Bible Texts and Versions
The NT and the OT have considerably different but partially
overlapping textual histories. For clarity, it is best to begin with
a survey of the NT manuscripts and versions.
Greek
texts.
Although no autographs of the NT books survive, there exist more than
five thousand Greek texts covering anywhere from a portion of a few
verses up to the complete NT. Traditionally, these texts have been
classified into five groups: papyri, uncials, minuscules,
lectionaries, and quotations in patristic texts. The most important
manuscripts are listed below.
The
earliest texts of the NT are those written on papyrus. Ninety-eight
of these manuscripts have been identified, and they are represented
by a “P” with a numerical superscript. The earliest of
these papyri is P52, which contains parts of four verses in John 18
and dates to the early second century. For substantial portions of
the NT text, the most important papyri are found in the Chester
Beatty and Bodmer collections. P45, P46, and P47, all from the
Chester Beatty collection, are from the third century and contain
large sections of the four Gospels, eight of the Pauline Epistles,
Hebrews, and Revelation. Within the Bodmer collection in Geneva are
four very important codices. P66 dates to around AD 200 and preserves
most of the Gospel of John. P72 dates to the third century and
contains the earliest copies of 1–2 Peter and Jude, which are
preserved in their entirety, as well as Greek translations of Pss.
33–34. P74 dates to the seventh century and contains portions
of Acts, James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude. Finally,
P75, which dates to the early third century, contains most of Luke
and John 1–15. It is the oldest extant copy of Luke. Among the
remaining papyri, forty-three have been dated to the early fourth
century or before.
The
second category of manuscripts is the uncials, which usually were
written on parchment and span the fourth through the tenth centuries.
About 270 uncials are known, and they range from a few verses up to
complete copies of the NT or even the entire Bible. Uncials
originally were denoted by capital letters, but when the number of
manuscripts grew beyond these limits, a new system was employed
whereby each manuscript was given a number always beginning with
zero. However, the most important uncials are still usually known by
their letter. Among the most important uncials are the following five
manuscripts. Codex Sinaiticus (designated by the Hebrew letter à)
dates to the fourth century and is the only uncial that contains the
entire NT. It also has almost all of the OT as well as the early
Christian writings the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of
Hermas. Dating from the fifth century, Codex Alexandrinus (designated
as A) contains the OT, most of the NT—lacking only portions of
Matthew, John, and 2 Corinthians—and 1–2 Clement.
Along with Sinaiticus, the most important uncial is Codex Vaticanus
(designated as B), which dates to the fourth century. It contains
almost all of the OT and the complete NT, except for substantial
portions between Hebrews and Revelation. It has been in the Vatican’s
library for over five hundred years. The fourth important uncial is
Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis (designated as D), which contains Greek
and Latin copies of the four Gospels, most of Acts, and a few verses
from 3 John. It dates from the late fourth or early fifth
century. The fifth important uncial is Codex Washingtonianus
(designated as W), which dates to the early fifth century and
contains virtually all of the four Gospels.
The
third category of NT manuscripts is minuscules. These texts date from
the ninth century and later and comprise approximately 2,800
manuscripts, which are denoted by a number not beginning with zero.
Among the more important minuscules are Codex 1, Codex 13, and Codex
33, which, along with their relatives, are considered reliable
witnesses to early families of texts such as the Caesarean (1) or the
Alexandrian (33). Codex 13 and its relatives are noteworthy for
having the story of the adulterous woman at the end of Luke 21
instead of in John 8. The final two groups of NT manuscripts, the
lectionaries and quotations in patristic sources, are not manuscripts
in the strict sense of the term, but their use of portions of the NT
presents important witnesses for the practice of textual criticism.
Versions.
With the spread of Christianity during the time of the Roman Empire,
the NT was translated into the language of the native peoples. These
versions of the NT are important both for textual criticism of the NT
and for the interpretive decisions that are reflected in how the text
was rendered into a new language. Among the most important early
versions of the NT are the following.
As
Latin began to displace Greek as the dominant language of the empire,
there was a need for a Latin version of the Bible. The earliest
translation, known as the Old Latin or Itala, was made probably in
the late second century, though the oldest manuscript (Codex
Vercellensis) is from the fourth century. With the proliferation of
Latin texts a standardized Latin translation became desirable, and in
AD 382 Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus to provide a new
translation known as the Vulgate.
Another
family of NT versions is the Syriac texts. Around the late second
century the four Gospels were translated into a version known as the
Old Syriac. It is extant in two incomplete manuscripts that are
probably fifth century. The translation that became the standard
Syriac text is the Peshitta, which was produced in the early fifth
century. It does not contain 2 Peter, 2–3 John, Jude, or
Revelation because these were not considered canonical among the
Syriac churches.
Other
important versions of the NT from antiquity are the Coptic, Armenian,
Georgian, and Ethiopic translations.
Old
Testament
Hebrew
texts.
The text that has served as the basis for most modern editions and
translations of the Hebrew OT is the Masoretic Text (MT), named after
the Masoretes, the Jewish scribes who transmitted the text and added
vocalization, accentuation, and notes to the consonantal text. The
most important Masoretic manuscripts date from the end of the ninth
century to the early eleventh century. Notable among these is the
Leningrad Codex (AD 1008), denoted as L, which is the earliest
Masoretic manuscript of the entire OT. Also important are the Aleppo
Codex (c. AD 925), denoted as A, which preserves all of the OT except
for most of the Pentateuch; the British Museum MS Or. 4445 (c. AD
925), denoted as B, which contains most of the Pentateuch; and the
Cairo Codex (c. AD 896), denoted C, which contains Joshua through
Kings and also the Prophets.
Although
these manuscripts are much later than the biblical period, their
reliability was largely confirmed with the discovery of the DSS
beginning in 1947. Among the Qumran library are many manuscripts of
biblical books as well as biblical commentaries, apocrphyal and
pseudepigraphal works, and sectarian literature. All the OT books are
represented among the scrolls that were found except Esther and
Nehemiah, though the latter is usually presumed to have been at the
end of Ezra but has not survived. The books with the most manuscripts
are, in order, Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah. One of the striking
characteristics of these scrolls is that they reflect a diversity of
text types. For example, there is a copy of Jeremiah that is close to
the Masoretic version, but also a manuscript of Jeremiah similar to
the much shorter version found in the Septuagint (the Greek
translation of the OT).
Another
Hebrew text of the OT is that of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which is
the text transmitted by the Samaritans. It is similar to the MT in
some respects but also has differences that reflect theological
interests. The main manuscripts for the Samaritan Pentateuch are from
the twelfth century.
Versions.
Between the third and first centuries BC, the entire OT was
translated into Greek. This version, known as the Septuagint
(designated by the abbreviation LXX), became the main version of the
OT used by the early church. Due to its adoption by the church, the
LXX has been preserved in numerous manuscripts, including Sinaiticus,
Alexandrinus, and Vaticanus. By the late first century BC or early
first century AD, there were two revisions of the Greek text: the
Proto-Lucianic version and the Kaige recension. The latter aimed to
revise the Greek toward closer conformity with the Hebrew text and
derives its name from its peculiar tendency to translate the Hebrew
word gam (“also”) with the Greek work kaige. In the
second century AD three other Greek translations were made by Aquila,
Theodotion, and Symmachus, all of which revised the Kaige recension
back toward the MT.
Another
important early version of the OT consists of the Targumim, which are
Aramaic translations or paraphrases (and sometimes extensive
elaborations) of OT books. The official Targumim for Judaism are
Targum Onqelos for the Pentateuch (c. second century AD), which is
quite literal, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan for the Prophets (sometime
before the fourth century AD), which ranges from being quite literal
to somewhat paraphrastic. Unofficial Targumim for the Pentateuch
include Targum Neofiti and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. There are also
various unofficial Targumim for the Writings section of the OT,
except for Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah (which are already written partly
in Aramaic).
Besides
the Greek and Aramaic translations, there are other important
versions of the OT. Sometime in either the third or fourth century
AD, the Peshitta of the OT was produced, though there is evidence
that there were earlier Syriac translations of some books already
circulating. Also important is a group of Latin translations known
collectively as the Old Latin. These versions were produced sometime
during the second century AD and were primarily made from already
existing Greek translations rather than Hebrew texts. As with the NT,
a later Latin translation was made by Jerome for the Vulgate.
