Westcott and Hort
The New Testament in the Original Greek is a Greek-language version of the
Westcott and Hort state: "[It is] our belief that even among the numerous unquestionably spurious readings of the New Testament there are no signs of deliberate falsification of the text for dogmatic purposes."[3] They find that without orthographic differences, doubtful textual variants exist only in one sixtieth of the whole New Testament (with most of them being comparatively trivial variations), with the substantial variations forming hardly more than one thousandth of the entire text.[4]
According to Hort, "Knowledge of Documents should precede Final Judgments upon Readings". The two editors favoured two manuscripts:
WH edition
Westcott and Hort distinguished four text types in their studies. The most recent is the Syrian, or
Westcott and Hort worked on their Testament from 1853 until its completion in 1881.[9] It was followed by an Introduction and Appendix by Hort appearing in a second volume in 1882. In 1892, a revised edition was released by F. C. Burkitt.[citation needed]
Reception
The edition of Westcott and Hort began a new epoch in the history of textual criticism.
According to Bruce M. Metzger, "the general validity of their critical principles and procedures is widely acknowledged by scholars today."[11] In 1981 Metzger said:
The international committee that produced the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, not only adopted the Westcott and Hort edition as its basic text, but followed their methodology in giving attention to both external and internal consideration.
— Brooks 1999, p. 264
Philip Comfort gave this opinion:
The text produced by Westcott and Hort is still to this day, even with so many more manuscript discoveries, a very close reproduction of the primitive text of the New Testament. Of course, I think they gave too much weight to Codex Vaticanus alone, and this needs to be tempered. This criticism aside, the Westcott and Hort text is extremely reliable. (...) In many instances where I would disagree with the wording in the Nestle / UBS text in favor of a particular variant reading, I would later check with the Westcott and Hort text and realize that they had often come to the same decision. (...) Of course, the manuscript discoveries of the past one hundred years have changed things, but it is remarkable how often they have affirmed the decisions of Westcott and Hort.
— Comfort 2005, p. 100
Puskas & Robbins (2012) noted that, despite significant advancements since 1881, the text of the NA27 differs much more from the Textus Receptus than from Westcott and Hort, stating that 'the contribution of these Cambridge scholars appears to be enduring.'[12]
Published editions
- The New Testament In The Original Greek. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1882.
- The New Testament In The Original Greek. New York: MacMillan. 1925.
Other editions of Greek New Testament
The texts of Nestle-Aland, and of Bover and Merk, differ very little from the text of the Westcott-Hort.[13]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Epp & Fee 1993, p. 22.
- BibleGateway.com, 1881 Westcott-Hort New Testament (WHNU), accessed 26 June 2021
- ^ Westcott & Hort 1896, p. 282.
- ^ Westcott & Hort 1896, p. 2.
- ^ Aland & Aland 1995, p. 236.
- ^ Aland & Aland 1995, p. 33.
- ^ a b c Schumacher 1923, p. 53.
- ^ Holmes 2003, p. 128.
- ^ Metzger & Ehrman 2005, p. 174.
- ^ Aland & Aland 1995, pp. 26–30.
- ^ Metzger & Ehrman 2005, p. 136.
- ISBN 9780718840877. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- ^ Waltz n.d., p. 833.
Sources
- Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
- Brooks, James (1999). "Bruce M. Metzger". In Elwell, Walter A.; Weaver, Jim D. (eds.). Bible Interpreters of the Twentieth Century: A Selection of Evangelical Voices. Baker Books. ISBN 978-0-8010-2073-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8054-3145-2.
- Epp, Eldon J.; ISBN 9780802827739.
The Westcott-Hort text (WH) of 1881 [...] resulted from a skilful plan of attack and a sophisticated strategy for undermining the validitity of the TR [textus receptus].
- Holmes, Michael W. (2003). "From Nestle to the `Editio Critica Maior". In McKendrick, Scot; O'Sullivan, Orlaith (eds.). The Bible as Book: The Transmission of the Greek Text. London: British Library. ISBN 978-0-7123-4727-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-516122-9.
- Schumacher, Heinrich (1923). A Handbook of Scripture Study. St. Louis & London: B. Herder.
- Waltz, Robert B. (n.d.). The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism. Robert B. Waltz. GGKEY:DK0AG8PKUJQ.
- Hort, Fenton John Anthony (1896). The New Testament in the original Greek. Vol. 2 Introduction and Appendix. London: Macmillan.
Further reading
- Palmer, Edwin (2007). ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. London: Simon Wallenberg. ISBN 978-1-84356-023-4.
External links
- Comparison of the Wescott/Hort text with other manuscript editions on the Manuscript Comparator