Since some questions have arisen over what textual criticism is, I've decided to make a jump to a further chapter in this series, then return to the originally-planned sequence.

Table of Contents

Textual Criticism I
Introduction

What is Textual Criticism? Simply put, it is the discipline of attempting to reconstruct the original text from a document is no longer extant (i.e. no longer exists), when multiple later copies do exist - potentially with textual variants through scribal errors or changes (whether intentional or not).

This study is employed for all ancient works, including those by Ancient Greek philosophers (Socrates, Plato) and playwrights (Homer). Newer lost autograph manuscripts have also been reconstructed through textual criticism, as well, including Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and many of William Shakespeare's plays.

As for ancient manuscripts, a unique issue for the New Testament alone is not that there is a lack of ancient manuscripts but that there is such an abundance that textual critics have a difficult time sifting through them all. Many other ancient works may have just a handful of surviving copies, but the New Testament has 5838 of them in Hellenistic Greek and over 16000 more in other languages, including Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Gothic. In fact, a few of the ancient European languages developed alphabets and written forms solely to transcribe the New Testament!

Textual criticism of the New Testament has come a long way over the centuries, but the discipline has applied to its books since the early centuries, with people like Tatian and Eusebius. Communication in the modern world and advanced archaeological techniques have accelerated new manuscript finds to the point that more are published every year.

One example of just how far the study has come is the comparison between the source material used in the King James Version (1604) and the modern translations. The KJV was based on 7 known manuscripts from the 11th century AD - well removed from the autographs. Today, the 5838 manuscripts (including those 7) date back to the late 1st century AD (as fragments) and 2nd century AD (as complete books)!

With all the new discoveries of older and more professionally-transcribed manuscripts, the textual critics have not found a single instance where the foundations of Christian faith would be altered - even in the smallest of ways. In fact, these new discoveries have just confirmed what was already believed of the text.

Could the autographs one day be found? It's possible, but it has not happened yet. Depending on how large the surviving fragments of the manuscripts are, the autograph nature may be readily apparent in that they would be written in cursive (instead of all capital letters of later copies) and potentially contain two handwritings (if an amanuensis was used) or a salutation (for the epistles). Additionally, the autographs would be written on scrolls, instead of codices.