The Printed New Testamentt
Lecture 17

Our GOAL 
•	We need to remember that we possess NO NT original ______________ today!
•	So, we need to learn more about our accepted text, how it came to be, and the effect of recent discoveries have had on our text.
The Goal of Textual Criticism
•	Centers around 3 basic issues of the manuscripts we possess:
•	1. ______________ and authenticity
•	2. Manuscript evidence
•	3. ______________ readings in the text
1a. Genuineness 
Genuineness seeks to determine whether or not the document under study is from its alleged ______________?
Did Mark write The Gospel of Mark?
Did Matthew write his Gospel?
Did Paul write 2 Timothy?
Did Peter write 1 Peter?
 1b. Authenticity
Refers to the truth about the facts and content of the document.
It deals primarily with the ______________ (trustworthiness) and ______________ (truthfulness) of the manuscript.
These two work hand in hand: If there were a lie in the book regarding its origin or authorship, how could its contents be believed?
2. Manuscript Evidence
NT mss are numerous and the variants between them are numerous as well.
Textual Criticism is the science that helps to guide in the ______________ of the NT text
Remember the NT text is extremely well documented:
OT Manuscript Evidence:
Most of our current OT mss date from the ______________ century AD or later
Yet, these copies are good and trustworthy
 because:
•	Few variants occur in the ______________ text
•	 There is almost literal agreement with the LXX
•	 the scrupulous rules of the scribes for copying texts
•	Similarity of OT parallel passages
•	______________ confirmation of historical details
•	 agreement with the Samaritan Penteteuch
•	 1,000’s of mss in Cairo ______________ the DSS
Why is the OT text so Reliable?
•	 there is only one major mss tradition
•	 copies were made by official ______________ who labored under strict rules
•	The Masoretes systematically destroyed all “______________” copies 
•	 The DSS confirmed the fidelity of the OT textual tradition because some of the mss found were now a ______________ years earlier than what we had before (back to about 100 BC)
NT Manuscript Evidence:
1.Over ______________ Greek mss, dating from 2nd century AD onward
2. Lectionaries
3. Various ______________ & Translations
What About NT Variants?
They are more numerous than those of the OT, why?
•	There were more private and ______________ copies being made
•	 When people talk about “variants” in the text, be a little cautious!
•	It has been estimated by some scholars that there are over ______________,______________ variants in the mss we have.  The problem is that many of these are from the same family and possess the same “variant”
Some Information to Consider:
•	While there may be a total of 200,000 variants, these appear in only ______________,______________ places, and ony about one sixtieth are more than trivialities.
•	A. T. Robertson, ______________ and Hort, Philip Schaf and others have studied these variants and are willing to say that the NT text is ______________% pure. 
Why? 
______________ Greek mss and ______________+ versions and translations, the evidence for the integrity of the NT is beyond question!
A Comparison:
Bruce Metzger studied Homer’s ______________ and the Hindu ______________ in Chapters in the History of the New Testament Textual Criticism.
He demonstrated that the textual corruption of these texts were much greater than that of the NT
Metzger found:
The Iliad has the next greatest number of mss available for study behind the NT
______________ papyri, 2 uncials, and 188 miniscules for a total of ______________The NT has about ______________,000 lines, the Iliad has about ______________,000 lines
The Comparison Seen:
Of the 20,000 lines in the the NT only ______________ lines (400 words) are in doubt, while:
There are ______________ lines of the Iliad in question
So, the Iliad has a ______________% corruption against the less than ______________% of the NT
The Hindu document had a 19% rate
How Do We Arrive at our Text?
Two Options or Choices
•	Use a single mss
•	Use an eclectic method
The Single MSS tradition
•	Has flaws in that if it has any variant, that variant will be carried on copy after copy
The ______________ Method
•	Seeks to use many mss traditions and to evaluate which variant is most correct.
•	Uses two kinds of textual evidence to decide which is most correct:
•	______________ evidence
•	______________ evidence
•	External Evidence
•	Falls into 3 basic categories:
•	Chronological
______________1. Chronological
•	Evidence pertains to the ______________ of the text type rather than to the particular mss itself
•	The ______________ text types are preferred over the later ones by textual critics
2. Geographical
•	This is a ______________ of the independent witnesses that agree in support of variants that are present
•	Are they clustered around Antioch? Do they resemble those from Caesarea?
3. Geneaological
This seeks to determine the ______________ between mss
There are 4 major text families:
1. Alexandrian – considered the most reliable
2. ______________ – considered to be the poorest
3. Caesarean
4. Alexandrian.
Internal Evidence
Classified according to two basic varieties:
•	______________ (depends on the habits of the scribes) and
•	______________ (depending on the habits of the authors)
•	Transcriptional
Renders 4 general assertions:
•	The more ______________ reading (for the scribe) is preferred, especially if it is sensible;
•	The ______________ reading is preferred unless it arose from an accidental omission of lines because of similar ends (______________) or intentional deletion
Assertions 3 and 4
3. The more verbally ______________ readings of parallel passages is preferred, even if they are quotations of the OT,
4. The less refined ______________ construction, expression, word, etc. is preferred
2. Intrinsic Evidence
Depends on the probability of what the author is likely to have written
It is determined by the 
1)author’s ______________, 
2)the immediate context of the passage, 
3)the harmony of a reading with the author’s ______________ elsewhere 4) and the influence of the author’s background
Some General Observations about Textual Criticism:
•	In general, external evidence is more important since it is more objective
Gleason Archer suggests the following:
•	The older ______________ is preferred
•	The more difficult reading is preferred
•	The ______________ reading is preferred
•	The reading which best explains the variant is preferred
•	The widest ______________ support for a reading makes it preferred
•	The reading which conforms to the writers style is preferred
•	The reading which reflects no doctrinal bias is preferred

The Physician
•	Must make a correct diagnosis before attempting to effect a cure, so the textual critic must be aware of the several kinds of injuries and dangers which may be transmitted by hand copying before he can rectify the errors.
•	The purpose of this lecture is ______________ and ______________ the options
The Possible Cause Behind Textual Variants
•	Textual Critics identify two broad causes behind the phenomena known as “textual variants”
•	1. ______________ Errors
•	2. ______________ Errors
A. Unintentional Errors From Sight
•	1. Blurred  ______________ letters
•	2. Parablesis & Homeoteleuton
•	3. ______________  
1: Blurred & ______________ Letters
•	A scribe might have been afflicted with astigmatism and found it difficult to determine the difference between Greek letters, especially when his copy might not be a clear and carefully written copy
•	In Uncials, the epison, theta, and ______________ are often mistaken. e, q, o, as well as gamma, pi and tau.  G, P, T
2. ______________ (looking by the side) & homoeoteleuton (like ending lines)
•	When two lines in the original copy from which the scribe was copying happened to end with the same ______________ or words, or even with the same syllable, his eye might wander between the first and the second, accidentally ______________ the whole passage between them.
•	Ill: autouj ek tou 
•	Ill: autouj ek ponhrou
•	3. ______________Sometimes the eyes of the scribe picked up the same word or group of words a second time and this resulted in copying ______________ what should have appeared only ______________.
•	This is called dittography.
B. Unintentional Errors from Hearing
•	1. Vowel Errors
•	2. ______________ Errors
•	3. Confusion of Greek Personal Pronouns
•	4. Exchanging ______________Vowel Errors
•	Often the scribes would have the text read to them or when he pronounced the words to himself, often there would be errors with words having the same pronunciation, but differing in spelling 
Ill: in English: ______________ and ______________ or great and grate or sea and see
There could be confusion between the ______________ and the ______________2. Diphthong Errors
The ______________ ai and e came to be pronounced alike.
The result was that some of the 2nd person pronoun ______________ sounded the same in the middle and passive infinitives.
Other problems included the vowels: u   and  ou.
3. Confusion of Greek Personal Pronouns
Here the endings which the Greek language employees and differentiates between ______________ and ______________ person can be confusing when spoken.
Of course sometimes this produced nonsense and would be caught
4. Exchanging Consonants
For example:
Ek ______________  (from you) = ex ou (from whom)
•	C. Unintentional Errors of the Mind/______________ Substitution of ______________Peri = uper
•	 Variations in the sequence of words
•	Pantes kai emaptizonto = kai ebaptizonto pantes
•	 ______________ of letters within a word resulting in a new word
•	 ebalon = eballon
4. ______________ 
•	of the wording in one passage to the slightly different ______________ in a parallel passage, which may be better known to the scribe.
•	D. Unintentional Errors of ______________The scribe might not pay close attention to what he was writing and misunderstand or overlook an ______________Qj for oj
•	Or might include a marginal note or leave a marginal note out that belonged in the text or might ______________ a common word with a similar sounding word with different meaning karpoj (fruit) and kafoj (speck)
2. INTENTIONAL ERRORS
•	A. Grammatical Changes
•	B. ______________ Changes
•	C. Liturgical Changes
•	D. Eliminiation of Apparent Discrepancies
•	E. Harmonization
•	F. ______________G. Attempts to correct an Error
•	H. ______________ Changes
The Cause Behind Intentional Changes
•	For the most part these changes occurred because the scribe was attempting to ______________ the text in various ways.
•	Few indeed are the evidences that ______________ or destructive variants have been deliberatively introduced into the MSS
•	______________ Changes
These include the correction of ______________ aorist verb endings on ______________ aorist verb
hlqan/hlqon
B. ______________ Changes
These resulted when a scribe understood a different ______________ than that which his exemplar implied:
Romans 3:29 is an example:
ou gives meaning … whose sin
W gives meaning…to whom sin
C. Liturgical Changes
These changes occurred when the church used a certain ______________ of scripture and a form was ______________ and then re-placed in the text
(Lord’s Prayer) an example of how some might be changed
D. Elimination of Apparent Discrepancies
•	These may involve ______________ difficulities = three days (Mk10:34) for “on the third day”
•	 attempts to harmonize ______________ passages: Matthew 6:9-13 fills out Luke 11:2-4
E. Harmonization
This is more frequent in the ______________ Gospels
(Matt 19:17 with Mark 10:18)
The variant of the “______________ eye” in Matt 19:24, Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25.
F. Conflation
The combining of two or more variants into one reading: e.g., Luke 24:53 the variants occur (______________) and (______________). 
G. Attempts to correct a MS Error
This is an attempt by the scribe to correct an error that he felt was in his original ______________.  Romans 8:2 (se) may be changed to (me) by a scribe because of the previous verses
H. ______________ Changes
Those that are detected have always been in the direction of orthodoxy or stronger doctrinal emphasis.
Movement toward a weaker doctrinally text is normally the result of an ______________ change.
1 John 5:7-8 is one example of this variant. It was intended to ______________ the doctrinal position of the Trinity.
Conclusion!  Don’t Miss THIS!
No Christian doctrine hangs upon a ______________ text!
The student of the NT must beware of wanting his text to be more ______________ or doctrinally stronger than is in the original text!