The New Testament in the Original Greek

This book describes the revolutionary methods used by Westcott and Hort in editing the Greek New Testament (1881).

Brooke Foss Westcott (Edited by), Fenton John Anthony Hort (Edited by)

9781108007085, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 February 2010

550 pages, 2 tables
21.6 x 14 x 3.1 cm, 0.69 kg

The publication in 1881 of The New Testament in the Original Greek, by the Cambridge scholars Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), marked the culmination of twenty-eight years of work and an innovation in the theory and methods of New Testament textual criticism. This first of two volumes contains a detailed discussion of the theories and methods behind the reconstructed text, sets out the editors' theory of text-types, and justifies their choice to break with the dominant use of the Textus Receptus. It argues for the Neutral Text, represented by the uncials Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, as being the earliest and least corrupt form. Westcott and Hort's claim to reconstruct the 'original text' may seem extravagant today but according to Bruce Metzger theirs was the 'most noteworthy critical edition of the Greek Testament ever produced by British scholarship'.

Prefatory remarks
Part 1. The Need of Criticism for the Text of the New Testament: 1. Transmission by writing
2. Transmission by printed editions
3. History of present edition
Part 2. The Methods of Textual Criticism: Section 1. Internal Evidence of Readings: 1. Intrinsic probability
2. Transcriptional probability
Section 2. Internal Evidence of Documents
Section 3. Genealogical Evidence: 1. Simple or divergent genealogy
2. Genealogy and number
3. Manner of discovering genealogy
4. Complications of genealogy by mixture
5. Applications of genealogy
6. Variable use of genealogy according to unequal preservation of documents
Section 4. Internal Evidence of Groups
Section 5. Recapitulation of Methods in Relation to Each Other
Section 6. Criticism as Dealing with Errors Antecedent to Existing Texts: 1. Primitive errors
2. Removal of primitive errors by conjecture
Part 3. Application of Principles of Criticism to the Text of the New Testament: Section 1. Preliminary Chronological Survey of Documents: 1. Greek MSS
2. Versions
3. Fathers
4. Documentary preparation for this edition
Section 2. Results of Genealogical Evidence Proper: 1. Determination of the genealogical relations of the chief ancient texts
2. Characteristics of the chief ancient texts
3. Sketch of Postnicene textual history
4. Relations of the principal extant documents to the chief ancient texts
5. Identification and estimation of readings as belonging to the chief ancient texts
6. Review of previous criticism with reference to ancient texts
Section 3. Results of Internal Evidence of Groups and Documents: 1. Documentary groups as limited by reference to primary Greek MSS generally
2. Documentary groups as limited by reference to the best primary Greek MSS
Section 4. Substantial Integrity of the Purest Transmitted Text
Part 4. Nature and Details of this Edition
Appendix 1. Notes on select readings
Appendix 2. Notes on orthographical alternative readings
Appendix 3. Quotations from the Old Testament.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]