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.

September 8, 2022 2

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.

September 8, 2022 3

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.

September 7, 2022 4

NTTC MATTHEW 16:2b–3a: Signs of the Times

The manuscript evidence for the absence of these words is impressive. Copyists may have added these verses from a source similar to Luke 12:54–56, or from the passage in Luke, with a few changes. On the other hand, ...—Roger L. Omanson and Bruce Manning Metzger,

July 11, 2022 1

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.

July 7, 2022 1

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.

June 28, 2022 0

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.

June 27, 2022 0

NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL STUDIES: Important Papyrus Manuscripts

Papyrus is a tall, aquatic reed, the pith of which is cut into strips, laid in a crosswork pattern, and glued together to make a page for writing. The papyrus rolls of Egypt have been used as a writing surface since the early third millennium BC.

June 20, 2022 0

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.

June 18, 2022 1