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Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
Begin your New Testament Textual Studies with our insightful articles. Expand your Bible study and understanding.
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient, prominent, and influential Christian theologians and writers who lived between the second and fifth centuries C.E. and established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity.
Marcion of Sinope: He was a rich young man who was also a significant leader in early Christianity (c. 85 – c. 160 C.E.). He publicly stated that Christians should reject the Old Testament. The other Church leaders would eventually reject him, and he chose to set himself apart from the orthodox Christianity of the... Continue Reading →
Another primary source for recovery of the original text of the New Testament is the enormous number of quotations from the early Christian writers (apologetic works, epistles, commentaries, sermons, and the like). “Apostolic Fathers” is the descriptive term used for churchmen who wrote about Christianity in the late first and early second centuries. Some of... Continue Reading →
The minuscule script was a style of Greek writing used as a book hand during the ninth and tenth centuries in Byzantine manuscripts. The minuscule took the place of the Greek uncial, third to the ninth centuries C.E. that resembles a modern capital letter but is more rounded.
Biblical manuscripts that were written in Greek (whether translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, or copies of the Greek New Testament, or both) can be divided or organized by the writing style, which also helps the paleographer in dating them. The older (earlier) style (especially from the fourth to the ninth century C.E.) is the uncial manuscript, written in large, separated capital letters. Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used by Latin and Greek scribes.
The earliest sources for the Greek New Testament are the papyri in codex (book-like) form. At present, there have been over 139 of these discovered, with eighty of these manuscripts dating between 100 – 300 C.E., with the number increasing 21 more papyri from 290-390 C.E., with a total of 139, dating between 100-500 C.E. If you see the papyri siglum (e.g. P66, P75, P108) is linked, this means that there is an article for that papyrus manuscript. If you see a superscripted + next to the papyrus and it is linked that is another article on the same papyrus manuscript (e.g., P66+ and P75+). Click on the papyrus siglum for one article and the + symbol for the second article. We are always adding new papyrus articles.
We have textual traditions, or families of texts, which grew up in a certain region. For example, we have the Alexandrian text-type, which Westcott and Hort called the Neutral text that came from Egypt. Then, there is the Western text-type, which came from Italy and Gaul as well as North Africa and elsewhere. There was also the Caesarean text-type, which came from Caesarea and is characterized by a mixture of Western and Alexandrian readings. The Byzantine text-type, also called the Majority Text, came from Constantinople (i.e., Byzantium).
As we have noted elsewhere in other articles, the textual scholar looks at two forms of evidence: external (manuscripts) and internal (what the author or scribe wrote). Internal evidence concerns what might have led to scribal errors. Therefore, we will discuss scribal practices and tendencies, to get an image of how the Word of God came down to us by way of the copyist.
Were the Apostles Illiterate? Over the past 150-years, many scholars have said that Jesus’ early disciples could not read and write, and so they did not write down the teachings and deeds of Jesus but that they passed them on by word of mouth. Moreover, these same scholars say that throughout the decades of oral transmission, the historical account of Jesus’ ministry was expanded on, adapted, or elaborated on and exaggerated. Thus, they claim, the Gospels are far from being actual events. What is the truth?
"Collecting manuscript evidence is a laborious process, but it is straightforward in comparison to the evaluation process. In the collection process, the goal is to gather as much evidence as possible concerning various readings of a specific text. In the evaluation process, the aim is to determine which reading has the best support as the original reading. The evaluation process is complicated by the fact that scholars disagree about some of the evaluation principles and their relative importance." - Dr. Don Wilkins
