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
New Testament Textual Studies and Scribal-Gap Filling
It is my opinion that scribal gap-filling accounts for many of the textual variants (especially textual expansions) in the New Testament—particularly in the narrative books (the Four Gospels and Acts). What is scribal gap-filling?
The Process of Attempting to Ascertain the Original Wording of the Original Texts of the New Testament
Confronted by a mass of conflicting readings, editors must decide which variants deserve to be included in the text and which should be relegated to the apparatus. Although at first, it may seem to be a hopeless task amid so many thousands of variant readings to sort out those that should be regarded as original, textual scholars have developed certain generally acknowledged criteria of evaluation.
NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL STUDIES The Acts of the Apostles
The book of Acts existed in two distinct forms in the early church—the Alexandrian and the Western.
History of the Transmission of the New Testament Text
In the earliest days of the Christian church, after an apostolic letter was sent to a congregation or an individual, or after a gospel was written to meet the needs of a particular reading public, copies would be made in order to extend its influence and to enable others to profit from it as well. It was inevitable that such handwritten copies would contain a greater or lesser number of differences in wording from the original.
PAPYRUS 27 P27 (P. Oxy. 1355) Early Copy of the New Testament in Greek
P27 is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle to the Romans, it contains only Romans 8:12-22.24-27; 8:33-9:3.5-9. The manuscript paleographically has been assigned to 175-200 C.E.
PAPYRUS 25 P25 (P. Berlin 16388) Dating to 300-350 C.E.
It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew, it contains only Matthew 18:32-34; 19:1-3.5-7.9-10.
NTTC JAMES 1:12a, Does it Read Human Being Instead of Man?
Variant Reading(s): differing versions of a word or phrase found in two or more manuscripts within a variation unit (see below). Variant readings are also called alternate readings.
The Syriac Versions of the New Testament: Textual History, Transmission, and Significance
An in-depth study of the Syriac Bible versions reveals the complex, faithful transmission of the New Testament text from the Old Syriac to the Harclean.
The Text of the New Testament
The original text of the NT is the “published” text—that is, the text as it was in its final edited form and released for circulation in the Christian community.
