Variants and how scholars weigh them

Program / Course 17: Defending Scripture / Lesson 3.2

What you will learn

• Define a textual variant and explain why variants arise in so large a number.
• Describe the main kinds of evidence scholars use to choose between readings.
• Explain the dispute between critical-text and traditional-text approaches.
• Discuss the best known disputed passages and what the evidence shows about each.

The big idea

A textual variant is a place where manuscripts differ. There are hundreds of thousands of them in the Greek New Testament, depending on how they are counted, because there are so many manuscripts. Most are trivial, such as spelling and word order. A very small number affect the meaning of a passage, and fewer still affect any teaching of the church. Scholars decide between readings by weighing external evidence, which is about the manuscripts, and internal evidence, which is about what an author or scribe was likely to write. They do not always agree.

Key terms

Variant

A place where surviving manuscripts differ in wording, spelling, word order or content.

External evidence

Evidence about the manuscripts themselves: their age, where they come from, and how reliable the witnesses are.

Internal evidence

Evidence from within the text: what the author usually wrote, and what a scribe was likely to change.

Text types

Families of manuscripts that share characteristic readings. The main ones are called Alexandrian, Western and Byzantine.

Textus Receptus

Latin for received text. A form of the Greek New Testament based on late manuscripts, first published by Erasmus in 1516 and underlying the King James Version.

Critical text

A text assembled by scholars who weigh the manuscript evidence, such as the Nestle-Aland edition.

Majority Text

A text that follows the reading found in the most manuscripts, most of which are Byzantine. Some scholars and churches prefer it.

Background

Erasmus, a Dutch scholar, published the first printed Greek New Testament in 1516 using a few late manuscripts. Later editions formed the Textus Receptus, which stood behind the main Protestant translations of the Reformation and the King James Version of 1611. As earlier manuscripts were found and studied, especially in the nineteenth century, scholars saw that the earlier witnesses sometimes differ from the late ones. Westcott and Hort published an influential critical text in 1881, and today most translations use editions such as the Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Societies text.

The big number of variants has become a talking point on both sides. Skeptics say that the number shows how unstable the text is. Defenders say the number is high because the manuscripts are so many, and that most variants are minor. Both statements are partly right. A fair account tells what the variants are, how they are judged, and which passages are truly in doubt.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: What kinds of variants there are

The great majority of variants are of three kinds: spelling differences, differences in word order that do not change the meaning in Greek, and slips such as a missing letter. A smaller group involve a different word, a different name or the presence or absence of a phrase. A few involve whole sentences or paragraphs.

Scholars sometimes describe variants as meaningful and viable when they have a chance of being the original reading and change the meaning. Counted this way, the number is a small fraction of the whole. Even so, a handful of passages are important for how readers understand a story or doctrine, and these are discussed openly in the notes of modern Bibles.

Step 2: External evidence

Scholars ask how old a manuscript is, where it comes from, and what family it belongs to. A reading that appears early and in manuscripts from different regions is more likely to be original than a reading found in one place or only later. The quality of a witness matters too: a manuscript that is usually careful counts for more than one that often shows slips.

Many modern scholars prefer the Alexandrian witnesses such as Codex Vaticanus and the early papyri, because they are old and have a good record elsewhere. Advocates of the Majority Text answer that most of the manuscripts, though later, represent a long and continuous line of transmission in the church, and that age alone should not decide.

Step 3: Internal evidence

Scholars apply two common rules of thumb. The shorter reading is often preferred, because scribes were more likely to add than to omit. The harder reading is often preferred, because scribes tended to smooth difficulties. These are guidelines, not laws. Scribes also omitted words by accident, so a shorter reading is not always original.

Other questions include what the author wrote elsewhere, whether a reading explains the other variants, and whether a scribe might have harmonized the passage with a parallel one. A good decision considers the whole set of evidence together. When the evidence is balanced, honest editors mark the passage with a note or place the doubtful words in brackets.

Step 4: Famous disputed passages

Mark 16:9-20, the longer ending of Mark, is absent from the best-known early manuscripts such as Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, and some manuscripts have a shorter ending or other endings. Most scholars think the longer ending was not written by the author of the rest of the Gospel, though it was known in the second century, since Irenaeus cites it. John 7:53 to 8:11, the story of the woman taken in adultery, is missing from the earliest manuscripts and appears in different places in others. Many scholars think it was an old tradition about Jesus added to John later. Many churches read it as Scripture nonetheless.

First John 5:7-8 in the King James Version contains the words about the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost in heaven, often called the Johannine Comma. These words are absent from nearly all Greek manuscripts and appear only in late ones. Erasmus omitted them in his first editions and, according to a common account, included them in his third edition after he was shown a Greek manuscript. Almost all scholars regard them as a later addition. The doctrine of the Trinity does not depend on this verse, as the other passages and the creeds show.

Step 5: The dispute over methods

Three positions can be distinguished. The first, called reasoned eclecticism, weighs both external and internal evidence and often prefers the earliest witnesses. It underlies most modern Bibles. The second prefers the Majority Text, and the third defends the Textus Receptus, often on theological grounds of God’s providence in preserving the text in the church’s use. Eastern Orthodox churches generally use the Byzantine text in worship.

Each side makes its case. Critics of the Textus Receptus point out that it depends on a few late manuscripts and some readings that no earlier manuscript supports. Defenders respond that the church used the text for centuries and that older does not mean better. This debate affects how many verses a Bible includes, but it does not change what the church teaches on any central point.

1. Why does a large number of manuscripts produce a large number of variants?
2. How would you explain the difference between external and internal evidence?
3. Why might the harder reading be more likely to be original?
4. What would be at stake for you if the longer ending of Mark were not original?
5. How should a church decide which text to read in worship?
6. What does it say about a tradition that its Bible notes passages that are in doubt?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic scholarship uses the critical editions and has contributed to them. The Catholic Church has held the Latin Vulgate in high regard, and Dei Verbum calls for translations from the original texts. The modern Catholic Bibles note the disputed passages.

Orthodox

The Orthodox Church uses the Byzantine text in worship, which agrees mainly with the Majority Text. Orthodox scholars take part in textual study, and Orthodox teaching does not claim that every reading is certain, but it values the continuity of the church’s use.

Protestant (critical text)

Most Protestants and evangelicals accept the critical text and modern translations, and they argue that the disputed readings do not affect any doctrine. They say that a faith built on evidence welcomes the study of the manuscripts.

Protestant (traditional text)

Some conservative Protestants hold to the Textus Receptus or the Majority Text. They appeal to the providence of God in preserving his word and to the Westminster Confession’s statement about the Scriptures being kept pure in all ages. Their critics point to the late date of the manuscripts behind it.

Scholarly

Scholars of various beliefs, such as Metzger, who was a Christian, and Ehrman, who is an agnostic, agree on the facts of the variants and many of the judgments, but they differ in how they describe their significance. Ehrman stresses that some variants matter for the interpretation of passages, while Metzger stresses that the basic text is secure.

Why it matters

Many Christians first hear about variants from a skeptic or from a note in a modern Bible, and they feel alarmed. Knowing how scholars handle the evidence turns alarm into understanding. It also shows that the Bibles on the shelf differ for reasons that can be explained, and that debates about the text are open and honest. A reader who understands the method is better able to resist both exaggerated claims of corruption and exaggerated claims of perfect preservation.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Does knowing that scholars weigh evidence to establish the text strengthen or weaken your trust in your Bible? Why?
2. How would you explain a note about a disputed verse to a friend who is anxious about it?
3. Which approach to the text, critical or traditional, answers better to your own concerns?

Independent assignment

Look up a variant

In your own notebook, choose one of the passages named in this lesson and find it in two translations that differ about it (for example the King James Version and a modern study Bible). Write 300 to 400 words describing how each translation handles it, what the footnote says, what evidence is cited, and what position you think is most reasonable. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.

Further study

• Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration Read selectively on principles used to choose between variants.
• F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? A shorter older discussion of the New Testament text.
• Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith Read chapter 1, section 8, on the Scriptures being kept pure, as used by defenders of the traditional text.
• Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Read selectively for early citation of the Gospels.
• John 8:1 Begin with the traditional reading of the story of the woman taken in adultery and note the footnote in your Bible.
• Mark 16:9 The opening of the longer ending, whose status is disputed.
• 1 John 5:7 The passage known as the Johannine Comma in the King James Version.