Abbreviations and Introduction to Principal Manuscript Evidence for the Greek New Testament
Note: Credit to Whom Credit is Due — I did not write this article.1
No ancient literature has survived in its original form; everything we have is derived from copies of the originals. The NT is no exception. However, in comparison with any other ancient literature, the NT is without a peer—both in terms of the chronological proximity and the surviving number. Several ancient authorities are preserved in only a handful of manuscripts. Not so with the NT. There are approximately 5,500 Greek witnesses, ranging in date from the second century AD into the middle ages. Besides the Greek evidence, there are nearly 30,000 versional copies (e.g., Latin, Coptic, and Syriac), and over 1,000,000 quotations from the NT in the church Fathers. NT textual criticism has always had an embarrassment of riches unparalleled in any other field.
The Greek Witnesses
The Greek witnesses are by far the most important, since in large measure they represent some of our earliest witnesses and since they involve direct reproduction from Greek to Greek. There are four kinds of Greek witnesses: papyri, uncials (or majuscules), minuscules (or cursives), and lectionaries. The first three are important enough to warrant some discussion here.
Papyri
These documents are written on the cheap writing materials of the ancient world that were roughly equivalent to modern paper. Literally thousands of papyrus fragments have been found of which approximately 100 contain portions of the New Testament. Actually, taken together, these 100 fragments constitute over half of the New Testament and all but four are in the form of codices (i.e., four are scrolls rather than the book-form [codex]). All NT papyri were written with uncial or capital letters. They range in date from the early second century through the eighth century. About 50 of them are to be dated before the fourth century. Though many of them are somewhat fragmentary, and at times the copying was looser than one would like (i.e., they were done before the canon was officially recognized), they are nevertheless extremely important for establishing the text of the New Testament—if for no other reason than the fact that they represent some of the most ancient witnesses we possess. Five important papyri are illustrated in the chart below. The symbol for each papyrus is Ì followed by a number (e.g., Ì45). The most important papyri cited in the NET NT footnotes are as follows:
| Papyri | Name | Date | NT Books Covered | General Characteristics |
| Ì45 | Chester Beatty papyrus | 3rdcentury AD | Gospels, Acts 4–17 | Mark (Caesarean); Matt, Luke, John (intermediate between Alexandrian and Western texttypes) |
| Ì46 | Chester Beatty papyrus | ca. AD 200 | 10 Pauline Epistles (all but Pastorals) and Hebrews | Overall closer to Alexandrian than Western |
| Ì47 | Chester Beatty papyrus | 3rdcentury AD | Revelation 9:10–17:2 | Alexandrian; often agrees with Sinaiticus (Í) |
| Ì66 | Bodmer Papyrus | ca. AD 200 | John | Mixed text between Western and Alexandrian |
| Ì75 | Bodmer papyrus | early 3rd century | Luke and John | Alexandrian, often agrees with B |
Uncials
There are approximately 300 uncials known to exist today that contain portions of the New Testament and one uncial that contains the entire NT. Like the papyri, these manuscripts were written with uncial or capital letters, but unlike the papyri they were written on animal skins or vellum. For the most part they are beautiful manuscripts, elegantly written and routinely done in scriptoria and often for special purposes. Generally speaking, they range in date from the fourth through the ninth centuries. Our oldest complete copy of the NT is an uncial manuscript, Í (see chart below). The symbol for each uncial is either a capital letter (in Latin or Greek letters [though one ms has a Hebrew letter, Í]) or a number beginning with 0 (e.g., 01, 0220, etc.). The most important uncials cited in the NET NT footnotes are as follows:
| Uncial | Name | Date (approx.) | NT Books Covered | General Characteristics |
| Í (01) | Aleph orSinaiticus | 4thcentury | The entire NT | Alexandrian; best in epistles |
| A (02) | Alexandrinus | 5thcentury | Most of the NT | Important in the Epistles and Revelation |
| B (03) | Vaticanus | 4thcentury | Most of NT except Hebrews 9:14ff, the Pastorals, Phlm, Rev | Alexandrian; best in Gospels |
| C (04) | EphraemiRescriptus | 5thcentury | Portions of every book except 2 Thess and 2 John | mixed |
| D (05) | Bezae/Cantabrigiensis | 5thcentury | Gospels and Acts | Western |
| D (06) | Claromontanus | 6thcentury | Pauline Epistles and Hebrews | Western |
| F (010) | Augiensis | 9thcentury | Pauline Epistles | Western |
| G (012) | Boernerianus | 9thcentury | Pauline Epistles | Western |
| L (019) | Regius | 8thcentury | Gospels | Often agrees with Vaticanus |
| W (032) | Washingtonianus | early 5th century | Gospels | mixed; earliest representation of Byzantine text type. Alexandrian in John 5:12–21:25. |
| Θ(038) | Koridethi | 9thcentury | Gospels | The text of Mark is similar to that used by Origen and Eusebius in the third and fourth centuries at Caesarea |
| Ψ(044) | Athous Laurae | 8th/ 9th century | Gospels/Acts/Paul/General Epistles | Contains Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine influences |
Minuscules
There are approximately 2,813 NT Greek minuscule manuscripts known to us today. These copies range in date from the ninth to sixteenth centuries, were produced on vellum or paper, and were written in cursive or a lower-case, flowing hand. They are the best representatives of the medieval ecclesiastical text, that is, the Byzantine text. There are approximately 150–200 that deviate from the Byzantine standard, almost always representing an earlier transmissional stream and hence quite important for NT textual criticism. The symbols for the minuscules are of three kinds: (a) Arabic numbers (e.g., 1, 565, 1739), each of which represents one manuscript; (b) “family 1,” [Ë1] “family 13” [Ë13] (involving a group of closely associated manuscripts); © Byz(involving the majority of Byzantine minuscules). The following are among the more important witnesses cited in the NET NT notes:
| Minuscule | Date (approx.) | NT Books Covered | General Characteristics |
| 33 | 9thcentury | Gospels, Acts, Paul, Catholic Epistles | Alexandrian |
| 81 | AD 1044 | Acts, Paul, Catholic Epistles | Very important for establishing the text of Acts. Agrees substantially with the Alexandrian text type. |
| 1739 | 10thcentury, but probably goes back to a late 4th century ms | Acts, Paul, Catholic Epistles | Alexandrian |
| Family 1 (Ë1) | 12th-14th centuries | Gospels | Caesarean (of the 3rd or 4th centuries) |
| Family 13 (Ë13) | 11th-15th centuries | Gospels | Important in the discussion of the authenticity of the periscope adulterae (i.e., John 7:53–8:11) |
Versional Evidence
Versions were initially prepared for missionary purposes. The history and transmission of versions are often quite complex, and scholars often do not agree on or do not know the particular dates or characteristics of the versions. The chart below contains the major versions cited in the notes; the most important abbreviations are listed, but not all abbreviations are indicated. For more information on the versional evidence for the NT, consult B. M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament (3d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 67–86; B. M. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1977); and B. D. Ehrman and M. W. Holmes, eds., The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis (Studies and Documents 46; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 75–187.
| Version | Abbreviations | Date (approx.) | General Characteristics |
| Vulgate and part of the Itala witnesses | lat | 2nd to 3rd century | Western, Alexandrian, and others |
| Itala | it | 3rdcentury | Western |
| Vulgate | vg | 4thcentury and later | extensive cross-contamination of texttypes |
| Syriac | syr | 2nd to 6th centuries | Old Syriac (syrcand syrs) is generally Western. The Peshitta (syrp) has a mixed text in Gospels and Epistles, Western in Acts. The Harclean version (syrh) of Acts is Western. The Palestinian Syriac (syrpal) is generally Caesarean. |
| Coptic | cop | 3rd and 4th centuries (Sahidic dialect is 4thto 5thcenturies; Bohairic dialect is 9thcentury) | generally Alexandrian in the entire tradition; Sahidic (sa) and Bohairic (bo) are Alexandrian with numerous Western readings |
| Armenian | arm | 5thcentury | generally Caesarean but sections are Byzantine, and the mss of Paul show strong Alexandrian affinities |
| Georgian | geo | 5thcentury | mixed texttypes; generally Caesarean, but becoming strongly Byzantine in later mss |
| Ethiopic | eth | exact date unknown, but most likely within the 4th to 5thcenturies | mixed text, but generally early Byzantine |
| Slavonic | slav | 9thcentury | Byzantine |
Patristic Evidence
A tremendous source for evidence of the Greek NT is citations found in early Church Fathers. They help to locate and date various readings and text types found in the manuscripts and versions. This field is quite complex for two broad reasons: (1) It is often difficult to determine if what the Father actually wrote has been preserved in the extant manuscripts or if corruption has occurred. (2) It is often difficult to determine if a Father is citing a text verbatim, paraphrasing it, or alluding to it. All of the Fathers cited in the notes are listed below. For more information on the patristic evidence for the NT, consult B. M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament (3d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 86–92; and B. D. Ehrman and M. W. Holmes, eds.,The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis (Studies and Documents 46; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 189–236.
Ambrose of Milan, d. 397
Ambrosiaster of Rome, active 366–384
Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, d. 373
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, d. 430
Chromatius, d. 407
Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, d. 407
Clement of Alexandria, d. before 215
Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, d. 258
Cyril of Alexandria, d. 444
Cyril-Jerusalem, d. 386
Didymus of Alexandria, d. 398
Ephraem the Syrian, d. 373
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, d. 403
Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, d. 339 or 340
Hesychius of Jerusalem, d. after 451
Hilary of Poitiers, d. 367
Hippolytus of Rome, d. 235
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, d. ca. 202
Jerome, d. 420
Justin Martyr, d. ca. 165
Marcion of Rome, 2nd century
Origen of Alexandria and Caesarea, d. 254
Pseudo-Athanasius, dates unknown
Serapion, d. after 362
Severian, d. after 408
Tertullian of Carthage, d. after 220
Theodore of Mopsuestia in Cilicia, d. 428
Victorinus-Pettau, d. 304
- In the NET Bible, there are many “translation notes”. Those notes will refer to “many witnesses”, followed by a parenthesized list ancient documents by their names. After searching and searching for where those symbols came from, I came across this article. It is copied exactly as it appears. I find it fascinating. [↩]