Encountering
the Manuscripts

An Introduction to New Testament
Paleography & Textual Criticism

Philip Comfort

nashville • tennessee

Copyright © 2005

by Philip Wesley Comfort

All rights reserved

Ten-Digit ISBN: 0-8054-3145-4

Thirteen-Digit ISBN: 978-0-8054-3145-2

Published by Broadman & Holman Publishers

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 220.48

Subject Heading: BIBLE, GREEK VERSIONS \ BIBLE, GREEK LANGUAGE,

STYLE \ MANUSCRIPTS, GREEK

NAB, Scripture quotations marked NAB are from the The New American Bible, © 1970 by P. J. Kenedy & Sons. NEB, Scripture quotations marked NEB are from the New English Bible, © The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1961, 1970, reprinted by permission. NIV, Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. NJB, Scripture quotations marked NJB are from The New Jerusalem Bible, © 1985 by Doubleday & Company. NLT, Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. NRSV, New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, used by permission, all rights reserved. RSV, Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, © 1971, 1973. TEV, Scripture taken from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version—Second Edition © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

1. The Manuscript Publications of the Greek New Testament

2. Significant Manuscripts and Printed Editions

3. The Earliest New Testament Manuscripts

4. The Nomina Sacra in New Testament Manuscripts

5. Historical Overview of Textual Variation in the Greek New Testament

6. Theories and Methods of New Testament Textual Criticism

7. The Praxis of New Testament Textual Criticism

Glossary

Bibliography

Index of Photographs

Index of New Testament Papyri

Index of Uncials

Index of Christian Old Testament Manuscripts

Abbreviations

BAGD Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Bauer, Ardnt, Gingrich, Danker) [1958]

DJD Discoveries in the Judean Desert

GLH Greek Literary Hands (C. H. Roberts)

GMAW Greek Manuscripts of the Ancient World (2nd ed., E. G. Turner)

H Catalogue des Papyrus Litteraires Juifs et Chretiens, von Haelst

ISBE International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (4 vols., Bromiley) [1979–1988]

LSJ A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., Liddell, Scott, Jones)

MM The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament (Moulton and Milligan) [1930]

Montev La Papirologia (2nd ed.), O. Montevecchi

NA26 Novum Testamentum Graece (26th ed., Nestle-Aland) [1979]

NA27 Novum Testamentum Graece (27th ed., Nestle-Aland) [1993]

NBD New Bible Dictionary (2nd ed., Douglas, ...

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About Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism

Paleography is the dating and study of ancient writings and inscription. Textual criticism is the study of manuscripts to determine the trustworthiness of the text with respect to establishing authenticity. Philip Comfort combines these two fields in an excellent introduction, giving readers a window into the transmission of the Bible in the earliest centuries of the church. In Encountering the Manuscripts, Comfort explores scribal participation in the production of the earliest New Testament writings, gives an annotated list of all significant Greek manuscripts and early versions, assigns dates for the earliest manuscripts, presents the history of textual variation in the early centuries of the church, details various methods of recovering the original wording of the Greek New Testament, and provides concrete examples for the practice of textual criticism.

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