Updated American Standard Version
Giving Bible readers what God said not what translators think God meant
Early papyri and major codices anchor the Greek New Testament, defining the critical text from Westcott–Hort to NA28/UBS5 and clarifying Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine streams.
Textual variants in Matthew 25 reveal scribal expansions, yet early Alexandrian witnesses preserve the original, sharper readings.
Codex Sinaiticus dates to 330–360 C.E., shown by fourth-century script, four-column layout, Eusebian apparatus, carbon ink main text, and early correction layers.
Westcott and Hort grounded New Testament textual criticism in manuscripts, privileging early Alexandrian evidence and letting documentary data rule each decision.
Early papyri and the documentary method show how the New Testament’s original, inerrant text is identifiable, stable, and historically recoverable.
Paleography reveals how New Testament manuscripts were written, copied, and preserved, offering insights into materials, book forms, and scribal practices.
Papyrus 139 (𝔓139), a 4th-century Greek fragment of Philemon, reveals key textual variants and supports the stability of the Alexandrian tradition in Egypt.
P87, a second-century papyrus, confirms the Alexandrian text of Philemon, enhancing our understanding of early New Testament transmission.
As followers of Christ and believers in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, the materials used in the original transmission of these holy texts bear a significance that echoes through history. One such material, papyrus, has played an irreplaceable role in preserving the New Testament. As early as the Exodus, papyrus was already used as a writing material.
The handwriting has many similarities with P. Egerton 4 (2 Chronicles) of the third century, and even more so with P27, which may be the work of the same scribe.
