Quantifying New Testament Textual Variants: Key Witnesses in Acts and the Catholic Letters

Abstract

This article interacts with Peter J. Gurry's recent estimate of thetotaltextual variants in the Greek New Testament (NTS62 (2016)) by (i) employing a different (and complementary) method using data from theEditio Critica Maiorand (ii) producing an estimate that is narrowly confined to the ‘key’ manuscript witnesses for Acts and the Catholic Letters (a mix of majuscules and minuscules, both Byzantine and non-Byzantine). The results prove more useful for framing the development and distribution of textual variants in this group of key witnesses.