Novum Testamentum Graece is the Latin name editions of the original Greek-language version of the New Testament. The first printed edition was the Complutensian Polyglot Bible by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, printed in 1514, but not published until 1520. The first published edition of the Greek New Testament was produced by Erasmus in 1516.
Today the designation Novum Testamentum Graece normally refers to the Nestle-Aland editions, named after the scholars who led the critical editing work. The text, edited by the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung (Institute for New Testament Textual Research) is currently in its 27th edition, abbreviated NA27. NA27 is used as the basis of most contemporary New Testament translations, as well as being the standard for academic work in New Testament studies.
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The Greek text as presented is what biblical scholars refer to as the "critical text". The critical text is an eclectic text compiled by a committee that examines a large number of manuscripts in order to weigh which reading is thought closest to the original. They use a number of factors to help determine probable readings, such as the date of the witness (earlier is usually better), the geographical distribution of a reading, and accidental or intentional corruptions. In the book, a large number of textual variants, or differences between manuscripts, are noted in the critical apparatus—the extensive footnotes that distinguish the Novum Testamentum Graece from other Greek New Testaments.
Most scholars view uncial text as the most accurate; however, a few authors (such as New Testament scholar Maurice A. Robinson[1] and linguist Wilbur Pickering[2]) claim that the minuscule texts (Byzantine text-type) more accurately reflect the "autographs" or original texts than an eclectic text like NA27 that relies heavily on manuscripts of the Alexandrian text-type. This view has been criticized by Gordon Fee[3] and Bruce Metzger[4] among others. Since the majority of old manuscripts in existence are minuscules, they are often referred to as the Majority Text. It is worth noting, though, that the Majority Text as a whole is classified by the editors of the NA27 (of whom Metzger is one) as a "consistently cited witness of the first order," meaning that whenever the text presented differs from the majority text this is recorded in the apparatus along with the alternate reading.[5] Other consistently cited references include the full corpus of papyri manuscripts available to the authors as well as a wide range of other manuscripts including a selection of both minuscules and uncials.[6]
The Novum Testamentum Graece apparatus summarizes the evidence (from manuscripts and versions) for, and sometimes against, a selection of the most important variants for the study of the text of the New Testament. While eschewing completeness (in the range of variants and in the citation of witnesses), this edition does provide informed readers with a basis by which they can judge for themselves which readings more accurately reflect the originals. The Greek text of the 27th edition is the same as that of the 4th edition of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament (abbreviated UBS4) although there are a few differences between them in paragraphing, capitalization, punctuation and spelling.[7] The critical apparatus is different in the two editions; the UBS4 edition is prepared for the use of translators, and includes fewer textual variants, but adds extra material helpful for translators.
The first edition published by Eberhard Nestle in 1898 combined the readings of the editions of Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort and Weymouth, placing the majority reading of these in the text and the third reading in the apparatus. In 1901, he replaced the Weymouth New Testament with Bernhard Weiss's text. In later editions, Nestle began noting the attestation of certain important manuscripts in his apparatus.
Eberhard's son Erwin Nestle took over after his father's death and issued the 13th edition in 1927. This edition introduced a separate critical apparatus and began to abandon the majority reading principle.
Kurt Aland became the associate editor of the 21st edition in 1952. At Erwin Nestle's request, he reviewed and expanded the critical apparatus, adding many more manuscripts. This eventually led to the 25th edition of 1963. The great manuscript discoveries of the 20th century had also made a revision of the text necessary and, with Nestle's permission, Aland set out to revise the text of Novum Testamentum Graece. Aland submitted his work on NA to the editorial committee of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament (of which he was also a member) and it became the basic text of their third edition (UBS3) in 1975, four years before it was published as the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland.
Members of the Editorial Committee of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament comprise:
The current edition of Nestle-Aland reproduces the text of NA26 (the same text used in UBS3 and UBS4). The 27th edition presents a thoroughly revised critical apparatus and a rewritten introduction and appendices.
A more complete set of variants is listed in the multiple volume Novum Testamentum Graecum – Editio Critica Maior. A small number of textual changes in the most current edition will be incorporated in the 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland.[8] According to Hendrickson Publishers, the North American distributors of the book, "The current estimate is that the NA28 will not be published until at least the fall of 2009, at the earliest."[9]
The NA27 text is published by Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (the German Bible Society).
In The Text of the New Testament, Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland compare the total number of variant-free verses, and the number of variants per page (excluding orthographic errors), among the seven major editions of the Greek NT (Tischendorf, Westcott-Hort, von Soden, Vogels, Merk, Bover, and Nestle-Aland) concluding 62.9%, or 4999/7947, agreement.[10] They concluded, "Thus in nearly two-thirds of the New Testament text, the seven editions of the Greek New Testament which we have reviewed are in complete accord, with no differences other than in orthographical details (e.g., the spelling of names, etc.). Verses in which any one of the seven editions differs by a single word are not counted. This result is quite amazing, demonstrating a far greater agreement among the Greek texts of the New Testament during the past century than textual scholars would have suspected […]. In the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation the agreement is less, while in the letters it is much greater"[10]
|
Book |
Total Number Of Verses |
Variant-Free Verses-Total |
Percentage |
Variants per page |
|
Matthew |
1071 |
642 |
59.9 % |
6.8 |
|
Mark |
678 |
306 |
45.1 % |
10.3 |
|
Luke |
1151 |
658 |
57.2 % |
6.9 |
|
John |
869 |
450 |
51.8 % |
8.5 |
|
Acts |
1006 |
677 |
67.3 % |
4.2 |
|
Romans |
433 |
327 |
75.5 % |
2.9 |
|
1 Corinthians |
437 |
331 |
75.7 % |
3.5 |
|
2 Corinthians |
256 |
200 |
78.1 % |
2.8 |
|
Galatians |
149 |
114 |
76.5 % |
3.3 |
|
Ephesians |
155 |
118 |
76.1 % |
2.9 |
|
Philippians |
104 |
73 |
70.2 % |
2.5 |
|
Colossians |
95 |
69 |
72.6 % |
3.4 |
|
1 Thessalonians |
89 |
61 |
68.5 % |
4.1 |
|
2 Thessalonians |
47 |
34 |
72.3 % |
3.1 |
|
1 Timothy |
113 |
92 |
81.4 % |
2.9 |
|
2 Timothy |
83 |
66 |
79.5 % |
2.8 |
|
Titus |
46 |
33 |
71.7 % |
2.3 |
|
Philemon |
25 |
19 |
76.0 % |
5.1 |
|
Hebrews |
303 |
234 |
77.2 % |
2.9 |
|
James |
108 |
66 |
61.6 % |
5.6 |
|
1 Peter |
105 |
70 |
66.6 % |
5.7 |
|
2 Peter |
61 |
32 |
52.5 % |
6.5 |
|
1 John |
105 |
76 |
72.4 % |
2.8 |
|
2 John |
13 |
8 |
61.5 % |
4.5 |
|
3 John |
15 |
11 |
73.3 % |
3.2 |
|
Jude |
25 |
18 |
72.0 % |
4.2 |
|
Revelation |
405 |
214 |
52.8 % |
5.1 |
|
Total |
7947 |
4999 |
62.9 % |
|
Earlier translations of the Bible, including the Authorized King James Version, tended to rely on Byzantine type texts, such as the Textus Receptus. A number of translations began to use critical Greek editions, beginning with the translation of the Revised Version in England in 1881-1885 (using Westcott and Hort's Greek Text). English translations produced during the twentieth century increasingly reflected the work of textual criticism, although even new translations are often influenced by earlier translation efforts.
A comparison of the textual and stylistic choices of twenty translations against 15,000 variant readings shows the following rank of agreement with the Nestle-Aland 27th edition:[11]
| Abbreviation | Name | Relative Agreement with Nestle-Aland 27th edition |
|---|---|---|
| NASB | New American Standard | 1 |
| ASV | American Standard Version | 2 |
| NAU | New American Standard 1995 Update | 3 |
| NAB | New American Bible | 4 |
| ESV | English Standard Version | 5 |
| HCS | Holman Christian Standard Bible | 6 |
| NRS | New Revised Standard Version | 7 |
| NET | New English Translation | 8 |
| RSV | Revised Standard Version | 9 |
| NIV | New International Version | 10 |
| NJB | New Jerusalem Bible | 11 |
| REB | Revised English Bible | 12 |
| JNT | Jewish New Testament | 13 |
| GNB | Good News Bible | 14 |
| NLT | New Living Translation | 15 |
| DRA | Douay-Rheims American edition | 16 |
| TLB | The Living Bible | 17 |
| MRD | Murdock Peshitta translation | 18 |
| NKJV | New King James Bible | 19 |
| KJV | King James Version | 20 |