Category Archives: Textual Criticism

ECM Revelation

I have been using my printed ECM of Revelation for some time now, and I inform you that you need both the printed and the online editions. For example, a footnote I worked on today is πληρωσωσιν in 6:11. πληρωσωσιν is the Majority and the ECM reading, πληρωθωσιν is the NA28 reading, and the TR reading is πληρωσονται. However, the printed edition does not list the witnesses supporting the majority for this variant, but only those supporting the minority readings. The online edition, however, does list those. The problem is that Hoskier lists GA2256 as supporting the TR, but if you had only the printed edition of the ECM, you would not know that the online edition lists 2256r as supporting πληρωσωσιν. The small letter “r” after a MS number means that though it is misspelled or misformed, it supports the reading it is listed with. I looked at the fine image of 2256 online, and Hoskier is incorrect. GA2256 reads πληρώσοσιν, which most certainly does not support the TR. That leaves the TR reading with support only from 296 and 2049, which are handwritten copies of the TR itself.

But I have also found places where Hoskier was correct and the NA28 apparatus was wrong, like Revelation 5:9, where Hoskier correctly shows that GA2329 omits τω θεω ημας εν τω αιματι σου εκ πασης φυλης και γλωσσης και λαου και εθνους, but the NA28 and UBS5 list it as supporting the Majority.

Download free my critical edition of Revelation as PDF here.

Friberg Explanation

New Upload: A PDF of Timothy Friberg’s paper, A MODEST EXPLANATION FOR THE LAYMAN OF IDEAS RELATED TO DETERMINING THE TEXT OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT. Here is the download link.

This paper explains the Byzantine Priority position in Textual Criticism. The PDF is 1.5 MB in size. The document title for download purposes is Modest-Explanation-Friberg.pdf

Difficult Robinson-Pierpont Readings

I had difficulty translating these first two passages from the Robinson-Pierpont text, so I looked at the WEB version, which is generally a Majority Text translation, and I see that he did not adapt the RP text in these two passages, but the NA28 instead.

In James 2:18,
the EMTV version follows the TR rather than RP, and the WEB follows the NA28 rather than the TR or RP.

RP: εῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου ἐκ τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν μου.

“Show me your faith by your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”


This completely misses the contrast set by the previous sentence: “You have faith, I have works.”  But here, they both have works by which they demonstrate their faith.  The Textus Receptus and the NA28 text do show the contrast, but the TR has one more σου- “your” in it and an extra μου- “my” in it. 

TR: δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν μου.

“Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

EMTV: Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by means of my works. 

NA28: δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων, κἀγώ σοι

δείξω ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν

DRP: “Demonstrate to me that faith of yours without works, and I will demonstrate faith to you by means of my works.”

WEB: “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
The WEB follows the NA28 without the extra “your” found in the TR, because the NA28 text has the clearest teaching of the principle. 

Revelation 3:7

TR: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖδα τοῦ Δαβίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείει, καὶ κλείων καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίγει

the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one closes, and closes and no one opens

NA28: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν Δαυίδ, ο ανοιγων και ουδεις κλεισει
και κλειων και ουδεις ανοιγει
“the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one closes, and closes and no one opens”

RP: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν τοῦ Δαυίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείσει αὐτὴν, εἴ μὴ ὁ ἀνοίγων: καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίξει.

the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one shall close except the one opening, and no one shall open:

WEB: he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens

EMTV: He who has the key of David, He that opens and no man shuts, except He that opens, and no man shall open.”

The EMTV follows the RP text but it inaccurately says “no MAN” shall open, but that is not in the Greek.  The WEB version follows the TR or NA28, which say the same thing as each other with slightly different verb tenses. 

Acts 26:4

RP: τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις

My manner of life since youth therefore, which took place at first in my own country in Jerusalem

NA28: τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἔν τε Ἱεροσολύμοις
My manner of life since youth therefore, which took place at first in my own country and also in Jerusalem

The problem with translations made from the Byzantine Greek text not containing τε – “and also” – is that they are saying Paul’s life was spent in Jerusalem from the beginning, when in fact his country was Cilicia, in the city of Tarsus. (Acts 9:11; 21:39; 22:3; 23:34).  Under the law, Paul was a citizen of Cilicia, Acts 23:34.  Paul consistently calls Cilicia his “country” and Israel his “nation.”The WEB version, a Majority Text translation, therefore does not follow the TR or Majority text here but follows the NA28 instead.

You can download my translations of James, Revelation, and Acts at these links.

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Ambiguity of No Spaces

A Greek textual variant in Revelation 17:3 shows the ambiguity of ancient manuscripts having no spaces between words. This particular variant has caused the Editio Critica Major (ECM) to change its reading away from the NA28 text to that of the Robinson-Pierpont.

txt γεμοντα ονοματα Avid P 2053 2062 2329 SBL TH NA28 (γεμον[τα]) {\} ‖ γεμον ονοματα ℵ² 046 93 911 922 1611vid 1678 1734 1778 1828 2070 2814 2846 AN HF RP ECM ‖ γεμων ονοματα 469 792 1006 1852 ‖ γεμον ονοματων 051 2074 2344 2723 Hipp TR BG ‖ γεμον τα ονοματα ℵ* ‖ lac C 2050 2080.  The ECM says the MSS that I show reading γεμοντα ονοματα read instead γεμον τα ονοματα with ℵ*, and then shows no MSS support for the SBL/TH reading.  (We know Sinaiticus reads γεμον because it uses a high line, which is a final form of NU. And the dots above the letters TA indicate a corrector saying “delete.”)  As for Codex A, it certainly had room for γεμοντα τα ονοματα.  It would make sense in Textual Criticism that when there are two τα in a row, one would get accidentally dropped.

Codex Alexandrinus (GA 02):

GA 2053:

GA 2062:

GA 2329:

Codex Sinaiticus (GA 01):

Current Activities August 2024

In the Gospel of Mark, I added the diamonded variant readings indicated in the Tyndale House Greek New Testament (the diamond meaning another variant of equal weight as the one printed in the main text), plus a half dozen new TC footnotes, and a few updates from the Editio Critica Major (ECM). So this is essentially a 3rd edition of Mark, which you can download here, or purchase a Mark printed edition here.

I recently purchased the ECM of Revelation, so am in the process of updating the Apocalypse of John textual criticism footnotes, including also adding the diamonded readings from the Tyndale House GNT.

I also purchased the ECM of the Acts of the Apostles, and am still creating the TC footnotes for Acts.

Minuscule GA 2324

I found a 10th century gospels minuscule that I have not seen collated, GA 2324, so I obtained its readings for:

Matt 17:21 – includes the verse, with the ἐκπορεύεται variant
Matt 18:15 – αμαρτηση εις σε
Mark 9:29 – καὶ νηστειᾳ
John 5:3,4 – includes, with text similar to Antoniades
John 7:8 – οὔπω ἀναβαίνω
John 7:53- 8:11 – omits PA

I added its readings to my PA chart, which includes John 5:3,4, https://bibletranslation.ws/trans/pachart.pdf

Timing of Baptism

The apostles and prophets gave us teaching by example on the topic of the timing of baptism. We find in the book of the Acts of the Apostles that believing the gospel and getting baptized are closely associated.

Acts 2:38– And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Acts 2:41- The ones therefore who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand souls were added during that day.

Other passages in Acts showing immediate baptism are 8:12; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:14-15; 16:32-33; 18:8. You were expected to be baptized at the same time as you believed, they are a simultaneous event.

Take for example the Philippian jailer, when he believed, he was baptized “on the spot…in the middle of the night.” (Acts 16:31-34).

In Acts 8:13 Simon the magician was baptized by the apostles even though they knew his heart was not right. But he had professed belief, so he had to be baptized immediately, that is true doctrine and practice.

This doctrine of immediate baptism is so important, that God performed a miracle for the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 8:26, the scripture tells us that the road he was on was desert. Yet as soon as the eunuch believed, they saw a body of water deep enough for both Philip and the eunuch to get down into it and the eunuch be baptized. (Acts 8:36)

Have you believed, but are not yet baptized? If so, you are in disobedience to the apostles of Christ, and your leaders are in disobedience, who have neglected to baptize you immediately upon your profession. Satan, the enemy of your soul, wants you to have a cooling down period.

Am I saying that, if say, a man leads 3 people to belief in the gospel on Thursday, that he should not wait until the next Sunday to baptize them? Exactly! I am saying that if he led someone to the Lord during lunch break at work on Thursday, the convert should tell his boss he is leaving his job temporarily in order to find water to be baptized that Thursday afternoon, baptized by the believer who told him the gospel. What a powerful testimony that is, that you drop everything else going on in order to find water and be baptized. You are now dead to the world, so what else matters? Find water, and show everyone that you died and were buried with Christ, and have come out in newness of life, and nothing else matters. Do not allow anything or any human to let you cool down from your first love.

This truth about the timing of baptism has bearing on a couple textual variants in the Greek New Testament text. The biggest one is in Acts 8:37, where it was added to the narrative of the Ethiopian eunuch, where the eunuch had asked, “Look, water. Is there anything forbidding me to be baptized?” Then an addition was made later to the text which says, 37″And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, it is permissible.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ “

Similar is an addition made to Acts 2:41. Papyrus 74, Codex Sinaiticus, Codices A, B and C, Sahidic Coptic, the Ethiopic, Clement, and Eusebius read: “The ones therefore who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand souls were added during that day.”

But later manuscripts read: “The ones therefore who READILY accepted his message were baptized…”But this “readiness” was not for the baptizers to judge. If the person accepted the message and professed belief, they were to be baptized, period.

The bishops had later decided that there should be some kind of “probationary period” to see whether the convert was serious or not. They also made baptism something only “clergy” could perform, but this is not indicated by the example and teaching of the apostles.

At the same time, since believing the gospel and baptism are closely connected, it is not appropriate for an infant to be baptized since the infant is not capable of believing the gospel and repenting of his/her sins.

Revelation 1 verse 8

I discovered an error in my footnote to Revelation 1:8. I had manuscript GA 2074 reading as the Textus Receptus, omitting QEOS, but that is not correct. I have now corrected the footnote, and added the variant to my endnote Nr. 4 about singular TR readings. I have also added the readings of some very late MSS that agree with the TR. You can download the corrected Revelation PDF here, and I also corrected the Revelation printed paper and ink edition on Amazon.