Some Unnoticed Points in the Text of the New Testament

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

paratively easy undertaking if all the critic had to do was to apply two simple rules: A. Follow the Alexandrian uncials (principally 8 B and the early papyri); B. When in doubt, select the shorter reading. When the supposedly true reading has been established by the application of these rules, explanations of one kind or another can always be thought up to account for the variants, mostly as pious amplifications or improvements designed by tendentious copyists. This has been the method employed for the most part by editors over the last hundred years from Tischendorf and Hort to the recent Greek Testament issued by the United Bible Societies. Although the Editors of the UBS edition claim to have employed a more eclectic method, an examination of their actual text and of their Commentary' on it shows that they have been largely guided by these two rules. Unfortunately the explanations put out to justify the readings selected on this basis are of little value as arguments for these readings, because they rest on the assumption that the readings are authentic. If some other reading is preferred, the variants can still be explained as deviations from it by tendentious copyists. If for instance the preferred reading is longer, the rejected variants can be explained as due to omission of words which a copyist thought unnecessary or in some way objectionable; if on the other hand the preferred reading is shorter, the variants can be explained as due to the desire of copyists to improve the text by expansion. If the prefer-