Textual Criticism of the New Testament
- LAST REVIEWED: 05 May 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0124
- LAST REVIEWED: 05 May 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0124
Introduction
Textual criticism is concerned with documents written by hand. It is both a science and an art. As a science, it is involved in the discovery and reading of manuscripts, cataloguing their contents, and, for literary works, collating the readings in them against other copies of the text. In New Testament studies, textual critics are mainly concerned with Greek manuscripts and traditionally with trying to establish, and publish, the earliest recoverable writings of the New Testament. The art of the discipline is in classifying the differing text-types into which manuscripts are said to fall, in evaluating the textual variation in manuscripts, and in establishing a critical text, usually furnished with an apparatus criticus, typically as footnotes displaying a selection of alternative readings. More recently, many text critics have also been concerned to understand the significance and literary or theological importance of distinctive readings. Translations of the scriptures into Latin, Coptic, and Syriac, as well as other versions in early Christian languages such as Gothic, Georgian, and Armenian, also occupy text critics. The biblical citations and allusions found in the writings of the Church Fathers also belong to New Testament textual criticism. Paleography, codicology, and papyrology are studies that interest many in the field. Although primarily concerned with the manuscript tradition or the establishing of new critical editions, textual critics inevitably concern themselves also with the history of the printed editions of the New Testament in Greek.
Introductory Works
This section is divided into books written in English and those in other languages. It is important to note that some of the major introductions to the topic have been revised and updated multiple times.
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Article
- 2 Baruch
- 1 Clement
- Aaron
- Acts of the Apostles
- Adam and Eve
- Aelia Capitolina
- Afterlife and Immortality
- Agriculture
- Alexander the Great
- Alexandria
- Altered States of Consciousness in the Bible
- Ancient Christianity, Churches in
- Ancient Israel, Schools in
- Ancient Medicine
- Ancient Mesopotamia, Schools in
- Angels
- Anti-Semitism and the New Testament
- Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
- Apocryphal Acts
- Apostolic Fathers
- Aram
- Archaeology and Material Culture of Ammon and the Ammonite...
- Archaeology and Material Culture of Judah and the Judeans ...
- Archaeology and Material Culture of Moab and the Moabites
- Archaeology and Material Culture of Phoenicia and the Phoe...
- Art, Early Christian
- Asceticism
- Astrology and Astronomy
- Athaliah
- Atonement
- Augustus
- Baptism
- Barnabas, The Epistle of
- Benefaction/Patronage
- Biblical Criticism
- Biblical Studies, Cognitive Science Approaches in
- Caesarea Maritima
- Canaanites
- Canon, Biblical
- Ceramics
- Cherubim
- Children in the Hebrew Bible
- Christian Apocrypha
- Christology
- Chronicles, 1 and 2
- Cities of Refuge
- Clement, 2
- Clement of Alexandria
- Clothing
- Colossians
- Conversion
- Corinthians, 2
- Cosmology, Near East
- Covenant
- Covenant, Ark of the
- Crucifixion
- Daniel
- Daniel, Additions to
- David
- Death and Burial
- Demons
- Deuteronomistic History
- Deuteronomy
- Didache
- Domestic Architecture, Ancient Israel
- Early Christianity
- Ecclesiastes/Qohelet
- Economics and Biblical Studies
- Edom
- Education in the Hebrew Bible
- Election in the Bible
- Elijah
- Elisha
- Enoch
- Ephesians
- Epistles, Catholic
- Epistolography (Ancient Letters)
- Esther and Additions to Esther
- Ethics
- Evil Eye
- Exodus, Book of
- Exorcism
- Ezekiel
- Ezra-Nehemiah
- Feminist Scholarship on the Old Testament
- Flora and Fauna of the Hebrew Bible
- Food and Food Production
- Friendship, Kinship and Enmity
- Funerary Rites and Practices, Greco-Roman
- Galatians
- Galilee
- Genesis, Book of
- Gentiles
- Gnosticism
- God, Ancient Israel
- God, Greco-Roman
- God, Son of
- Gospels
- Gospels, Apocryphal
- Great, Herod the
- Greco-Roman World, Associations in the
- Greek Language
- Hagar
- Heaven
- Hebrew Bible, Biblical Law in the
- Hebrew Language
- Hebrews
- Hell
- Hellenistic and Roman Egypt
- Hermas, Shepherd of
- Historiography, Greco-Roman
- Hittites
- Holy Spirit
- Honor and Shame
- Hosea, Book of
- Idol/Idolatry (HB/OT)
- Imperial Cult and Early Christianity
- Infancy Gospel of Thomas
- Interpretation and Hermeneutics
- Isaiah
- Israel, History of
- James
- Jeremiah
- Jerusalem
- Jesus of Nazareth
- Jewish Christianity
- Jewish Festivals
- Job
- John, Gospel of
- John the Baptist
- Joshua
- Jubilees, Book of
- Judaism, Hellenistic
- Judaism, Rabbinic
- Judaism, Second Temple
- Judas, Gospel of
- Jude, Epistle of
- Judges, Book of
- Judith, Book of
- Kings, 1 and 2
- Kingship
- Lamentations
- Letters, Johannine
- Letters, Pauline
- Levi/Levittes
- Levitical Cities
- Leviticus
- Literacy, New Testament
- Literature, Apocalyptic
- Lord’s Prayer
- Luke, Gospel of
- Maccabean Revolt
- Maccabees, 1–4
- Man, Son of
- Manasseh, King of Judah
- Manasseh, Tribe/Territory
- Mark, Gospel of
- Martyrdom
- Mary
- Matthew, Gospel of
- Medieval Biblical Interpretation (Jewish)
- Messianism
- Midian
- Midrash and Aggadah
- Minoritized Criticism of the New Testament
- Miracle Stories
- Modern Bible Translations
- Moses
- Music
- Myth in the Hebrew Bible
- Nahum, Book of
- New Testament and Early Christianity, Women, Gender, and S...
- New Testament, Feminist Scholarship on the
- New Testament, Men and Masculinity in the
- New Testament, Rhetoric of the
- New Testament, Social Sciences and the
- New Testament Studies, Emerging Approaches in
- New Testament, Textual Criticism of the
- New Testament Views of Torah
- Numbers, Book of
- Nuzi (Nuzi Tablets)
- Old Testament, Biblical Theology in the
- Old Testament, Social Sciences and the
- Orality and Literacy
- Parables
- Paraenesis
- Passion Narratives
- Pastorals
- Paul
- Pauline Chronology
- Paul's Opponents
- Pentateuch
- "Persian" Period, The
- Peter
- Philippians
- Philistines
- Philo of Alexandria
- Poetry, Hebrew
- Priestly/Holiness Codes
- Priest/Priesthood
- Prophets
- Proverbs
- Psalms
- Pseudepigraphy, Early Christian
- Q
- Qumran/Dead Sea Scrolls
- Revelation (Apocalypse)
- Romans
- Sacrifice
- Samaria/Samaritans
- Samuel, 1 and 2
- Satan
- Scriptures
- Sects, Jewish
- Septuagint
- Sermon on the Mount
- Sin (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament)
- Sirach
- Slavery
- Sojourner
- Solomon
- Solomon, Wisdom of
- Song of Songs
- Succession Narrative
- Synagogue
- Synoptic Problem
- Tales, Court
- Talmud
- Targum
- Temples and Sanctuaries
- Temples, Near Eastern
- Ten Commandments
- the Dead, Egyptian Book of
- the Hebrew Bible, Ancient Egypt and
- Thessalonians
- Thomas, Gospel of
- Tobit
- Twelve Prophets, Book of the
- Ugarit
- Virtues and Vices: New Testament Ethical Exhortation in I...
- War, New Testament
- Wisdom
- Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testa...
- Worship in the New Testament and Earliest Christianity
- Worship, Old Testament
- Zadok
- Zechariah