Christian Publishing House Blog
Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
Engage with our New Testament Textual Criticism Source Articles. Delve deeper into the origins and analysis of New Testament texts.
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.
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.
Alexandrian Text: the Greek text was produced in Alexandria, Egypt, where there was a high degree of scholarship due to the famous library and museum. This was undoubtedly responsible in large part for the more meticulous care taken in the copying of manuscripts. The chief manuscripts representing the Alexandrian text are Codex Vaticanus, also designated... Continue Reading →
