Christian
“Textual Criticism”
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What is Textual Criticism?
This is the science
of restoring
original words of a
manuscript that
have been altered.
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Why is textual criticism important?
The original manuscripts of the first Christian
experiences were all written in Greek. The first
Latin version was written 400 years later. Our
popular English translation of the King James
Bible was based on a poor Latin manuscript.
The Question remains: What were in the original
Greek manuscripts and do they contain different
ideas than our common English translations?
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Tools of Textual Criticism
Age of the manuscript
 Family grouping of copyists
 Word selection & style
 Smooth clarity versus difficult passage
 Social commentaries on women
 Deliberate shifts in social commentaries
 Christology: human, divine, both at once

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New Testament Timeline

150 CE – Marcion makes first
attempt to pull writings together,
one gospel & 10 epistles

220 – Church Father, Origen
complains that the negligence of
copyists is perverse and, “…they
make additions or deletions as
they please.”
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Three Different Christologies
in the Second Century
Adoptionists – Jesus fully human, blood &
sweat, adopted by God at baptism
 Docetists – Jesus only appeared to be
human but was not
 Separationists – Jesus was both human
and Divine at the same time
 There were many changes and copying
errors in the first two centuries

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Emperor Constantine
Constantine conquers
what remains of the
Roman Empire in 313 CE.
He Makes Christianity the
religion of Rome and
orders 50 Bibles in 331 to
start the first professional
copyists in Christianity.
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4th Century Efforts
367 - Athanasius compiles 27 books to
complete the first New Testament
 Codex Sinaiticus – today’s oldest surviving
manuscript, no punctuation or spaces
 Codex Vaticanicus – one of the oldest,
found in the Vatican library

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St. Jerome

390 CE - Pope Damasus
hires Jerome to create a
Latin translation from all
the Greek manuscripts.
It becomes the Latin
Vulgate.

For the next thousand
years in the west the
Latin Vulgate assumes
the status of the original
teachings
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Poor Scholarship…

1500 CE - Erasmus
attempts to translate
Vulgate back into
Greek without
consulting the original
Greek manuscripts.

This becomes the
source for the King
James Bible.
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John Mill – Textual Criticism enters
1707 CE – John Mill publishes 30 years of
work examining early Greek manuscripts
and comparing them to the English
versions.
 He found 30,000 variations, errors,
citations, deletions, additions comparing
the Greek to the popular Latin version.

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Examples of Differences
Woman taken in adultery
in John 7:53
 It is not found in earlier
manuscripts, its style is
different, and the words
and phrases are alien to
the rest of John.
 Conclusion: this story
was not in Gospel but
added later by scribes.

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Gospel of Mark – last 12 verses
Mark 16:4 – “But the women flee the
tomb and say nothing to anyone…” This is
where the earlier texts end.
 Later translations added 12 verses: Jesus
appears to Mary Magdalene, upbraids
them for failing to believe, signs of
believers will be casting out demons,
taking up snakes, drinking poison, etc.
 Conclusion: Last 12 verses were added
later by scribes.

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Doctrine of the Trinity
Earlier Greek manuscripts use “…the
Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these
three are one.”
 Modern Trinity uses,”…the Father, the
Word, and the Spirit, and these three are
one.
 Conclusion: The Trinity theology was
added later by scribes.

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