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Notes:
“Textual Criticism” of the New Testament refers to the science and art of reconstructing the original text of the New Testament writings and, as a related matter, the history of the transmission of the textual tradition of the New Testament to the present time.
Every person who uses either of the two most familiar editions of the Greek New Testament, the Novum Testamentum Graece, edited by Eberhard Nestle and Kurt Aland, or the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, ed. By Kurt Aland, et. al., makes use of the current results of Textual Criticism in these two Greek texts that are the product of such reconstruction.
Further, essentially every modern English translation that is based in some way on reference to the original language is also based on this textual work.
This presentation has two objectives:
1) To introduce the basic principles of Textual Criticism so that the student may understand how the text of the New Testament currently in use has been constructed; and
2) To lead the student into development of some elementary skills in the practice of Textual Criticism so that the student may evaluate and understand the textual decisions that have been made in the text.
