New Testament Textual Criticism for the 21st Century A Practical Guide

A guide to New Testament textual criticism that introduces students to the methods currently used by the most respected specialists in the field.

While there are many introductions to twentieth-century New Testament textual criticism, scholars and students need a twenty-first-century introduction to the praxis of New Testament textual criticism that refines and replaces some elements of the traditional approach in keeping with recent advancements in the discipline. Methodologies known to be deficient are still being taught, and even New Testament commentators apply outdated and problematic methods in their evaluation of textual variants. This new introduction guides readers in the practice of a more refined, reasoned eclecticism to identify the original reading of the New Testament text. Readers will learn to identify variant readings and the witnesses in support of them from the apparatuses in the major editions of the Greek New Testament.

New Testament Textual Criticism for the 21st Century includes several examples and exercises that guide students in applying critical-thinking skills to specific variant units. The goal throughout is to move from abstract discussion to concrete examples to offer students the "picture worth a thousand words." Most importantly, the book demonstrates how new tools and findings generally discussed only in scholarly literature are changing the text of the most respected editions of the Greek New Testament and can aid researchers in their study of manuscripts.