The portion of the book specifically dealing with textual criticism was done by Daniel Wallace. Using his material and other sources I put together the following handout for the class.
____________________________________________________
Textual Criticism
“One lesson we must learn from Misquoting Jesus [by Bart Ehrman] is that those in ministry need to
close the gap between the church and the academy. We have to educate believers. Instead of trying to isolate
laypeople from critical scholarship, we need to insulate them. They
need to be ready for the barrage, because it is coming. The intentional dumbing down of the
church for the sake of filling more pews will ultimately lead to defection from
Christ. Ehrman is to be thanked
fro giving us a wake-up call.”[1]
1.
Manuscripts
a.
Greek manuscripts (as of Jan 2006)[2]: 5,745
|
Papyri
|
Uncials
|
Minuscules
|
Lectionaries
|
Total
|
|
118
|
317
|
2,877
|
2,433
|
5,745
|
i. These
date from the 2-16 centuries
ii. Earliest
fragment: P52
which is dated 100-150 AD[3]
iii. 10-15
manuscripts as early as the 2nd century
b.
Versions (translations): 15-20,000
i. Latin:
more than 10,000
1.
3-16 century
ii. Coptic
(old Egyptian hieroglyphic language)
1.
Hundreds to 1,000
2.
Beginning of 3rd century
iii. Syriac
1.
Hundreds to 1,000
2.
Early 3rd century
c.
Church Fathers: over one million citations
Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for
our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be
sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.[4]
2.
Comparisons with Other Ancient Literature[5]
|
Author
|
When Written
|
Earliest Copy
|
Time Span
|
Number of Copies
|
|
Caesar
(Gallic Wars)
|
100-44
B.C.
|
900
A.D.
|
1,000
years
|
10
|
|
Livy
|
59
B.C. – A.D. 17
|
4th
cent. Partial
mostly
10 cent.
|
400
years
1,000
years
|
1
partial copy
19
|
|
Plato
(Tetralogies)
|
427-347
B.C.
|
900
A.D.
|
1,200
years
|
7
|
|
Tacitus
(Annals)
|
100
A.D.
|
1100
A.D.
|
1,000
years
|
20
|
|
Pliny
the Younger (History)
|
61-113
A.D.
|
850
A.D.
|
750
years
|
7
|
|
Thucydides
(History)
|
460-400
B.C.
|
900
A.D.
|
1,300
years
|
8
|
|
Suetonius
(De vita Caesarum)
|
75-160
A.D.
|
950
A.D.
|
800
years
|
8
|
|
Herodotus
(History)
|
480-425
B.C.
|
900
A.D.
|
1,300
years
|
8
|
|
Sophocles
|
496-406
B.C.
|
1000
A.D.
|
1,400
years
|
100
|
|
Catullus
|
54
B.C.
|
1550
A.D.
|
1,600
years
|
3
|
|
Euripedes
|
480-406
B.C.
|
1100
A.D.
|
1,500
years
|
9
|
|
Demosthenes
|
383-322
B.C.
|
1100
A.D.
|
1,300
years
|
200
(all from one copy)
|
|
Aristotle
|
384-322
B.C.
|
1100
A.D.
|
1,400
years
|
5
(of any one work)
|
|
Aristophanes
|
450-485
B.C.
|
900
A.D.
|
1,200
years
|
10
|
|
Homer
(Illiad)
|
800
B.C.
|
|
|
643
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New Testament
|
50-100 A.D.
|
100-150 (P52)
200 (book)
250 (most NT)
325 (full NT)
|
+/- 50 years
100 years
150 years
225 years
|
5,745
|
3.
Some facts
a.
No two copies of the Greek manuscripts agree
completely.
b.
About 138,000 words in the NT.
c.
300,000-400,000 textual variants
i. Textual
variant: Any place in the NT manuscripts where there is not uniformity of
wording.
ii. How
to count variants
d.
We must weigh the quality of the variants
and not merely the quantity!
4.
Categories of textual variants
a.
Spelling differences and nonsense errors
i. Ioannes vs Ioanes (one “n” [nu] or two)
ii. Moveable
nu (“n”): can appear at the end of words that precede a word that begins with a vowel
(like or “a” or “an”)
iii. Nonsense: Codex W kai (“and”) instead of kurios (“lord”)
b.
Differences that do not affect translation or
that involve synonyms
i. Use
of article (“the”): Luke 2.16 “the Mary” “the Joseph”
ii. Word
order changes: transposition
1.
Greek is an inflected language so word order
does not determine meaning like in English (i.e., “Matt hit the ball.” “The ball hit Matt.”)
iii. Synonyms
1.
Lectionaries: manuscripts that have assigned readings for various days
2.
Sometimes add clarification to the text
a.
Example: Mark 6.31-8.26 Jesus is not mentioned
by name or title
b.
Lectionary readings add the name “Jesus” to help
guide the daily readings
c.
Meaningful variants that are not viable
i. 1
Thess 2.9 “the gospel of God”: one late Medieval mss. has “the gospel of Christ”
This is meaningful, but it is not viable. There is little chance that one late manuscript could contain
the original wording when the textual tradition is uniformly on the other side
of the reading.[6]
ii. Harmonization
of parallel passages in Matt., Mark, and Luke
d.
Meaningful and viable variants à variants that change
the meaning of the text to some degree
i. Romans
5.1: “We have peace” vs. “Let us have peace”
ii. 1
Thess 2.17: “gentle” vs. “little children” à difference in Greek is
one letter (epioi; nepioi)
iii. 1
John 1.4 “so that our joy may be
complete” vs. “so that your joy may
be complete” à
again, one letter difference in Greek
iv. Only about 1% of variants are “meaningful
and viable” and none affect any foundational Christian beliefs!
5.
How to Count Textual Variants: Colossians 2.2
example (from http://bible-translation.net/page/how-to-count-textual-variants)
2that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in
love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the
knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ [tou theou Christou].
(ESV)
2ἵνα παρακληθῶσιν
αἱ καρδίαι αὐτῶν συμβιβασθέντες
ἐν ἀγάπῃ καὶ
εἰς πᾶν πλοῦτος
τῆς πληροφορίας τῆς
συνέσεως, εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ
μυστηρίου
τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ,
(NA28)
|
Variants
|
Variant
|
MSS
or Versions
|
|
NU
|
of the
God of Christ
|
Standard
Text
|
|
01
|
of the
God
|
|
|
02
|
of the
Christ
|
01 MS
|
|
03
|
of the
God who is Christ
|
04 MSS
|
|
04
|
of the
God who is concerning Christ
|
02 MSS
|
|
05
|
Of the
God in the Christ
|
02 MSS
|
|
06
|
of the
God in the Christ Jesus
|
01 MS
|
|
07
|
of the
God and Christ
|
01 MS
|
|
08
|
Of God
the father Christ
|
04 MSS
|
|
09
|
Of God
the father of Christ
|
05 MSS
|
|
10
|
Of God
and Father of Christ
|
02 MSS
|
|
11
|
Of God
father and of Christ
|
04 MSS
|
|
12
|
Of God
father and of Christ Jesus
|
03 MSS
|
|
13
|
Of God
father and of Lord of us Christ Jesus
|
02 MSS
|
|
14
|
Of God
and father and of Christ
|
38 MSS
|
|
Total
14
|
14
Variants in 79 MSS
|
79
MSS
|
Another hypothetical example:
“In the above diagram, there are 26 total
"documents" - designated by solid lines. The red documents
contain variants. In this illustration there would be a total of nine
variants in 26 copies. But, we can see that they are really one variant
that has been copied. This illustrates why the Bible is actually
extremely well preserved since we are able reconstruct the document tree and
see where variants are introduced and then document them.”[7]
6.
Text types and geographical distribution
a. Alexandrian: produced in Egypt, began in
2nd century
b. Western: produced in Rome and West,
began in 2nd century
c. Byzantine: produced in East, later
development based on Western and Alexandrian
d. Important for the following
reasons:
i. More regions that the
reading is in: earlier reading (esp. for first four centuries)
ii. No one could have gathered
all the manuscripts and changed them
[1]
Daniel B. Wallace, “The Gospel According to Bart: A Review Article of Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman” JETS 49 (2006), 337. Online: http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/49/49-2/JETS_49-2_327-349_Wallace.pdf
[3]
See the online blog post by New Testament textual critic Dirk Jongkind, “What
is the Oldest Manuscript of the New Testament?” Evangelical Textual Criticism blog (Tuesday January 13, 2015).
Online: http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-is-oldest-manuscript-of-new.html
