Editing Textual criticism (section)

=== New Testament ===
{{main|Textual criticism of the New Testament}}
{{Further|Textual variants in the New Testament}}
Early New Testament texts include more than 5,800 [[Greek language|Greek]] manuscripts, 10,000 [[Latin]] manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages (including [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Slavic languages|Slavic]], [[Ethiopic]] and [[Armenian language|Armenian]]). The manuscripts contain approximately 300,000 textual variants, most of them involving changes of word order and other comparative trivialities.<ref name="wallace_on_majority">{{cite web|last= Wallace|first= Daniel|title= The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are They Identical?|url= https://bible.org/article/majority-text-and-original-text-are-they-identical|access-date= 23 November 2013|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131203000201/https://bible.org/article/majority-text-and-original-text-are-they-identical|archive-date= 3 December 2013}}</ref><ref name="westhort">{{cite book|last= Westcott and Hort|title= The New Testament in The Original Greek: Introduction Appendix|publisher= Macmillan|url= https://archive.org/details/newtestamentino02hortgoog|page= [https://archive.org/details/newtestamentino02hortgoog/page/n40 2]|quote= The New Testament in the Original Greek.|access-date= 23 November 2013|year= 1896}}</ref> As according to Wescott and Hort:

<blockquote>With regard to the great bulk of the words of the New Testament, as of most other ancient writings, there is no variation or other ground of doubt, and therefore no room for textual criticism... The proportion of words virtually accepted on all hands as raised above doubt is very great, not less, on a rough computation, than seven eights of the whole. The remaining eighth therefore, formed in great part by changes of order and other comparative trivialities, constitutes the whole area of criticism.{{r|westhort}}</blockquote>

Since the 18th century, Protestant New Testament scholars have argued that textual variants by themselves have not affected doctrine. Evangelical theologian [[D. A. Carson]] has claimed: "nothing we believe to be doctrinally true, and nothing we are commanded to do, is in any way jeopardized by the variants. This is true for any textual tradition. The interpretation of individual passages may well be called in question; but never is a doctrine affected."<ref name=wallace_on_majority/><ref>{{Cite book | last1=Beacham | first1=Roy E. | last2=Bauder | first2=Kevin T. | title= One Bible Only?: Examining Exclusive Claims for the King James Bible | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uQWTxDdIO6IC&q=D.+A.+Carson+nothing+we+believe+to+be+doctrinally+true,+and+nothing+we+are+commanded+to+do,+is+in+any+way+jeopardized+by+the+variants.&pg=PA133 | year=2001 | publisher=Kregel Publications | isbn=9780825497032 | language=en }}
</ref>

Historically, attempts have been made to sort new New Testament manuscripts into one of three or four theorized '''text-types''' (also styled unhyphenated: '''text types'''),  or into looser clusters.

However, the sheer number of witnesses presents unique difficulties, chiefly in that it makes stemmatics in many cases impossible, because many copyists used two or more different manuscripts as sources. Consequently, New Testament textual critics have adopted eclecticism. {{As of | 2017}} the most common division today is as follows:

{| border="1" style="margin:auto; width:100%"
|- style="background:#cef2e0; text-align:center;"
! width="20%"|Text type !! width=" 10%" |Date!!Characteristics!! Bible version
|-
| The [[Alexandrian text-type]]<br />(also called the "Neutral Text" tradition)||2nd–4th centuries CE|| This family constitutes a group of early and well-regarded texts, including Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. Most representatives of this tradition appear to come from around [[Alexandria, Egypt]] and from [[Coptic Church|the Alexandrian Church]]. <br /><br />It contains readings that are often terse, shorter, somewhat rough, less harmonised, and generally more difficult. The family was once{{when|date=August 2017}} thought{{by whom|date=August 2017}} to result from a very carefully edited third-century [[recension]], but now is believed to be merely the result of a carefully controlled and supervised process of copying and transmission. <br /><br />It underlies most translations of the New Testament produced since 1900.||[[New International Version|NIV]], [[New American Bible|NAB]], [[New American Bible Revised Edition|NABRE]],  [[Jerusalem Bible|JB]] and [[New Jerusalem Bible|NJB]] (albeit, with some reliance on the Byzantine text-type), [[Today's New International Version|TNIV]], [[New American Standard Bible|NASB]], [[Revised Standard Version|RSV]], [[English Standard Version|ESV]], [[Emphasized Bible|EBR]], [[New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures|NWT]], [[The Living Bible|LB]], [[American Standard Version|ASV]], [[New Century Version|NC]], [[Good News Bible|GNB]], [[Christian Standard Bible|CSB]]
|-
|The [[Western text-type]] (also called Syrian text-type)||3rd–9th centuries CE ||Also a very early tradition, which comes from a wide geographical area stretching from North Africa to Italy and from [[Gaul]] to Syria. It occurs in Greek manuscripts and in the Latin translations used by the [[Western church]]. <br /><br />It is much less controlled than the Alexandrian family and its witnesses are seen to be more prone to [[paraphrase]] and other corruptions. <br /><br />Some modern textual critics doubt the existence of a singular Western text-type, instead viewing it as a group of text-types.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ehrman |first1=Bart D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=guYq9rohFQ8C |title=The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. Second Edition |last2=Holmes |first2=Michael W. |date=2012-11-09 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-23604-2 |pages=190–191 |language=en}}</ref> Some New Testament scholars posit a distinct [[Caesarean text-type]], with mixed Western and Alexandrian features, for the four [[Gospels]].||[[Vetus Latina]], [[Syriac versions of the Bible#Old Syriac version|Old Syriac]]<br/><br>[[Vulgate]] New Testament is Vetus Latina base, with Byzantine revisions for the Gospels<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chapman|first=John|year=1922|title=St Jerome and the Vulgate New Testament (I–II)|journal=[[The Journal of Theological Studies]]|series=o.s.|volume=24|issue=93|pages=33–51|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XXIV.93.33|issn=0022-5185}} {{Cite journal|last=Chapman|first=John|year=1923|title=St Jerome and the Vulgate New Testament (III)|journal=The Journal of Theological Studies|series=o.s.|volume=24|issue=95|pages=282–299|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XXIV.95.282|issn=0022-5185}}</ref> and Alexandrian revisions for the rest.<ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183">{{Cite book|last=Scherbenske|first=Eric W.|title=Canonizing Paul: Ancient Editorial Practice and the Corpus Paulinum|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=183}}</ref> Used by all Western translations before 1520, including [[Wycliffe's Bible|Wycliffite New Testaments]], original [[Douay–Rheims Bible|Douay-Rheims]]
|-
| The [[Byzantine text-type]]||5th–16th centuries CE||This group comprises around 95% of all the manuscripts, the majority of which are comparatively very late in the tradition. It had become dominant at [[Constantinople]] from the fifth century on and was used throughout the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] in the Byzantine Empire. <br /><br />It contains the most harmonistic readings, paraphrasing and significant additions, most of which are believed{{by whom|date=August 2017}} to be secondary readings. <br /><br />It underlies the Textus Receptus used for most [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]-era translations of the New Testament. The "[[Byzantine_priority_theory|Majority Text]]" methodology effectively produces a Byzantine text-type, because Byzantine manuscripts are the most common and consistent.<ref name=wallace_on_majority/>|| Bible translations relying on the ''Textus Receptus'': [[King James Version|KJV]], [[New King James Version|NKJV]], [[Tyndale Bible|Tyndale]], [[Coverdale Bible|Coverdale]], [[Geneva Bible|Geneva]], [[Bishops' Bible]], [[Orthodox Study Bible|OSB]]<br/><br/>The [[List of English Bible translations|Aramaic Peshitta]],<ref name="ident-nt">{{Cite book |last=Pickering |first=Wilbur N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ii5bzgEACAAJ |title=Identity of the New Testament Text III |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4982-6349-8}}</ref> [[Ulfilas|Wulfila's Gothic translation]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ratkus |first1=Artūras |title=The Greek Sources of the Gothic Bible Translation |journal=Vertimo Studijos |date=6 April 2017 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=37 |doi=10.15388/VertStud.2009.2.10602|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>Bennett, William, 1980, ''An Introduction to the Gothic Language'', pp. 24-25.</ref>

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