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Course 5 · Lesson 4.4

How variants are recorded in footnotes and critical editions

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 5 outline

Module 1: What the Languages Are and What This Course Can Do

  1. The languages of the Bible: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
  2. What an introduction can and cannot do: no fluency, and why
  3. Biblical Hebrew in brief: history, script and sound
  4. Koine Greek in brief: history, script and sound

Module 2: Hebrew Fundamentals

  1. The Hebrew alphabet, reading right to left, and the vowel points
  2. Roots, nouns, gender, number and the construct chain
  3. Hebrew verbs: perfect, imperfect and the seven stems in outline
  4. A core Hebrew vocabulary and how to learn it

Module 3: Greek Fundamentals

  1. The Greek alphabet, accents and breathing marks
  2. Nouns, cases and the definite article
  3. Greek verbs: tense, aspect, voice and mood in outline
  4. A core Greek vocabulary and how to learn it

Module 4: The Texts: Masoretic, Septuagint and New Testament Manuscripts

  1. The Masoretic Text and the codices that preserve it
  2. The Septuagint and where translators consult it
  3. Greek New Testament manuscripts and printed editions
  4. How variants are recorded in footnotes and critical editions

Module 5: How Translations Are Made

  1. Formal and dynamic equivalence, and the middle positions
  2. Who translates: committees, churches and traditions of translation
  3. Hard cases: idioms, word play, gender and untranslatable words
  4. Reading a translation’s preface to learn its principles

Module 6: Tools for the Reader

  1. Interlinear Bibles: what they show and what they hide
  2. Lexicons and concordances: how to read an entry
  3. How to do a word study, step by step
  4. Common word study errors and how to avoid them

Module 7: Evaluating Translation Differences

  1. Locating the Hebrew or Greek words behind a verse
  2. Types of translation differences: text, grammar, word meaning and style
  3. A worked example from the Old Testament
  4. A worked example from the New Testament
  5. Knowing your limits, and when to ask a specialist

All courses

Program / Course 5: Biblical Languages / Lesson 4.4

What you will learn

  • Define a textual variant and describe the main ways variants arise.
  • Read a typical translation footnote that records a variant.
  • Describe the main principles textual critics use to weigh readings.
  • Understand the notes in a critical apparatus well enough to know what they claim.

The big idea

A textual variant is a place where manuscripts of the same text read differently. Variants arise from slips, from attempts to improve or harmonize, and from the mixing of notes into the text. Most are trivial. A few affect meaning, and translators record the important ones in footnotes. Textual critics weigh the age, spread and quality of the witnesses and ask which reading best explains the others. The beginner can learn to read these notes, but cannot weigh the evidence without specialized study.

Key terms

Variant
A difference in wording, spelling, order or length between manuscripts of the same text.
Textual criticism
The study of manuscripts to work out the most likely original wording of a text.
External evidence
Evidence from the manuscripts themselves, such as their age, location and relationships.
Internal evidence
Evidence from the reading itself, such as the author’s style and the way scribes tend to err.
Harmonization
A change in one passage to make it agree with a parallel passage.
Conflation
The combining of two different readings into one longer reading.
Siglum
A letter, number or symbol used in an apparatus to stand for a manuscript or group.

Background

Every handwritten text changes in copying. A scribe copying for hours may skip a line, repeat a word or confuse similar letters. Some changes were deliberate. A scribe might fix what he took to be an error, smooth a difficult phrase or add a note from the margin to the text. By the time of the great manuscripts of the fourth century, the text already had a long history of variation.

The number of variants in the Greek New Testament is large when counted by every difference in every manuscript, and scholars give figures in the hundreds of thousands. This figure can sound alarming but is explained by the number of manuscripts. The more copies, the more places where copies differ. Most variants are single spellings or changes of word order that cannot be shown in translation. Only a small fraction affect meaning, and a still smaller fraction are both meaningful and plausible.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: How variants arise

Accidents include skipping from one word to a later identical word, which loses the text between them, repeating a letter or word, and confusing words that sound or look alike. Deliberate changes include grammatical correction, smoothing of rare words, harmonization of parallel Gospel passages and the addition of material thought helpful, such as a longer ending or a clarifying phrase. A marginal note may be mistaken for a correction and copied into the text.

Careful scribes also guarded the text. Their efforts are part of why most of the text stands firm across manuscripts.

Step 2: Principles for weighing readings

Textual critics balance two kinds of evidence. External evidence asks about the manuscripts: how old, how widely spread, and how independent they are. A reading found in early manuscripts from several regions has stronger support than one found in a single local group. Internal evidence asks which reading best explains the others. Two principles are commonly used. The shorter reading is often preferred, since scribes tended to add. The harder reading is often preferred, since scribes tended to smooth. Both are rules of thumb with exceptions, as scribes also omitted words by accident.

No rule works alone. Critics weigh the evidence in each case, and informed scholars sometimes reach different conclusions from the same evidence.

Step 3: Reading a translation footnote

Typical notes read: Some manuscripts add, or Other ancient authorities read, or Not found in the earliest manuscripts. They tell the reader that a variant exists, which way the translators went, and roughly how weighty the evidence is. A note of this kind does not show the manuscripts by name. A student who wants more should consult a critical edition or a commentary.

Some Bibles place a longer passage in brackets or double brackets in the text, with a note. In several modern versions, for example, the longer ending of Mark is printed in brackets or after a note. In the King James Version, such passages simply stand in the text, and a modern reader may be surprised to find them marked elsewhere.

Step 4: Reading a critical apparatus

In a Greek New Testament such as the Nestle Aland edition, the apparatus at the foot of the page lists variants with sigla. A reading is followed by symbols for the manuscripts that support it, such as P75, the capital letters for uncials, and the abbreviations for versions and church writers. Symbols indicate additions, omissions and changes of order. The introduction explains the system. Learning to read an apparatus takes a short time, but judging the evidence requires knowing the manuscripts well.

The apparatus of a Hebrew Bible works in a similar way, listing readings from the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch and other versions. The student should learn the sigla and begin by reading the editors’ introduction.

Step 5: Four well known examples

The ending of Mark. The two oldest nearly complete Greek Bibles, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, end the Gospel at 16:8. Other manuscripts add the verses 9 to 20, and a few add a shorter ending. Many modern Bibles print the longer ending with a note. The woman taken in adultery, John 7:53 to 8:11, is absent from the oldest manuscripts, and appears at different places in some later ones. 1 John 5:7 includes a reference to the three that bear witness in heaven, which is absent from almost all Greek manuscripts and appears in some Latin witnesses; modern critical editions omit it. Luke 22:43 and 44, about the angel and the sweat like drops of blood, is missing in some early witnesses, and editors differ on whether it is original.

  1. Does my translation mark this passage with a note, brackets or a heading?
  2. What does the note say about the manuscripts?
  3. Is the variant likely a slip, a smoothing or a harmonization?
  4. Which principles might favor each reading?
  5. Does the choice change the meaning, or does it only affect wording?
  6. What would a specialist need to see to decide?

Examples

A simple slip

If two lines of a text begin with the same word, a copyist’s eye may jump from the first to the second and omit the words between. The result is a shorter reading that can be explained as an accident. The longer reading, which includes the lost words, is usually preferred.

Harmonization

The Lord’s Prayer in Luke is shorter than in Matthew. Some later manuscripts of Luke add words found in Matthew’s version, so that the two agree. Critics reason that the shorter Lucan form is likely original, since a scribe is more likely to bring Luke into line with the more familiar Matthew.

A note in a modern Bible

A footnote at Mark 16:9 reads, in effect, that the earliest manuscripts do not have verses 9 to 20. The translators print the verses and mark them. Readers of the note learn that the matter is known and discussed, and can go further if they wish.

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic Church holds that the Scriptures are inspired and that the work of textual critics serves the church. Catholic Bibles contain notes about variants, and the Church receives the longer ending of Mark as canonical Scripture, since the Council of Trent listed the books with all their parts as they stand in the Vulgate.

Orthodox

Orthodox use of the Byzantine text means that the longer ending of Mark and the story in John 8 are read in church. Orthodox scholars also take part in criticism, and many accept that the history of the text is complex.

Protestant

Protestants differ. Many evangelical scholars accept the work of criticism as serving the aim of recovering the original text, and place weight on the doctrine of inspiration as applying to the original writings. Others, especially supporters of the King James Version, argue for the passages in the received text.

Scholarly

Textual scholars agree on most of the text and on the methods of weighing readings. They debate the rules of thumb, the status of the earliest text, and whether the goal is the author’s text, the earliest recoverable text or the text as used in the churches.

Why it matters

Footnotes about variants appear in every modern Bible. A reader who knows what they mean is not frightened by them, and is also not misled by claims that the whole text is in doubt or that no real questions exist. The honest picture lies between the two.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Hundreds of thousands of variants means hundreds of thousands of doubts about the meaning.

Correction: Most variants are spellings and changes in word order, and the count rises with the number of manuscripts. Only a small portion affect meaning.

Misunderstanding: Footnotes show that translators are hiding or removing parts of the Bible.

Correction: Footnotes are the translators’ way of showing what they know. They disclose a question and let the reader see it.

Misunderstanding: The shorter reading is always right.

Correction: It is a rule of thumb. Scribes could also omit text by accident, and each case must be weighed on its evidence.

Misunderstanding: The oldest manuscript is always right.

Correction: Age is important, but an old manuscript can contain errors, and a later one can preserve an earlier reading. Critics weigh quality as well as age.

Knowledge check

What is a textual variant and how do variants arise?

It is a place where manuscripts of the same text read differently. Variants arise through accidents, such as skipping lines or confusing similar words, and through deliberate changes, such as correcting grammar, harmonizing parallel passages or adding explanatory notes. Most are minor spelling or word order differences.

What are two principles critics use to weigh readings?

Prefer the reading that best explains the origin of the others. Two commonly used rules of thumb are that the shorter reading is preferred, since scribes tended to add, and the harder reading is preferred, since scribes tended to smooth. Both are guides with exceptions, and external evidence from the manuscripts is also weighed.

What do typical footnotes like Some manuscripts add tell a reader?

They tell the reader that a variant exists and that the translators chose a reading. They do not list the manuscripts or the full evidence, but they show that a question is known. A reader wanting more should consult a critical edition or a commentary on the text.

Give one example of a well known textual question in the New Testament.

The ending of Mark is one. The oldest nearly complete Bibles stop at 16:8, and other manuscripts add verses 9 to 20 or a shorter ending. Another is the passage about the woman taken in adultery in John 7:53 to 8:11, which is absent from the oldest manuscripts. Many Bibles mark both.

Think it through

  1. How do you feel when you see a note saying that the earliest manuscripts omit a passage?
  2. Why might a translator choose to include a passage and mark it with a note?
  3. How would you respond to a friend who says the Bible has been changed so much that it cannot be trusted?
  4. How would you respond to one who says there are no real questions about the text?

Independent assignment

Collect and sort five notes

In your own notebook, write 350 to 500 words. Collect five footnotes in a modern English Bible that record a textual variant, at least two from the New Testament and one from the Old Testament. For each, copy the verse and the note, and say what kind of variant it seems to be (slip, smoothing, harmonization, addition or other) and how weighty it is. Explain what you can and cannot judge from the note alone. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study