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Textual variants in the New Testament manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to the text that is being reproduced. Textual criticism of the New Testament has included study of its textual variants.
Most of the variations are not significant and some common alterations include the deletion, rearrangement, repetition, or replacement of one or more words when the copyist's eye returns to a similar word in the wrong location of the original text. If their eye skips to an earlier word, they may create a repetition (error of dittography). If their eye skips to a later word, they may create an omission. They may resort to performing a rearranging of words to retain the overall meaning without compromising the context. In other instances, the copyist may add text from memory from a similar or parallel text in another location. Otherwise, they may also replace some text of the original with an alternative reading. Spellings occasionally change. Synonyms may be substituted. A pronoun may be changed into a proper noun (such as "he said" becoming "Jesus said"). Most of these variants are not of any importance, since the meanings do not really change.
Origen, writing in the 3rd century, was one of the first who made remarks about differences between manuscripts of texts that were eventually collected as the New Testament. He declared his preferences among variant readings. For example, in Matthew 27:16–17, [1] he favored "Barabbas" against "Jesus Barabbas" [2] In John 1:28, [3] he preferred "Bethabara" over "Bethany" as the location where John was baptizing. [4] "Gergeza" was preferred over "Geraza" or "Gadara". [5] At Hebrews 2:9, [6] Origen noticed two different readings: "apart from God" and "by the grace of God".
John Mill's 1707 Greek New Testament was estimated to contain some 30,000 variants in its accompanying textual apparatus [7] which was based on "nearly 100 [Greek] manuscripts." [8] Eberhard Nestle estimated this number in 1897 as 150,000–200,000 variants. [9] In 2005, Bart D. Ehrman reported estimates from 200,000 to 400,000 variants based on 5,700 Greek and 10,000 Latin manuscripts, various other ancient translations, and quotations by the Church Fathers. [10] In 2014 Eldon J. Epp raised the estimate as high as 750,000. [11] Peter J. Gurry puts the number of non-spelling variants among New Testament manuscripts around 500,000, though he acknowledges his estimate is higher than all previous ones. [12]
Since 1981, in a system developed and introduced by Kurt and Barbara Aland in their textbook The Text of the New Testament, Greek New Testament manuscripts have commonly been categorized into five groups.
Below is an abbreviated list of textual variants in the New Testament.
A guide to the sigla (symbols and abbreviations) most frequently used in the body of this article. [13] [14]
This running list of textual variants is nonexhaustive, and is continually being updated in accordance with the modern critical publications of the Greek New Testament — United Bible Societies' Fifth Revised Edition (UBS5) published in 2014, Novum Testamentum Graece: Nestle-Aland 28th Revised Edition of the Greek New Testament (NA28) published in 2012, and Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior (ECM) last published in 2017 — and supplemented by nonmodern publications wherever applicable, including those of Hodges & Farstad, Greeven, Lachmann, Legg, Merk, Nestle-Aland editions 25–27, Aland's Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum (SQE), Souter, Swanson, Tischendorf, Tregelles, von Soden, and Westcott & Hort.
Matthew 1:16
Matthew 1:21
Matthew 1:25
Matthew 2:9
Matthew 2:11
Matthew 2:18
Matthew 3:3
Matthew 3:3 (see Isaiah 40:3)
Matthew 3:11
Matthew 4:18
Matthew 4:23
4:23b
Matthew 4:24
Matthew 4:24
Matthew 5:11
Matthew 5:11
Matthew 5:28
Matthew 5:30
Matthew 5:47
Matthew 5:47
Matthew 6:13 (see 1 Chronicles 29:11–13)
6:18b
6:22b
6:25b
6:32b
6:32c
7:4b
7:27b
8:3a
8:3b
8:4a
8:4b
Matthew 8:7a
Matthew 8:7b
Matthew 8:13 (see Luke 7:10)
Matthew 9:4b
Matthew 9:6a
Matthew 9:6b
Matthew 9:9b
Matthew 9:9c
Matthew 9:10a
Matthew 9:10b
Matthew 9:10c
Matthew 9:27a
Matthew 9:27b
Matthew 9:27c
9:30a
9:30b
Matthew 12:24 (also Matthew 12:27)
Matthew 24:9/24:10
Matthew 27:49 (see John 19:34)
Mark 1:4
Mark 1:5
Mark 1:5
Mark 1:6
Mark 1:7
Mark 1:7
Mark 1:8
Mark 1:8
Mark 1:8
Mark 1:13
Mark 1:14
Mark 2:26
Mark 3:14
Mark 4:19
Mark 4:24
Mark 5:9
Mark 5:37
Mark 6:33
Mark 6:51
Mark 9:49
Mark 10:2
Mark 10:47
Mark 14:39
Mark 14:68
Mark 14:72a
Mark 14:72b
Mark 15:34 (see Ps 22:2)
Mark 15:40 [38]
Mark 15:47 [39]
Luke 1:29
Luke 1:75
Luke 2:7
Luke 2:9
Luke 2:12
Luke 2:14
Luke 2:21
Luke 2:21
Luke 2:22
Luke 2:27
Luke 2:33 [45]
Luke 2:38
Luke 2:40 [47]
Luke 2:41
Luke 2:42 [49]
Luke 2:43 [50]
Luke 2:48
θ, K, M, N, U, Δ, Λ, Π, 33, 157, 579, 28, 565, 700, 1071, 1424, u[w]t
Luke 5:26
Luke 5:39
Luke 7:13
Luke 8:43
Luke 8:43
Luke 8:45
Luke 8:48
Luke 8:49
Luke 8:51
Luke 8:54
Luke 9:54 [60]
Luke 9:55–56
Luke 11:13
Luke 12:21
Luke 15:21
Luke 15:23
Luke 17:4
Luke 17:9
Luke 17:11
Luke 17:24
Luke 17:24
Luke 17:36 (see Matt. 24:40)
Luke 18:24
Luke 18:35
Luke 20:1
Luke 20:9
Luke 22:34 [81]
Luke 22:43-44
Luke 22:62
Luke 23:6
Luke 23:8
Luke 23:17
Luke 23:19
Luke 23:21
Luke 23:22
Luke 23:23
Luke 23:25
Luke 23:35
Luke 23:38
Luke 23:39
Luke 23:42
Luke 23:45
Luke 24:1
Luke 24:3
Luke 24:6
Luke 24:9
Luke 24:12
Luke 24:13
Luke 24:17
Luke 24:26
Luke 24:36
Luke 24:36
Luke 24:40
Luke 24:42
Luke 24:46
Luke 24:49
Luke 24:50
Luke 24:51
Luke 24:52
Luke 24:53
John 1:34
John 3:20
John 4:37
John 4:42
John 4:46
John 4:53
John 6:4
John 16:28
John 18:11
John 18:21
Acts 1:5
Acts 1:6
Acts 1:7
Acts 1:10
Acts 1:11
Acts 1:14
Acts 1:15
Acts 1:18
Acts 2:14
Acts 4:36 [115]
Acts 5:28
Acts 8:37
Acts 8:39
Acts 15:23
Acts 15:24
Acts 15:34
Acts 27:16
Acts 27:37
Acts 27:41
Romans 1:8
Romans 1:15
Romans 1:29
Romans 6:11
Romans 6:16
Romans 6:17
Romans 13:9
Romans 15:29
Romans 15:31
Romans 16:20
Romans 16:24
Romans 16:25-27
1 Corinthians 1:8
1 Corinthians 2:4
1 Corinthians 2:14
1 Corinthians 3:4
1 Corinthians 7:14
1 Corinthians 13:2
1 Corinthians 13:2
1 Corinthians 13:3
1 Corinthians 14:40
1 Corinthians 15:15
1 Corinthians 15:47
1 Corinthians 15:51
Galatians 2:20
Galatians 2:20
Ephesians 2:15
Ephesians 2:20
Ephesians 4:28
Colossians 1:14 (see Ephesians 1:7)
Colossians 1:28
1 Thessalonians 3:9
2 Thessalonians 2:3
2 Thessalonians 2:8
2 Thessalonians 2:13
2 Thessalonians 2:13
2 Thessalonians 3:16
1 Timothy 3:14
1 Timothy 3:16
1 Timothy 3:16
1 Timothy 5:19
1 Timothy 5:21
1 Timothy 6:21
Titus 1:14
Philemon 1
Philemon 5
Philemon 6
2 John 2
2 John 3
2 John 3
2 John 5
2 John 6
2 John 7
2 John 8
2 John 8
2 John 8
2 John 9
2 John 9
2 John 11
2 John 12
2 John 12
2 John 13
3 John 3
3 John 3
3 John 4
3 John 4
3 John 5
3 John 7
3 John 7
3 John 8
3 John 8
3 John 9
3 John 10
3 John 10
3 John 11
3 John 12
3 John 12
3 John 13
3 John 13
3 John 14
3 John 14
3 John 15
3 John 15
3 John 15
3 John 15
Revelation 11:18
The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, designated by siglum Dea or 05, δ 5, is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century written in an uncial hand on vellum. It contains, in both Greek and Latin, most of the four Gospels and Acts, with a small fragment of 3 John.
In textual criticism of the New Testament, Caesarean text-type is the term proposed by certain scholars to denote a consistent pattern of variant readings that is claimed to be apparent in certain Koine Greek manuscripts of the four Gospels, but which is not found in any of the other commonly recognized New Testament text-types. In particular a common text-type has been proposed to be found: in the ninth/tenth century Codex Koridethi; in Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2 ; and in those Gospel quotations found in the third century works of Origen, which were written after he had settled in Caesarea. The early translations of the Gospels in Armenian and Georgian also appear to witness to many of the proposed characteristic Caesarean readings, as do the small group of minuscule manuscripts classed as Family 1 and Family 13.
Papyrus 45, designated by siglum 𝔓45 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatty Papyri, a group of early Christian manuscripts discovered in the 1930s, and purchased by business man and philanthropist, Alfred Chester Beatty. Beatty purchased the manuscript in the 1930s from an Egyptian book dealer, and it was subsequently published in The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, Descriptions and Texts of Twelve Manuscripts on Papyrus of the Greek Bible by palaeographer, biblical and classical scholar Frederic G. Kenyon in 1933. Manuscripts among the Chester Beatty Papyri have had several places of discovery associated with them, the most likely being the Faiyum in Egypt. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the early 3rd century CE. This therefore makes it the earliest example of not only the four Gospels contained in one volume, but also the Acts of the Apostles. It contains verses in fragmentary form from the texts of Matthew chapters 20–21 and 25–26; Mark chapters 4–9 and 11–12; Luke chapters 6–7 and 9–14; John chapters 4–5 and 10–11; and Acts chapters 4–17.
Codex Regius, designated by siglum Le or 019, ε56, is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament written on parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been assigned to the 8th century. The manuscript has several gaps. Textual critic Frederick H. A. Scrivener described it as "by far the most remarkable document of its age and class."
Minuscule 33, δ 48 (Soden), before the French Revolution was called Codex Colbertinus 2844. It is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. The manuscript is lacunose. It has marginalia. According to the textual critics it is one of the best minuscule manuscripts of the New Testament.
Minuscule 892, ε 1016 (Soden). It is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on 353 parchment leaves. It is dated palaeografically to the 9th century.
Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, two of the great uncial codices, representatives of the Alexandrian text-type, are considered excellent manuscript witnesses of the text of the New Testament. Most critical editions of the Greek New Testament give precedence to these two chief uncial manuscripts, and the majority of translations are based on their text. Nevertheless, there are many differences between these two manuscripts. A recent scientific comparative study of interest published on these two Alexandrian codices is "The Relationship between Vaticanus & Sinaiticus and the Majority Text in Galatians" by Dr. Graham G. Thomason and "THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SPLIT TEXT-TYPES FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT" by Dr LESLIE McFALL - both are freely made available on the internet. Historically, the true character of these two Alexandrian manuscripts was quickly and thoroughly challenged by Dean John William Burgon's exhaustive analysis: "It is in fact easier to find two consecutive verses in which these two MSS differ the one from the other, than two consecutive verses in which they entirely agree."
Textual variants in the Gospel of Matthew are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Gospel of Mark are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Gospel of Luke are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Gospel of John are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Acts of the Apostles are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Epistle to the Romans are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the First Epistle to the Corinthians are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the First Epistle to Timothy are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Epistle of James are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Second Epistle of John are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Third Epistle of John are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.
Textual variants in the Epistle of Jude are the subject of textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.