Majority text

Majority Text is the name of a New Testament textual tradition that is based on a majority of New Testament manuscripts. Since this tradition is primarily attested to by Greek manuscripts from the Byzantine Empire , one also speaks of the Byzantine Empire text or the Byzantine text type . In academic text editions , the majority text is marked with the abbreviations or byz . ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {M}}}$

history

The New Testament writings are originally in Greek. The basis of the majority text is the so-called Koine text (from Greek κοινή , general ). In the New Testament text research this tradition is called. According to tradition, this text is said to have been created by Lucian of Antioch (* around 250; † 312), but it is no longer repeated today because it contradicts everything that is available in terms of historical facts. There is not a single historical evidence that Lucian unified the text of the New Testament. Much speaks against it, since the text of the New Testament was a widespread and free text that anyone could copy. In addition, the manuscripts of the Byzantine text each have their own share of peculiarities that individually set them apart from other manuscripts and speak against a review and standardization; the individual manuscripts are too different for that. The spread to the Constantinian shift from the 4th century to very quickly in the northeastern Mediterranean and displaced the earlier Alexandrian text-type and the Western text-type . The text has been stylistically smoothed and revised and has adopted some of the western readings. In most cases the readings of the Byzantine text are longer. Westcott and Hort refer to this type of text as the "Syrian text type". ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {K}}}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {M}}}$

The vast majority of the manuscripts with the majority text are minuscules , which were created after the 9th century. Over 80% of the known minuscules contain this text form. The majority text is still the standard text version of the Greek Orthodox Church today . Hermann von Soden was very interested in these minuscule manuscripts and discovered several text families. Kurt Aland placed most minuscules of the majority of text in Category V a.

Manuscripts

Codices

character	Names	date	content
A (02)	Codex Alexandrinus	around 400	Gospels
C (04)	Codex Ephraemi	5th century	Gospels
W (032)	Codex Washingtonianus	5th century	Matthew 1–28; Luke 8: 13-24: 53
Q (026)	Codex Guelferbytanus B	5th century	Luke – John
061	Uncial 061	5th century	1 Timothy 3: 15-16; 4: 1-3; 6: 2-8
E e (07)	Codex Basilensis	8th century	Gospels
F e (09)	Codex Boreelianus	9th century	Gospels
G e (011)	Codex Seidelianus I	9th century	Gospels
H e (013)	Codex Seidelianus II	9th century	Gospels
L (020)	Codex Angelicus	9th century	Acts , Cathol ., Pauline letters
V (031)	Codex Mosquensis II	9th century	Gospels
Y (034)	Codex Macedoniensis	9th century	Gospels
Θ (038)	Codex Koridethi	9th century	Gospels (except Mark)
S (028)	Vaticanus 354	949	Gospels

Papyri

${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$⁷³

Uncials

Codex Cyprius , Codex Mosquensis I , Campianus , Petropolitanus Purp. , Sinopensis , Guelferbytanus A , Guelferbytanus B , Nitriensis , Nanianus , Monacensis , Tischendorfianus IV , Sangallensis , Tischendorfianus III , Petropolitanus , Rossanensis , Beratinus , Athos Laurensis , Athos Denis , Vaticanus 2066 , 047 , 049 , 052 , 053 , 054 , 056 , 061, 063, 064 , 065, 093 (Acts of the Apostles), 0103, 0104, 0105, 0116, 0133, 0134, 0135, 0136, 0142, 0151, 0197, 0211, 0246, 0248, 0253, 0255, 0257, 0265, 0269 (mixed), 0272, 0273 (?).

Minuscules

2 , 3 , 6 (Gospels and Acts), 8 , 9 , 11 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 18 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 28 (except Mark), 29 , 30 , 32 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 50 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 57 , 58 , 60 , 61 (Gospels and Acts), 63 , 65 , 66 , 68 , 69 (except Paul), 70 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 89 , 90 , 92 , 93 , 95 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 of the above 1500 minuscules.

Majority text and textus receptus

Some relatively young manuscripts of the majority text from the 12th century also formed the main basis for the Greek Bible edition by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1516. This edition was referred to in 1633 by the editors of the reprint as Textus receptus . He is the worst representative of all these editions, since he is based on a very small selection of manuscripts and, in Revelation, only in a single incomplete. The textus receptus is not identical to the majority text, but is based on the same tradition. Depending on the edition, the Textus receptus differs from the majority text in up to 2000 readings .

Both text forms have lost a lot of their importance, after first in the middle of the 19th century with the Codex Sinaiticus from the 4th century and in the 20th century with the important papyrus finds from the 3rd and 2nd centuries (especially ⁴⁵ , ⁷⁵ and ⁶⁶ ) much older manuscripts were found. These belong to the Alexandrian text type . Some conservative Christians who are “faithful to the Bible” reject Bible editions based on this textual tradition and favor the majority text or the Textus receptus as binding (for example, by Rudolf Ebertshäuser ). In particular, scientific editions such as the Novum Testamentum Graece are used because of their method of eclectic , i.e. H. criticized for each text passage individually from all manuscripts evaluating text selection. ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$

Text output

• Maurice A. Robinson, William G. Pierpont: The New Testament in the Original Greek. Byzantine text form 2018. VTR Publications, Nuremberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-95776-100-2 .
• Zane C. Hodges , Arthur L. Farstad (Eds.): The Greek New Testament. According to the Majority Text. Nelson, Nashville TN et al. 1982, ISBN 0-8407-4963-5 .

Translations

• Byzantine Text German: The Gospels. German Bible Society, Stuttgart / Swiss Bible Society, Biel 2019, ISBN 978-3-438-05511-8

See also

• Caesarean text type
• Text history of the New Testament
• Novum Testamentum Graece

literature

• Kurt Aland , Barbara Aland : The Text of the New Testament. Introduction to the scientific editions as well as the theory and practice of modern textual criticism. 2nd, supplemented and expanded edition. German Bible Society, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-438-06011-6 .
• Maurice A. Robinson, William G. Pierpont, John Jeffrey Dodson (Eds.): The Greek New Testament for Beginning Readers. Byzantine text form. VTR, Nuremberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-941750-24-1 .

Web links

• The textual basis of the New Testament (PDF file; 651 kB)
• List of text differences in modern editions

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rudolf Ebertshäuser, God's preserved word. Why we are allowed to accept the Textus Receptus as the basic text of the New Testament (2017)