. Patristic evidence is also helpful for establishing the history of textual transmission.

V. A Short History of Textual Criticism

1. One of the chief reasons for the slow progress of textual criticism was the authority of Jerome’s Vulgate. This fact says a lot about the Vulgate and the church.

2. The first printed Greek New Testament was printed in 1514, as part of a polyglot Bible.

3. The first published Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus) was the work of the great humanist, Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536).

4. Erasmus’ Greek text was an important development, but Erasmus lacked manuscripts and so he had to rely on Latin texts at times. More importantly, like Jerome, this text wielded authority for nearly 400 years.

5. Richard Bentley (1662-1742), the great classicist, envisioned a critical edition of the Greek New Testament.

6. Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752). His faith was shaken by 30,000 variants in the New Testament that came to light in his time and so he devoted himself to the study of textual criticism. Importantly, he realized that texts had family relationships. So, texts must not simply be counted, but weighed. In other words, some texts are weightier than others, even if there are fewer of them. In 1734 Bengel published an edition of the New Testament.

7. Johann Jakob Griesbach (1745-1812) made significant contributions to textual criticism by grouping texts: Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine. He also worked out basic principles of textual criticism, such as the maxim, the shorter reading is to be preferred.

8. Karl Lachmann (1793-1851) is important, because he was the first scholar entirely to break away from the Textus Receptus. His published Greek New Testament was solely based on the principles of textual criticism.

9. Lobegott Friedrich Constantin von Tischendorf is arguably the most important textual scholar ever. He published more manuscripts and Greek critical editions than any other scholar.

10. Brooke Foss Wescott and Fenton John Anthony Hort produced a landmark critical edition, The New Testament in the Original Greek in two volumes. The first volume contained the text and the second volume contained a rationale for principles of textual criticism.

11. Eberhard Nestle (1851-1913) published the widely used pocket edition of the Greek New Testament.

12. Stating with 26th edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, the text is identical with the  United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament.

VI. Types of Scribal Errors

1. Faulty Eyesight. The simplest error occurs from eyesight. For example, ALLA can easily be mistaken for AMA.

2. Parablepsis. When two lines end in the same word, a scribe’s eye might wander to the second line omitting what is in between. For example, Codex Vaticanus in John 17:15 misses a whole line:

aujtou\ß ejk touv ko/smou

aujtou\ß ejk touv ponhrouv

What is missing is: “but that you keep them from the”

3. Homoeoteleuton take place when two similar endings of lines are mixed up.

4. Haplography takes place when two sentences end in the same word, the scribe may accidentally skip a whole sentence. This takes places in Luke 10.32 in codex Sinaiticus.

5. Faulty hearing is another common error since often texts were copied by diction. For example, e¡comen = e¡cwmen; i™riß = i˚ereivß are pronounced in the same way. In the case of the latter, Sinaitcus and Alexandrinus, instead of having the word, “rainbow” around God’s head, they have “priests.”

6. Marginal notes were added in error at times.

7. Intentional changes. Ironically scribes who tried to make sense of the texts sometimes changed them. ajmaqe/state kai\ kake\, a¡feß to\n palaio/n, mh\ metapoi/ei. The zealous “Graduate Student” mistake.

8. Conflations. When two or more manuscripts had variations, a common solution was to incorporate the two reading.

VII. Text Types

1. Western. The basic characteristic of the Western text type is its paraphrasing nature. There are many omissions, additions, changes, and harmonizations.

2. Alexandrian. Alexandria, as a city of great scholarship, produced a text that was controlled and accurate. Most scholars favor this text type as closest to the original manuscripts.

3. Byzantine. This text type is characterized by completeness and clearness. Roughness of language is smoothed over and the final product is a polished text.

VIII. How to:

1. The basic maxim is: choose the variant that best explains the others.

2. External Considerations

a. The age of the witness is an important consideration. Older witnesses are to be preferred. Also it is important to keep in mind that a relatively late witness may be from a very old text.

b. Geographic distribution can also be an important consideration. Broad distribution is to be preferred.

c. Genealogical relationship ought to be determined and weighed. Just because there are many texts from an inferior text does not make it more authentic.

3. Internal Consideration

a. The more difficult reading is to be preferred (generally speaking). The assumption is that a scribe would be more willing to make things clearer than more difficult to understand.

b. The shorter reading is also to be preferred. The rationale is that scribes would be more likely to add words for clarification rather than omit words.

c. In parallel passages, verbal dissidence is to be preferred.

d. Theology, vocabulary and general style of the author of the text can also be helpful.

IX. Examples

1. Acts 20:28 “Keep watch over yourself and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has mad you overseers, to feed the church of … which he obtained with his own blood.”

a. qeouv: 218, 257, 383, 459, 614, 917, 1175, 1522, 1611, 1758, 2138, 2298, al, ar, c, dem, ph, ro, w, Vulg, Syrp. h, Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, Epiphanius, Cyril of Alexandria.

b. kuri/ou: p74, A, C, D, Ea, Y, 33, 181, 209, 307, 337, 429, 431, 436, 610, 623, 1739, 1891, e, gig, p, Sah, Boh, Syrh mg, Arm, Irenlat, Didymus, Lucifer, Jerome, Pelagius.

c. kuri/ou kai\ qeouv: C3, Ha, La, Pa, more than 100 minuscules, Old Slavonic, Theophylact.

d. qeouv kai kuri/ou: 47

e. kuri/ou qeouv: 3, 95

f. cristouv: Syrcodd, Apost. Const, Athanasiuscodd.

g. jIhsouv cristouv: m.

2. 1 Thess. 2:7 “We were gentle (or infants) among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.”

a. (h¡pioi) gentle – Sinc, A, Cb, Dp(c), Kp, Lp, Pp, 33, Syrp, h,Sah, Arm, Clem, Orig 2/3, Chr and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

b. (nh/pioi) infants – p56, Sin*, B, C*,Dp*, Fp, Gp, I, Old Latin, Vulg, Boh, Eth, Origlat, Eph, Cyril,  Jerome, Aug, and Ambrst.

3. 1 John 1:4 “We write this to make our (or your) joy complete.”

a. h˚mw◊n

b. u˚mw◊n

4. Mark 16:9-20; short ending: ejfobouvnto ga/r.

a. Short ending – B, sin, K, some old Armenian texts, Ethiopic

b. Intermediate ending – L, Y, 099, 0112, Coppt,

c. Long ending – A, C, D, L, W, Old Latin, Vulgate

d. Longer ending – W

[1] Parchment was used until the medieval age. Paper (made from cotton) only can into usage through contact with China.

[2] “Syriac Versions,” in Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, iv (1902), 645.

[3] Bruce Metzger and Bart D. Erhman. The Text of the New Testament, 126.