A Textual Guide to the Greek New Testament: An Adaptation of Bruce M. Metzger s Textual Commentary for the Needs of Translators

"This volume is designed to be used in conjunction with B. M. Metzger's "A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testamen"t (2nd edn, 1994) and read alongside the United Bible Societies' "The Greek New Testament" (4th rev. edn, 2004). Although the text of the United Bible Societies' edition is identical to the Nestle-Aland 27th edition, the textual apparatus differs. Thus while the discussion in this volume aligns more easily with the way textual notes are presented in the UBS text, there is still much of value here for readers of the Nestle-Aland text and there are no real difficulties in making the appropriate links. The volume does not cover all of Metzger's notes, but limits itself mainly to those variants and notes recorded in the critical apparatus of the UBS text. The volume is designed to assist bible translators in their work, and recognizes that such people may not have English as their first language so seeks to remove some of the technical terms in Metzger's notes, and to expand and explain the discussion that leads to individual text-critical decision concerning readings. The introduction has a helpful discussion of the practice of textual criticism. This could be useful as a starting point for students of textual criticism. A couple of cautions need to be recorded. First, in describing the category of the Greek uncial manuscripts the impression is conveyed that these are the only manuscripts of the New Testament written in upper case letters. It should perhaps be emphasized that most of the papyri are likewise written in a continuous script of capital letters, but that manuscripts that fall into the uncial category are written in capitals but also on parchment. Second, the discussion of local text-types is already out-dated. There has been a significant questioning of such a theory especially by those working on the "Editio Critica Maior " at the Institut for neutestamentliche Textforschung in Munster. This discussion can be conveniently accessed in