Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author's work. Historically, scribes who were paid to copy documents may have been literate, but many were simply copyists, mimicking the shapes of letters without necessarily understanding what they meant. This means that unintentional alterations were common when copying manuscripts by hand. Intentional alterations may have been made as well, for example the censoring of printed work for political, religious or cultural reasons.
Maurus Servius Honoratus was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian, with the contemporary reputation of being the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he was the author of a set of commentaries on the works of Virgil. These works, In tria Virgilii Opera Expositio, constituted the first incunable to be printed at Florence, by Bernardo Cennini, 1471.
The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. As of October 2019 the full Bible has been translated into 698 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,548 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,138 other languages. Thus at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,384 languages.
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible. For its theory and methods, the field draws on disciplines ranging from archaeology, ancient history, cultural anthropology, textual criticism, literary criticism, historical backgrounds, mythology, and comparative religion.
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus is a fifth-century Greek manuscript of the Bible, sometimes referred to as one of the four great uncials. The manuscript is not intact: in its current condition, Codex C contains material from every New Testament book except 2 Thessalonians and 2 John; however, only six books of the Greek Old Testament are represented. It is not known whether 2 Thessalonians and 2 John were excluded on purpose, or whether no fragment of either epistle happened to survive.
Novum Testamentum Graece is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle-Aland edition after its most influential editors, Eberhard Nestle and Kurt Aland. The text, edited by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, is currently in its 28th edition, abbreviated NA28.
A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures to huge polyglot codices containing both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the New Testament, as well as extracanonical works.
Papyrus 75 is an early Greek New Testament papyrus. It is generally described as "the most significant" papyrus of the New Testament to be discovered so far. This evaluation of the manuscript is a result of the early date that has usually been assigned to it and the fact that its text so closely resembles that of the fourth century Codex Vaticanus. However, the early date of 75, and therefore its importance for the textual criticism of the New Testament, was called into question in 2016.
Codex Basilensis, designated by Ee, 07 or ε 55, is a Greek uncial manuscript of the four Gospels, dated paleographically to the 8th century. The codex is located, as its name indicates, in Basel University Library.
Codex Coislinianus designated by Hp or 015, α 1022 (Soden), was named also as Codex Euthalianus. It is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Pauline epistles, dated palaeographically to the 6th century. The text is written stichometrically. It has marginalia. The codex is known for its subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus.
Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2, Minuscule 1, δ 254 and formerly designated by 1eap to distinguish it from minuscule 1rK is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, usually dated palaeographically to the 12th century AD. It is written on 297 parchment leaves and contains the entire New Testament except the Book of Revelation.
Papyrus 49 (Gregory-Aland), designated by 49, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle to the Ephesians, surviving in a fragmentary condition. The manuscript has been palaeographically assigned to the 3rd century. It was probably a part of the same manuscript as Papyrus 65. It came from Egypt and was purchased for the Yale University Library. Textually it is close to the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. The text of the manuscript has been published several times.
Minuscule 700, ε 133 (Soden), is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the Gospels. Formerly it was labelled as 604 in all catalogues, Gregory gave the number 700 to it. It is dated palaeographically to the 11th century.
Minuscule 205, δ 500 (Soden), is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment, from the 15th century. It has some marginalia.
Family 1739 is a group of the New Testament manuscripts. The textual relation of this family to the main text-types, as Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine, is still unclear. According to some scholars it represents the same text-type as the Caesarean text-type. Caesarean text is represented in the Gospels, and Family 1739 text in the rest of the books of the New Testament.
Minuscule 826, ε218, is a 12th-century Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament on parchment. It has marginalia.
Editio Octava Critica Maior is a critical edition of the Greek New Testament produced by Constantin von Tischendorf. It was Tischendorf's eighth edition of the Greek Testament, and the most important, published between 1864 and 1894.
Lectionary 311 (Gregory-Aland), designated by siglum ℓ311 is a bilingual Greek–Arabic manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. The manuscript has survived in a fragmentary condition.
Textual criticism of the New Testament is the analysis of the manuscripts of the New Testament, whose goals include identification of transcription errors, analysis of versions, and attempts to reconstruct the original.
Maurice Arthur Robinson is an American professor of New Testament and Greek (retired) and a proponent of the Byzantine-priority method of New Testament textual criticism.
