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The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

Edward D. Andrews — **EDWARD D. ANDREWS** (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 180+ books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).

Major Critical Texts of the New Testament

Byz RP: 2005 Byzantine Greek New Testament, Robinson & Pierpont
TR1550: 1550 Stephanus New Testament
Maj: The Majority Text (thousands of minuscules which display a similar text)
Gries: 1774-1775 Johann Jakob Griesbach Greek New Testament
Treg: 1857-1879 Samuel Prideaux Tregelles Greek New Testament
Tisch: 1872 Tischendorf’s Greek New Testament
WH: 1881 Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament
NA28: 2012 Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament
UBS5: 2014 Greek New Testament
NU: Both Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Society
TGNT: 2017 The Greek New Testament by Tyndale House
GENTI: 2019 Greek-English New Testament Interlinear

ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 12:47 Greek-English New Testament Interlinear (GENTI) [BRD]
47 ——

ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 12:47 1881 Westcott-Hort New Testament (WH) [BRD]
47 ——

ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 12:47 Nestle-Aland 28th / United Bible Society 5th (NU TGNT) [P]
47 εἶπενSaid δέbut τιςsomeone αὐτῷto him ἸδοὺLook! ἡThe μήτηρmother σουof you καὶand οἱthe ἀδελφοίbrothers σουof you ἔξωoutside ἑστήκασινhave stood ζητοῦντέςseeking σοιto you λαλῆσαι.to speak. (the Committee had difficulty in deciding which variant to place in the text.)

ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 12:47 1550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)
47 εἶπενSaid δέbut τιςsomeone αὐτῷto him ἸδοὺLook! ἡThe μήτηρmother σουof you καὶand οἱthe ἀδελφοίbrothers σουof you ἔξωoutside ἑστήκασινhave stood ζητοῦντέςseeking σοιto you λαλῆσαι.to speak.

Matthew 12:47 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
^{47 ——}

Matthew 12:47 English Standard Version (ESV)
^{47 ——}

Matthew 12:47 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
^{47 ——}

Matthew 12:47 American Standard Version (ASV)
⁴⁷^[a]And one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking to speak to thee.^[a] Some ancient authorities omit verse 47.

Matthew 12:47 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
⁴⁷Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.”^[a]^[a] This verse is not found in early mss

Matthew 12:47 King James Version (KJV)
⁴⁷Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

WH/GENTI — omit verse
א* B L Γ ff¹ it^k sy^s.c cop^sa

Variant 1 TR NU/TGNT/SBLGNT [εἶπεν δέ τις αὐτῷ· ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου ἔξω ἑστήκασιν ζητοῦντες σοι λαλῆσαι.] […] Square brackets indicate doubt
“And someone said to him, ‘Behold, your mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak with you.’ ”
C K W Z Δ Θ ƒ¹³ 565. 579. 700. (א¹ D ƒ¹ 33. 892. 1424: cf ⸀ et ⸂) 𝔪 lat sy^p.h mae bo

The whole of 12:47 is not present in the earliest trusted manuscripts (א* B) nor L Γ, as well as the Old Latin, Syriac, and Coptic manuscripts. This interpolation is found in the Variant /TR NU/TGNT/SBLGNT [“And someone said to him, ‘Behold, your mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak with you.’ ”], which is supported by (C K W Z Δ Θ ƒ¹³ 565. 579. 700. (א¹ D ƒ¹ 33. 892. 1424: cf ⸀ et ⸂) 𝔪 lat sy^p.h mae bo).

The Complete Guide to Bible Translation-2

Bruce Metzger argues in his A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, “The sentence, which seems to be necessary for the sense of the following verses, apparently was accidentally omitted because of homoeoteleuton (λαλῆσαι … λαλῆσαι).” Another argument to support the TR NU SBLGNT & TGNT is that the statement of 12:47 must be the original because if it is missing Jesus’ response in 12:48 would be responding to no one. However, the witnesses supporting the gap between 12:46 and 12:48 (omission) are weighty. How is it possible that there was an accidental omission (homoeoteleuton) in so many manuscripts? In addition, the fact that Jesus’ response of 12:48 needs something to respond to is the motivating factor for the scribe to fill in the blank between 12:46 and 12:48. It is as Comfort suggests, “Matthew may have expected readers to fill this gap in their own minds as they read.” Therefore, the omission found in WH/GENTI has better manuscript support. The reading that the other reading(s) most likely came from is likely the original. This is the fundamental principle of textual criticism. The gap between 12:46 and 12:48 was most likely what gave rise to the other reading of filling in that gap, making the gap between 12:46 and 12:48 the original reading.

Variant Reading(s): differing versions of a word or phrase found in two or more manuscripts within a variation unit (see below). Variant readings are also called alternate readings.

Variation Unit: any portion of text that exhibits variations in its reading between two or more different manuscripts. It is important to distinguish variation units from variant readings. Variation units are the places in the text where manuscripts disagree, and each variation unit has at least two variant readings. Setting the limits and range of a variation unit is sometimes difficult or even controversial because some variant readings affect others nearby. Such variations may be considered individually, or as elements of a single reading. One should also note that the terms “manuscript” and “witness” may appear to be used interchangeably in this context. Strictly speaking “witness” (see below) will only refer to the content of a given manuscript or fragment, which it predates to a greater or lesser extent. However, the only way to reference the “witness” is by referring to the manuscript or fragment that contains it. In this book, we have sometimes used the terminology “witness of x or y manuscript” to distinguish the content in this way.

Short Reminder

If we have the original words, we, in essence, have the original and, therefore, do not need the original documents.

Textual Criticism: the art and science (some would say only art) of determining the original text from variant readings exhibited by extant manuscripts.

SOURCES

B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek: Appendix (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1882)
Bruce Manning Metzger, United Bible Societies, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition a Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (4th Rev. Ed.) (London; New York: United Bible Societies, 1994),
Eberhard Nestle and Erwin Nestle, Nestle-Aland: NTG Apparatus Criticus, ed. Barbara Aland et al., 28. revidierte Auflage. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012).
Dirk Jongkind, ed., The Greek New Testament: Apparatus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017).
Dirk Jongkind, ed., The Greek New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), Matt. 6:8.
Eberhard Nestle and Erwin Nestle, Nestle-Aland: Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. Barbara Aland et al., 28. revidierte Auflage. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012)
The NET Bible. Garland, TX: Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Philip Wesley Comfort, A COMMENTARY ON THE MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2015).
Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the Variant Readings of the Ancient New Testament Manuscripts and How They Relate to the Major English Translations (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008).
Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2001)
Wallace B., Daniel (n.d.). Retrieved from The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: http://csntm.org/
Wilker, Wieland (n.d.). Retrieved from An Online Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels: http://www.willker.de/wie/TCG/index.html