Kurt Aland (1979, 43) favors a type of textual criticism that he calls the local-genealogical method. He defines it as follows:
NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL STUDIES: The Aland’s Local-Genealogical Method
Gregory-Aland Numbering
Caspar René Gregory published a cataloging system for the Greek New Testament manuscripts in 1908. In 1963, Kurt Aland expanded Gregory's work, and the Gregory-Aland (GA) numbers became the industry standard for referencing Greek New Testament manuscripts.
Kurt Aland (1915 – 1994) New Testament Textual Criticism Scholar
Kurt Aland, FBA (28 March 1915 – 13 April 1994) was a German theologian and biblical scholar who specialized in New Testament textual criticism.
What Do We Find When We Enter the Period of the Critical Text of the New Testament?
New Testament textual criticism goes back to Origen (185-254), in the third century of our common era. The historical roots of textual scholarship actually go back to the 3rd-century B.C.E. in the Library of Alexandria. We are going to the 18th-19th centuries for the purposes of this article.