The New Testament in the Original Greek

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The New Testament in the Original Greek is the name of a Greek language version of the New Testament published in 1881. It is also known as the Westcott and Hort text, after its editors Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892). It is a critical text, compiled from some of the oldest New Testament fragments and texts that had been discovered at the time.

Westcott and Hort distinguished four text types in their studies. The most recent is Syrian, or Byzantine text-type, of which the newest example (thus less reliable) is the Textus Receptus. The Western text-type is much older, but tends to paraphrase, so according to them also lacks dependability. The Alexandrian text-type, exemplified in the codex Ephraemi, exhibits a polished Greek style. The two scholars identified their favorite text type as "Neutral text", exemplified by the two 4th century manuscripts codex Vaticanus (known to scholars since the 15th century) and codex Sinaiticus (discovered only in 1859), both of which they relied on heavily but not exclusively for this edition. Westcott and Hort worked on their Testament from 1853 until its completion in 1881 (Metzger, p. 129). It was followed by an Introduction and Appendix by Hort appearing in a second volume in 1882. In 1892, a revised edition was released by F. C. Burkitt. According to Metzger, "the general validity of their critical principles and procedures is widely acknowledged by scholars today." (Metzger, p. 137)

[edit] References

Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (3rd edition, 1992), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-507297-9, p. 129–137