Eldon Jay Epp’s second volume of collected essays consists of articles previously published during 2006-2017. All treat aspects of the New Testament textual criticism, but focus on historical and methodological issues relevant to constructing the earliest attainable text of New Testament writings. More specific emphasis falls upon the nature of textual transmission and the text-critical process, and heavily on the criteria employed in establishing that earliest available text. Moreover, textual grouping is examined at length, and prominent is the current approach to textual variants not approved for the constructed text, for they have stories to tell regarding theological, ethical, and real-life issues as the early Christian churches sought to work out their own status, practices, and destiny.

This book analyses how the early Greek whole-Bible manuscripts (pandects) change and preserve the text. Dormandy refutes the method based on singular readings and so investigates all the ways in which each pandect differs from the initial text, both changes introduced by its own scribe and by the scribes of earlier manuscripts. He surveys sample chapters in John, Romans, Revelation, Sirach and Judges (including discussing the “new finds” of Sinaiticus). Dormandy’s observations of Codex Ephraemi challenge accepted transcriptions. Dormandy argues that Sinaiticus and Vaticanus may plausibly have been made in response to commissions by Constantine and Constans. Dormandy concludes that generally, across all the Biblical books considered, the pandects preserve the initial text well. Transcriptional and linguistic variations are more common than harmonisations or changes of content. The more precise profiles of each manuscript vary between Biblical books. The pandects thus create bibliographic unity from textual diversity. This shows their significance in the history of the Christian Bible: they reflect in bibliographic form the hermeneutical move to consider all the books of the Christian Bible as one corpus.

In this volume Alan Mugridge reviews claims that scribes of New Testament manuscripts altered the text of their copies to further their own beliefs, to stop people using them to support opposing beliefs, or for some other purpose. He discusses the New Testament passages about which these claims are made in detail, noting their context, exegesis, and supporting manuscripts. He concludes that while a small number of such claims are valid, most are doubtful because, unless a scribe’s habits are clear in one manuscript, we cannot know how the changes came about, why they were made, who made them, and when they were made. He argues that the bulk of the erroneous readings in New Testament manuscripts reviewed were made by scribal slips during the copying process, and not in order to further anyone’s personal agenda, adding strength to the reliability of the Greek New Testament text available today, despite the need to refine current editions to be as close as possible to the original text.

This collection of frequently cited articles and chapters published from 1962 to 2004 provides perspective on the history and development of New Testament textual criticism, with descriptions and critique of the major text-critical theories and methods. Specific manuscripts and text-types, such as the Codex Bezae and the D-text are discussed, as well as issues such as anti-Judaic tendencies, the ascension narratives, and the relationship of text and canon. Many of the essays from the last fifteen years emphasize the earliest period and papyrus manuscripts, particularly those found at Oxyrhynchus, and assess their socio-cultural and intellectual contexts, while articles from the last five years advocate or engage the more controversial aspects of current New Testament textual criticism, especially the issue of 'original text'.

Lee Martin McDonald provides a magisterial overview of the development of the biblical canon --- the emergence of the list of individual texts that constitutes the Christian bible. In these two volumes -- in sum more than double the length of his previous works -- McDonald presents his most in-depth overview to date. McDonald shows students and researchers how the list of texts that constitute 'the bible' was once far more fluid than it is today and guides readers through the minefield of different texts, different versions, and the different lists of texts considered 'canonical' that abounded in antiquity. Questions of the origin and transmission of texts are introduced as well as consideration of innovations in the presentation of texts, collections of documents, archaeological finds and Church councils. In the first volume McDonald reexamines issues of canon formation once considered settled, and sets the range of texts that make up the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) in their broader context. Each indidvidual text is discussed, as are the cultural, political and historical situations surrounding them. This second volume considers the New Testament, and the range of so-called 'apocryphal' gospels that were written in early centuries, and used by many Christian groups before the canon was closed. Also included are comprehensive appendices which show various canon lists for both Old and New Testaments and for the bible as a whole.

The famous Codex Vaticanus is currently regarded as one of the most essential sources for reconstructing the Greek New Testament text. Although it had already been used by textual critics in the sixteenth century, the manuscript only rose to the prominent status it now holds during the nineteenth century. In this volume, Yi writes an extensive scholarly history of Codex Vaticanus and describes its changing perceptions among scholars, beginning from Desiderius Erasmus until its editio princeps prepared by Angelus Maius. By examining critical editions, analysing monographs and articles, considering book reviews and pamphlets, and delving into archive collections, Yi delineates the stages of the manuscript's progression from an ancient manuscript held at the Vatican Library to its designation as the 'Codex Vaticanus'. It is a study of the many individuals and their stories surrounding this very manuscript, stories about accessibility and the dissemination of knowledge, authority and head-on collisions between the most learned critics, and of continuity and changing paradigms in scholarship. All in all, this book sets out how Codex Vaticanus became the manuscript par excellence in the history of New Testament textual scholarship.

An innovative study of the manuscript history of the New Testament, encompassing its paratexts—titles, cross-references, prefaces, marginalia, and more. How did the Christian scriptures come to be? In Words Are Not Enough, Garrick V. Allen argues that our exploration of the New Testament's origins must take account of more than just the text on the page. Where did the titles, verses, and chapters come from? Why do these extras, the paratexts, matter? Allen traces the manuscript history of scripture from our earliest extant texts through the Middle Ages to illuminate the origins of the printed Bibles we have today. Allen’s research encompasses formatting, titles, prefaces, subscriptions, cross-references, marginalia, and illustrations. Along the way, he explains how anonymous scribes and scholars contributed to our framing—and thereby our understanding—of the New Testament. But Allen does not narrate this history to try to unearth a pristine authorial text. Instead, he argues that this process of change is itself sacred. On the handwritten page, scripture and tradition meet. Students, scholars, and any curious reader will learn how the messy, human transmission of the sacred text can enrich our biblical interpretation.

The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis provides a thoroughly up-to-date assessment of every major aspect of New Testament textual criticism. The twenty-four essays in the volume, all written by internationally acknowledged experts in the field, cover every major aspect of the discipline, discussing the advances that have been made since the mid twentieth century. With full and informative bibliographies, these contributions will be essential reading for anyone interested in moving beyond the standard handbooks in order to see where the discipline now stands, a vade mecum for all students and text-critical scholars for a generation to come.

During the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the role of the Bible in both Protestant and Roman Catholic branches of western Christianity was vital and complex. Drawing on new technologies such as movable type, this period saw extraordinary energy and enterprise put into the translation, interpretation, and publication of Christianity's sacred text. As a result, an increasingly broad section of the population, from scholars and clergy to laity and children, came to be involved in the reception of the Bible and its position in early modern religious expression. The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation provides readers with a deeper understanding of the expansive history of the Bible as it was shaped, shared, and received across Christian traditions. Chapters explore the biblical canon, translation and print, the development of Reformation hermeneutics, the history of Bible commentators, and exegesis relating to key texts and theological themes of Reformation writing and discourse. Engaging the subject broadly, intricately, and robustly, the expertise of over fifty leading experts illuminates the early modern Bible's composition and position as scripture and, from the Renaissance era on, as a printed book. By including the contributions of radical reformers, Catholics, and women scholars, the Handbook presents a deep and wide-ranging account of the importance of the Bible's reach and authority among all western Christians.

A collection of 57 essays by J.K. Elliott on aspects of New Testament textual criticism including examinations of textual variation and important Greek manuscripts and analyses of printed editions of the New Testament text, all making the case for thoroughgoing textual criticism.