Textual variants

New Testament Textual
Criticism: An Introduction
Presented by
Clinton Baldwin, Ph.D.
22/9/13

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The History of the New Testament Text:
An Overview

The History of the New Testament Text :
-An Overview-
• The Bible was written in different ancient
languages
• The Old Testament was originally written in
Hebrew and Aramaic
• The New Testament was written in Greek

The History of the NT Text:
An Overview
• No autograph of any Biblical book has survived
• What we have are copies of copies of copies of copies…

The History of the New
Testament: An Overview
The Biblical books were first written on
scrolls, then in codices, i.e., book form.
This form of writing was first composed of
all capital letters, called Uncials
• Uncial letters were written in scriptio
continua, i.e. no break between the letters
and words. Everything flowed into one.

Example of Uncials Script: Sections of Codex
Sinaticus

Minuscules
• Around the 8th
and 9th
century the uncial script was
replaced by the minuscule.
• This kind of writing is cursive. Scribes were able to write
faster and smaller. It saves both time and material
• This facilitated the rapid multiplicity of copies of the
scriptures. So many more people received it in a shorter
possible time.

The History of the New Testament Text
• Currently, there are approximately 23,000 extant
ancient manuscripts of the New Testament
• i. approximately 8,000 Greek manuscripts
ii. approximately 10,000 Latin manuscripts
iii. approximately 5,000 combined in other
languages such as Coptic, Syriac,
Ethiopic and Gregorian
Since the NT was originally written in Greek,
Greek is the primary language manuscript of the
NT

The History of the New
Testament Text
• No two manuscripts are exactly alike
• Why? They were copied by hand under
various circumstances
• Thus the scribes sometimes made
mistakes

.
• Scholars estimate that there are approximately
300,000 to 400,000 variant readings in the New
Testament. Whereas there are approximately
140,000 words in the New Testament, this
means that there are more errors than there are
words in the New Testament
• Note: The overwhelming majority of errors are
insignificant and do not affect the meaning of the
text in any way.

Origen (186-255 AD)
• “…It is a recognized fact that there are much
diversity in our copies, whether by the
carelessness of certain scribes, or by some
culpable rashness in the correction of the text, or
by some people making arbitrary additions or
omissions in their corrections.”
Selections from the Commentaries and Homilies of Origen, trans.by R. B. Tollinton
(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1929) 109-110.

.
• Errors made by scribes as they copied the
scriptures were of different types
depending on various situations in which
they found themselves

Types of Errors
Eye Sight:
Homoeoteleuton: the scribe skips from one letter or word to
the same letter or word farther down the page.
1 ……. . . . . . . .. autos ek tou
2 kosmos ……….
3 … … … . . . . . . . . . autos ek tou
4 ponhrou ……
• John 17:15 : I do not pray that you should [take them from the
world, but that you should] keep them from the evil one
•

Types of Errors
Metathesis:
– Changing the order of letters or words. Example:
– Mark 14:65, eλαβον (received), for εβαλον (struck).
– “kai. oi` u`phre,tai r`api,smasin auvto.n e;labonÅ and
the guards receive him with blows.”

Types of Errors
Of Hearing:
Iticism: e.g. ει for οι or o for w
• Romans 5:1 ecwmen for ecomen
Therefore having been justified by faith let us
have ecwmen peace with God…. instead of
we have peace ecomen with God
• 1 Cor 16:54 vneikos (conflict) for nikos (victory)
death is swallowed up in “conflict,” instead of
death is swallowed up in “victory”

Types of Errors
Error of Judgment:
Sometimes a copyist made a judgment call as to whether
or not a glossary in the margin of his text ought to be
included in the main body of the text
The troubling of the water: John 5:3-4
Angry with his brother : Matt 5:22

Error of Judgment:
Troubling of the water John 5:3b,4
3b … waiting for the moving of the water,
• 4: For an angel went down at a certain
season into the pool and troubled the
water; whoever then first after the
troubling of the water stepped in was
made whole of whatever disease he had.

Error of Judgment:
Troubling of the water John 5:3b,4
These words first appeared in the margin of a
manuscript in the fifth century AD. It was later
removed from the margin and placed in the body
of the text. Its purpose was to give theological
rationale as to why the water in the pool had
healing powers. The scribe made a mistaken
judgment call when he removed it from the
margin and placed it in the body of the text.

Error of Judgment:
Matt 5:22
• Whoever is angry with his brother shall be
guilty before the court
• Whoever is angry with his brother [without
a cause -- eikh (eike) ] shall be guilty
before the court
• eikh (eike) first appeared in the margin
and was later removed and placed in the
body of the text

Types of Errors (cont’d)
• Haplography :
– writing of a letter or word once when it should have
been written twice. Example:
1Thessalonians 2:7; εγενηθημεν hπιοι (“we
became gentle,”) for εγενηθημεν νhπιοι, “we became
infants.”
• Dittography :
• The writing of a letter or word twice instead of once.
Example: Mark 12:27; o θεος θεος for θεος

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Theologically Motivated Errors

Theologically Motivated Errors
• Most of the variants we have examined so
far were caused by unintentional scribal
blunders. However, there were also many
errors which were deliberate theological
changes by the scribes as they copied the
scriptures

Codex Bezae (D-05)= 4th
Cen
Mark 2:26
…. which is not lawful to eat except
only for the priests. In codex Bazae the
following words appear:
The same day seeing someone working on
the Sabbath, he said to him, ‘man if indeed
you know what you are doing then you are
blessed. But if you do not know then you
are accursed and a transgressor of the law

1John 5:7, 8
 The father, the word and the Holy Ghost: and
these three are one. And there are three that
bear witness on earth.
 Erasmus (1516 AD) was forced to place these
words in his translation of the Greek Bible. The
Catholic Church wanted an explicit text to
support the doctrine of the Trinity.

Correct rendering
• As found in a, A, B, y, 33, 81, 323,et al.
• For there are three that bear record, the
spirit and the water and the blood and
these three agree in one.

Codex Bezae (D) & Brixianus (f)
• Mark 10:11, 12
• Whoever divorces his wife and marries
another commits adultery against her; and
if a woman goes out from her husband
and marries another, she commits
adultery.

Better Rendering
• The more authentic reading as found in
codex Sinaticus (a) and codex Vaticanus
(B) is:
• Whoever divorces his wife and marries
another, commits adultery against her,
and if she divorces her husband and
marries another she commits adultery.

Luke 22: 43, 44
An angel from heaven appeared to Him,
strengthening him. And being in agony He was
praying very fervently; and his sweat became
like drops of blood, falling upon the ground.
The verse first appeared approximately 500 years
after Luke wrote his gospel. The theological motivation
was to support the position that Jesus was indeed human-
against Gnostics who denied his full humanity

Text-types
• After centuries of copying, manuscripts in
certain localities began to have similar
patterns of errors
• Manuscripts with similar patterns of errors
are called Text-types. The basic definition
of text-types is the largest identifiable
group of manuscripts

Four Main Text-Types
•
Western Alexandrian
Byzantine
Caesarean ?
Mixed

Text-Types
• Western: North Africa, Italy, and S.
France
• Alexandrian: Alexandria, Egypt
• Byzantine: Byzantine Empire
(80% of all mss)
Caesarean ?: Probably originate in
Caesarea or Egypt. Has virtually been
discredit as an authentic
category

Dates/Characteristics
• Western : 2nd
Cen.
• Alexandrian : late 3rd
early 4th
Cen.
• Byzantine : 4th
– 9th
Cen.
• Caesarean ?
•
• Characteristic of Text-types
• Western: Paraphrase, harmonizations, assimilation
• Alexandrian: Shorter more difficult, non-harmonious
readings
• Byzantine: Smoother, easier, more harmonious,
more straight-forward readings

.
• In order to produce a coherent Greek
Text, scholars for centuries have been
studying the mass of ancient manuscripts
and by using different scientific criteria
have been able to synthesize coherent
Greek text(s) from which the various
modern language translations are based.

Procedure for Determining the
Earliest Originals
This can be summarized into four simple
steps, namely:
1. The Collation of manuscripts
2. Classification of manuscripts into
groups (text-types)
3. Selection of representative
manuscripts from each text-
type 4. The application of specific criteria to
specific variant readings

Determining the Earliest
Originals: Collation
Collation is the process of identifying the
variant readings in a manuscript. This is
accomplished by comparing the subject
manuscript with a chosen exemplar and
every variation noted.

Determining the Earliest
Originals: Classification
 Having identified and distilled the significant variant
readings, these readings are then used to classify the
manuscripts into the major categories or text-types,
namely, Alexandrian, Byzantine, Western and Mixed
 Various methods of classification can be employed such
as: 1) Factor analysis
2) Claremont profile method, 3)Teststellen
4) Quantitative analysis 5)
Comprehensive profile

Determining the Earliest Originals:
Selection of Manuscripts
• The most credible representative
manuscripts from each group are selected
and the variant readings from these
manuscripts are then analyzed using the
select criteria for studying individual
variant readings

Determining the Earliest Originals
Criteria for Analyzing Individual Variant Readings
• The shorter reading is preferred
• The harder more difficult reading is chosen
• The older reading is preferred
• The more widespread reading is given priority
• The reading from the better manuscripts is
selected
• The reading more in keeping with the author’s
style is given priority
• The reading that explains the rise of the other
reading(s) and which cannot itself be explained
by the other readings is given priority
•

NOTE
• Not all criteria will apply to every reading.
Textual Criticism is a science as well as
an art, therefore the criteria are balanced
against each other.

Conclusion
Having gone through the processes of:
1. The Collation of manuscripts
2. Classification of manuscripts into
groups (text-types)
3. Selection of representative
manuscripts from each text-type
4. The application of specific criteria to
specific variant readings
Specific readings are chosen that are then printed
as part of the Greek Bible

Conclusion
From the above discussion, a number of facts
emerge:
•The historical circumstances of the text of
scripture influenced its content
•The Greek Bible is an eclectic text, i.e., it cannot
be traced to any one Greek manuscript, but is a
synthesis of the thousands of available
manuscripts
•The process of determining the earliest original is
a long and tedious one.

Conclusion
• Because all autographs are lost and
because all manuscripts differ, the
selection of the actual words of the Bible
has to be done by scholars.
• Whereas new manuscripts and new
methodologies are constantly being
developed, the process of determining the
actual words of scripture is an ongoing
process

Conclusion
• Before we can interpret the text, we must
first determine whether or not the text
exists to be interpreted. This entire
process is called Textual Criticism.
Without it we would not have a coherent
Bible

Conclusion
• Jesus said: “And I will ask the father and
He will give you another counselor to be
with you forever- the Spirit of truth … and
when comes he will convict the world of
guilt in regard to sin and righteousness
and judgment.”
John 14:15;16:8

Conclusion
• The Christian’s guide is more than a book,
it is a person.
• God has not only given us a road map-
the Bible, He has also given us a personal
guide- Jesus/the Holy Spirit.
• The Bible points to Jesus, John 5:39-40

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