<p><a href=”http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/category/dan-wallace-contra-mundane/”><img height=”170″ width=”335″ align=”right” style=”width: 335px; height: 170px;” src=”http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/images/Parchment%20and%20Pen/danpandp6.jpg” alt=”” /></a><br /> Wow! Nearly five dozen brave people have put their reputations on the line by taking this little quiz. Well done, folks. You all get an A just for courage. Now, for the questions again with their answers and explanations:</p>
<p>1. The first published Greek New Testament was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. UBS1<br /> b. Complutensian Polyglot<br /> c. <em>Novum Instrumentum<br /> </em>d. <em>Textus Receptus</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "The UBS1 (or first edition of the United Bible Societies" Greek New Testament was published in 1966). The Complutensian Polyglot was the first <em>printed</em> Greek New Testament (1514), but it was not published for eight more years. The <em>Textus Receptus</em> is the name that was finally given to that form of text that finds its roots in Erasmus’s <em>Novum Instrumentum Omne</em>. But the <em>Novum Instrumentum</em>, published on March 1, 1516, has the honor of being the first Greek New Testament printed by a moveable type printing press to be published.</p>
<p>2. How many of the original New Testament books still exist?<span id=”more-455″></span></p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. all of them<br /> b. Paul’s letters<br /> c. just the Gospel of John<br /> d. none of them</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "d." All of the original documents vanished long ago. This should not surprise us since virtually all ancient Greco-Roman literature vanished centuries ago. Why should the New Testament be any different?</p>
<p>3. How many manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament are known to exist today?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. less than 50<br /> b. approximately 2000<br /> c. approximately 3000<br /> d. more than 5000</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "d." In fact, the most recent statistics from the clearing house for Greek New Testament manuscripts, the <em>Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung</em> in Munster, Germany, tell us that 5752 manuscript copies are known to exist. However, this number is a bit deceiving because (a) some of the manuscripts are actually part of other, previously catalogued manuscripts (thus, for example, two different papyrus fragments may actually belong to the same manuscript, even though they were originally assigned a different catalog number); (b) some of the manuscripts that were at one time known to exist have gone missing or have been destroyed. The number 5000 is thus a very conservative estimate with these two caveats in mind.</p>
<p>4. A textual variant is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. the wording of a verse or passage found in one or more manuscripts<br /> b. a word or phrase found in at least one manuscript that differs from the wording of the text printed by the editor(s) of a Greek New Testament<br /> c. any place where the original wording of a document is in doubt or is not uniform among the manuscripts<br /> d. a manuscript that contains a particular wording</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "b." A textual variant is any place among the manuscripts which varies from some standard such as a printed Greek New Testament. The standard may actually be simply some other Greek New Testament manuscript; in this case, any differences from that manuscript would still be called textual variants. <em>Reading</em> is the answer to “a†; <em>textual problem</em> is what "c" describes.</p>
<p>5. The prevailing theory of textual criticism held today among scholars is known as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. reasoned eclecticism<br /> b. majority text view<br /> c. rigorous eclecticism<br /> d. independent texttypes view<br /> e. providential view</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "a". Textual criticism, generally speaking, has two components: external evidence and internal evidence. External evidence is concerned with Greek manuscripts, early versions (or translations), and quotations from the New Testament in church fathers. Internal evidence is concerned with what the author was most likely to have written (intrinsic probability) and what the scribes or copyists were most likely to have done to the text that they copied (transcriptional probability).</p>
<p>Reasoned eclecticism does not give absolute preference to either external or internal evidence. Each textual problem is weighed on its own merits. The vast majority of New Testament textual critics hold to this view today.</p>
<p>The majority text view gives priority to external evidence; further, it affirms that the original text is to be found in the majority of <em>Greek</em> manuscripts.</p>
<p>Rigorous eclecticism is just the opposite of the majority text view: it gives priority to internal evidence, especially intrinsic.</p>
<p>The independent texttypes view gives priority to external evidence, but not strictly to the "majority text." This view regards the three major texttypes (or groups of manuscripts that follow a certain pattern of readings) to be second-century editions. When two out of three of them agree, that agreement tells us what the original text was.</p>
<p>The "providential view" is a name I made up, but I’m sure that someone holds to something like this! Many King James only advocates, for example, would argue that God must have preserved scripture a certain way, and the KJV is how he did it.</p>
<p>6. The oldest complete New Testament known to exist today is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. P52 (also known as Rylands 457)<br /> b. Vaticanus (B)<br /> c. Sinaiticus (<span style=”font-size: 13pt; color: black; font-family: ‘Hebrew’,’sans-serif’;”>a</span> or Aleph)<br /> d. Chester Beatty Papyri</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "c." P52 is the oldest fragment, dated c. AD 100-150. The Chester Beatty papyri are old but incomplete. Vaticanus is slightly older than Sinaiticus but it ends at Hebrews 9.13. Certainly more was written originally, but the last several leaves of that codex disappeared centuries ago and were replaced by later leaves. Sinaiticus is the oldest complete Greek New Testament (dated to the fourth century AD) by half a millennium. It’s on display in the British Library.</p>
<p>7. Westcott and Hort were:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. British scholars who developed a theory of textual criticism that is followed today in liberal seminaries<br /> b. Theological liberals whose text-critical views can be entirely dismissed because these men were theological liberals and thus biased against the Bible<br /> c. All of the above<br /> d. None of the above</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "d." Westcott and Hort were British scholars, but their view has been significantly modified by textual critics today. They were not theological liberals, although their views were to the left of many evangelicals. Nevertheless, to argue against a viewpoint because those who promoted it may have been less than theologically orthodox is not always a logical move, for it presupposes either blindness to the real issues or intentional deceit on the part of the scholars. In 1881, after 28 years of labor, Westcott and Hort published their Greek New Testament along with an accompanying volume. What they achieved in those two volumes stands as a landmark in erudition and clarity in New Testament studies. But we have made at least <em>some</em> progress in the last 125 years!</p>
<p>8. The long ending to Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16.9-20) is not found in:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. Aleph and B<br /> b. most ancient MSS<br /> c. the Alexandrian texttype<br /> d. the Caesarean witnesses</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "a." The long ending of Mark, in fact, has far better credentials than the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7.53-8.11). as far as the manuscripts reveal. Yet if we had to choose, most of us would prefer to keep the latter passage in the Bible and remove the former. This illustrates that many Christians bring a lot of emotional baggage with them when it comes to what the Bible says. We cannot pick and choose what is scripture based on what we <em>like</em>.</p>
<p>9. The total number of textual variants among the Greek manuscripts, ancient versions, and patristic commentaries on the New Testament is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. ten<br /> b. between 1000 and 1500<br /> c. approximately 100,000<br /> d. approximately 300,000 to 400,000</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "d." There are, in fact, more variants than there are words in the New Testament. This should not be surprising in light of how many manuscripts there are! The more manuscripts we have, the more variants there will be. The real issue is how <em>serious</em> these variants are. Do any of them affect a fundamental belief of Christians? Do they impact less important beliefs? These will be topics that we will explore in the coming weeks.</p>
<p>10. The most important rule for textual critics to follow when deciding on the wording of a particular textual problem is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a. the harder reading is to be preferred<br /> b. the shorter reading is to be preferred<br /> c. the reading that best explains the others is to be preferred<br /> d. the reading that most clearly affirms inerrancy is to be preferred</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The correct answer is "c." When textual critics look at all of the evidence”external and internal”they choose the reading that best explains the rise of the other readings. Virtually all textual critics adopt this principle. The difference in application among scholars has to do with the relative weight that they give to the various components of textual criticism. It may be surprising to many readers that "d" is not a criterion, except for a few radical right-wing scholars. But even here, the vast majority of textual problems (some would say all of them) do not impact in any way the doctrine of inerrancy. So, for the one who adopts this principle as the major guide to doing textual criticism, how is he going to decide on all the passages in which invoking inerrancy is irrelevant?</p>
9 replies to "New Testament Textual Criticism: Answer Key to Quiz"
Does anyone else have the following problem in reading this article? (see below a portion I cut and pasted)
It is a difficult subject enough to follow withou all the JAVA (?) script
CMP… can you try and post it again (or is the problem in my computer)?
<br /
1. The first published Greek New Testament was:
[…] [The following quiz is reposted from Dan Wallace's blog at www.reclaimingthemind.org.] […]
This page displays even worse for me than what Jeff Ayers reported. Here’s how I see the same portion which he copied. I’m using Chrome browser:
1. The first published Greek New Testament was:
Wow! Nearly five dozen brave people have put their reputations on the line by taking this little quiz. Well done, folks. You all get an A just for courage. Now, for the questions again with their answers and explanations:
1. The first published Greek New Testament was:
a. UBS1
b. Complutensian Polyglot
c. Novum Instrumentum
d. Textus Receptus
The correct answer is “The UBS1 (or first edition of the United Bible Societies” Greek New Testament was published in 1966). The Complutensian Polyglot was the first printed Greek New Testament (1514), but it was not published for eight more years. The Textus Receptus is the name that was finally given to that form of text that finds its roots in Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum Omne. But the Novum Instrumentum, published on March 1, 1516, has the honor of being the first Greek New Testament printed by a moveable type printing press to be published.
2. How many of the original New Testament books still exist?
a. all of them
b. Paul’s letters
c. just the Gospel of John
d. none of them
The correct answer is “d.” All of the original documents vanished long ago. This should not surprise us since virtually all ancient Greco-Roman literature vanished centuries ago. Why should the New Testament be any different?
3. How many manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament are known to exist today?
a. less than 50
b. approximately 2000
c. approximately 3000
d. more than 5000
The correct answer is “d.” In fact, the most recent statistics from the clearing house for Greek New Testament manuscripts, the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Munster, Germany, tell us that 5752 manuscript copies are known to exist. However, this number is a bit deceiving because (a) some of the manuscripts are actually part of other, previously catalogued manuscripts (thus, for example, two different papyrus fragments may actually belong to the same manuscript, even though they were originally assigned a…
a different catalog number); (b) some of the manuscripts that were at one time known to exist have gone missing or have been destroyed. The number 5000 is thus a very conservative estimate with these two caveats in mind.
4. A textual variant is:
a. the wording of a verse or passage found in one or more manuscripts
b. a word or phrase found in at least one manuscript that differs from the wording of the text printed by the editor(s) of a Greek New Testament
c. any place where the original wording of a document is in doubt or is not uniform among the manuscripts
d. a manuscript that contains a particular wording
The correct answer is “b.” A textual variant is any place among the manuscripts which varies from some standard such as a printed Greek New Testament. The standard may actually be simply some other Greek New Testament manuscript; in this case, any differences from that manuscript would still be called textual variants. Reading is the answer to “a†; textual problem is what “c” describes.
5. The prevailing theory of textual criticism held today among scholars is known as:
a. reasoned eclecticism
b. majority text view
c. rigorous eclecticism
d. independent texttypes view
e. providential view
The correct answer is “a”. Textual criticism, generally speaking, has two components: external evidence and internal evidence. External evidence is concerned with Greek manuscripts, early versions (or translations), and quotations from the New Testament in church fathers. Internal evidence is concerned with what the author was most likely to have written (intrinsic probability) and what the scribes or copyists were most likely to have done to the text that they copied (transcriptional probability).
Reasoned eclecticism does not give absolute preference to either external or internal evidence. Each textual problem is weighed on its own merits. The vast majority of New Testament textual critics hold to this view today.
The majority text…
The majority text view gives priority to external evidence; further, it affirms that the original text is to be found in the majority of Greek manuscripts.
Rigorous eclecticism is just the opposite of the majority text view: it gives priority to internal evidence, especially intrinsic.
The independent texttypes view gives priority to external evidence, but not strictly to the “majority text.” This view regards the three major texttypes (or groups of manuscripts that follow a certain pattern of readings) to be second-century editions. When two out of three of them agree, that agreement tells us what the original text was.
The “providential view” is a name I made up, but I’m sure that someone holds to something like this! Many King James only advocates, for example, would argue that God must have preserved scripture a certain way, and the KJV is how he did it.
6. The oldest complete New Testament known to exist today is:
a. P52 (also known as Rylands 457)
b. Vaticanus (B)
c. Sinaiticus (a or Aleph)
d. Chester Beatty Papyri
The correct answer is “c.” P52 is the oldest fragment, dated c. AD 100-150. The Chester Beatty papyri are old but incomplete. Vaticanus is slightly older than Sinaiticus but it ends at Hebrews 9.13. Certainly more was written originally, but the last several leaves of that codex disappeared centuries ago and were replaced by later leaves. Sinaiticus is the oldest complete Greek New Testament (dated to the fourth century AD) by half a millennium. It’s on display in the British Library.
7. Westcott and Hort were:
a. British scholars who developed a theory of textual criticism that is followed today in liberal seminaries
b. Theological liberals whose text-critical views can be entirely dismissed because these men were theological liberals and thus biased against the Bible
c. All of the above
d. None of the above
The correct answer is “d.” Westcott and Hort were British scholars, but their view has been…
but their view has been significantly modified by textual critics today. They were not theological liberals, although their views were to the left of many evangelicals. Nevertheless, to argue against a viewpoint because those who promoted it may have been less than theologically orthodox is not always a logical move, for it presupposes either blindness to the real issues or intentional deceit on the part of the scholars. In 1881, after 28 years of labor, Westcott and Hort published their Greek New Testament along with an accompanying volume. What they achieved in those two volumes stands as a landmark in erudition and clarity in New Testament studies. But we have made at least some progress in the last 125 years!
8. The long ending to Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16.9-20) is not found in:
a. Aleph and B
b. most ancient MSS
c. the Alexandrian texttype
d. the Caesarean witnesses
The correct answer is “a.” The long ending of Mark, in fact, has far better credentials than the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7.53-8.11). as far as the manuscripts reveal. Yet if we had to choose, most of us would prefer to keep the latter passage in the Bible and remove the former. This illustrates that many Christians bring a lot of emotional baggage with them when it comes to what the Bible says. We cannot pick and choose what is scripture based on what we like.
9. The total number of textual variants among the Greek manuscripts, ancient versions, and patristic commentaries on the New Testament is:
a. ten
b. between 1000 and 1500
c. approximately 100,000
d. approximately 300,000 to 400,000
The correct answer is “d.” There are, in fact, more variants than there are words in the New Testament. This should not be surprising in light of how many manuscripts there are! The more manuscripts we have, the more variants there will be. The real issue is how serious these variants are. Do any of them affect a fundamental belief of Christians? Do they impact less…
These will be topics that we will explore in the coming weeks.
10. The most important rule for textual critics to follow when deciding on the wording of a particular textual problem is:
a. the harder reading is to be preferred
b. the shorter reading is to be preferred
c. the reading that best explains the others is to be preferred
d. the reading that most clearly affirms inerrancy is to be preferred
The correct answer is “c.” When textual critics look at all of the evidence “external and internal “they choose the reading that best explains the rise of the other readings. Virtually all textual critics adopt this principle. The difference in application among scholars has to do with the relative weight that they give to the various components of textual criticism. It may be surprising to many readers that “d” is not a criterion, except for a few radical right-wing scholars. But even here, the vast majority of textual problems (some would say all of them) do not impact in any way the doctrine of inerrancy. So, for the one who adopts this principle as the major guide to doing textual criticism, how is he going to decide on all the passages in which invoking inerrancy is irrelevant?
Similar Posts: New Testament Textual Criticism 101 Seven Reasons to Love Textual Criticism: #7 It’s the first step in all of Bible Study The Number of Textual Variants: An Evangelical Miscalculation Christmas Sale at nttextualcriticism.com Is the Bible a “Paper Pope” for Protestants? (There you go!)
Thanks, James-the-lesser. I can read the post now in your serial comments.
How about if the web master could just fix the original post?