class iv nt text crit

7/29/2019 Class IV Nt Text Crit

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Class IV: New TestamentTextual Criticism: The

Reliability of The NT Text.Glenn Giles

ApologeticsDecember, 2009


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NT Greek MSS Textual Criticism

A. Definition of Textual Criticism:

Textual criticism is the study of copies of anywritten work which the autograph (the original)

is unknown, with the purpose of ascertaining theoriginal text(Greenlee, 1, see class notes for all references in this ppt).

B. Goal of New Testament Textual Criticism:

When applied to the New Testament, it has thetask of attempting to restore the original text ofthe New Testament Greek documents (Briggs, 31).


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The Need For

NT Greek Text Criticism

C. The Need:

1. There are no extant original documents(whole or part) of any New Testament book.

2. While the text of the NT is over 95% certain(Briggs, 51),there are still roughly three hundredthousandvariant readings from copyisterrors in the 5500 Greek MSS and perhapsnine thousand versional MSS.(McKnight and Osborne, 59).


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Bible Times Book/Scroll

Preparation

D. Biblical times book/scroll preparation andwriting

1. Ancients used clay (Ezek. 4:1), Stone

(Ex. 31:18), and wood tablets, leatherscrolls (Jer. 39:23).

2. In later times they used papyrus(paper made from papyrus reed, itsinner bark extracted and dried).


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Bible Preparation

3. Also, used parchment/vellum (small animalskins), scrolls (see II Tim. 4:13).

4. Scrolls were papyrus, leather, or parchment

sheets joined together in long rolls, about 10-12inches wide and up to 35 feet long with 3-4 inchcolumns. Sometimes writing was on both sides(Rev. 5:1; Ezek. 2:10).

5. The Codex (a book of papyrus sheets) wasalso used by the mid First Century AD.


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Bible Preparation

6. Writing of NT Greek MSS had very littlepunctuation, no paragraph divisions, nosentence divisions, and no spaces

between words.

--This made copying without errors verydifficult. Copying mistakes were made

frequently. But no errors have been foundthat are theologically significant.


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Examples of Types of Errors Found

--The following were facilitated by the lack ofspaces between letters and words in writing andcopying the Greek texts and could be called

sight errors. Omissions (haplography)

Duplications (dittography)

Jumping from the same letter or group of letters to anotherat the beginning of a word (homoioarcton), or at the middle

of a word (homoiomeson), or at the end of a word(homoioteleuton) (McKnight, 61).

Change of the order of words (metathesis)


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Three Major

MSS Families Discovered

1. Alexandrian text witnesses: Thesehave the earliest and best quality of MSSand considered by scholars to be the

best MSS.

2. Western text witnesseshave an earlybut generally unreliable form of the text(Green. 135)


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MSS Families

3. Byzantine text witnesseswhich include thevast majority of later manuscripts, are themost universally judged by scholars topreserve an inferior form of the text(Green. 135).

King James Verson (Textus Receptus) is of thisfamily. The King James Debate supporters optfor this majority text reading to be the

inspired one. But does majority=accuracy--On this see D. A. Carson, The King JamesDebate: A Plea For Realism(Grand Rapids:Baker, 1979).


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The Reliability of the NT

Four witnesses supporting the integrity of the NewTestament text.

1. Oral TraditionVerbatimMemorizationTechniques of the Day

--A Scandinavian Scholar, Birger Gerhardsson, in his bookcalled Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition andwritten Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and EarlyChristianitytranslated by Eric J. Sharpe (Lund, Sweden: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1961)

shows how rabbis in the secondcentury AD taughtmemory techniques to their disciples which enabledthem to remember verbatimteaching they hadheard.


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Oral Tradition Kept From Error

Gerhardsson shows evidence that the rabbis ofthe firstcentury AD probably had access tothese techniques also.

This gives support to the possibility of Jesus

disciples being able to remember (not evenconsidering the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!)verbatim what Jesus said and thus writing downexactly what they heard.

Unlike in todays world, they had trainedthemselves how to listen and retain informationaccurately.

Argues against assumptions of Form Criticism


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Ancient Greek NT Manuscripts

2. The Testimony of Ancient Greek Manuscripts.

--There are over 5000 existing Greek Manuscripts of theNew Testament or portions of it.

--They all speak to the reliability of the New Testament.

--There are very few differences and those that exist arenot theologically significant.

--In fact there are so many manuscripts that one can tracedifferent families of manuscripts and find when a variant

occurred.--These manuscripts span a time period of from 125AD to

the end of the middle ages.


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NT Text Criticism Greek MSS

(1) John Rylands Manuscript (125-130AD).--Found in Egypt.--Measures only 3.5 by 2.5 inches (8.9 by 6 cm)

at its widest; and conserved with the RylandsPapyri at the John Rylands University LibraryThe front contains lines from the Gospel ofJohn 18:3133, in Greek, and the backcontains lines from verses 3738(From Wikipedia)

--It is important in that the Gospel of John can nolonger be dated by liberal scholars at 200AD.They once dated it this late to account forJohns so called developed theology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyrihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyrihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyrihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rylands_University_Libraryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rylands_University_Libraryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyrihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyrihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rylands_University_Libraryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Johnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rylands_University_Libraryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Johnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Johnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Johnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Johnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Johnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rylands_University_Libraryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyrihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Papyri


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NT Greek Papyri

(2) Chester Beatty Papyri (200-300AD).

--This contains major portions of the NewTestament, including portions of theGospels and Acts, the Catholic Epistles, 10of Pauls letters and the Book of

Revelation.


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Ancient Greek NT MSS

(3) Bodmer Papyrus II (150-200AD).This contains Johns Gospel.

(4) Diatesseron, a harmony of the Gospelsby Tatian (AD160).


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(5) Codex Sinaiticus (350AD): Aleph (a)

--Contains allthe New Testament except Mk.16:9-20 and Jn. 7:53-8:11.

--It was found in 1844 in a Mt. Sinai (Traditionalsite) monastery.

--It was found in a waste basket where monksthere had been using old manuscripts as

firewood to keep warm!--It was discovered by Tischendorf and is now in

London.


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(6) Codex Vaticanus (325-350AD): B

--Housed in the Vatican library

--contains nearly all the Bible (OT and NT)but omits the book of Revelation.

(7) Codex Alexandrinus (400AD):A.

--It is in the British Museum.--Contains most of the NT and OT. It does

contain Revelation.


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Greek NT MSS

(8) Codex Ephraemi (400s AD):C.--Housed in Paris--it contains every NT book except II

Thessalonians and II John.--It contains much of the OT.--History: About the 12th century it was broken up

and only 208 leaves survive. These leaves hadbeen erased and rewritten with something else.

But with the use of chemical agents they areable with some difficulty to read and reconstructthe original writing on much of the codex.


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Ancient NT Greek MSS

(9) Codex Bezae (450+ AD).

--Housed in Cambridge

--contains the Gospels, Acts, and the Catholic

epistles in Greek and Latin (Greek on left, Latinon right).

(10) Codex Washingtonensis (450-550AD).

--Contains the 4 Gospels.(11)Codex Claromontanus (500s AD).

--Housed in Paris it contains Pauline epistles.


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NT Text Integrity

When compared to other ancient writings,support for the New Testament textintegrityis incredibly abundant

Note the following chart from JoshMcDowells bookEvidence that Demands aVerdict, 48. Compare these ancientwritings and see which one you wouldconclude has the best attestation for theoriginal text.


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NT And Other

Ancient Writings ComparedAUTHOR WHEN WRITTEN EARLIEST COPY TIME SPAN # OF COPIES

Caesar 100-44BC 900AD 1000 years 10

Plato 427-347BC 900AD 1200 years 7

Tacitus 100AD 1100AD 1000 years 20Suetonius 75-160AD 950AD 800 years 8

Herodotus 480-425 BC 900 AD 1300 years 8


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NT And Other

Ancient Writings Compared

Sophocles 496-406 BC 1000 AD 1400 years 100

Euripides 480-406BC 1100 AD 1500 years 9

Aristotle 384-322BC 1100AD 1400 years 5

Aristophanes 450-385BC 900 AD 1200 years 10

NT 49-96AD 125AD 30-75 yrs 5000+

Which one would you choose for having integrityin determining the original text?


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The Testimony of Ancient

Versions/Translations.

3. The Testimony of AncientVersions/Translations.

--There are in existence over 9,000 copiesof early versions (translations) of the NT.

--These all give witness to the Greek text.


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The Testimony of Ancient

Versions/Translations.

(1) Syriac Peshitta Version (400s AD)

--translated about 150-250AD.

--There exist more than 320 extantmanuscripts of this version.

--There is also an Old Syriac Version copied

about 300-400 AD which contains thefour Gospels


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Ancient Versions

(2) Old Latin Versions including theLatin Vulgate by Jerome (366-384AD).

(3) Coptic (Egyptian) Versions includingSahidic which dates to the early 3rdcentury

(4) Armenian Version (From the 5thcentury AD)


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Ancient Versions

(5) Ethiopic Versions (From the 5thcentury AD)

(6) Georgian Versions (From the 5thcentury AD)

(7) Old Slavonic (From the 9th centuryAD).


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Early Church Fathers Quotations

d. The Testimony of the Early ChurchFathers.

--There are over 37,000 quotationsfromthe New Testament in Greek from theearly church leaders/fathers which speakto the reliability of the New Testament

and its integrity.


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(1) Clement of Rome (90-100AD). He quotesmuch from Paul and other NT writers.

(2) Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (70-110AD).He quotes from 15 NT Books.

(3) Polycarp, a disciple of John the Apostle(70-156AD).

(4) Justin Martyr (133AD) has 330 quotes fromthe NT


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(5) Clement of Alexandria (150-220AD) has2,406 quotes from all but 3 NT books.

(6) Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (170-200AD)has 1,819 NT quotes.

(7) Tertullian (160-220AD) has 7,258quotes/references to the NT.

(8) Origen (185-254AD) has 17,922 quotes of theNT


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(9) Hippolytus (170-235AD) has 1,378 NTquotes

(10) Cyprian (d. 258AD) has over 1000 NTquotes

(11) Eusebius (330AD)the early churchhistorian quotes 5,176 times from the NT.


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Significance of These Four

Witnesses to the NT TextFrederick Kenyon (an authority on the NT text) says,

It cannot be too strongly asserted that . . . the text of theBible is certain: Especially is this the case with the New

Testament. The number of manuscripts . . ., of earlytranslations from it, and of the quotations from it in theoldest writers of the church, is so large that it ispractically certain that the true reading of every doubtfulpassage is preserved in some one or other of these

ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancientbook in the world.[1][1] (Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, 45).


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Examples of Discovered

Variants in the Text

1. Acts 8:37. Omitted by Aleph, A, B, C.and papyrus P47 (3rd century AD). KingJames has this verse because it was based

on later manuscripts which had includedthis. One of the earliest manuscripts whichinclude this is dated about the 6th century

AD


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Some NT Variants

2. John 5:3b-4. Not in the earliest mss: P46(2nd-3rd century), P75 (3rd century), Aleph, B,C, D and others. A (5th century) includes it.

3. John 7:53-8:11. Omitted by P66 (2nd-3rdcentury), p75 (3rd century), Aleph, A, B, C, andothers. It is included in D (5th or 6th century). --Some later mss place it after Luke 21:38, or Lk.

24:53, or Jn. 7:36, or Jn. 21:25. It seems tohave been a floating story which some feltshould be in the Bible and so placed it there.


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Some NT Variants

D. Mark 16:9-20. Not found in the earliest mss. Mighthave been a lost end or originally in a book that lost itscover (and first and last pages). It is omitted by Alephand B (4th century mss). Is found in A, C, D (5th and

6th century MSS). This ending is a long ending.--There also exists a shorter ending. See the NASB whichgives the following as an alternate ending after verse 8:

And they promptly reported all these instructions toPeter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himselfsent out through them from east to west the sacred andimperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.


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NT Greek Text Criticism Results

The text of the NT is virtually certain

Of the variants found, there are notheologically significant ones that changethe basic tenants of Christianity.

New Greek Texts with Apparatus havebeen published with the variants for

everyone to study.


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Two NT Greek Texts

1. UBS Greek Text

--Apparatus

A= Text is certain

B= Text is almost certainC= There is difficulty deciding which variant is the

correct one

D= There is great difficulty in arriving at which

variant is the correct one (used very rarely)2. Also there is a Nestle-Alan Greek Text with

different apparatus.


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Greek Texts As a Result of NT

Textual Criticism1. Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th edition, edited by

Eberhand Nestle, Kurt Aland, and Barbara Aland(Stuttgart: Duetsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1993).

2. United Bible SocietiesThe Greek New Testament4thRevised Edition, edited by Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland,Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M.Metzger (Stuttgart: Duetsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1993).This was produced specifically for Bibletranslators.

3. For further study see Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of theNew Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, andRestoration (4th Edition)(New York: Oxford, 2005).

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