NT810, New Testament Textual Criticism

This is a preliminary page holder that will support the class NT810, New Testament Textual Criticism, when it is next taught. It is being developed currently and items will be added throughout the semester.

Textual Criticism Resources

See my specialized page for links to specific content documents related to textual criticism, to the "KJV Debate"--also another page with links to other textual criticism sites and to helpful photographs of various NT manuscripts.

Supplemental Notes

The Supplemental Notes have encountered a major snag and won't be posted here for some time (problems with changes in platform, versions or Word, and fonts have resulted in a major formatting snarl). Sorry. Students will probably end up getting a printed packet in class instead.

(This bibliography is not up-to-date; it is several years old now.)

Aland, Kurt. "The Text of the Church?" Trinity Journal 8 NS (1987): 131–44.

Aland, Kurt and Aland, Barbara. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Transl. E. F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

Black, David Alan. New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994.

Borland, James A. "Re-Examining New Testament Textual-Criticism Principles and Practices Used to Negate Inerrancy." JETS 25 (1982): 499–506.

Bruce, F. F. The Books and the Parchments. 3d ed. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1963.

________. "The Transmission and Translation of the Bible." In Expositors Bible Commentary. Edited by F. Gaebelein. 1:39–57. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979.

Carson, D. A. The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979.

Colwell, Ernest C. Studies in Methodology in Textual Criticism of the New Testament. New Testament Tools and Studies, 9. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969.

Comfort, Philip W. Early Manuscripts and Modern Translations of the New Testament. Nashville: Nelson, 1990.

________. The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992.

Comfort, Philip W. and David P. Barrett, eds. The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.

Decker, Rodney J. The English Bible. Kansas City: Calvary Bible College and Seminary, 1993.

Ehrman, Bart D. Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels. The New Testament in the Greek Fathers, 1. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986.

Ehrman, Bart D. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. New York: Oxford, 1993.

Ehrman, Bart D. and Michael W. Holmes, ed. The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis: A Volume in Honor of Bruce M. Metzger. Studies and Documents, 46. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Ehrman, Bart D.; Gordon Fee; and Michael Holmes. The Text of the Fourth Gospel in the Writings of Origen, vol. 1. The New Testament in the Greek Fathers, 3. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992.

Elliott, J. K., ed. Studies in New Testament Language and Text. [G. D. Kilpatrick festcrift] Leiden" Brill, 1976.

Epp, Eldon Jay. "The Eclectic Method in New Testament Textual Criticism: Solution of Symptom?" Harvard Theological Review 69 (1976): 211–57.

________. "The New Testament Papyrus Manuscripts in Historical Perspective." In To Touch the Text: Biblical and Related Studies in Honor of Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. Edited by M. P. Hogan and P. J. Kobelski, 261–88. New York: Crossroad, 1989.

Epp, Eldon Jay and Gordon D. Fee. New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Exegesis: Essays in Honour of Bruce M. Metzger. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.

________. Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism. Studies and Documents, 45. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Farstad, Arthur L. The New King James Version in the Great Tradition. Nashville: Nelson, 1989.

Fee, Gordon D. "A Critique of W. N. Pickering's The Identity of the New Testament Text: A Review Article." Westminster Theological Journal 41.2 (1979): 397–423.

________. "Modern Textual Criticism and the Revival of the Textus Receptus." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 21.1 (1978): 19–33. [A response by Zane Hodges follows: 21.2 (1978): 143–55; a rejoinder by Fee to Hodges's response follows on pp. 157–60; and a surrejoinder by Hodges again on pp. 161–64. The interchange is quite interesting.]

________. "Textual Criticism." In Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. J. Green, S. McKnight, and I. Marshall, 827–31. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992.

________. "The Textual Criticism of the New Testament." In Expositors Bible Commentary. Edited by F. Gaebelein. 1:419–33. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979.

Finegan, Jack. Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964 (2d ed., 1995).

________. Scribes, Scrolls, & Scripture: A Student's Guide to New Testament Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985.

Grisanti, Michael, ed. The Bible Version Debate. Minneapolis: Central Baptist Seminary, 1997.

Harrop, Clayton. History of the New Testament in Plain Language. Waco. TX: Word, 1984.

Hodges, Zane. "Rationalism and Contemporary New Testament Criticism." BibSac 128.509 (1971): 27–35.

Holmes, Michael W. "The 'Majority Text Debate': New Form of an Old Issue." Themelios 8.2 (1983): 13–19.

________. "Textual Criticism." In New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, ed. D. Black and D. Dockery, 101–34. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991.

House, H. Wayne. Review of New Age Bible Versions by G. Riplinger. Christian Research Journal (fall 1994), 46–48.

Hymers, R. L. The Ruckman Conspiracy. Collingsworth, NJ: The Bible for Today, 1989.

Junack, Klaus. "The Reliability of the New Testament Text from the Perspective of Textual Criticism." Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. The Bible Translator 29.1 (1978): 128–40. (Written by one of the scholars working with Aland at the Institut f? neutestamentliche Textforschung of the Westf?ische Wilhelms-Universit? at Munster, Germany.

Kenyon, Frederick G. The Palaeography of Greek Papyri. 1898. Reprint. Chicago: Argonaut, 1970.

Kilpatrick, G. D. Review of The Greek NT According to the Majority Text by Hodges & Farstad. Novum Testamentum 26.1 (1984): 85–86.

Ladd, George Eldon. The New Testament and Criticism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967.

Metzger, Bruce M. Chapters in the History of New Testament Textual Criticism. New Testament Tools and Studies. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963.

________. The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission and Limitations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977.

________. Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1981.

________. "Recent Developments in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament." In Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian by Bruce Metzger, 145–62. New Testament Tools and Studies 8. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.

________. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1968. [3d ed., 1991/92?]

________. "When Did Scribes Begin to Use Writing Desks?" In Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian by Bruce Metzger, 123–37. New Testament Tools and Studies 8. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.

Pack, Frank. "New Testament Textual Criticism." In Biblical Interpretation. Edited by F. Furman, E. Myers, and T. Hadley, 214–25. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986.

Petzer, Jacobus H. "The History of the New Testament Text: Its Reconstruction, Significance and Use in New Testament Textual Criticism." In New Testament Textual Criticism, Exegesis, and Early Church History: A Discussion of Methods, ed. B. Aland and J. Delobel, 11–36. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology, vol. 7. Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos, 1994.

Pickering, Wilbur N. The Identity of the New Testament Text. 2d ed. Nashville: Nelson, 1980. [The professor does not agree with the position taken in this book. Be sure to read carefully the critique in Carson's appendix.]

Price, James A. "The King James Only Controversy in American Fundamentalism Since 1950." Th.D. diss., Temple Baptist Seminary, 1990.

Ralston, T. R. "The 'Majority Text' and Byzantine Texttype Development: The Significance of a Non-Parametric Method of Data Analysis for the Exploration of Manuscript Traditions." New Testament Studies 38 (1992): 122–37.

________. "The 'Majority Text' and Byzantine Texttype Development: The Significance of a Non-Parametric Method of Data Analysis for the Exploration of Manuscript Traditions." Ph.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1994.

Robertson, A. T. Studies in the Text of the New Testament. New York: George H. Doran, n.d. Reprint. Evangelical Reprint Library. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1969.

Schnaiter, Samuel E. "Textual Criticism and the Modern English Version Controversy," Biblical Viewpoint 16 (1982): 68–74.

Schrivener, F. H. A. A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. 2d ed. Cambridge, 1874.

Souter, Alexander. The Text and Canon of the New Testament. London: Duckworth, 1913.

Sturtz, Harry A. The Byzantine Text-Type and New Testament Textual Criticism. Nashville: Nelson, 1984.

Swanson, Reuben. New Testament Greek Manuscripts: Variant Readings Arranged in Horizontal Lines Against Codex Vaticanus. 5 vols. (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts). Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995–98.

Taylor, Richard. "Review of The Future of the Bible by Jakob van Bruggen." GTJ 2.1 (1981): 147–51.

Thompson, Edward M. An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography. Oxford: Clarendon, 1912.

Vaganay, Leon. An Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism. 2d ed., revised and updated by Christian-Bernard Amphoux. Translated by J. Heimerdinger. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991.

Wallace, Daniel B. "Historical Revisionism and the Majority Text Theory: The Cases of F. H. A. Scrivener and Herman C. Hoskier." New Testament Studies 41 (1995): 280–85.

________. "Inspiration, Preservation, and New Testament Textual Criticism." GTJ 12.1 (1991): 21–50.

________. "The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are They Identical?" BibSac 148 (1991): 151–69.

________. "Some Reflections on the Majority Text" (by the author, 5/12/88). This is a privately printed, 44-page paper available from the author ($2.00; write D.W. c/o Dallas Seminary). It was originally presented at the SW regional ETS meeting in San Antonio, March 1987. An abridged version appears in BibSac 146 (1989): 270–90 ["Some Second Thoughts on the Majority Text"].

________. "A Textual Problem in 1 Thessalonians 1:10: ?k th'" ojrgh'" vs. ?pov th'" ojrgh'"." BibSac 147 (1990): 470–79. [This is an excellent model for the mechanics of textual study and the presentation of the results. (That doesn't necessarily mean the conclusions are infallible!)

Westcott, B. F. and F. J. A. Hort. Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek with Notes on Selected Readings. New York: Harper and Bros., 1882. Reprint. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1988.

White, James R. The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust the Modern Translations? Minneapolis: Bethany, 1995.

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