Introduction

The term “manuscript” comes from the Latin words manu (meaning “with the hand”) and scripta (meaning “written”). Prior to Gutenberg’s printed version of the Latin Bible in 1454–1455, all copies of the New Testament were written by hand. Originally, all New Testament texts were written in Greek. By the year 500, these texts had been translated into Syriac, various Coptic, Latin, Gothic, Armenian, Georgian, and perhaps Ethiopic dialects. In the subsequent millennium, it was translated into many vernacular languages and dialects of medieval Christendom, including the Middle East. This article will discuss only Greek manuscripts.

Gutenberg worked in the mid-15th century. The first printed Greek New Testament, edited by Erasmus, was made in 1516. However, manuscript copies continued to be made through the 16th and into the 17th century and beyond, occasionally even in the second half of the 19th century. There continues to be a market for calligraphic Bibles, such as Saint John’s Bible.

Classification

The manuscripts are divided into four classes:

1. Papyri, indicated with an Arabic number following the letter P, either Roman P or black letter P.
2. Majuscules (sometimes incorrectly called “uncials”), indicated with an Arabic number following a zero. In the past, they were listed with a complicated sequence of Roman, Greek, and even Hebrew uppercase letters.
3. Minuscules (sometimes incorrectly called “cursives”), indicated with an Arabic number.
4. Lectionaries, indicated with an Arabic number following the letter L, either upright uppercase Roman, upright lowercase Roman, or italic lowercase Roman.

As of March 17, 2021, the following number of manuscripts existed:

Papyri	140
Majuscules	323
Minuscules	2,951
Lectionaries	2,484
Total	5,898

In the 27 years since this list was last issued in a printed book, the numbers have grown by:

Papyri	41
Majuscules	17
Minuscules	102
Lectionaries	81
Total	385

This list typically grows by two or three new discoveries a year for the following reasons:

• The publication of papyri in the Oxyrhynchus series which, due to the size of the collection, has been running for over a century (26 items)
• Chance discoveries in libraries.

The numbers are not precise; some entries contain two separate manuscripts incorrectly identified as one (e.g., P44) or two bound together (e.g., minuscule 180). Some manuscripts are spread over a number of entries because they are in different libraries (e.g., 070).

Papyri

Manuscripts classified as “Papyri” are those that are written on papyrus, a reed that was sliced into strips and glued into double-thick sheets. This material was the most common writing material of Roman and Late Antiquity. It has survived only in the driest conditions, and all the examples have been recovered from deserts—mostly in Egypt. Existing copies of parts of the New Testament written on papyrus date from the second to the seventh centuries. The most significant manuscripts are those dating circa 200–400. From the second quarter of the fourth century, parchment began to gain ground as the preferred material on which to copy the New Testament, and papyrus became a cheap alternative for producing a lower quality product.

Majuscules

All majuscule manuscripts are written in a version of the class of script known as majuscule, using parchment as the material. Broadly conforming to what we would call uppercase lettering, majuscule was the dominant script from the fourth to the eighth centuries. The most recent majuscule containing a part of the New Testament is dated to the early 11th century.

Minuscule

All minuscule manuscripts are mostly written in minuscule, a script similar to what we would call lowercase. A minuscule manuscript may contain some elements of text, such as headings and other paratext, in a majuscule display script. The oldest dated manuscript containing a part of the New Testament is dated May 7, AD 835. The older minuscules were written wholly on parchment. Paper began to be used in the 12th century onwards, and manuscripts were written on a mixture of parchment and paper (gatherings were often composed with inner sheets of paper and an outer sheet of parchment to protect them) or, only paper. The most recent copies date from the 19th century.

These three classes (papyri, majuscule, miniscule) are, with a few exceptions, manuscripts containing the text of a book or books in the proper order. They are known as continuous text manuscripts. The minuscules may be further classified as those consisting of the New Testament text alone, and those also containing a commentary. The latter contain a variety of commentaries of the type known as catenae—excerpts taken from the writings of early Christian writers, most frequently John Chrysostom. The best known is the commentary on the Gospels by Theophylact, written in the late 11th century. Some of the catena manuscripts are among the most significant and influential copies of the New Testament books they contain.

Lectionaries

Lectionaries contain the text divided into the readings and the order in which they are read in the church’s year. Many of the oldest are written in majuscule, and the transition to minuscule parallels the transition for continuous text manuscripts. The introduction of paper parallels its use in continuous text manuscripts. Lectionaries are divided into two main classes:

1. Synaxaria (singular synaxarion), following the cycle of weekly readings from Easter through the year. Since the date of Easter is not fixed, the number of weeks is not fixed. A synaxarion contains readings from either the Gospels or the Praxapostolos (Acts and the Letters). A minority contain both.
2. Menologia (singular menologion), in which the readings for each day are dated by month according to the civil calendar. This sequence can include Saints’ days, and readings from nonbiblical texts.

The book of Revelation was never included in the lectionary.

Two Limitations of the Normal List

In two respects, the list, as it has developed since the days of Tischendorf and his successor Gregory, that is to say the second half of the 19th century, is deficient. There are various papyri containing New Testament text—sometimes written for use as amulets or for other specific purposes—which are not included, while some written for similar reasons are present. With regard to commentary manuscripts, the criteria for their inclusion are not always rigorously followed, while detailed research has found copies that have not been included in the list.

As a result, it is difficult not to reach the conclusion that the criteria for defining manuscripts as copies of the New Testament will never be totally consistent.

What Are Textual Variants [Errors] and How Many Are There?

Age of the Manuscripts

Most manuscripts date between the ninth and 15th centuries, with the majority dating 11–15th century (over 2,000 copies). Until the 19th century, almost no copies older than the ninth century were studied. Significant fourth-century copies then became known to scholarship or more easily available. Older copies on papyrus believed to be written in the third and even the second century were found in the 20th century. The oldest copy now known is a tiny fragment of John’s Gospel, dated to around AD 150 (P52).

Contents

Few manuscripts contain the whole New Testament. Four important ancient copies are complete Bibles:

1. Codex Sinaiticus, mid-fourth century
2. Codex Vaticanus, mid-fourth century
3. Codex Alexandrinus, mid-fifth century
4. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, mid-fifth century

Approximately 50 of the entire New Testament copies date between the late ninth and the 15th centuries (of which a few are complete Bibles). Another 250 manuscripts contain the entire New Testament except for Revelation. The greatest number of continuous text manuscripts is copies of the Gospels. With the exception of fragmentary manuscripts, whose original contents are uncertain, the following numbers of manuscripts exist:

• About 2,000 Gospel manuscripts
• Just over 400 of Acts and the Catholic Letters
• Just over 500 of Paul’s Letters (many of these contain Acts, the Catholic Letters, and Paul)
• About 220 copies of Revelation

10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic and Armenian. The dates of these manuscripts range from c. 125 (the 𝔓⁵² papyrus, oldest copy of John fragments) to the introduction of printing in Germany in the 15th century.

Papyrus 52 (P52): The “Ambiguity and Uncertainty” of Modern-Day Evangelical Bible Scholars Redating Early Papyri

Often, especially in monasteries, a manuscript cache was little more than a former manuscript recycling center, where imperfect and incomplete copies of manuscripts were stored while the monastery or scriptorium decided what to do with them. There were several options. The first was to simply “wash” the manuscript and reuse it. Such reused manuscripts were called palimpsests[1] and were very common in the ancient world until the Middle Ages. One notable palimpsest is the Archimedes Palimpsest. When washing was no longer an option, the second choice was burning. Since the manuscripts contained the words of Christ, they were thought to have had a level of sanctity; burning them was considered more reverent than simply throwing them into a garbage pit, which occasionally happened (as in the case of Oxyrhynchus 840). The third option was to leave them in what has become known as a manuscript gravesite. When scholars come across manuscript caches, such as at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai (the source of the Codex Sinaiticus), or Saint Sabbas Monastery outside Bethlehem, they are finding not libraries but storehouses of rejected texts sometimes kept in boxes or back shelves in libraries due to space constraints. The texts were unacceptable because of their scribal errors and contain corrections inside the lines, possibly evidence that monastery scribes compared them to a master text. In addition, texts thought to be complete and correct but that had deteriorated from heavy usage or had missing folios would also be placed in the caches. Once in a cache, insects and humidity would often contribute to the continued deterioration of the documents.

PAPYRUS 75 (P75): The Manuscript that Changed the Thinking of Textual Scholars

Complete and correctly copied texts would usually be immediately placed in use and so wore out fairly quickly, which required frequent recopying. Manuscript copying was very costly when it required a scribe’s attention for extended periods so a manuscript might be made only when it was commissioned. The size of the parchment, script used, any illustrations (thus raising the effective cost) and whether it was one book or a collection of several would be determined by the one commissioning the work. Stocking extra copies would likely have been considered wasteful and unnecessary since the form and the presentation of a manuscript were typically customized to the aesthetic tastes of the buyer.

Due to the prevalence of manuscript caches, scholars today are more likely to find incomplete and sometimes conflicting segments of manuscripts rather than complete and largely consistent works.

Distribution of Greek Manuscripts by Century
	New Testament manuscripts			Lectionaries
Century	Papyri	Uncials	Minuscules	Uncials	Minuscules
100-150/175 C.E.	16	–	–	–	–
175-250 C.E.	37	1	–	–	–
250-300 C.E.	30	2	–	–	–
3rd/4th	8	2	–	–	–
4th	14	14	–	1	–
4th/5th	8	8	–	–	–
5th	2	36	–	1	–
5th/6th	4	10	–	–	–
6th	7	51	–	3	–
6th/7th	5	5	–	1	–
7th	8	28	–	4	–
7th/8th	3	4	–	–	–
8th	2	29	–	22	–
8th/9th	–	4	–	5	–
9th	–	53	13	113	5
9th/10th	–	1	4	–	1
10th	–	17	124	108	38
10th/11th	–	3	8	3	4
11th	–	1	429	15	227
11th/12th	–	–	33	–	13
12th	–	–	555	6	486
12th/13th	–	–	26	–	17
13th	–	–	547	4	394
13th/14th	–	–	28	–	17
14th	–	–	511	–	308
14th/15th	–	–	8	–	2
15th	–	–	241	–	171
15th/16th	–	–	4	–	2
16th	–	–	136	–	194
Total	94	269	2667	286	1879

Transmission

The task of copying manuscripts was generally done by scribes who were trained professionals in the arts of writing and bookmaking. Scribes would work in difficult conditions, for up to 48 hours a week, with little pay beyond room and board. Some manuscripts were also proofread, and scholars closely examining a text can sometimes find the original and corrections found in certain manuscripts. In the 6th century, a special room devoted to the practice of manuscript writing and illumination[2] called the scriptorium[3] came into use, typically inside medieval European monasteries. Sometimes a group of scribes would make copies at the same time as one individual read from the text.

Manuscript Construction

An important issue with manuscripts is preservation. The earliest New Testament manuscripts were written on papyrus, made from a reed that grew abundantly in the Nile Delta. This tradition continued as late as the 8th century. Papyrus eventually becomes brittle and deteriorates with age. The dry climate of Egypt allowed some papyrus manuscripts to be partially preserved, but, with the exception of 𝔓⁶⁶, no New Testament papyrus manuscript is complete; many consist only of a single fragmented page. Beginning in the fourth century, parchment[4] (also called vellum)[5] began to be a common medium for New Testament manuscripts. It wasn’t until the twelfth century that paper (made from cotton or plant fibers) began to gain popularity in biblical manuscripts.

Textual Character and the Scribe of P75 (Papyrus 75)

Of the 476 non-Christian manuscripts dated to the second century, 97% of the manuscripts are in the form of scrolls;[6] however, eight Christian manuscripts are codices.[7] In fact, most New Testament manuscripts are codices. The adaptation of the codex form in non-Christian text did not become dominant until the fourth and fifth centuries, showing a preference for that form amongst early Christians. The considerable length of some New Testament books (such as the Pauline epistles), and the New Testament itself, was not suited to the limited space available on a single scroll; in contrast a codex could be expanded to hundreds of pages. On its own, however, length alone is an insufficient reason – after all, the Jewish scriptures would continue to be transmitted on scrolls for centuries to come. Scholars have argued that the codex was adopted as a product of the formation of the New Testament canon, allowing for specific collections of documents like the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles. “Canon and codex go hand in hand in the sense that the adoption of a fixed canon could be more easily controlled and promulgated when the codex was the means of gathering together originally separate compositions.”

Script and Other Features

The handwriting found in New Testament manuscripts varies. One way of classifying handwriting is by formality: book-hand vs. cursive. More formal, literary Greek works were often written in a distinctive style of even, capital letters called book-hand. Less formal writing consisted of cursive letters which could be written quickly. Another way of dividing handwriting is between uncial script (or majuscule) and minuscule. The uncial letters were a consistent height between the baseline and the cap height, while the minuscule letters had ascenders and descenders that moved past the baseline and cap height. Generally speaking, the majuscules are earlier than the minuscules, with a dividing line roughly in the 11th century.

CODEX VATICANUS: Why Is it a Treasure?

The earliest manuscripts had negligible punctuation and breathing marks. The manuscripts also lacked word spacing, so words, sentences, and paragraphs would be a continuous string of letters (scriptio continua), often with line breaks in the middle of words. Bookmaking was an expensive endeavor, and one way to reduce the number of pages used was to save space. Another method employed was to abbreviate frequent words, such as the nomina sacra. Yet another method involved the palimpsest, a manuscript that recycled an older manuscript. Scholars using careful examination can sometimes determine what was originally written on the material of a document before it was erased to make way for a new text (for example, Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus and the Syriac Sinaiticus).

CODEX SINAITICUS: One of the Most Reliable Witnesses to the Greek New Testament Text

The original New Testament books did not have titles, section headings, verses, chapters, or divisions. These were developed over the years as “helps for readers.” The Eusebian Canons were an early system of division written in the margin of many manuscripts. The Eusebian Canons are a series of tables that grouped parallel stories among the gospels. Starting in the fifth century, subject headings (κεφαλαία) were used.

Manuscripts became more ornate over the centuries, which developed into a rich illuminated manuscript tradition, including the famous Irish Gospel Books, the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow.

Cataloging

Desiderius Erasmus compiled the first published edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516, basing his work on several manuscripts because he did not have a single complete work and because each manuscript had small errors. In the 18th century, Johann Jakob Wettstein was one of the first biblical scholars to start cataloging biblical manuscripts. He divided the manuscripts based on the writing used (uncial, minuscule) or format (lectionaries) and based on content (Gospels, Pauline letters, Acts + General epistles, and Revelation). He assigned the uncials letters, minuscules, and lectionaries numbers for each grouping of content, resulting in manuscripts being assigned the same letter or number.

For manuscripts that contained the whole New Testament, such as Codex Alexandrinus (A) and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C), the letters corresponded across content groupings. For significant early manuscripts such as Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 (B), which did not contain Revelation, the letter B was also assigned to a later 10th-century manuscript of Revelation, thus creating confusion. Constantin von Tischendorf found one of the earliest, nearly complete copies of the Bible, Codex Sinaiticus, over a century after Wettstein’s cataloging system was introduced. Because he felt the manuscript was so important, Von Tischendorf assigned it the Hebrew letter aleph (א). Eventually, enough uncials were found that all the letters in the Latin alphabet had been used, and scholars moved on to first the Greek alphabet and eventually started reusing characters by adding a superscript. Confusion also existed in the minuscules, where up to seven different manuscripts could have the same number or a single manuscript of the complete New Testament could have 4 different numbers to describe the different content groupings.

Von Soden

Hermann von Soden published a complex cataloging system for manuscripts in 1902–10. He grouped the manuscripts based on content, assigning them a Greek prefix: δ for the complete New Testament, ε for the Gospels, and α for the remaining parts. This grouping was flawed because some manuscripts grouped in δ did not contain Revelation, and many manuscripts grouped in α contained either the general epistles or the Pauline epistles, but not both. After the Greek prefix, von Soden assigned a numeral that roughly corresponded to a date (for example δ1–δ49 were from before the 10th century, δ150–δ249 for the 11th century). This system proved to be problematic when manuscripts were re-dated, or when more manuscripts were discovered than the number of spaces allocated to a certain century.

Gregory-Aland Numbering System for the Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Gregory–Aland

Caspar René Gregory published another cataloging system in 1908 in Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments, which is the system still in use today. Gregory divided the manuscripts into four groupings: papyri, uncials, minuscules, and lectionaries. This division is partially arbitrary. The first grouping is based on the physical material (papyrus) used in the manuscripts. The second two divisions are based on script: uncial and minuscule. The last grouping is based on content: lectionary. Most of the papyrus manuscripts and the lectionaries before the year 1000 are written in uncial script. There is some consistency in that the majority of the papyri are very early because parchment began to replace papyrus in the 4th century (although the latest papyri date to the 8th century). Similarly, the majority of the uncials date to before the 11th century, and the majority of the minuscules to after.

Gregory assigned the papyri a prefix of P, often written in blackletter script (𝔓n), with a superscript numeral. The uncials were given a prefix of the number 0, and the established letters for the major manuscripts were retained for redundancy (e.g., Codex Claromontanus is assigned both 06 and D). The minuscules were given plain numbers, and the lectionaries were prefixed with l often written in script (ℓ). Kurt Aland continued Gregory’s cataloging work through the 1950s and beyond. Because of this, the numbering system is often referred to as “Gregory-Aland numbers.” The most recent manuscripts added to each grouping are 𝔓131, 0323, 2928, and ℓ 2463. Due to the cataloging heritage and because some manuscripts which were initially numbered separately were discovered to be from the same codex, there is some redundancy in the list (i.e. the Magdalen papyrus has both the numbers of 𝔓64 and 𝔓67).

THE UNKNOWN GOSPEL: Egerton Papyrus 2

The majority of New Testament textual criticism deals with Greek manuscripts because the scholarly opinion is that the original books of the New Testament were written in Greek. The text of the New Testament is also found both translated in manuscripts of many different languages (called versions) and quoted in manuscripts of the writings of the Church Fathers. In the critical apparatus of the Novum Testamentum Graece, a series of abbreviations and prefixes designate different language versions (it for Old Latin, lowercase letters for individual Old Latin manuscripts, vg for Vulgate, lat for Latin, sys for Sinaitic Palimpsest, syc for Curetonian Gospels, syp for the Peshitta, co for Coptic, ac for Akhmimic, bo for Bohairic, sa for Sahidic, arm for Armenian, geo for Georgian, got for Gothic, aeth for Ethiopic, and slav for Old Church Slavonic).

Dating the Manuscripts

The original manuscripts of the New Testament books are not known to have survived. The autographs are believed to have been lost or destroyed long ago. What survives are copies of the original. Generally speaking, these copies were made centuries after the originals from other copies rather than from the autograph. Paleography, a science of dating manuscripts by typological analysis of their scripts, is the most precise and objective means known for determining the age of a manuscript. Script groups belong typologically to their generation, and changes can be noted with great accuracy over relatively short periods of time. The dating of manuscript material by a radiocarbon dating test requires that a small part of the material be destroyed in the process. Both radiocarbon and paleographical dating only give a range of possible dates, and it is still debated just how narrow this range might be. Dates established by radiocarbon dating can present a range of 10 to over 100 years. Similarly, dates established by paleography can present a range of 25 to 50 years.

PALEOGRAPHY: Dating Ancient Manuscripts?

Earliest Extant Manuscripts

The earliest manuscript of a New Testament text is a business-card-sized fragment from the Gospel of John, Rylands Library Papyrus P52, which may be as early as the first half of the 2nd century. The first complete copies of single New Testament books appear around 200, and the earliest complete copy of the New Testament, the Codex Sinaiticus dates to the 4th century. The following table lists the earliest extant manuscript witnesses for the books of the New Testament.

Book	Earliest extant manuscripts	Date	Condition
Matthew	𝔓1, 𝔓37, 𝔓45, 𝔓53, 𝔓64, 𝔓67, 𝔓70, 𝔓77, 𝔓101, 𝔓103, 𝔓104	c. 150–300 (2nd–3rd century)	Large fragments
Mark	𝔓45, 𝔓137	c. 150–250 (2nd–3rd century)	Large fragments
Luke	𝔓4, 𝔓69, 𝔓75, 𝔓45	c. 175–250 (2nd–3rd century)	Large fragments
John	𝔓5, 𝔓6, 𝔓22, 𝔓28, 𝔓39, 𝔓45, 𝔓52, 𝔓66, 𝔓75, 𝔓80, 𝔓90, 𝔓95, 𝔓106	c. 125–250 (2nd–3rd century)	Large fragments
Acts	𝔓29, 𝔓38, 𝔓45, 𝔓48, 𝔓53, 𝔓74, 𝔓91	Early 3rd century	Large fragments
Romans	𝔓27, 𝔓40, 𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
1 Corinthians	𝔓14, 𝔓15, 𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
2 Corinthians	𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
Galatians	𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
Ephesians	𝔓46, 𝔓49	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
Philippians	𝔓16, 𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
Colossians	𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
1 Thessalonians	𝔓30, 𝔓46, 𝔓65	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
2 Thessalonians	𝔓30	Early 3rd century	Fragments
1 Timothy	א	c. 350 (4th century)	Complete
2 Timothy	א	c. 350 (4th century)	Complete
Titus	𝔓32	c. 200 (late 2nd – early 3rd century)	Fragment
Philemon	𝔓87	3rd century	Fragment
Hebrews	𝔓12, 𝔓13, 𝔓17, 𝔓46	c. 175–225 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragments
James	𝔓20, 𝔓23, 𝔓100	3rd Century	Fragments
1 Peter	𝔓81, 𝔓72	c. 300 (late 3rd – early 4th century)	Fragments
2 Peter	𝔓72	c. 300 (late 3rd – early 4th century)	Fragments
1 John	𝔓9	3rd century	Fragment
2 John	א	c. 350 (4th century)	Complete
3 John	א	c. 350 (4th century)	Complete
Jude	𝔓72, 𝔓78	c. 300 (late 3rd – early 4th century)	Fragments
Revelation	𝔓18, 𝔓24, 𝔓47, 𝔓98, 𝔓115	c. 150–250 (2nd–3rd century)	Fragment

Textual Criticism

Palaeography is the study of ancient writing, and textual criticism is the study of manuscripts in order to reconstruct a probable original or initially copied text.

None of the original documents of the New Testament is known to scholars to be extant; and the existing manuscripts differ from one another. The textual critic seeks to ascertain from the divergent copies which form of the text should be regarded as most conforming to the original. The New Testament has been preserved in three major manuscript traditions: the 4th-century-CE Alexandrian text-type, the Western text-type, and the Byzantine text-type, which includes over 80% of all manuscripts, the majority comparatively very late in the tradition.

OXYRHYNCHUS PAPYRI: The Most Numerous Subgroup of the Earliest Copies of the New Testament

Since the mid-19th century, eclecticism, in which there is no a priori bias to a single manuscript, has been the dominant method of editing the New Testament Greek text. This is reflected in the Novum Testamentum Graece, which since 2014 corresponds to both the United Bible Society, 5th edition and Nestle-Aland, 28th edition. In textual criticism, eclecticism is the practice of examining a wide number of text witnesses and selecting the variant that seems best. The process results from a text with readings drawn from many witnesses. In a purely eclectic approach, no single witness is theoretically favored. Instead, the critic forms opinions about individual witnesses, relying on both external and internal evidence. Even so, the oldest manuscripts, being of the Alexandrian text-type, are the most favored in these two publications; and the critical text has an Alexandrian disposition. Most English translations of the New Testament made in the 20th Century were based on these copies.

Agnostic, pessimistic, Textual scholar Bart D. Ehrman writes: “It is true, of course, that the New Testament is abundantly attested in the manuscripts produced through the ages, but most of these manuscripts are many centuries removed from the originals, and none of them perfectly accurate. They all contain mistakes – altogether many thousands of mistakes. It is not an easy task to reconstruct the original words of the New Testament….”[8] Yes, almost all of the mistakes are insignificant, and the original reading is known. In reference to the textual evidence for the New Testament, Bruce M. Metzger wrote,

In evaluating the significance of these statistics…one should consider, by way of contrast, the number of manuscripts which preserve the text of the ancient classics. Homer’s Iliad…is preserved by 457 papyri, 2 uncial manuscripts, and 188 minuscule manuscripts. Among the tragedians the witnesses to Euripides are the most abundant; his extant works are preserved in 54 papyri and 276 parchment manuscripts, almost all of the later dating from the Byzantine period…the time between the composition of the books of the New Testament and the earliest extant copies is relatively brief. Instead of the lapse of a millennium or more, as is the case of not a few classical authors, several papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament are extant which were copies within a century or so after the composition of the original documents.[9]

Textual Scholar Edward D. Andrews adds,

The New Testament Compared to Classical Literature

Author	Work	Writing Completed	Earliest MSS	Years Removed	Number of MSS
Homer	Iliad	800 B.C.E.	3rd century B.C.E.[10]	500	1,757
Herodotus	History	480–425 B.C.E.	10th cent. C.E.	1,350	109
Sophocles	Plays	496–406 B.C.E.	3rd cent. B.C.E.[11]	100-200	193
Thucydides	History	460–400 B.C.E.	3rd cent. B.C.E.[12]	200	96
Plato	Tetralogies	400 B.C.E.	895 C.E.	1,300	210
Demosthenes	Speeches	300 B.C.E.	Fragments from 1st cent. B.C.E.	200	340
Caesar	Gallic Wars	51-46 B.C.E.	9th cent. C.E.	950	251
Livy	History of Rome	59 B.C.E.–17 C.E.	5th cent. C.E.	400	150
Tacitus	Annals	100 C.E.	9th-11th cent. C.E.	750–950	33
Pliny, the Elder	Natural History	49–79 C.E.	5th cent. C.E. fragment	400	200
Eight Greek NT Authors	27 Books	50 – 98 C.E.	110-150 C.E.	12-52	5,898

The Greek New Testament evidence, as we’ve mentioned previously, is over 5,898 Greek NT manuscripts. This is made up of 140+ papyri, 323 majuscules, 2,951 minuscules, and 2,484 lectionaries[13] that have been cataloged.[14] We also have over 9,284 versions and over 10,000 Latin manuscripts, not to mention an innumerable amount of church fathers’ quotations. This places the Greek New Testament in a class by itself because no other ancient document is close to this. However, there is even more. Again, there are 60 Greek papyri and five majuscules manuscripts that date to the second and third centuries C.E. Moreover, these early papyri manuscripts are from a region in Egypt that appreciated books as literature and were copied by semi-professional and professional scribes or highly skilled copyists. This region produced what is known as the most accurate and trusted manuscripts.[15]

Several New Testament manuscripts handwritten in the original Greek format are discovered every year. The latest substantial find was in 2008 when 47 new manuscripts were discovered in Albania; at least 17 of them unknown to Western scholars. There has been an estimate of 400,000 variations among all these manuscripts (from the 2nd to 15th century). If those 400,000 variations are spread over 5,600 manuscripts, the average manuscript has only about 71 variations, although some of these manuscripts are the equivalent of several hundred pages of text, hand-written (see Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, et al.). The number of variants is additionally less significant than may appear since it is a comparison across linguistic boundaries. More important estimates focus on comparing texts within languages. Those variations are considerably fewer. The vast majority of these are accidental errors made by scribes, and are easily identified as such: an omitted word, a duplicate line, a misspelling, a rearrangement of words. Some variations involve apparently intentional changes, which often make more difficult a determination of whether they were corrections from better exemplars, harmonizations between readings, or ideologically motivated. Variants are listed in critical editions of the text, the most important of which is the Novum Testamentum Graece, which is the basis for most modern translations. For over 250 years, Christian scholars have argued that no textual variant affects key Christian doctrine.[16]

How Many Greek New Testament Papyri Manuscripts Do We Have and How Early Are They?

The oldest complete copy of the whole New Testament is Codex Sinaiticus. Codex Vaticanus is missing Heb 9:4 onwards, and therefore lacks Philemon, the Pastoral Letters, and Revelation. These two remain the oldest complete copies of each individual book (and where Vaticanus is missing this position is held by Sinaiticus alone). The older copies, nearly all written on papyrus, are very fragmentary. The most substantial are:

• P45–30 leaves of the Gospels and Acts
• P46–86 leaves of Paul’s letters
• P66–78 leaves of John
• P72—a book of 95 leaves whose contents include 1 and 2 Peter and Jude
• P75–64 leaves of Luke and John

Even of these, many pages are damaged or difficult to read. After Codex Alexandrinus, the next oldest complete copies of any book date from the ninth century.

THE DOCUMENTARY APPROACH in New Testament Textual Studies

In addition to biblical text, and apart from the commentary copies, many manuscripts contain further text (often called paratext), such as:

• lists of chapter headings
• introductions to particular books
• marginal comments
• colophons, recording the scribe’s name, the date of completion, the place and sometimes even information about the manuscript from which it was taken.

A collection of descriptive material, known as the Euthalian Apparatus, accompanies Paul’s Letters. Furthermore, many minuscules contain a lectionary apparatus so that readers can find the readings of the day.

Byzantine manuscripts also frequently contain miniatures, decorated headbands to each book and portraits of the evangelists. Some other books, such as the Rossano Gospels of the sixth century, contain illustrations.

Textual Division

Ancient books contained less punctuation than modern books and was provided at the scribe’s discretion. But during the fourth century, many early Christian works acquired divisions. The most complicated system divided each Gospel into numbered paragraphs and set the numbers in tables so that readers could find parallel passages. This system is called the Eusebian Apparatus, named after Eusebius of Caesarea who developed it. The other books were divided into numbered paragraphs. From the ninth century, the degree of punctuation increased and became more consistent.

Order of Books

The order adopted in English translations follows that of the Latin New Testament. The sequence in Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and later complete New Testaments is Gospels—Acts—Catholic Letters—Paul. Revelation always comes last. There was some variation in the order of the Gospels (Matthew—John—Luke—Mark was also a popular sequence in the fourth century) and of Paul’s Letters within these units. There is no variation in the order of the Catholic Epistles.

HOW DO WE DETERMINE THE ORIGINAL READING THROUGH The Principles and Practice of New Testament Textual Studies?

Format

Almost all copies of New Testament books are written in the codex format; only a few are rolls. This contrasts the proportion for other Greek texts of the second to the fourth centuries, most of which are in rolls. This distinguishes New Testament writings and had important implications for the development of the canon and the way early Christians used books. Because a codex can contain more text than a roll, it was possible to copy all the Gospels or of Paul’s writings into a single papyrus volume. With the adoption of parchment in the fourth century, it became possible to write even an entire New Testament, or even an entire Bible, in one volume. Moreover, the codex format made it possible for readers to leaf through other passages without losing their place and thus to compare passages (for example in different Gospels).

The rather large majuscule scripts required a large amount of parchment. Additionally, the complete copies require a huge format; the Codex Sinaiticus, with a page size of 43 × 48 cm, is the largest Greek New Testament manuscript in existence. Because of this, most copies contained less text. An expansion in book production in the 10th century (with an unchanged parchment supply) led to the adoption of the smaller majuscule scripts. Byzantine book sizes are typically in a smaller format of approximately 15 × 11 cm, or a larger one of 23 × 16 cm; commentary manuscripts tend to be somewhat larger. Byzantine books have either one or two columns to the page, with approximately 20 lines in a column in the smaller format.

Theories and Methodologies of New Testament Textual Criticism

Production

In the ancient world, books were produced to order. Only with printing did the practice of printing anticipating demand become normal. Most manuscripts were produced by a single scribe who was copying from another manuscript (an exemplar). Scribes first prepared the exemplar for copying, perhaps by checking the contents, reading it to assess the spelling and correct any obvious errors. They would then calculate the layout and space required, prepare the writing materials (cut up papyrus sheets, or in the case of parchment, mark up the layout with a sharp point and dry lines), and then copy sheet by sheet. At the end, the whole volume would have been bound.

While it is also possible that a reader could have dictated a copy to a single scribe, the idea of mass dictation in a monastery library is highly improbable. It is possible that a reader may sometimes have dictated a copy to a single scribe.

Glossary of Technical Terms for New Testament Textual Studies

Comparing Manuscripts

Each copy of a manuscript is unique not only in appearance but also in the wording of the text itself. The study of these differences, known as textual criticism, begins with the study of the individual copies. Differences in texts may have been the result of the individual scribe’s errors. There are four kinds of differences in any manuscript when it is compared to another:

1. omitting text
2. repeating text
3. writing one word for another
4. changing word order

One of the most common mistakes is the tendency to omit text; thus every individual copy will probably contain a slightly shortened version of the text(s) it contains. Scribes also adopted spelling (especially of vowels) to reflect their pronunciation. Changing word order was also common, and may have happened when a scribe realized he had omitted a word, choosing to add it in a word or two later.

These inevitable human errors often went unnoticed. However, there were also deliberate alterations, which were most common in the first few centuries. Such changes include grammatical improvements, such as preferring a singular verb with a neuter plural subject, or the removal of solecisms. They also include changes to the meaning, harmonisation of one Gospel to another, and even insertion or removal of phrases or longer pieces of text.

While many manuscripts have survived from the Byzantine period, it is often fairly easy to distinguish their relationship, and to place them in groups or families—sometimes even identifying that one is a copy of another. However, because so few copies have survived from the earliest centuries, it is much harder to understand their relationship. As this is the period of the most significant textual change, much scholarship is spent on the study of these oldest copies and their relationship. One of the most significant such relationships is that of P75 and Codex Vaticanus.

Access

Mass digitization of manuscripts is transforming the world of manuscript studies. This is accompanied by developments in online resources of transcriptions, linked images, metadata, and analytical tools. Digitization is of two kinds of collections:

1. Institutional collections, in which the manuscript holdings of a library are published on the internet.
2. Logical collections, in which the manuscripts of a particular work are made available in a single place, such as the Virtual Manuscript Room.

Transcriptions, sometimes linked to images, are available in New Testament Transcripts and in the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP) editions of John.

Significant Manuscripts

The following are some of the most significant manuscripts:

• Chester Beatty Papyri:
• P45—Written in the third century; contains the Gospels and Acts. Its copies of Mark are the oldest in existence.
• P46—Written circa 200; the oldest copy of Paul’s letters. It contains almost complete pages of most of the letters (Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles).
• P47—Written in the late third century; the oldest manuscript with extensive fragments of Revelation. Its text has similarities to that found in Codex Sinaiticus.
• Bodmer Papyri:
• P66—Usually said to have been produced in the early third century, although a date in the fourth has recently been proposed. Contains extensive portions of John and provides insights into John’s textual history.
• P75—Produced in the early third century, though a fourth century date is also worth considering. Contains extensive portions of Luke and John and provides insights into John’s textual history. (Fee, Papyrus Bodmer II (P66); Martini, Il problema della recensionalità del codice B).
• P127—A fourth-century copy of Acts; the oldest discovered version of a freer version of the story (The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 1–45).
• Codex Sinaiticus (01)—The most remarkable of the ancient copies as a piece of book production (see “Codex Sinaiticus Project” for a full transcription with other material; Parker, Codex Sinaiticus).
• Codex Alexandrinus (02)—Dated to the fifth century; in much of the New Testament contains an early version of what was to become the Byzantine text.
• Codex Vaticanus (03)—Generally regarded as the most accurate ancient copy (Andrist, Le manuscript de la Bible).
• Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (04)—A palimpsest; that is, the original script was scraped off and a different text added later. The original script contains the Bible. It has an especially important text in Revelation.
• Codex Bezae (05)—Written circa 400; a manuscript of the Gospels and Acts in Greek and Latin. Its version of the Gospels is often harmonizing, and it is the most important copy of the freer text of Acts (see Parker, Codex Bezae).
• Codex Claromontanus (06)—A sixth-century copy of Paul in Greek and Latin.
• The Freer Gospels (032)—A fifth-century manuscript that contains a distinctive text in many places (Hurtado, The Freer Biblical Manuscripts).
• 041—Written in the ninth century; a leading member of a large group of Byzantine manuscripts of the Gospels.
• 1 (12th century) and 1582 (copied in 948)—The two most important copies of a family of Gospel manuscripts which contain an old (pre-Byzantine) form of the text (Anderson, The Textual Tradition of the Gospels).
• 13—Dates to the 13th century; a leading member of another family with an old form of the text.
• 35—Dates to the 11th century; a complete copy of the New Testament. Contains a carefully produced and carefully copied text transmitted through the later Byzantine period.
• 1739—By the same scribe as 1582, a copy of Acts and all the Letters.

By David Parker and Edward D. Andrews, and Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Aland, K., Michael Welte, Beate Köster, and Klaus Junack. “Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments.” Arbeiten zur Neutestamentliche Textforschung 2nd ed. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1994.
• Aland, K., B. Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Translated by E.F. Rhodes. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids; Leiden: Brill, 1989.
• Brown, M.P., ed. In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000. Washington D.C.: Freer and Sackler Galleries, 2006.
• Codex Sinaiticus Project. Accessed July 6, 2015. http://www.codexsinaiticus.org
• Elliott, J.K. A Bibliography of Greek New Testament Manuscripts. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 62. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Parker, D.C. The Living Text of the Gospels. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• ———. An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

• Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of The New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 40f, 72f. ISBN 0-8028-4098-1.
• Aland, Barbara; Delobel, Joël (1994). New Testament textual criticism, exegesis and church history: a discussion of methods. Kampen: Kok Pharos. ISBN 9-03-900105-7.
• Barkay, G.; Vaughn, A.G.; Lundberg, M.J.; Zuckerman, B. (2004). The Amulets from Ketef Hinnom: A New Edition and Evaluation. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Vol. 334. pp. 41–71. An innovation in the report was the simultaneous publication of an accompanying “digital article,” a CD version of the article and the images
• Bruce, F. F. (1964). “The Last Thirty Years.” In Frederic G. Kenyon (ed.). Story of the Bible. Saturday, September 24, 2022.
• Bruce, F. F. (2003). The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?. ISBN 978-0802822192.
• Comfort, Philip W.; Barrett, David P. (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House. ISBN 0-8423-5265-1.
• Ehrman, Bart D. (2004). The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford. pp. 480f. ISBN 0-19-515462-2.
• Kruger, Michael J. (2012). Canon revisited : establishing the origins and authority of the New Testament books (1st ed.). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway. ISBN 9781433505003.
• Metzger, Bruce M. (1992). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507297-9.
• Metzger, Bruce M.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516667-1.
• Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece. Vol. 27. Hendrickson Publishers. 2006. ISBN 1-59856-172-3.
• Seid, Timothy W. “Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts”. Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts Web. Retrieved Saturday, September 24, 2022.
• Waltz, Robert. “An Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism”. A Site Inspired By: The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism. Archived from the original on 18 June 2007. Retrieved Saturday, September 24, 2022.
• von Soden, Hermann (1902). Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte (in German). Berlin: Glaue. 4 vols., 1902–1910
• Wilson, Robert Dick (1929). The Textual Criticism of the Old Testament. The Princeton Theological Review. Vol. 27. p. 40.

SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW

BIBLE TRANSLATION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

TECHNOLOGY

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN FICTION

[1] In textual studies, a palimpsest is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or goat kid skin and was expensive and not readily available, so, in the interest of economy, a page was often re-used by scraping off the previous writing. In colloquial usage, the term palimpsest is also used in architecture, archaeology and geomorphology to denote an object made or worked upon for one purpose and later reused for another; for example, a monumental brass the reverse blank side of which has been re-engraved.

[2] An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services, and psalms, the practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include proclamations, enrolled bills, laws, charters, inventories and deeds.

[3] Scriptorium, literally “a place for writing,” is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying, and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes.

[4] Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs and young calves.

[5] Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, and if vellum is distinguished from this, it is by its being made from calfskin, as opposed to that from other animals, or otherwise being of higher quality.

[6] A scroll, also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.

[7] The codex was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term codex is often used for ancient manuscript books, with handwritten contents. A codex, much like the modern book, is bound by stacking the pages and securing one set of edges in a form analogous to modern bookbinding by a variety of methods over the centuries.

[8] Bart D. Ehrman. (2004). The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford. pp. 480f.

[9] Bruce M. Metzger, (1992). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

[10] There are a number of fragments that date to the second century B.C.E. and one to the third century B.C.E., with the rest dating to the ninth century C.E. or later.

[11] Most of the 193 MSS date to the tenth century C.E., with a few fragments dating to the third century B.C.E.

[12] Some papyri fragments date to the third century B.C.E.

[13] Of the 5,898 Greek NT manuscripts cataloged, 83 percent of them date after 1000 C.E., with 17% (889 manuscripts) dating from the second to the tenth century. Between the second to the tenth century, we find in whole or in part 365 Gospels, 112 Acts and Catholic Epistles, 158 Epistles of Paul, 33 Revelation, and 313 lectionaries. The Gospel of Mark is the least attested prior to the fourth century, with chapters 2, 3, 10, and 13-16 having no representation at all. The Gospel of Mark is only represented in (P⁴⁵), but about 78% of the Gospel is missing, and the fragment P¹³⁷, a codex, written on both sides with text from the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark; verses 7-9 on the recto side and 16-18 on the verso side. The Gospel of John on the other hand, prior to the fourth century it is very well attested, with only 14 verses not being covered between chapters 16 and 20. The Gospel of John is found in some of the earliest and most significant manuscripts (P⁴⁵ P⁶⁶ P⁷⁵).

[14] While at present here in 2020, there are 5,898 manuscripts. There are 140 listed Papyrus manuscripts, 323 Majuscule manuscripts, 2,951 Minuscule manuscripts, and 2,484 Lectionary manuscripts, bringing the total cataloged manuscripts to 5,898 manuscripts. However, you cannot simply total the number of cataloged manuscripts because, for example, P^11/14 are the same manuscript but with different catalog numbers. The same is true of P^33/5, P^4/64/67, P^49/65 and P^77/103. Now this alone would bring our 140 listed papyrus manuscripts down to 134. ‘Then, we turn to one example from our majuscule manuscripts where clear 0110, 0124, 0178, 0179, 0180, 0190, 0191, 0193, 0194, and 0202 are said to be part of 070. A minuscule manuscript was listed with five separate catalog numbers for 2306, which then have the letters a through e. Thus, we have the following GA numbers: 2306 for 2306a, and 2831- 2834 for 2306b-2306e.’ – (Hixon 2019, 53-4) The problem is much worse when we consider that there are 323 Majuscule manuscripts and then far worse still with a listed 2,951 Minuscule and 2,484 Lectionaries. Nevertheless, those who estimate a total of 5,300 (Jacob W. Peterson, Myths and Mistakes, p. 63) 5,500 manuscripts (Dr. Ed Gravely / ehrmanproject.com/), 5,800 manuscripts (Porter 2013, 23), it is still a truckload of evidence far and above the dismal number of ancient secular author books.

[15] Edward D. Andrews, (2020). FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS: Introduction-Intermediate New Testament Textual Studies. Christian Publishing House.

[16] Wallace, Daniel (3 June 2004). “The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are They Identical?”. Retrieved Saturday, September 24, 2022.

A little dated but still informative, Bruce, F.F. “Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?”