Textual Criticism
J. Brown
Textual Criticism
1. Definition: The discipline which attempts to
reconstruct the original text (or wording) of a
document.
2. Why is Textual Criticism necessary in biblical
studies?
We
don’t possess the “autographs”
(the original copies of the biblical books)
 We
have variant copies (manuscripts); i.e. there
were changes made during the course of the
copying and recopying of the biblical text
Textual Criticism: General Method
3. General Method: Comparing the various manuscripts
and assess the variants on the basis of…
a. External criteria
(1) Readings from earlier manuscripts are more
likely to be original than those from later
manuscripts
(2) Readings across a wider geographical area are
more likely original
(3) Readings that cross text types are more likely
original
Textual Criticism: Gen. Method (cont.)
b. Internal criteria
(1) Transcriptional Probabilities
e.g., Shorter reading more likely to be
original (since scribes tended to add words
rather than omit words; exception: eye skip);
e.g., More difficult reading more likely to be
original (since scribes tended to make a
reading easier rather than more difficult);
Textual Criticism: Gen. Method (cont.)
b. Internal criteria (cont.)
(2) Authorial Probabilities
Readings that fit with the author’s style,
vocabulary, and theology are more likely to
be original
c. Fundamental Guideline for
Assessing Variants:
Which variant best explains the
existence of the other
variant(s)?
Textual Criticism: Gen. Method (cont.)
Example: Acts 6:8—“faith” or “grace”
Acts 6:8 Stephen—“full of faith…” (KJV)
-“full of grace…” (modern
versions)
Variants:
External Evidence:
1. ‘grace’
p74, ‫א‬, A, B, D and over
20 miniscules…
2. ‘faith’
Ha, Pa, many miniscules…
3. ‘grace and
faith’
Ea
4. ‘faith and grace
of the Spirit’

FF. Bruce
Are the NT Documents Reliable? (pp. 19-20)
“Fortunately, if the great number of manuscripts
increases the number of scribal errors, it increases
proportionately the means of correcting such
errors, so that the margin of doubt left in the
process of recovering the exact original wording is
not so large as might be feared; it is in truth
remarkably small. The variant readings about
which any doubt remains among textual critics of
the NT affect no material question of historical
fact or of Christian faith and practice.”