THE IDENTITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TEXT VI

Because this book will be read by people representing a broad spectrum of interest and background, I will begin with a brief review of the textual problem. That there is a problem concerning the identity of the Greek text of the New Testament is made clear by the existence of a number of competing editions in print. By competing I mean that they do not agree with one another as to the precise wording of the text. Such disagreement is the result of different theories about the transmission of the Text down through the centuries of hand copying and different use of the Greek man-uscripts (handwritten copies) that have survived and are known to us (ex-tant). We are dependent upon those copies because the Apostles' Auto-graphs, or original documents, are no longer in existence. (They were probably worn out well before A.D. 200, if not 100.) In short, we are faced with the challenge of identifying the original word-ing of the text by consulting the surviving manuscripts, most of which do not entirely agree. In this task we may also appeal to copies of the ancient Versions (translations into Syriac, Latin, Coptic, etc.) and to the surviving writings of the early church leaders where they quote or refer to New Testament passages.