Editing Eclecticism (section)

===Philology===
In [[textual criticism#Eclecticism|textual criticism]], eclecticism is the practice of examining a wide number of text witnesses and selecting the variant that seems best. The result of the process is 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.

Since the mid-19th century, eclecticism, in which there is no ''[[a priori and a posteriori|a priori]]'' bias to a single manuscript, has been the dominant method of editing the Greek text of the [[New Testament]] (currently, the [[United Bible Society]], 4th ed. and Nestle-Åland, 27th ed.). Even so, the oldest manuscripts, being of the [[Alexandrian text-type]], are the most favored, and the critical text has an Alexandrian disposition.<ref name="ISBN 9039001057">Aland, B. 1994: 138</ref>