Uncial writing modified the capital letters with more curves so that they could easily be inscribed with pen on common writing materials, such as papyrus, parchment, and ostracon. Usually earlier New Testament manuscripts are written in unicial writing, with no breaks between words or senteces and no punctuation marks, a stly of writing called scripta continua.

Eventually the minuscule style of writing predominated; it is similar to cursive, only much smaller. This minuscule scripts was a small book-hand that could be written more rapidly as well as more compactly, thus saving both time and parchment.

What is a palimpsest and what does the word mean? How are such manuscripts read?

To economize, parchment andleather were also cleaned and rescraped for reuse. The resulting manuscript is called a palimpsest (“rescraped,” from the two greek words palin, “again”, and psao, “to scrape”). Thanks to infared technology, however, most of the original manuscript has been read; with additional aid of vidicon cameras, very faint writing can be detected, transferred to digital form, and enhanced.

Who added verse divisions in the New Testament?

The current verse divisions in the New Testament 2ere added by Robert Stephanus, who published a Greek and Latin edition in the New Testament of Geneva.

What are colophons, what do colophons include, and how can they help in dating NT manuscripts?

Colophons (i.e., notes at the end of a manuscripts often include the name of the scribe, the date, and other information that the scribe feels is important, such as a blessing unpon the one who reads the manuscript or  a curse upon anyone who changes it. Colophons can help date manuscripts scpecifically compard with more approximate dates furnished by paleographers and carbon 14 tests or similar means.

What is a critical difference between Old and New Testament textual criticism?

One critical difference between Old and New Testament textual criticism is the vast number of extant manuscripts of the New Testament, which according to James Barr, lead test critics to different starting points.

What is a variant?

A copy of a book that varies in some way from the ideal copy.

What was the first work that contained a systematic collection of variants?

The first work to systematically collect variants was the London Polyglot Bible by Brian Walton in 1653 to 1657.

Who was the first scholar to divide the manuscripts into groups and weigh them rather than assuming they were of equal value? To what principle of textual criticism did he ascribe?

Johann Bengel was the first scholar to divide the manuscripts into groups and weigh them rather than assuming they were of equal value. On of his key principles was “the difficult is to be preferred to the easy reading,” which still remains a primary principle of textural criticism.

Who was the first to publish a Greek NT based entirely upon textual critical principles, abandoning the Textus Receptus?

Karl Lachman, professor of a philology at Berlin, was the first to publish a Greek New Testament based entirely upon textual critical principles, abandoning the Textus Receptus.

Who dedicated his life to preparing as many manuscripts and fragments of the NT as possible for publication?

Constantin von Tischendorf

Who were Westcott and Hort and what contributions did they make to NT textual criticism?

Westcott and Hort published the text of the Greek New Testament with an introduction and appendicies entitiled The New Testament in the Original Greek. Not being interested in supplying a testual apparatus with all the carious reading, they applied textual principles to determine what they believed to be the closest reading of the original Greek text.

Which text did Westcott and Hort designate as the neutral text?

Codex Vaticanus was designated the neutral text, being closest, they believed, to the original Greek text than any of the other three.

. Into what four groups did Westcott and Hort divide manuscripts?

Manuscripts were divided into four different groups: Syrian, Western, Alexandrian, and neutral.

Did Westcott and Hort break new ground in the study of the text of the Greek NT?

Westcott and Hort broke new ground in the study of the text of the Greek NT; while their classifications have been corrected and expanded, they continue in use.

What dealt the final blow to the Textus Receptus?

Eberhard Nestle’s Greek Text, the Novum Testamentum Graece, published in 1898, dealt the final blow to the Textus Receptus.

Into what four text families are manuscript currently divided into?

The Alexandrian family, the Caesarean family, the “Western” family, and the Byzantine family.

. What is the difference between a single-text approach and an eclectic-text approach?

An eclectic text weighs and compared the various readings, incorporating the best into one text. A single-text approach to textual criticism presumes one manuscript has superior readings.

What are three primary sources of external evidence for NT textual criticism?

There are three primary sources of external evidence: New Testament manuscripts, versions, and church fathers.

What are emendations?

An emendation is a reading of the text that is not supported by any textual evidence and, especially in the New Testament, is unlikely to be an original reading.

What are the three collections of ancient NT papyri manuscripts?

Biblical Papyri, Important Uncials, and Minuscule Manuscripts.

What are the two most important uncials?

Codex Ephraemi and Codex Bezae.

. How many minuscule texts have been recorded?

2,795

What are the early eastern versions of the Bible? What is Tatian’s Diatessaron?

Syriac Versions, Coptic Versions, Armenian Versions, Gregorian Version, Ethiopic Version, and Arabic Versions. The Tatian Diatessaron is Tatian’s first work which was the earliest known harmony of the four gospels (diatessaron- “through four”).

How did Jerome come to revise and standardize the Old Latin version?

Pope Damasus I, bishop of Rome from about 336 to 384, commissioned Jerome, his secretary, to revise and standardize the Old Latin versions. His work known as the Latin Vulgate, became the standard edition of the Bible for more than a thousand years.