Textual Criticism

The English Bibles we possess are not in the original form in which the Scriptures were written.  The distance between us and the “original” is greater than many Christians assume. Jesus, for example, spoke in Aramaic and his words were translated into koine (common) Greek by the Gospel writers. And there is no single Greek text from which English translations derive their content. Over 5,700 Greek hand-copied manuscripts of the New Testament writings have survived, though the original autographs have not. Still, the abundance of copies available for the New Testament writings is far greater than any other ancient literature.

When one of the early churches received a letter from Paul, copyists were tasked with handwriting the entire document so that the church might have additional copies. This was done to preserve the material and make it available for circulation in surrounding churches that recognized Paul’s apostolic authority. This process probably intensified after the death of the apostles. The writings of the early church fathers attest that these manuscripts circulated widely in different locales of the Roman Empire.

In antiquity, the process of writing, copying and circulating texts in various places was difficult and laborious. Modern readers of the Bible take for granted the ease of communication that postal services, email, photocopiers and word processing with automatic correction of misspelled words and cut-and-paste options provide. Because of their high regard for the writings of the apostles of Jesus, many scribes scattered across many geographical areas and throughout several centuries faithfully undertook the task of copying the New Testament writings.

The copies we have of the manuscripts sometimes disagree with one another regarding the precise wording of certain texts. These differences are referred to as textual variants or variant readings. There are discrepancies in letters, words, and phrases, as well as additions and omissions of sentences and paragraphs, though there are only two places in the New Testament where a textual variant affects whole paragraphs (Mk 16:9-20; Jn 7:53—8:11). Most of these discrepancies are unintentional scribal errors that do little to change the meaning of the text.

Textual criticism refers to the task of establishing a probable original text. In biblical studies, it is the practice of comparing various copies of the manuscripts to determine the most probable reading of the original text, keeping in mind the rich history and journey of the text from its initial writing to the copies still in existence today. The textual critic gathers the material, weighs the evidence, determines whose testimony is most reliable and makes a final judgment about which variants most likely represent the original text. While the realization that the Bibles we hold in our hands are not inerrant should instill humility in the student of Scripture, confidence in the reliability of its message should not be shaken.