1. NEW TESTAMENT
TEXTUAL
CRITICISM
SINCE 1881
Graduate Research Lectures
Heritage Christian University
Doug Burleson

2. GOALS OF NT TEXTUAL
CRITICISM
• Establish the original text.
• Secondary goals:
–Trace the history of the
transmission of the text.
–Look for insights into the
history of the church.
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

3. WITNESSES TO THE
GNT
• Papyri (127 total)
• Uncials (majuscules)
• Cursives (minuscules)
• Lectionaries
• Versions
• Church fathers
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

4. WITNESSES TO THE
GNT
• DIVERGENCE of the text
(time of writing – AD 325) – make
note of diverse copying styles
• CONVERGENCE of the text
(AD 325 – 700).
• STANDARDIZATION of the text
(AD 700-1500).
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

5. ERASMUS’ EDITIONS
• Published four editions of Greek NT
from 1515-27.
• Based on a total of SIX Greek
manuscriptsfrom 11-15 centuries.
• His third edition becomes the basis of
the textusreceptus(“received text”) that
dominates the next 350 years of NT
textual study.
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

6. AFTER ERASMUS
• Stephanus (Stephen Estienne) publishes Greek
NT
• Theodore de Beza prints a text that becomes
standard for Reformation groups
• Elzevirmade 7 editions of Greek NT in 2nd edition
(1633) says “here you have the text, not
received by all, in which we give nothing altered
or corrupted.”
• This is this general presumption in textual
studies until 1881.
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

7. LEADING UP TO 1881
• John Mill (1645-1707)
• Johann Bengel (1687-1752)
• Johann Wettstein (1693-1754)
• Johann Greisbach (1745-1812) is a
major turning point because he
continues to develop principles of
TC that Westcott-Hort build on.
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

8. FOUR MAJOR FIGURES
• Lobegott Friedrich Constantin von
Tischendorf (1815-1874)
• Samuel PrideauxTregelles (1813-
1875)
• Brooke Foss Westcott (1812-1901)
and Fenton John Anthony Hort
(1828-1892)
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

9. WESTCOTT-HORT (1881)
• The New Testament in the Original
Greek (2 volumes)
• W-H map out textual groups (depending
on “Neutral text” – Vaticanus) and
develop methodology for evaluating
scribal variants that is still very
influential.
• Their NT included NO apparatus!
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

10. SINCE 1881?
• Some developments, but also could be
described as an “interlude”
“All of these exemplary advances in accumulated
materials, in the tools of research, and in our control
of the data have NOT yet resulted, it seems to me in
decisive progress in certain critical areas of NT textual
criticism, namely in the textual character of the critical
editions of the twentieth century; in the theory and
history of the earliest NT text; and in the evaluation of
readings.” (Eldon J. Epp, HTR, 1980)
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

11. SPECIFIC
DEVELOPMENTS?
• GATHERING AND COLLATING (TEXT THEORIES)
– Majority Text Theory – Belief in statistical
probability,all early Byzantine’s must have worn
out (“vanishing hypothesis”), and that internal
arguments are irrelevant.
– Von Soden(and others) desired to collect and
collate and publish all known Greek manuscripts
– Rise of critical editions: 1898
TheNovumTestamentumGraece- edited by
Eberhard Nestle (1883-1972)
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

12. SPECIFIC
DEVELOPMENTS?
• NEW DISCOVERIES
– It was around 15 years after W-H that the
Oxyrynchus Papyri began to be discovered
(1896f). Then the Chester Beatty papyri (1930-
1931) and the Bodmer Papyri (1956-1957).
– We now have at least 80 more papyri, more than
200 additional uncials, at least 2600 additional
miniscules, and perhaps 2000 additional
lectionaries that either were unavailable to or not
utilized by W-H.
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

13. SPECIFIC
DEVELOPMENTS?
• METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS
– Test Readings
– Claremont Profile Method
– Genealogical Relationships of MS Stemma
– Frustration with volume of materials yet to
be analyzed has also led to these
developments. Computer technology is
helping in the collection/evaluation too.
Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University