Glossary of Textual Criticism

A reference for the technical terms used in Ad Fontes (both the book and this online study). Terms are listed alphabetically. Where a term has a Greek or Latin form behind it, the form is given in transliteration with a brief gloss. Chapter references point to the print and ebook edition of Ad Fontes: Textual Criticism for Lutheran Laity.

The traditional text-type labels used below are helpful historical generalizations, not rigid genealogical families. Manuscripts can relate differently from one variant to another, and contemporary methods increasingly analyze those relationships reading by reading.

Alexandrian text-type. The textual family represented by the great fourth-century Greek uncials Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, and by the second- and third-century Egyptian papyri (P66, P75, P46). The text behind the modern critical editions (NA28, UBS5, ECM, THGNT). Geographically anchored in Alexandria and Egypt; characterized by careful, conservative transmission.

Apograph. A copy of an original manuscript. In the autographs/apographs distinction worked out by the seventeenth-century Lutheran scholastics, the autograph is the text the apostle wrote and the apographs are the church’s copies. Inspiration applies to the autograph; preservation applies to the apographs as a whole.

Autograph. The original manuscript an apostle wrote. None of the New Testament autographs survive; the textual tradition the church possesses consists of apographs (copies). In Lutheran theology, inspiration applies to the autographs.

Byzantine text-type. The textual family represented by the late medieval Greek manuscript majority. The text behind the Textus Receptus (the printed Greek text of the Reformation era) and behind the King James Version. Geographically anchored in the Greek-speaking East; emerged as the dominant lectionary text by the fifth century forward.

CBGM (Coherence-Based Genealogical Method). A methodological refinement of textual-critical practice developed at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF) in Münster, Germany, beginning in the late 1990s. Rather than classifying manuscripts into families and then weighing the families, the CBGM analyzes each variant individually, computes the genealogical relationships among its specific witnesses, and uses accumulated coherence patterns to weigh the readings. Used extensively in the Editio Critica Maior project.

Codex (pl. codices). A bound book, as distinct from a scroll. The codex form replaced the scroll as the standard format for Christian Scripture in the second and third centuries.

Comma Johanneum. A textual variant at 1 John 5:7–8. The “Comma” is the additional clause “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth,” found in the Textus Receptus (and the King James) but absent from every Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century. Treated in chapter 7.

Diatessaron. Tatian’s mid-second-century harmony of the four gospels into a single continuous narrative, originally composed in Syriac (or possibly Greek). It was used liturgically in the Syriac-speaking church through the fifth century; it is a Gospel harmony, not a complete New Testament.

ECM (Editio Critica Maior). The “Major Critical Edition” of the Greek New Testament, produced by the INTF at Münster. The most thoroughly documented critical edition ever attempted: each volume uses test-passage analysis of the wider tradition to identify a representative set of witnesses, then completely collates those selected witnesses for the book under study. General Epistles, Acts, and Mark have been published; remaining volumes are in progress.

Eclecticism. The methodological approach to textual criticism that weighs each variant on its own evidence, drawing readings from across multiple manuscript families rather than privileging any one family. Reasoned eclecticism (the standard mid-twentieth-century approach, weighing external and internal evidence at each variant) is the method behind NA28 and UBS5. Thoroughgoing eclecticism (associated with G. D. Kilpatrick and J. K. Elliott) gives nearly all weight to internal considerations.

External evidence. The manuscript witness — which manuscripts read which way, what their dates and geographical distributions are, what versional and patristic citations support each reading. Distinguished from internal evidence.

Internal evidence. The intrinsic and transcriptional considerations bearing on a variant — what the author’s style, vocabulary, and theology suggest is original; which way scribal habit would tend to push the text. The harder reading canon, the lectio brevior canon, and the master question (which reading better explains the other) are internal-evidence canons.

KJV. The Authorized Version (1611), translated under King James I of England, working primarily from the Stephanus 1551 / Beza 1598 Greek text (the Textus Receptus). The dominant English Protestant Bible from 1611 through the early twentieth century.

Lectio brevior potior. Latin: “the shorter reading is preferable.” A standard internal-evidence canon: where two readings differ in length, the shorter is more likely to be original, since scribes tend to expand rather than abbreviate. (Not absolute; balanced against other canons.)

Majority Text. The Greek New Testament as it appears in the late medieval Byzantine manuscript majority. Modern editions: Hodges-Farstad’s Greek New Testament according to the Majority Text (1985) and Robinson-Pierpont’s Byzantine Textform 2005. The Majority Text position holds that the Byzantine textform preserves the apostolic deposit more faithfully than the Alexandrian-leaning critical text.

Master question. The summative internal-evidence question used at every variant in this book: which reading better explains the existence of the other? The reading that explains the existence of its alternatives is the more likely original.

Minuscule. A Greek manuscript written in lower-case cursive script. The minuscule format replaced the uncial format as standard for Greek New Testament manuscripts in the ninth century. Most surviving Greek New Testament manuscripts are minuscules from the ninth through sixteenth centuries.

Monogenēs. Greek: “only-begotten” or “unique.” The disputed word at John 1:18 — monogenēs theos (older Greek) versus monogenēs huios (Byzantine). Treated in chapter 8.

NA28 (Nestle-Aland 28th edition). The standard critical edition of the Greek New Testament for academic and translation use. Published by the German Bible Society (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft), it succeeded NA27 in 2012. Modern English translations generally use the Nestle-Aland text in the edition current during their production: the NASB95 followed NA26, while the ESV and NET followed NA27.

NET Bible. The New English Translation (1996–2017), an English Bible with extensive translator’s notes documenting textual and translational decisions. The NET notes are one of the most lay-accessible resources for engaging textual variation.

Nomina sacra. Latin: “sacred names.” The convention in the early Greek manuscript tradition of abbreviating sacred names (theos, kurios, Iēsous, Christos, pneuma, and a small handful of others) to their first and last letters with a horizontal overline. Important at 1 Timothy 3:16, where the nomina sacra mechanism explains how hos (relative pronoun, two letters: ΟC) became theos (sacred name, two letters with overline: Θ̅C̅).

P (papyrus). Greek New Testament manuscripts written on papyrus, distinguished by the prefix P followed by a number (P52, P66, P75, etc.). Generally the earliest manuscripts; most date from the second through fourth centuries.

Patristic citation. A quotation of New Testament text in the writings of the early church Fathers. A patristic citation provides date and place evidence for a textual reading: a citation by Origen in 220 in Alexandria, by Chrysostom in 390 in Antioch, places the cited reading at a known time and location.

Pericope adulterae. Latin: “the section about the adulteress.” The narrative of the woman caught in adultery, traditionally found at John 7:53–8:11. Absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts; appears in the Greek tradition from the fifth century forward; treated in chapter 6.

Peshitta. The standard Syriac New Testament translation, produced in the early fifth century. Used liturgically in Syriac-speaking churches from late antiquity to the present.

Septuagint (LXX). The Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, produced in stages from the third through first centuries BC. The Old Testament read by the New Testament authors and by the Greek-speaking early church.

Sinaiticus (Codex). Greek New Testament uncial manuscript from the mid-fourth century, discovered by Konstantin von Tischendorf at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1844 and 1859. One of the two great fourth-century Alexandrian uncials (with Vaticanus). Now held primarily by the British Library.

Textus Receptus (TR). Latin: “received text.” The printed Greek New Testament text that emerged from the Reformation-era editions (Erasmus 1516–1535, Stephanus 1546–1551, Beza 1565–1604, Elzevir 1624–1633). The Greek text behind the King James Version. The TR tradition is the historical predecessor of the modern critical text but is not its equivalent; the TR was based on a small number of late medieval Greek manuscripts.

Uncial. A Greek manuscript written in upper-case majuscule script. The standard format for Greek New Testament manuscripts from the second through eighth centuries. Famous uncials include Sinaiticus (א), Vaticanus (B), Alexandrinus (A), Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C), and Codex Bezae (D).

Variant. A place in the manuscript record where two or more readings exist for the same passage of New Testament text. The discipline of textual criticism is the work of weighing variants and judging which reading stands closest to the autograph.

Vaticanus (Codex). Greek New Testament uncial manuscript from the mid-fourth century. Held by the Vatican Library since at least the fifteenth century. With Sinaiticus, one of the two great fourth-century Alexandrian uncials behind the modern critical text.

Vulgate. Jerome’s late-fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible, commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to standardize the Latin text. Became the standard Latin Bible of the Western church for over a millennium; declared the official Latin text by the Council of Trent (1546).

Western text-type. The textual family represented by Codex Bezae (D, fifth century, Greek-Latin bilingual), the Old Latin manuscripts, and certain Old Syriac witnesses. Geographically anchored in the Latin West (Italy, North Africa, southern France); characterized by expansion, especially in Acts, where the Western text is roughly ten percent longer than the Alexandrian. Treated in chapter 11.

Seeing the manuscripts for yourself

The manuscripts discussed in the book and series are freely viewable online. The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (csntm.org) hosts high-resolution images of thousands of Greek New Testament manuscripts. The New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room maintained by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (ntvmr.uni-muenster.de) is the discipline’s working catalogue, with digital images and transcriptions. Codex Sinaiticus has its own dedicated project at codexsinaiticus.org, and Codex Vaticanus is available through the Vatican Library’s digital portal.