Lesson 4 | Decrypting Footnotes
Understanding Scholars
1 Samuel 12 (NET2)
How are you ever supposed to be able to understand such scholarly mumbo-jumbo? Believe it or not, this single step will lay out all the major terms, abbreviations, and categories you need to be aware of to understand footnotes dealing with “textual criticism.” It will take some concentration to learn, but it is quite doable!
And you do not need to master everything this time around. Rather, understand as much as you can, and come back later to understand a bit more. (You will also get continued help from the cheat sheet at the end of this step.)
tex·tu·al crit·i·cism noun The study of manuscripts (i.e. handwritten documents) in effort to determine the original form of a text
Old Testament (OT)
English translations are almost all based upon the original Hebrew as preserved in the Masoretic Text (MT). The Masoretes were Jewish scribes who worked from the 7th to 10th centuries to copy and distribute the Hebrew Bible. The oldest surviving (“extant”) complete copy is dated to 1008 AD.
Besides this, three other sources are sometimes utilized when there is reason to suspect a corruption in the Masoretic Text:
- Septuagint (LXX) – An OT translation to Greek
- Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) – fragments of the Hebrew Bible found in the Qumran Caves
- Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) – still in Hebrew, but written in Samaritan script
The oldest surviving manuscripts for the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls both date to ~150 BC, whereas the oldest surviving fragment of the Samaritan Pentateuch dates to ~1000 AD.
New Testament (NT)
NT Manuscript Types and Families
New Testament manuscripts are categorized in three different ways. The oldest are the papyri (i.e. written on papyrus—a thick sort of paper made from a plant). These are represented by a funny “p” symbol followed by a number (e.g. 𝔓46).
The next category of NT manuscripts is uncials. That word indicates the uppercase script that was used. Manuscripts of this type are represented by a number with a zero prefix, or a capital letter in Hebrew, English, or Greek (e.g. 01 or א).
Lastly, there is the minuscules category. This is a lowercase script that was used in later years. These manuscripts are represented by a normal number without a prefix (e.g. 1431).
Perhaps more important than the format of the manuscripts is where they were found. This is what we mean by NT text “families.”
NT Greek Text Families
Text-Type
Region
Dates
Note
Alexandrian
Egyptian
100-400 AD
Primary source for most modern translations
Western
Western Europe
200-900 AD
Prone to paraphrasing
Byzantine (BYZ)
Eastern Roman Empire
400-1600 AD
Comprise ~95% of all manuscripts, but mostly with late dates
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While most New Testament manuscripts are simply copies of the NT, others are lectionaries (i.e. collections of Scripture readings used in worship) or amulets (i.e. written on charms). Still other “witnesses” are sermons or letters that quote the NT, written by the church fathers.
wit·ness noun An ancient manuscript of any variety of forms that is used in textual criticism
Greek Texts Used For Translations
While it is not necessary to commit the following to memory, a general familiarity of the major Greek texts will help you understand even more footnotes.
Stephanus – 1550 AD
Following the invention of the printing press, the first published Greek NT was edited by Erasmus in 1516 AD. The Stephanus text followed shortly after, used more sources, and became the first critical text to have an apparatus (a footnote system that lists which manuscripts are behind which readings). It utilized fifteen different manuscripts.
Wescott and Hort (WH) – 1885 AD
This is a critical text based primarily on two codices, both of Alexandrian text-type.
Nestle-Aland (NE, NA, UBS) – 1898 AD to present
This is the most prominent modern critical text and serves as the basis for most modern translations. It has been published with two versions of its apparatus—the NA and UBS series. It also has gone through many editions, a new one being released every several years. The most recent editions are the NA28 and UBS5.
Majority Text – 1982
Edited by Hodges and Farstad. Instead of using the common process of textual criticism, their approach was simply to present the majority readings. That is, whenever there is a discrepancy, the reading that is represented in the majority of manuscripts was chosen, irrespective of dating and other factors. This is the Greek text behind the EMTV translation.
Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) – 2010; UnfoldingWord (UGNT) – 2017; Tyndale House – 2017
These are additional critical texts that, like the NA, give the most weight to the earliest manuscripts. The UGNT uniquely used a computer algorithm in this process.
Robinson-Pierpont (RP) – 2018
A modern Byzantine-only critical text. Used by the TTENT translation.
crit·i·cal text noun A version of the NT that was compiled and edited from a number of manuscripts and codicies through the process of textual criticism
Tex·tus Re·cep·tus (TR or KJTR) A succession of printed editions of the Greek NT, from Erasmus’s in 1516 AD to the Elzevir edition in 1633. These Greek texts were used to translate the KJV and NKJV.
co·dex (plural: co·di·ces) noun An ancient version of the complete text (either OT, NT, or both) used as a basis for making handwritten copies
Ancient Translations of the Entire Bible
Finally, the following ancient translations are occasionally used as further witnesses when weighing two different readings. The date of the oldest surviving manuscript for each is shown in parentheses.
- Latin Vulgate (~350 AD)
- Syriac Peshitta (~450 AD)
- Coptic (~350 AD)
- Gothic (~500 AD)
Summary
Translations of the OT use the Masoretic Text as the base text, comparing the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Samaritan Pentateuch on occasion.
Translations of the NT work from a critical text—typically the Nestle-Aland, with a few exceptions. The manuscripts behind critical texts come in three types (papyri, uncials, and minuscules) from three different geographic locations called text families (Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine).
Discovery! Cheat SheetpdfPrint off this single-sided reference to accompany your study throughout this course and beyond.
Finally, scroll back up and see if you can now understand the “mumbo-jumbo” of the example footnote found there.