Textual Criticism
Part One
Introduction
We have the scriptures today in the printed, book form we call a "Bible". Before the invention of
printing, however, copies were made by hand--a lengthy and tedious process. There are literally
thousands of these hand-written manuscripts that survive today. Some five thousand Greek
manuscripts, some eight thousand Latin manuscripts, and many other manuscripts in other
languages comprise the body of New Testament manuscripts. Some of these are mere
fragments; others contain larger portions of the New Testament; still others contain the entire
Bible. But in no case do we have the original manuscripts (sometimes called autographs). D.A.
Carson insightfully remarks that this is just as well, seeing that we would probably make an idol of
such if it did exist!
To insist that we must possess an original manuscript in order to know what originally was written
would bring into question not only the Bible but the whole of ancient literature! To put things in
perspective, the Bible is attested by far, far more manuscripts that any other work of antiquity. For
instance, the Illiad by Homer is in second place, surviving in only 643 manuscripts. Further,
rarely, if ever, do we have the original manuscript of literary works comprised only a few hundred
years ago (e.g. Shakespeare's works). Interestingly, no one today seriously questions the
reliability of the transmission of, say, one of Shakespeare's sonnets. It seems it's only the Bible's
accuracy that modern man questions, applying to it a standard he applies to no other document!
Textual Criticism
In addition to the fact that no original Bible autograph survives is another fact that disturbs many:
No two of the five thousand or so Greek manuscripts of scripture agree exactly in every detail!
Usually these differences are quite minor, as we shall see. The process of sifting through these
thousands of documents in an attempt to arrive as closely as possible to what was originally
written is called the field of "textual criticism".
Types of Manuscript Material
First, what do we mean by "manuscript"? A manuscript is simply a handwritten copy of the Bible
dating to before the invention of the printing press (i.e. about 1450 AD). Several different types of
manuscripts exist and there are several ways of classifying them. We’ll begin by looking at the
various materials on which they were written.
Papyri
These are manuscripts written on a paper-like material derived from the papyrus
plant, a tall reed that grows along the Nile River. The outer bark is peeled away
and the pithy center is cut into strips. These strips were laid side by side vertically,
with another layer placed over them at right angles. This assembly was moistened,
pressed together, and then dried in the Sun before being cut to the desired size.
These sheets, ranging in size from about 6X9 to 12X15 inches, were then slightly
overlapped and glued together to form a strip of about twenty sheets long—the
form in which it was usually sold. If a document exceeded the length of one of
these strips, several could be linked together.
In its earliest usage, this long strip would be rolled or wound up into a scroll
form. Writing usually took place on the inside surface of the scroll with a
reed pen. This was convenient for the reader, and for the writer as well, as
it was far easier to write with the grain of the papyri than against the grain. (See
Rev. 5:1 for a notable exception.)
This was an efficient arrangement when reading a document from start to finish,
but was quite cumbersome when it came to reading excerpts from here and there.
About the time the early church began to copy the New Testament, the codex, or
book-like, form began to be used. In this case, the papyri sheets were folded down
the middle and bound together, much like our modern books.
The earliest manuscripts of the Greek New Testament are written on papyrus.
Some 88 papyri have been found, dating from the second to the eighth century.
About half of these date from the second to the fourth century. Although many
are fragmentary, together they cover a large portion of the New Testament. The
very earliest is a fragment of John's Gospel dating back to about 125 AD.
These are catalogued and referred to by a Gothic “P” and a superscript number.
For instance, the fragment referred to above is P52.
Parchment
From antiquity, skins of animals were used in writing. About 200 BC, a new
process was developed whereby the skins were scraped, soaked in quicklime,
and rubbed with chalk and pumice stone. This produced a thin, firm, and very
durable writing material that could be written upon by a quill or reed pen. It was
known as “parchment”, or “vellum” (the latter term originally specified a finer
grade of calfskin), and might be made from the skins of cattle, sheep, or goats.
Like papyri, it too, originally, was bound together in a scroll form. However, when
the codex form became popular, it was incorporated into that form as well.
Although the scroll form would continue to be used for literary works for some
time, early in the Christian era the codex form became the popular means of
publishing works, especially the Bible. The earliest New Testament manuscripts
are all in the codex form. Further, though the earliest Christian writings were on
manuscripts made from papyrus, parchment almost completely displaced papyrus
from the fourth century on, and became the writing material of choice for the
publication of the scriptures. The earliest Greek manuscripts containing all, or
almost all, the Bible, were written on parchment in the codex format.
Another advantage of parchment is that the original text could be scraped off and
the parchment reused. Sometimes, even a New Testament manuscript might
be erased and written over. This is called a “palimpsest”. The manuscript known
as Codex C is actually a New Testament parchment written over with the writings
of a Syriac Church Father known as Ephraemi. As not all the original text can be
completely erased by this technique, these manuscripts still can convey valuable
information about the original text.
Other Materials
Far less frequently found than the above are scriptures recorded on pieces of
broken pottery or “potsherds”. This material, when written upon, is called
“ostraca” by scholars, and was utilized by the very poorest of the people.
Additionally, a few scripture inscriptions have been found on materials used as
a “talisman”, or “good luck charm”--a practice frowned upon by the church.
Writing Style
Along with the type of material on which they were written, another way of classifying these
ancient manuscripts is by referencing the style of writing they contain.
Uncials
The earliest New Testament manuscripts, whether papyri or parchment,
contained a writing style called “uncial”. This style is comparable to printing
an English document in uppercase letters. The words were joined together
very tightly with no punctuation. A new section may be indicated only by
a new line, the first letter of which may be slightly larger than the others, which
caused it to extend slightly into the left margin.
The most important manuscripts are the great uncials Alexandrinus, referred
to as Codex A, dating to the fifth century; Vaticanus, referred to as Codex B,
dating to the fourth century; and Sinaiticus, referred to as Codex Aleph, dating
To the fourth century. (Tischendorf, who discovered Sinaiticus, felt it too
important to designate it by a letter of the alphabet lower down the chain! So,
he designated it by the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.)
Cursives
While the uncial style was used for important literary works, another style was
more common for ordinary correspondence. It was called “cursive”, or “running”,
and corresponds roughly to our English longhand. Although we don’t know
for certain, we might speculate that since the Gospels were composed more
as literary works, they may well have been originally written was uncials. The
letters of Paul, on the other hand, originally being more informal communication,
may well have been written as cursives. However, our earliest copies of either
are uncials.
Minuscules
About the ninth century, a further refinement of the cursive style took place. The
form called the minuscule became very popular. This style utilized a large, uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence, while the remainder of the sentence
was written in a smaller, cursive form. This, of course, is very similar to our style
of writing today. It had the advantage of being much easier to read, faster to
write, and was much more compact.
The earliest New Testament manuscript in this style dates to 835 AD. Within a
150 years or so, this new style had completely displaced the older, uncial style.
Thus, the history of New Testament manuscripts can be divided as follows:
Uncial manuscripts in the early centuries; Uncials and minuscules in the last part
of the ninth and the tenth centuries, and minuscules exclusively after that.
Other Forms
In addition to the manuscripts designated above, three other categories of manuscripts are very
important in settling textual questions. These three categories are “lectionaries”, citations of the
Early Church Fathers, and early translations.
Lectionaries
Another source of ancient documents are "Lectionaries". These were collections
of scripture divided up for readings in church services (i.e. much like the responsive readings in our hymnals today). There are some 2,200 known lectionaries
containing portions of scripture.
Citations by Church Fathers
Another valuable source of written documentation is the writings of the Early
Church Fathers (church leaders in the centuries immediately following the
apostles). In their various writings, such as letters, commentaries, and the
like, they often quote scripture. Their writings are, in fact, the earliest source
of scripture documentation. However, it cannot always be determined whether
they are quoting directly from an existing text, from memory, or simply paraphrasing a Bible verse. The most important of these men are Clement of Rome (95
AD), Ignatius (117 AD), Tertullian (160-220 AD), Origen (185-254 AD), Clement
of Alexandria (215 AD), Hyppolytus (235 AD), Irenaeus (250 AD), Ambrose
(340-397 AD), Chrysostum (344-407 AD), and Augustine (354-430 AD).
Early Translations
Although the New Testament was originally written in Greek, early on it was
translated into other languages in places where Greek was not spoken. Thus,
early manuscripts exist of translations into Syriac, Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian,
Georgian, Ethopic, and Slavonic. The vast majority of these translations are
in Latin, due to the influence of the Roman church. Some 8,000 written manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate alone are extant.
Although these manuscripts generally are of lessor importance in determining
things such as the exact original wording of the manuscript from which they
were translated--for obvious reasons. However, they are nevertheless valuable
in determining large-scale matters, such as whether entire phrases, verses,
or sections were present in the document being translated.
Summary
When it comes to the manuscript evidence for the scriptures, what we possess is something over
2,100 lectionary manuscripts, more than 2,700 minuscules, just over 260 uncials, and about 80
papyri. The vast majority of these 5,000 or so manuscripts are fragmentary, preserving only a few
verses or a few books. Only about 50 of these manuscripts contain the entire New Testament,
and only one of those is an uncial (Sinaiticus). Thus, minuscules outnumber uncials by about 10
to 1.