American Thinker, AZ
Feb 24 2007

New Testament Manuscripts: Discovery and Classification

By James Arlandson

This article is the third in a four-part series on New Testament
textual criticism. It provides basic facts on how some of the New
Testament manuscripts were discovered and how they are classified. It
answers such questions as these:

What does Oxyrhynchus mean? What do Beatty or Bodmer mean? What are
the totals of the New Testament manuscripts? Were some of them
destroyed during the persecution of the early church? Why wouldn’t
God protect his Word from such complications? Should I trust the New
Testament?

These questions and more are explored in a basic Question and Answer
format, for ease of understanding. As noted in Part One, NT stands
for New Testament, MS stands for manuscript (singular), and MSS for
manuscripts (plural).

As noted in the previous two parts, this article assumes the basics
of the Christian doctrine of inspiration. The original authors were
inspired, but we do not have their very originals. (Incidentally, no
original manuscript of any book coming out of the Greco-Roman world
exists today.) The original New Testament documents were transmitted
by scribes, who were not inspired. But does this cast doubt on the
New Testament? Not if we are reasonable. New Testament textual
criticism attempts to purge out or decide on the best of these
variants that evolved over the tedious process of copying.

They can be classified in this way:

I. Spelling differences and nonsense errors

This is by far the majority. For example, the name John in Greek can
be spelled with two n’s or one n. Nonsense errors can come from the
fatigue of the scribe, such as spelling and (kai in Greek) for Lord
(kyrios in Greek).

II. Differences that do not affect translation or that involve
synonyms

This is also a sizeable chunk of the scribal variants. Two examples:
Greek can use or not the definite article for proper nouns, such as
Mary or the Mary. Such is the nature of Greek back then.

III. Meaningful variants that are not viable

This category represents the third smallest number of variants, but
it amounts to only a tiny fraction. For example, 1 Thessalonians 2:9
could read "the gospel of God" (found in most manuscripts) or "the
gospel of Christ" (found in one late thirteenth century manuscript).

IV. Meaningful and viable

This represents only one percent of all variants. For example, the
ending of the Gospel of Mark 16 is classified thus. Any reputable
modern translation will mention that the best manuscripts do not
support the longer ending. The reader should look at the New
International Version, for example. Please go to Bible Gateway and
type in Mark 16 and then John 7, and scroll down to the end of the
page.

So what do these four categories of variants have in common? No
variant overturns Christian doctrine, such as the deity of Christ,
which is often supported by other verses. Hyper-skeptics appearing in
the national media mislead the public about this. Also, the majority
of variants are a concern for scholars, but not for average Bible
readers, who need to know that our Bible is completely trustworthy.
For us non-specialists, this means that only one percent of these
variants are in play and are often noted in our translations. On the
positive side, 99% of the Bible is established. Or if we combine the
third and fourth categories, then only about 5% are relevant for us
indirectly. This means that around 95% of the Bible is established.
No text in the ancient Greco-Roman world comes close to this outcome,
but a very far distant second.

As I wrote in the previous article in this series, the Bible is a
highly reliable, accurate, and faithful record of the words and ideas
of the original authors, as inspired by God.

Source: Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace, pp. 54-63.

2. What is the original language of the New Testament?

Since the question and answer is so fundamental, I have repeated them
in the other parts in this series. It was written in common Greek of
the first century, in a vocabulary and sentence structure that most
people could understand. This is especially true of the four Gospels.
Christianity is a missionary religion, so it had to use the language
that everyone knew in the cities in the first century. And that
language was Greek. Not much later, as Christianity expanded farther,
scribes translated the Greek New Testament into other languages.

3. Who physically wrote down the original New Testament books and
epistles?

It is likely that the original authors wrote their own books and
epistles. But it is equally likely that at least some employed
scribes to do this, as the authors dictated their words. For example,
the scribe or amanuensis of Paul’s long Epistle to the Romans reveals
himself: "I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the
Lord" (Rom. 16:22; see Gal. 6:11 and 1 Pe. 5:12).

4. Was copying hard work for the scribe?

We do not have enough information about the originals, but later
scribes sometimes would include in their manuscript a complaint, such
as the following:

He who does not know how to write supposes it to be no labor; but
though only three fingers write, the whole body labors.

A traditional formula reads:

Writing bows one’s back, thrusts the ribs into one’s stomach, and
fosters a general debility of the body.

Still another scribe wrote:

As travelers rejoice to see their home country, so also is the end of
a book to those who toil [in writing].

An Armenian copyist says in a Gospel that "a heavy snow storm was
raging and that the scribe’s ink froze, his hand became numb, and the
pen fell from his fingers!"

Finally, manuscripts may end with gratitude:

"The end of the book; thanks be to God!" (Source: Metzger and Ehrman,
p. 29)

5. Did scribes use contractions?

Yes, but it is unknown whether the originals had contractions or
abbreviations. A short time after the originals, scribes used them
mostly for sacred names (nomina sacra). Here are some examples, in
transliterated English.

God = Theos → THS (Th in Greek is one letter)

Christ = Christos → CHS or CHR (Ch or Kh in Greek is one letter
and is spoken as a hard c, as in cool)

Lord = Kurios → KS

Spirit = Pneuma → PNA

Jesus = Iēsous → IS or IĒ

After the scribe abbreviated or contracted the sacred names, he would
draw a bar or line over the letters to signal a contraction.

One textual critic says of the sacred names: "Scribes wrote these
names with special regard, and readers (lectors) uttered these names
with special attention in church meetings as they read the Scriptures
aloud" (Comfort, Encountering, p. 253)

See real-life abbreviations in a papyrus of a part of Paul’s
epistles.

6. What does "P" stand for (usually in Gothic or Old English font
style), and what about the raised number, as in P75?

This is used only by modern scholars.

The "P" stands for papyrus, and the number indicates the individual
papyrus that has been catalogued. Metzger and Ehrman say that a total
of 116 papyri have been examined and catalogued (p. 48). All of the
papyri, among many other manuscripts, have been used to produce the
most highly accurate and reliable New Testament possible.

7. What do recto and verso mean?

In being made (see this slide show on how), the reed plant produced
horizontal and vertical lines, as the strips of the plant were laid
horizontally and vertically, in two layers. Recto stands for the
"front" of the papyrus sheet or page, with the horizontal lines. The
verso is the "back" side of the same sheet or page, and its lines
were vertical, so it was more difficult to write on that side.

8. The name Oxyrhynchus appears often. What does it mean?

It is a city in Egypt, on the west side of the Nile, about 125 miles
south of Cairo. In 1897, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, two
archaeologists, traveled to this city because they knew that a
Christian community had flourished in the early centuries of
Christianity. Egypt was naturally dry, so papyrus manuscripts could
survive there, buried. They searched in cemeteries, tombs, churches,
and monasteries, but they found a trash or rubbish heap, and
carefully excavated it. They struck "papyrus gold," so to speak.
Philip W. Comfort, another prominent textual critic, describes the
value of trash heaps, specifically for Grenfell and Hunt and the New
Testament:

Manuscripts found in rubbish heaps are not "rubbish" per se or
defective copies. When a manuscript became old and worn, it was
customary to replace it with a fresh copy and discard the old one.
Since the Egyptians are known to have disposed of such copies by
putting them in rubbish heaps, excavators looking for ancient
Egyptian papyri would search for ancient rubbish heaps in deserted
sites on ground higher than the Nile River. Grenfell and Hunt’s
choice of ancient rubbish heap at Oxyrhynchus was fortuitous, for it
yielded that largest cache of papyri ever discovered. (Comfort, In
Quest, p. 62)

Then Comfort tells us how long the excavations lasted.

Grenfell and Hunt excavated at Oxyrhynchus until 1907; the Italian
exploration society (under G. Vitelli) continued the work there
during the years 1910-14 and 1927-34 (Comfort, In Quest, p. 64).

Clearly the First World War (1914-1918) stopped the second dig, the
first for the Italians.

The Oxyrhynchus papyri are different from the ones discovered at Nag
Hammadi.

See this Website for more information on Oxyrhynchus papyri. Or do a
Google search with "Oxyrhynchus."

9. How many manuscripts were found at Oxyrhynchus?

High-quality classical works were found, such as those of Homer and
Pindar. But what about the New Testament?

In total, forty-six papyrus manuscripts containing portions of the
New Testament have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus. (Comfort,
Encountering, p. 64)

Oxyrhynchus is sometimes abbreviated as Oxy. or Ox.

10. Who was Chester Beatty, and why is his name mentioned so often in
the context of papyri?

Chester Beatty was an American living in Britain. He purchased papyri
of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, found in Egypt in the
early 1930s. The precise location of the discovery is a mystery
because the Egyptian diggers and dealers would not reveal it. This
find must not be confused with the Oxyrhynchus papyri or Nag Hammadi
papyri. The University of Michigan also purchased some leaves of this
sensational discovery.

11. What manuscripts were discovered and then placed in his
collection?

Eight manuscripts of portions of the Greek Old Testament were found
in codices (plural of codex), which is the forerunner of our book.
All dates, in AD, refer to the time that the manuscripts were copied,
not originally written.

Two manuscripts of Genesis (one from the third century, another from
the fourth)
One of Numbers and Deuteronomy (second century)
One of Ezekiel and Esther (third century)
One of Isaiah (third century)
One of Jeremiah (late second century)
One of Daniel (third century)
One of Ecclesiastes (fourth century)
Greek New Testament

One codex of the four Gospels and Acts, P45 (late second or early
third century)
One Codex of the Pauline Epistles, P46, (late first or early second
century, or early third); Pauline is the adjective form of Paul, who
was a major apostle.
One Codex of Revelation, P47, the last Book in the New Testament
(third century)
This collection is housed in Dublin, Ireland, as the Chester Beatty
Library.

12. Who was Martin Bodmer, and why is his name mentioned so often in
the context of papyri?

He was a Swiss bibliophile and humanist who founded the Bodmer
Library of World Literature, at Cologny, a suburb of Geneva (Metzger
and Ehrman, p. 56).

He purchased papyri in 1952, discovered in Jabal Abu Manna, north of
the Dishna plain, in Egypt. They are different from the Oxyrhynchus
and Nag Hammadi papyri.

13. What manuscripts were discovered, now in the Bodmer collection?

All dates, in AD, refer to the century that the manuscripts were
copied, not originally written.

One containing most of the Gospel of John, P66, (ca. 150-200)
One having all of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude, P72 (third century)
One having the Gospel of Matthew, P73 (seventh century)
One having the Book of Acts and the general epistles, P74, e.g.
James, Jude, and other non-Pauline epistles (seventh century)
One having the Gospels of Luke and John, P75, (ca. 175-225)
14. What other discoveries of manuscripts are there?

The most famous discovery was done by Constantin von Tischendorf, a
German who traveled to Egypt and then to the Sinai Peninsula in 1843,
at the foot of Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine’s Monastery. He describes his
discovery. Apparently, some parchments were thrown in the fire, until
he rescued the remaining ones.

It was at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Convent of St. Catherine,
that I discovered the pearl of all my researches. In visiting the
library of the monastery, in the month of May, 1844, I perceived in
the middle of the great hall a large and wide basket full of old
parchments; and the librarian, who was a man of information, told me
that two heaps of papers like these, mouldered by time, had been
already committed to the flames. What was my surprise to find amid
this heap of papers a considerable number of sheets of a copy of the
Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most
ancient that I had ever seen. The authorities of the convent allowed
me to possess myself of a third of these parchments, or about
forty-three sheets, all the more readily as they were destined for
the fire. But I could not get them to yield up possession of the
remainder. The too lively satisfaction which I had displayed had
aroused their suspicions as to the value of this manuscript. I
transcribed a page of the text of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and enjoined
on the monks to take religious care of all such remains which might
fall in their way.

Then in 1853, Tischendorf returned to St. Catherine’s Monastery for
more manuscripts. He concealed his joy, so as not arouse the
suspicions of the steward of the monastery, who jealously guarded his
ancient manuscripts.

And so saying, he [the Steward] took down from the corner of the room
a bulky kind of volume, wrapped up in a red cloth, and laid it before
me. I unrolled the cover, and discovered, to my great surprise, not
only those very fragments which, fifteen years before, I had taken
out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New
Testament complete, and, in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas and a
part of the Pastor of Hermas. Full of joy, which this time I had the
self-command to conceal from the steward and the rest of the
community, I asked, as if in a careless way, for permission to take
the manuscript into my sleeping chamber to look over it more at
leisure. There by myself I could give way to the transport of joy
which I [felt]. I knew that I held in my hand the most precious
Biblical treasure in existence-a document whose age and importance
exceeded that of all the manuscripts which I had ever examined during
twenty years’ study of the subject. I cannot now, I confess, recall
all the emotions which I felt in that exciting moment with such a
diamond in my possession . . .

(Source)

He named the manuscript he discovered Codex Sinaiticus (or Aleph, the
first letter in the Hebrew alphabet). See this quick write-up.

15. How are manuscripts classified?

Manuscript (singular) is abbreviated as MS and manuscripts (plural)
as MSS. NT stands for New Testament. There are five main
classifications, plus quotations from the church fathers.

I. Papyri

Papyrus comes from a reed plant (see this slide show on how it is
made). Scribes used majuscules and minuscules handwriting on this
material. It is quite possible that the autograph (original)
manuscripts of the New Testament were written on it, or perhaps on
parchment, or both, but scholarship is unclear on this point. But
papyrus was not very durable, so we do not have the originals now.

This Webpage on papyri, written by Dr. Peter M. Head, a prominent
textual critic, lists the papyri and provides further links.

Here is a complete list of papyri. The page also has links to images.

II. Uncials

This word performs a double duty. It means a handwriting style, but
it "ordinarily designates [manuscripts] on parchment" (Greenlee, p.
27). It dominates from the fourth through the tenth centuries.

Generally speaking, the uncial MSS, especially the earlier ones, are
the most dependable group of witnesses to the NT text. (Greenlee p.
28)

This page on uncials, also written up by Dr. Head, lists the major
uncials, and has further links.

This page provides links to uncials on parchments, including links to
photos.

Here is a study of Codex B (03) or Codex Vaticanus.

This page has facsimile photos of Codex Alexandrinus (02).

III. Minuscules

"By far the largest group of Greek NT MSS [is] those written in
minuscule handwriting, thus dating from the ninth century and later.
Most are on parchment" . . . (Greenlee, p. 33)

Generally, this group of witnesses may not be as reliable as the
earlier ones, but this is not always true. A later manuscript may
have a more reliable exemplar (now unknown) than an earlier
manuscript.

Dr. Head also provides a list of the major minuscules.

IV. Lectionaries

This word comes from the Latin for reading.

These are MSS in which the Scriptures are written, not in ordinary
sequence, but in sections arranged in units for reading in church
services. In very ancient times certain scripture passages were
designated as the reading for each day of the year and for special
services and days. The lectionary MSS were then written to follow the
sequence of readings, with the day and the week generally indicated
at the beginning of each lection. (Greenlee, p. 35)

Finally, Dr. Head lists the major lectionaries.

V. Versions

Christianity is a missionary religion, so it needed to translate the
NT in other languages from the original Greek. Here are some common
ones, as Christianity spread out:

Latin (Itala), Syriac, Coptic (Egyptian), Armenian, Georgian,
Ethiopic, Gothic, Arabic, Persian, Slavonic, Frankish, Gothic, and
Anglo-Saxon.

These versions are helpful in NT textual criticism because they can
decide key words and phrases and clauses, provided they are easy to
translate back into Greek. A Syriac version, for example, some of
which are earlier than Greek MSS, help textual critics decide on
variants.

VI. Quotations from the church fathers

The quotations of the NT in the writings of the church fathers have
been studied in detail, but not all of them. Though this fertile area
is undergoing more study, Metzger and Ehrman estimate that the
quotations are extensive (though this quotation is found in the third
edition before Ehrman joined Metzger for the fourth edition):

Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources
for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed,
they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically
the entire New Testament. (p. 126)

This is significant in attesting to the reliability of the NT that we
have in our possession. Also, the number of citations exceed a
million. Metzger is right to say that the citations are "so
extensive."

16. What are the totals for these classes of manuscripts?

The official listing (as of 2006) of the several important categories
of Greek New Testament manuscripts can be summarized as follows:

Papyri…118

Majuscule MSS…317

Miniscule MSS…2877

Lectionary MSS…2433

Total…5745

Source Papyri

The summary gives us a clear idea of how many manuscripts scholars
have to sort through.

Hat tip: Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace p. 77.

17. Were manuscripts ever destroyed during the persecutions of early
Christians?

The totals gathered by Metzger (and Ehrman), cited in the previous
Question, seem like a lot (and they are), but we could have benefited
from many more manuscripts. Diocletian, a Roman Emperor who reigned
from AD 284 to 305, ordered the destruction of church buildings and
the Christian Scriptures in 303-304, but the persecution occurred
before and continued after that date.

Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, two prominent leaders in textual
criticism of any generation, explain the devastation this decree
wreaked on the NT MSS.

The persecution of Diocletian left a deep scar not only in church
history but also in the history of the New Testament text.
Innumerable manuscripts were destroyed during the persecution and had
to be replaced. Even more were needed to supply the flood of new
churches which sprang up in the Age of Constantine [an Emperor who
reigned immediately after Diocletian]. (Aland and Aland, p. 70)

This was a time of crisis. A "snitch" society developed.
Non-Christians exposed the Christians and the whereabouts of their
Scriptures. Some devout believers paid with their lives, protecting
God’s Word. They deserve our admiration. We should honor them by
honoring God’s Word in our lives. Honoring means reading and studying
it.

18. All of the discoveries and recovery process seem so complicated.
Why wouldn’t God protect his Word?

I have asked and answered this question in the other parts in this
series. Christians believe that God works through history and humans.
C. S. Lewis’ preliminary study on miracles is relevant. Once the
inspired original manuscripts get assimilated into history, they
undergo the effects of time:

The moment [the newcomer, e.g. miracle] enters [Nature’s] realm, it
obeys her laws. Miraculous wine will intoxicate, miraculous
conception will lead to pregnancy, inspired books will suffer all the
ordinary processes of textual corruption, miraculous bread will be
digested. (Miracles: A Preliminary Study, p. 81)

However, these errors have been purged out (and continue to be), with
very few remainders. Why can’t devout believers today conclude that
God is in fact working through humans in the purging process? Isn’t
this a kind of divine protection that is worked out over time and
history?

19. So what’s the bottom line on all of this? Should I lose my
confidence in the NT?

I have also asked and answered this question in the other three
articles in this four-part series on New Testament manuscripts, but
it is repeated here since it is critical both for seekers and the
devout. The persecution of the church may have devastated the number
of manuscripts, but enough have survived to help us put together the
original, as much as this can be done, by cross-checking and
comparing the thousands we have.

Sir Frederick Kenyon (d. 1952), a premier NT textual critic of the
first half of the twentieth century, is optimistic about the general
result of all of the hard work done by many scholars.

It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all
these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of
the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have
in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God
(qtd. in Wegner, p. 25).

Kenyon worked in an earlier generation, and other MSS have been found
since his time. However, nothing has cropped up that challenges in a
substantive way the meaning and content of the NT. "Still there are
relatively few significant variants in the Bible, and among these
variants there is very little difference in meaning and content"
(Wegner, p. 25).

Christians should have gratitude, if I may intrude with my own
opinion, for scholars putting in so much time and energy and for
clarifying the NT. Somebody has to do this thankless yeoman’s work,
done often behind the scenes, with no glamour.

Therefore, far from losing one’s confidence, it should grow.

References

Aland, Kurt and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An
Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice
of Modern Textual Criticism. 2nd ed. Trans. Erroll F. Rhodes.
Eerdmans, 1989.

Comfort, Philip Wesley. The Quest for the Original Text of the New
Testament. Wipf and Stock (originally at Baker), 1992.

—. Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament
Paleography and Textual Criticism. Broadman and Holman, 2005.

Elliott, Keith and Ian Moir. Manuscripts and the Text of the New
Testament: An Introduction for English Readers. T & T Clark, 1995.

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

Greenlee, J. Harold. Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism.
Rev. ed. Hendrickson, 1995.

Komoszewski, J. Ed, M. James Sawyer and Daniel B. Wallace.
Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and
Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel, 2006. See Chapters 4-8.

Metzger, Bruce M. and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament:
Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. Oxford UP,
2005.

Roberts, Colin H. Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian
Egypt. Published for the British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1979.

— and T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex, published for the
British Academy by the Oxford UP, 1983.

Wegner, Paul D. A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible:
Its History, Methods, and Results. InterVarsity, 2006.

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