It is proposed in this article to consider the text of the New Testament. The subject naturally
divides itself into— I. The history of the written text; II. The history of the printed text. I. THE
HISTORY OF THE WRITTEN TEXT.—
•The early history of the apostolic writings externally, as far as it can be traced, is the same as that
of other contemporary books. St. Paul, like Cicero or Pliny often employed the services of an
amanuensis, to whom he dictated his letters, affixing the salutation “with his own hand.” ( 1
Corinthians 16:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:17; Colossians 4:18) The original copies seem to have soon
perished.
•In the natural course of things the apostolic autographs would be likely to perish soon. The material
which was commonly used for letters the papyrus paper, to which St. John incidentally alludes.
(2 John 1:12) comp. 3Joh 1:13 Was singularly fragile, and even the stouter kinds, likely to be used
for the historical books, were not fitted to bear constant use. The papyrus fragments which have
come down to the present time have been preserved under peculiar circumstances as at Herculaneum
or in the Egyptian tombs.
•In the time of the Diocletian persecution, A.D. 303, copies of the Christian Scriptures were
sufficiently numerous to furnish a special object for persecutors. Partly, perhaps, owing to the
destruction thus caused, but still more from the natural effects of time. no MS. of the New Testament
of the first three centuries remains but though no fragment of the New Testament of the first
century still remains, the Italian and Egyptian papyri, which are of that date give a clear notion of
the caligraphy of the period. In these the text is written in columns, rudely divided, in somewhat
awkward capital letters (uncials), without any punctuation or division of words; and there is no
trace of accents or breathings.
•In addition to the later MSS. the earliest versions and patristic quotations give very important
testimony to the character and history of the ante-Nicene text; but till the last quarter of the second
century this source of information fails us. Only are the remains of Christian literature up to that
time extremely scanty, but the practice of verbal quotation from the New Testament was not yet
prevalent. As soon as definite controversies arose among Christians, the text of the New Testament
assumed its true importance.
•Several very important conclusions follow from this earliest appearance of textual criticism. It is
in the first place evident that various readings existed in the books of the New Testament at a time
prior to all extant authorities. History affords a trace of the pure apostolic originals. Again, from
the preservation of the first variations noticed, which are often extremely minute, in one or more
of the primary documents still left, we may be certain that no important changes have been made
in the sacred text which we cannot now detect.
•Passing from these isolated quotations, we find the first great witnesses to the apostolic text in the
early Syriac and Latin versions and in the rich quotations of Clement of Alexandria (cir. A.D.
220) and Origen (A.D. 1842-4). From the extant works of Origen alone no inconsiderable portion
of the whole New Testament might be transcribed; and his writings are an almost inexhaustible
store house for the history of the text. There can be no doubt that in Origen’s time the variations
in the New Testament MSS. were beginning to lead to the formation of specific groups of copies.
•The most ancient MSS. and versions now extant exhibit the characteristic differences which have
been found to exist in different parts of the works of Origen. These cannot have had their source
later than the beginning of the third century, and probably were much earlier. Bengel was the first
(1734) who pointed out the affinity of certain groups of MSS., which as he remarks, must have
frankie
(Frankie)
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