Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

The Text of the New Testament

The standard Greek text of the New Testament is that of the 27th edition of Nestle-Aland and the 4th edition of the United Bible Society. These are identical as to the text presented, differing in the textual apparatus. The textual apparatus in the NA text presents more alternative readings, but cites fewer evidences. The UBS text deals with fewer alternative readings, but gives a relatively full treatment of the manuscript evidence involved. The variant readings in the UBS text, and the rationale behind them, are presented rather fully in Bruce Metzger’s Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament.

Two other Greek texts of the New Testament are readily available. The first is The New Testament: The Greek Text Underlying the English Authorized Version. It is distributed by the Trinitarian Bible Society, and is more commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus (Received Text). This text follows that of Theodore Beza’s 1598 Greek text, and corresponds to that of Scrivener published by Cambridge in 1894 and 1902. The text as distributed by the TBS has no critical apparatus. The other Greek text commonly available is The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text. It is edited by Zane Hodges and Arthur Farstad.

The differences among all these texts spring from the differing principles used in the evaluation of alternate readings. The principles behind the Nestle-Aland/UBS text are set out in Part Three of Bruce Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament. The principles behind the Hodges-Farstad text are set out in the introductory section of that volume, as well as in some journal literature on the issue. The principle behind the Textus Receptus are discussed in two works. The first is Textus Receptus: Facts on the Textus Receptus and the King James Version, by A. A. Macrae. The second is An Examination into the Nature and History of Textus Receptus, by Edward Goodrick. This latter was a paper presented to the Northwest Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1979. Both works provide further bibliography for anyone interested in the study.

All of these texts are based on ancient manuscripts. The vast majority of the manuscripts are in Greek, dating from perhaps as early as the 2nd century AD to the 10th century. There are some five thousand Greek manuscripts that have been collated for the two modern editions of the Greek New Testament (Nestle-Aland and Majority Text). It must nor be supposed, however, that all these manuscripts are full texts of the New Testament. Instead, the manuscripts range from fragments which include all or parts of a few verses of one New Testament book to full codex (book-form) manuscripts. In addition to the Greek manuscripts, the editors have drawn on the evidence of manuscripts in other languages. A number of Latin manuscripts, dating from the 4th to the 13th century are used. There are also some Coptic manuscripts dating from the 4th century and later. A Gothic version of the New Testament was also done, and the testimony of manuscripts of it, dating from the 5th century and later has also been incorporated into the Greek New Testament. Manuscripts of versions in other languages have also been used.

Finally, the evidence of manuscripts of Syriac versions has also been used. These manuscripts themselves date only from the 5th or 6th century and later, though the version is surely older than that. What this has to say with regard to the possible Aramaic origins of all or part of the New Testament will be considered in future essays.

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