Slide 9 of 22
Notes:
“External Evidence” essentially focuses on the situation of the the manuscripts themselves:
- What is their relative date (normally one would assume the earlier the better);
- Where do they come from geographically,
- and genealogically (which copied from which); and finally
- What is the assessment of the overall quality of the particular manuscript (does it have any detectable idiosyncrasies that make it more or less credible)?
Generally manuscripts that are associated with the region of Alexandria in Egypt have been seen as earlier and better witnesses, while those associated with first the West or Rome, and then Byzantium are generally later and of comparatively less quality. For this see the chart of Manuscripts in the Textual Criticism handout, p. 3, “Text-Types and Witnesses.” In this chart manuscripts are listed in groups of generally descending quality from top to bottom. Note that this evidence also varies somewhat depending on the particular section of the New Testament.
