The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism

Based on the idea of Rich Elliott,
then of Simon Greenleaf University

Author's Retraction

When I first began this site, half a lifetime ago, I said that "The Encyclopedia attempts to cover all aspects of New Testament Textual Criticism in an orderly fashion," and that I hoped to represent all viewpoints. Over the years, I learned that I was doomed to fail. First, I cannot reconcile scientific and faith-based criticism, and I am a scientific critic. Thoroughly so: I think that ultimately, method should be entirely mathematical and algorithmic, and once an editor establishes a method, any other editor should be able to follow that method and produce that same text. We aren't there yet, but that is my goal.

Second, the direction that textual criticism is going is one which I do not believe in. I cannot help but think that the Coherence Based Genealogical Method is a pernicious waste of good data. (All that information, and it is put into an unpublished algorithm which is then rendered even less rigorous by being modified by human judgment. If all that data were simply published, think what could be done with it!) But the CBGM is becoming the main basis for criticism, even though it is ultimately a handwaving-based method: The final judgment on relationships is done by humans, not algorithms, and then the text is edited based on these handwaved relationships and further human judgment. I don't trust the method -- as a person with a degree in mathematics, it feels flawed to me even if you ignore the human element -- and I don't believe the results.

I still try to offer valid data, and to present alternative and minority viewpoints (after all, mine is a minority viewpoint!), but only if the appeal is to actual data about manuscripts and criteria, not to faith -- because I believe that the actual data and logic have to come first.

Since my methods and those used by the scholars in the field have diverged, and I am now an old man, I think it is time for me to lay down my keyboard and produce a final version of the Encyclopedia. There is little more that I can add that applies to the methods used at Münster, and if I continue to work, there is a good chance that I will be unable to complete what I do.

So: the 2024 edition will be the last update, at least to the HTML version of this Index. (I hope to create a PDF version, and no doubt there will be a few corrections to that.) This is a reference for a particular, no-longer-fashionable, approach to New Testament Textual Criticism. I still hope it will be useful -- there is a lot of research and hard work behind what you read on this site! But the site will (probably) remain as it currently stands, because there is little I can add to the field.

I should further add that I (Robert Waltz) am not a recognized textual critic, and that the information on this page has not been peer reviewed. While I have done all I could to ensure its accuracy, this page probably should not be used as a bibliographic reference.

Also, keep in mind that this site originated in the mid-1990s, when HTML 3.2 was a new thing, bandwidth was limited, and unicode was not yet a standard. I had to use special fonts to represent Greek, images had to be small and far between, and browsers were not consistent in their behavior. I had a whole list of technical tricks people might have to use. Unicode has largely resolved the Greek problem, but many of these documents are minimally patched versions of files created prior to 2000. I hope they all work, at least.

Having said that, there is little that I can say in my farewell that was not better said by Geoffrey Chaucer in his retraction to the Canterbury Tales.

(New Testament scholars may be interested to know that there are some significant parallels between the Canterbury Tales and the New Testament. There are about eighty manuscripts containing parts of the Tales, with many significant variations in the text -- including even some apocryphal tales. However, a number of these manuscripts are defective, so that there are only about thirty copies of the "retraction" quoted here. Moreover, there is an odd parallel between B of the New Testament and the most valuable manuscript of the Tales, the Hengwrt manuscript: Hengwrt, like B, breaks off before it reaches the end. Perhaps as a result, although there are many variations in the Tales, there are no really noteworthy variants in the text quoted above.)

Table of Contents of the Encyclopedia

In the lists which follow, links in PLAIN TEXT point to major articles. Links shown in italic lead to short definitions.

This page was last comprehensively updated May 20, 2012. I have made smaller updates since. Articles updated since then have been flagged where possible (I forgot to mark some of the smaller updates); the last mid-level updates were on:

• December 31, 2015
• January 21, 2016 (with many thanks to James Dowden)
• December 31, 2016
• December 10, 2017
• January 23, 2018
• December 28, 2018 (this update features more information about many Greek manuscripts of Acts plus a major overhaul of Vulgate Latin manuscripts, including for the first time an inverse catalog -- the old list was based on the symbols for the manuscripts in vg^st and vg^ww, but there is now a back-reference based on manuscript locations and catalog numbers. This also includes information on many manuscripts which were not examined by Wordsworth-White or the Stuttgart Vulgate)
• January 26, 2019 (as usual with the January updates, this one is small; a lot of graphics have been replaced by unicode symbols, there are a few new definitions, and many more Latin manuscripts, plus the usual clarifications, amplifications, and a bit more about the CBGM)
• February 24, 2019 (another small update: more vulgate manuscripts, a bit of mathematics, and more on the CBGM)
• June 17, 2019 (this fixed some cosmetic issues in the way some browsers display files, plus it includes small updates on a number of manuscripts, including links to many photographs; there is also some new information on classification of LXX manuscripts)
• Final Update, May 2024 (includes heavy updates to the material on the papyri, many odds and ends about writing and painting, new material on the canons of criticism, and the usual small fixes).

A very brief (and inadequate) introduction to textual criticism can be found here.

If you wish to see the sort of text I personally would produce if I were to edit a New Testament, a sample edition of Galatians is here. This is rather different from most other editions, but maybe that will help people to see what a text determined by strong reliance on external evidence would look like..

Available Articles:

Go directly to:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWX-Y-Z

Symbols

• [ ] (brackets)

A

• Abbreviations: see Nomina Sacra
  Abbreviations formed by taking the first one or two letters of certain words, plus the final letter(s) (to determine the inflection), omitting the intervening letters, and drawing a line over the whole.
• abschrift
  German for "copy, duplicate," and used to refer to manuscripts that are copies of other manuscripts.
• Acanthus Created December 10, 2017
  A name for a border or boundary illustration (e.g. ❦ or ❁), often the flowering vines surrounding a text
• accidental Created December 10, 2017
  An element of the text of a particular manuscript which is not of textual significance.
• Accordion Book: see Orihon
  An orihon was essentially an ordinary scroll folded as a codex.
• al
  Used to note that the listed reading has support from a significant number of other manuscripts but not enough manuscripts to represent even a portion of the Byzantine tradition.
• Allusions: see imitations
  An imitation is a written work deliberately done in the style of an earlier work.
• Aland Categories: see Categories
  Kurt and Barbara Aland in Der Text des Neuen Testaments set out to place the vast majority of known manuscripts into "Categories."
• Alexandrian Critical Symbols
  The scholars of the ancient Alexandrian library are often credited with inventing textual criticism, primarily for purposes of reconstructing Homer. Their critical symbols will occur on occasion in New Testament works as well as (naturally) classical works
• Alexandrian Text: see Text-Types and Textual Kinship: Alexandrian Text and the Table of Text-Types
  Characteristics of the type: Conservative. Relatively free of harmonzation and paraphrase. Short. Willing to accept difficult readings.
• Allograph Created December 29, 2016
  A document whose original can be perfectly reproduced, as opposed to a work such as a painting which cannot be exactly recreated
• Ammonian Sections: See Divisions of the Text: The Ammonian Sections and Eusebian Canon Tables
  The section divisions of an early cross-referencing scheme for the Gospels.
• Anagrammatism Created December 10, 2017
  Refers to copying letters out of order.
• Anglo-Saxon Version: see Versions: Anglo-Saxon
  Various renderings (of the Vulgate) into Old English.
• A Sample Critical Apparatus: Colossians
  A full apparatus showing just what information is included in other critical editions.
• Arabic Version: see Versions: Arabic
  Various renderings (from Greek or Syriac) into Arabic.
• Archetypes and Autographs Updated May 2024
  The difference between the original text and the oldest reconstructable text
• Armenian Version: see Versions: Armenian
  Various renderings (from Greek or Syriac) into Armenian.
• Assured Results Updated May 2024
  The handful of things about textual criticism that are so certain as to no longer need additional verification.
• Atlantic Bible Created December 29, 2016
  Bibles so large that it takes someone as strong as Atlas to carry them.
• Atticism Created May 2024
  The conforming of language to the standards of Attic Greek.
• Authoritative Reading Created December 10, 2017
  A reading "which may be presumed to derive by direct descent from the manuscript of the author."
• Authorized Version: see Textus Receptus: The King James Version
  Authorized in 1604 and published in 1611, the King James version naturally is based on the Textus Receptus.
• Autograph: see Archetypes and Autographs
  "Autograph" is the accepted term for the original edition of a particular work, written or dictated by the author.

B

• Banderole
  A feature of an illuminated manuscript allowing for comments beside the text
• Bas-de-page Created December 28, 2018
  An illustration at the bottom of a page.
• Bat Book Created May 2024
  A book whose leaves were folded after the book was bound.
• Best Text Edition Created December 10, 2017
  Editing using one base manuscript and deviating from it only in extraordinary circumstances
• Bibliography Created December 29, 2016
  In textual criticism, this refers specifically to the study of books and how they were made.
• Bifolium, Bifolia Created December 10, 2017
  A single sheet folded in half (i.e. in folio form)
• Short Biographies of textual critics Updated May 2024
  Short biographies, very incomplete.
• Block Mixture Updated December 10, 2017
  The name for the condition in which a manuscript displays a sudden shift of text-type within a corpus
• Bohairic Version: see Versions: Bohairic
  The last, and most commonly-encountered, of the several translations into Coptic dialects.
• Book Hand Created January 26, 2019
  A writing style considered suitable for, and attractive when used in, a book
• Books and Bookmaking Updated December 10, 2017
  Regarding the history and making of printed books
• Bover's Text: see Critical Editions: Bover
  About the 1943 critical Greek edition edited by J. M Bover.
• Brevigraph Created December 10, 2017
  An abbreviation in which a single symbol is used for more than one letter.
• The Byzantine Priority Position
  Arguments, often but not always based more on theology than critical observation, that the Byzantine Text is, or closely approximates, the original text of the New Testament.
• Byzantine Text: see Text-Types and Textual Kinship: Byzantine Text and the Table of Text-Types; also the Byzantine Priority Position
  Various articles about the use, nature, and history of the Byzantine and/or Majority Text.

C

• Cadel Created December 10, 2017
  Decorations drawn as part of decorative initials.
• Cancel Created December 10, 2017
  Part of a manuscript or book marked for deletion, or (in particular), the replacement for that page.
• Cæsarean Text: see Text-Types and Textual Kinship: Cæsarean Text and the Table of Text-Types
  Various articles about the nature of, and the various claims about, the so-called Cæsarean Text.
• Canons of Criticism Updated May 2024
  Rules and guidelines critics use in editing the text.
• The Canon of the New Testament Updated May 2024
  Information about which books were considered canonical by various ancient witnesses.
• Carbon Dating: see Chemistry: Carbon Dating
  A method for dating organic materials which can be applied to manuscripts.
• Carpet Page
  A page with no text, just an elaborate pattern like a carpet
• Cast Off/Casting Off Copy Created December 29, 2016
  A method of typesetting a book in quires, in which the pages were set out of order
• Catchword
  At the bottom of the last page of the quire, the first word of the text on the next quire.
• The Alands' Manuscript Categories
  A classification scheme rating manuscripts based primarily on how Byzantine the manuscript is.
• Catena: see under Commentary manuscripts
  A "chain" commentary, with commentary from multiple sources.
• Catholics Manuscript Descriptions: see Manuscripts Text-Types -- Catholics
  Classification of the manuscripts cited in various editions of the Catholic Epistles.
• CBGM: See: Coherence Based Genealogical Method
  An extremely effortful, non-rigorous method developed by Gerd Mink to try to evaluate manuscript evidence and reconstruct the original text.
• Chapbook Created May 2024
  A technical term in publishing for a 12mo/duodecimo book -- one with 24 pages
• Chemistry, Chemical Reagents, Physics, and the History of Manuscripts Updated May 2024
  The science behind dating manuscripts, reading palimpsests, and determining how a manuscript was made.
• Chrysography
  The process of writing in gold.
• Church Fathers: see Fathers
  Short biographies of early church writers.
• Clades and Grades
  Terms used in biology for a set of things which evolved from each other or a group of things with similar characteristics.
• Claremont Profile Method
  A semi-rigorous method for determining manuscript affiliations in a single chapter by comparing the "profiles&qot; they cast.
• Classes of errors Created December 29, 2016
  There are many ways copying errors come about; these can be classified
• Classical Textual Criticism: see Non-Biblical Textual Criticism
  Discussion of the stemmatic approach usually used to edit non-Biblical works.
• Codex Updated May 2024
  A series of leaves folded and bound together, usually within covers
• Coherence Based Genealogical Method Updated January 26, 2019
  An extremely effortful, non-rigorous method developed by Gerd Mink to try to evaluate manuscript evidence and reconstruct the original text.
• Cola and Commata Created May 2024
  An arrangement of the text in sense lines rather than continuously
• Collateral Descent Created December 10, 2017
  Refers to texts that are related but not in direct line.
• Collations Updated December 10, 2017
  An essential the tool of textual criticism, comparing the readings of several manuscripts in a short space.
• Colophons: see Scribes and Colophons
  A scribe's "signature" of his manuscript, which might contain information about time, place, or scribe.
• A Sample Critical Apparatus: Colossians
  An extremely detailed apparatus of Colossians, showing what other apparatus include.
• Columns and page arrangement
  About the column layout of New Testament manuscripts.
• Commentary manuscripts
  A manuscript containing not just the text of the work in question but also commentary, continuous or excerpted.
• Compilatio Created January 23, 2018
  The process of deciding the contents and format of a volume.
• Complex Type/Variant Created December 10, 2017
  Refers to a variant where there are more than two readings, or a run of text with complex variants.
• Complutensian Polyglot
  The first printed text of the Greek New Testament, printed in parallel with the Latin, and with a Hebrew/Greek/Latin Old Testament.
• Conflation, Conflate Text Created December 10, 2017
  A text which is made up by combining the readings of multiple sources.
• Conjectures and Conjectural Emendation Updated May 2024
  The attempt to imagine what the author actually wrote when the extant text seems to be corrupt.
• Conjunction Created December 10, 2017
  A term for readings where two or more sources agree; when two manuscripts agree, they are said to be in conjunction.
• constitutio: see under Non-Biblical Textual Criticism: emendatio
  The final stage of settling on a text, which may include the use of conjecture.
• Contamination Created December 10, 2017
  The introduction of alien elements into a text
• Conversions: see Manuscript Numbers and Conversion Table
  Table for converting today's manuscript numbers to Tischendorf, von Soden, or Scrivener numbers.
• Coptic Versions: see Versions: Coptic
  Various renderings from Greek into Coptic dialects.
• Copy Texts Updated December 28, 2018
  The starting point (usually a manuscript) for an edition.
• Coucher Book Created December 10, 2017
  In current usage, a term for a very large book.
• Correctors Updated December 28, 2018
  Concerning the scribes who reviewed and made changes in completed manuscripts.
• Critical Editions Updated December 28, 2018
  Description and comparison of critical editions of the Greek and Latin Bibles.
• Alexandrian Critical Symbols
  Symbols used by Alexandrian scholars to mark manuscript variations.
• Cruciform, cruciform textCreated December 31, 2015
  Text written in the form of a cross (crux).
• Crux Created December 10, 2017
  A difficult reading, a place where editors disagree very much.
• Cryptography, Ciphers, and Hidden Texts
  Information about how to solve concealed messages
• Cumdach
  Irish name for a "book shrine" or elaborate case or cover.
• Cyrograph Created December 31, 2015
  A sort of "document validation" found in some manuscripts where there were supposed to be two copies.

D

• Dates and Dating Systems
  Information on how to convert manuscript dates into modern dates
• Destruction and Reconstruction
  Counterbalancing forces in the history of a text: The accumulation of errors and the occasional attempts to compare and re-edit.
• Diminuendo Created December 31, 2015
  A term for writing that gradually diminishes in size.
• diorthotes/διορθωτης: see Correctors
  The Greek term for a scribe who corrected a manuscript
• Direct Descent Created December 10, 2017
  A description of a manuscript that is copied from another, without mixture
• Direct Editing Created May 2024
  A term used in classical criticism for eclectic editing based on all manuscripts.
• Directional Variant Created December 10, 2017
  A variant where one variant could give rise to the other but not vice versa.
• Disjunction Created December 10, 2017
  A term for manuscripts which disagree over a particular reading.
• Dittography
  An error in which a scribe accidentally repeats a sequence of letters which should be written only once
• Divisions of the Text
  Chapters, Eusebian sections, stichoi, κεφαλαια,and more
• Documentary Hand Created January 26, 2019
  A term for a writing style that was considered suitable for ord
• Dominical Words Created December 31, 2015
  Those parts of the New Testament text which are regarded as quotations from Jesus himself
• Drollery, Drolleries
  A drollery was a fantastic creature, often drawn in the margins of a manuscript.
• Dry Point Created May 2024
  A dey point was an object used to line a manuscript which left no ink mark.
• Ductus Created December 31, 2015
  Refers to the angle of the strokes of the verticals
• Duodecimo Created December 10, 2017
  Refers to a volume where the sheets of the quire are folded to form 12 leaves/24 sheets.

E

• Easily confused letters
  Information on which letters are most often misread in various scripts.
• Eclecticism
  The process of compiling a text from multiple sources.
• Editions of the Greek New Testament: see Critical Editions; also The Textus Receptus
  Background on various printed editions of the New Testament, modern and pre-modern.
• eliminatio: see under Non-Biblical Textual Criticism: recensio
  Recensio is the process of grouping the manuscripts into a stemma or family tree
• emendatio: see under Non-Biblical Textual Criticism: emendatio
  Emendatio consists of fixing suspected errors in a text by conjecturing the text that underlies the error.
• Emendation: see Conjectures and Conjectural Emendation
  The attempt to imagine what the author actually wrote and correct the text on that basis.
• (Modern) English Translations and their Texts
  The Greek text behind the English versions.
• Ethiopic Version: see Versions: Ethiopic
  Various renderings into what is (improperly) called Ethiopic.
• Eusebian Canons: See Divisions of the Text: The Ammonian Sections and Eusebian Canon Tables
  Eusebius's cross-reference system for the gospels and how it is used.
• Euthalian Edition: See Divisions of the Text: The Euthalian Apparatus
  The arrangement in sense-lines, and reader helps, attributed to "Euthalius."
• Evolutionary Biology: See Genetics
  How the stemmatic knowledge derived from evolutionary biology and genetics can inform textual criticism.
• examinatio: see under Non-Biblical Textual Criticism: examinatio
  Looking at a defective text to seek "primitive errors."
• Examples of Textual Criticism
  Examples of how a critic might decide the text at particular points.
• exemplar
  The manuscript from which a manuscript was copied.
• Explicit
  As used today, generally means something that mark the end of a major section of text.
• Expunctuation: see under Correctors
  Cancelling a portion of a text by writing dots above it.
• Extant Created December 10, 2017
  Something (a manuscript, a portion of a manscript) that exists, as opposed to being lost.
• External Evidence: see also Canons of Criticism: External Critical Rules and Text-Types and Textual Kinship
  Rules for determining the original reading based on which manuscripts support a particular reading.
• Eyeskip Created December 10, 2017
  The omission of text when a scribe's eye skips from one part of the text to another; haplography.

F

• f¹; see also manuscript 1
  Group of closely related manuscripts recognized by Kirsopp Lake.
• f¹³; see also manuscript 13
  Group of closely related manuscripts recognized by W. H. Ferrar
• The Fallacy of Number
  The inaccurate belief that being read by the majority of something (e.g. manuscripts) automatically confers authority.
• Fathers Updated May 2024
  Short biographies of early church authors.
• Fission Created December 10, 2017
  Splitting what the author intends to be one word into two
• Folk Music and Song; Folklore: see Oral Transmission
  How transmission by hearing, as opposed to by writing, can affect a text, especially over many generations
• Forgeries and physical methods for detecting them: see Detecting Forged Manuscripts
  Methods which can be used to identify a forged manuscript.
• Forme Created December 10, 2017
  The frame in which pages of type are placed for printing.
• Foul Papers Created December 10, 2017
  A term primarily from criticism of recent authors, "foul papers" is in essence a word for a rough draft.
• Fusion Created December 10, 2017
  Combining what the author intends to be two words into a single word.

G

• Genealogical Edition Created December 10, 2017
  An edition which reconstructs its text based on the stemma of the manuscripts.
• The Genealogical Method
  The method practiced by F. J. A. Hort, which is based on having a general sense of the history of the text without having details.
• Genetic Edition Created December 10, 2017
  A confusing term referring to an edition which attempts to show the development of a text over time.
• Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, and Evolutionary Variation
  How the stemmatic knowledge derived from evolutionary biology and genetics can inform textual criticism.
• Georgian Version: see Versions: Georgian
  Various renderings (from Greek, Syriac, or Armenian) into Georgian
• Glossa Ordinaria Created May 2024
  The extremely elaborate system of glosses found in late Vulgate commentary manuscripts.
• Glossary Created May 2024
  Properly, is a collection of glosses to a text.
• Gospels Manuscript Descriptions: see Manuscripts Text-Types -- Gospels
  Classification of manuscripts of the Gospels according to various scholars
• Gothic Version: see Versions: Gothic
  The (remnants of the) translation of the Bible into Gothic
• Grades: see Clades and Grades
  A grade is a term for a set of things (species, manuscripts) with a similar set of characteristics, whether or not derived from a common ancestor.

H

• h.a.: see under homoioteleuton
  Abbreviation for homoioarcton, a skipping of text between two words with similar beginnings
• Haplography Updated May 2024
  The loss of letters in a text, usually by skipping the text between duplicated letters
• Hebrew Textual Criticism: see Old Testament Textual Criticism
  Textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible and of translations such as the Septuagint.
• Historiated Initial Created May 2024
  A form of illumination in which the first letter of a section is drawn at many times the size of the size of the other letters, and an historical scene is drawn inside the letter.
• History of the Text
  Discusses what various scholars have proposed for the history of manuscripts and the underlying text.
• Hodges & Farstad's Text: see Critical Editions: Hodges and Farstad
  About the Majority Text edition of Zane C. Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad (1982 and after).
• Holster Book Created May 2024
  A book that is much taller than it is wide.
• Homoeographa Created December 10, 2017
  A term sometimes used for haplography.
• homoioarcton
  A loss of letters which occurs when a scribe's eye skips from the start of one word to another which begins with the same letters.
• homoioteleuton
  A loss of letters which occurs when a scribe's eye skips from the end of one word to another which ends with the same letters.
• Homoiotes Created December 10, 2017
  A term sometimes used for haplography.
• Homophony Created December 10, 2017
  Two readings which are confused because they sound the same.
• Horizontal Contamination Created December 29, 2016
  Another term for Mixture, i.e. readings brought in from a source other than a manuscript's direct parent.
• h.t. (and see under homoioteleuton)
  Abbreviation for homoioteleuton
• Hyparchetype Created December 29, 2016
  The archetype of a particular group or family of manuscripts but lower down the family tree than the overall archetype.

I

• Illuminated Manuscripts
  A manuscript with illustrations or decorations, theoretically to make its contents easier to understand.
• imitations
  A written work deliberately created in the style of an earlier work.
• Implicit
  In a codex, the term for the beginning of a particular book.
• Independent Descent Created December 10, 2017
  Two manuscript which derive from their autograph by different paths are said to have "independent descent."
• Indictions: see Dates and Dating Systems: The Indictions
  A fifteen year dating cycle based on Roman tax systems but continued long after.
• Inferential Link or Manuscript Created December 10, 2017
  A manuscript which does not exist but which can be inferred to have existed at one time.
• Inherent Probability, Transmissional Probability, and Transcriptional Probability
  Three considerations to consider when trying to determine the original reading: What was the author most likely to write, and what were scribes most likely to perpetuate.
• Intermediary Updated May 2024
  A manuscript or other thing which stands between two other things -- e.g. if the Anglo-Saxon version is translated from the Latin, and the Latin from the Greek, then the Latin is the intermediary between the Greek and Anglo-Saxon.
• Internal Evidence; see also Canons of Criticism: Internal Critical Rules
  Evidence for originality based on the actual text of the readings rather than the manuscripts that contain the readings.
• Introduction to textual criticism
  A relatively brief overview of the practice of textual criticism
• Isotope analysis (for paleography, etc.): see Isotope Analysis under Chemistry
  How isotope ratios can be used to determine manuscript history.

J

• The Jerusalem Colophon
  A colophon found in many manuscripts claiming to be corrected from manuscripts from Jerusalem.

K

• Kephalaia: See Divisions of the Text: Kephalaia, Titloi
  A system of "headings" found in many manuscripts.
• King James Version: see Textus Receptus: The King James Version
  The text of the Authorized Version, the best-known English translation.

L

• Lacuna
  A gap in the text, usually short and generally the result of damage.
• Latin Versions: see Versions: Latin
  Various renderings from Greek into Latin.
• Lectionaries Updated December 28, 2018
  Description of the lectionary text and readings probably included in the lectionar
• Legg's Edition: see Critical Editions: Legg Created December 10, 2017
  About the editions of Matthew and Mark produced by S. C. E. Legg in the 1930s.
• Lemma (lem)
  In a critical apparatus, the reading of the text, against which variants are marked.
• Leiden System Created December 29, 2016
  A system developed to make it possible to record the defects and peculiarities of a manuscript in a transcript.
• Major manuscript Libraries Updated December 29, 2016
  Table for converting English and Latin names of cities with significant manuscript libraries.
• Lines and Lineation: see Divisions of the Text: Stichoi and Stichometry
  Concerns texts arranged in lines -- and payment based on lines written.
• Lipography
  An alternate term for haplography.
• Local-Genealogical Method Updated January 26, 2019
  A method for determining the original text of a particular reading based on the seeming genealogy of the reading
• Local Texts
  The texts which will develop in a particular area when it does not compare texts with other areas.
• Lunellarium Created December 29, 2016
  A specialized tool for scraping parchment.

M

• 𝔐 (Majority Text Symbol)
  Symbol used in the recent Nestle editions for the reading of the majority of manuscripts.
• Manicula Created May 2024
  A symbol, often resembling a hand, used to point out key sections of a text
• Manuscript Dates: see Dates and Dating Systems
  Information used to date manuscripts
• Manuscript Categories: see Categories
  Kurt and Barbara Aland in Der Text des Neuen Testaments set out to place the vast majority of known manuscripts into "Categories."
• Manuscript Numbers and Conversion Table
  Table for converting the current Gregory/Aland numbers to von Soden, Tischendof, and Scrivener numbers
• Manuscript Text-Types: * Gospels * Paul * Catholics *
  Tables for looking up the textual classifications applied to manuscripts by von Soden, Merk, the Alands, and sometimes others.
• Manuscript Descriptions: * Papyri Updated May 2024 * Uncials Updated May 2024 * Minuscules: * 1-500 Updated May 2024 * 501-1000 Updated January 23, 2018 * 1001-1500 Updated January 23, 2018 * 1501-2000 Updated January 23, 2018 * 2001 and up Updated May 2024 *
  Descriptions (in varying level of detail) of various New Testament manuscripts, especially those most often cited in the major editions.
• Mathematics Updated May 2024
  Topics in mathematics potentially of use to textual critics.
• Memes Updated May 2024
  Thoughts and ideas that are particularly memorable.
• Merk's Text: see Critical Editions: Merk
  About the 1933 critical Greek edition edited by Augustinus Merk.
• Minim Created February 24, 2019
  A single stroke of a letter |, which could be an iota or part of an m or n or u or....
• Metathesis Created December 10, 2017
  The accidental exchange of two words or parts of a word.
• Modern-language Translations: See: Modern-languages Translations and textual criticism
  How textual issues should be handled in translations into modern languages.
• Most Uncertain Readings: Where the Critical Editions Divide
  A catalog of places where the modern editors have strongly disagreed as to the correct text.
• Music and Musical Notation: see Neumes
  Early systems of marking music in manuscripts.

N

• Necrology Created December 31, 2015
  List of the dead, sometimes useful for dating manuscripts.
• Critical Editions: Nestle Text and Nestle-Aland²⁶
  About the series of critical Greek edition edited by Eberhardt Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Kurt Aland, etc.
• Neumes Updated December 10, 2017
  Early systems of marking music in manuscripts.
• Nomina Sacra Updated January 23, 2018
  A system of abbreviations found in most Bible manuscripts
• Non-Biblical Textual Criticism Updated May 2024
  How textual criticism, especially stemmatic criticism, is done on non-Biblical texts.
• Non-Interpolations: see Western Non-Interpolations
  A set of readings which Westcott and Hort thought were interpolated into all text-types except the "Western"
• Normalization Created December 10, 2017
  The process of conforming a text's orthography to a specific standard.
• Nota Created May 2024
  A marginal notation drawing particular attention to something in the text.

O

• Octavo Created December 10, 2017
  A sheet (usually of paper for printing) that is folded to produce eight leaves/sixteen pages
• Offcut Created May 2024
  Leftover parchment from when a large skin was cut down to a standard size..
• υ  ν
  ο η
  A notation to indicate that a reading which had been questioned should be allowed to stand..
• Old Church Slavonic Version: see Versions: Old Church Slavonic
  About the translation into Old Church Slavonic.
• Old Latin Versions: see Versions: Old Latin
  Various renderings from Greek into Latin independent of Jerome's Vulgate.
• Old Syriac Versions: see Versions: Old Syriac
  Various renderings from Greek before, or at least independent of, the Peshitta and distinct from the Diatessaron.
• Old Testament Quotations
  How Old Testament quotations are marked in New Testament manuscripts.
• Old Testament Textual Criticism Updated June 17, 2019
  Techniques used for the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, which are rather different from those used for the Greek New Testament.
• Opisthograph
  A text copied onto the back side of another text -- typically the outside of a scroll.
• Oral Transmission
  About the effects of oral transmission -- that is, being repeated from person to person -- affects a text
• Orihons
  A form of book in which a long sheet of papyrus is written on one side, then folded into codex-like form.
• Ostraca and Talismans Updated January 26, 2019
  Notes on forms of New Testament witnesses now dropped from the manuscript catalog.

P

• Paints and Pigments: see Chemistry: Paints and Pigments Updated May 2024
  How paints and pigments may help to identify the origin of manuscripts.
• Paleography Updated May 2024
  Tools for determining the date of undated manuscripts.
• Palimpsest Updated January 21, 2016
  Term for a manuscript which has been erased and overwritten
• Pandect
  Term for a complete Bible, including both Old and New Testaments.
• Parablepsia Created December 10, 2017
  A term for errors which arise from "looking aside"
• Paraph Created May 2024
  A symbol for marking paragraphs or sections of a text.
• Pars Alba Created December 28, 2018
  Term for the lighter side of a parchment page.
• Pars Negra Created December 28, 2018
  Term for the darker side of a parchment page
• Parsimony Created December 10, 2017
  The concept that the simplest explanation for a phenomenon is the best.
• Pastedown Created May 2024
  A page or partial page pasted to the binging of a book.
• Patristic Evidence: see Fathers
  Short biographies of early church authors
• Paul Manuscript Descriptions: see Manuscript Text-Types -- Paul
  Classifications of manuscripts of Paul according to various scholars
• pc
  Symbol used in the Nestle-Aland apparatus for a handful of witnesses.
• Penwork Flourishing Created May 2024
  A style of manuscript decoration based on drawing colored lines rather than true illustrations.
• Perfect (in printing) Created December 10, 2017
  To finish printing an only partly-printed sheet.
• Plummet Created May 2024
  The soft lead used to mark a page for writing.
• pm
  Symbol used in the Nestle-Aland apparatus for a great many witnesses.
• Potential Link or Manuscript Created December 10, 2017
  A lost manuscript in a stemma about which we can deduce various facts -- typically more than just its existence.
• Pouncing Created May 2024
  To copy an illustration using pinpricks pushed through a master illustration.
• Praxis of Textual Criticism: see Examples of Textual Criticism
  Examples of how one might approach textual problems.
• Primary Version
  A translation of the New Testament made directly from the Greek.
• Textual criticism of Printed Works Updated December 10, 2017
  How textual criticism changes when applied to a printed document.
• Profile Method: see Claremont Profile Method
  Shorthand sometimes used by its creators for the Claremont Profile Method, although there are many profile-based methods.
• Proof Texts: see Copy Texts
  Term occasionally used for a copy text -- a text used as a standard at most points of variation.
• Purple Uncials
  Term for the four uncials N O Σ Φ, which are thought to have similar texts and are written on purple parchment.

Q

• Quantitative Method
  Sketch of a method proposed by Colwell and Tune for defining text-types.
• Quarto Created December 10, 2017
  Term for a sheet folded twice to form four leaves (eight pages).
• Quire
  A group of at least two sheets folded together within a codex.

R

• Radiating Texts Created December 28, 2018
  Term for a series of texts which are not all copied from each other but have splits in the stemma
• Reagents (for reading palimpsests): see Chemical Reagents
  Chemicals used to try to reveal the text of hard-to-read manuscripts
• Received Text (generic term) (short entry created December 10, 2017) -- see also Textus Receptus
  A term for any text of an author that is widely adopted; the Textus Receptus is the Received Text of the New Testament.
• Received Text (short entry created December 10, 2017) -- see also Textus Receptus
  The name for the sort of New Testament text printed and accepted from the time of Erasmus until the nineteenth century.
• recensio: see under Non-Biblical Textual Criticism: recensio
  The process of grouping manuscripts into a stemma.
• recension
  A term for a group of related manuscripts; in classical textual criticism, this group will have been deliberately created.
• recto
  The right-hand page of a pair, as opposed to verso.
• Relativism/Textual Relativism Created May 2024
  A term for textual criticism which is not primarily interested in seeking the original text.
• rell
  Symbol used in the Nestle apparatus for all witnesses except those explicitly cited.
• Revisor Fatigue Created December 28, 2018
  A term for cases where a revisor or corrector worked much more diligently in some places than others.
• Roundel Created December 10, 2017
  Concentric circles used as a manuscript decoration.
• Rubric, Rubrication Updated December 28, 2018
  Rubrics are manuscript illuminations or comments written in red ink; rubrication is adding rubrics.
• Quentin's Rule of Iron Updated May 2024
  Dom Quentin's textual scheme for the Vulgate that seems to have consisted of forcing the text into a three-branch stemma then taking the reading of two out of three branches.

S

• Sahidic Version: see Versions: Sahidic
  The earlier of the major translations into Coptic dialects.
• Scribes and Colophons Updated December 28, 2018
  About scribes and their copying techniques.
• Scriptoriolum Created May 2024
  A small, often private, writing place or scriptorium.
• Scriptorium
  A place (usually in a monastery) intended for the copying of manuscripts
• selectio: see under Non-Biblical Textual Criticism: selectio
  When manuscripts of a text reveal different readings, the process of choosing the most primitive reading
• Seriatim typesetting: see under Cast Off/Casting Off Copy
  Setting the text of a quire consecutively, from front to back, rather than setting it in page pairs according to formes.
• Siglum Created December 10, 2017
  A symbol, particularly for a manuscript, so ℵ is the siglum for Codex Sinaiticus, etc.
• Simple Type/Variant Created December 10, 2017
  A text in which any and all variants are binary -- two and only two readings.
• Singleton
  A quire containing only a single leaf.
• Singular Reading
  A reading found in only one manuscript.
• Sort (in printing) Created May 2024
  A typographic term referring to type that has been properly filed in the typesetter's case.
• Spandrel: see under Roundel
  A grid containing roundels (which see).
• Stemma, Stemmatics Updated December 10, 2017
  A family tree of manuscripts which, if correctly reconstructed, can form the basis for reconstructing a text. Stemmatics is the study of stemma.
• Souter's Text: see Critical Editions: Souter
  About the (reconstructed) text of the English Revised Version, to which Alexander Souter added a limited critical apparatus.
• Spectroscopy: see Chemistry: Spectroscopy
  How using light from a manuscript can determine what chemicals were used in its making.
• Stemmatic Reading Created December 10, 2017
  Imprecise term often used for any manuscript reading other than that in the text
• Stichoi and Stichometry: see Divisions of the Text: Stichoi and Stichometry
  Arrangement of a text in lines, and the counting of those lines to track the work done.
• Substantive Reading Created December 10, 2017
  A variant reading which is significant for textual criticism; a reading of genetic significance.
• Substrate: see Writing Materials
  A term occasionally used for material on which manuscripts were written.
• Supplements
  Additional pages which are added to manuscripts to replace leaves which have been damaged or which are found to be too badly copied.
• Syntax Marks Created May 2024
  Symbols used to indicate how a text should be read and understood, often by grouping words or phrases together.
• Syriac Versions: see Versions: Syriac
  Various renderings from Greek into Syriac.
• Σ Created December 29, 2016
  Symbol used in some apparatus for "all witnesses not otherwise cited."

T

• Talismans: see Ostraca and Talismans
  Short New Testament quotations on ornaments or the like. Now rarely cited.
• Tasker's Text: see Critical Editions: Tasker
  About the 1964 Greek text underlying the New English Bible as reconstructed by R. V. G. Tasker.
• Terminal, Terminal Text, Terminal Reading Created December 10, 2017
  A reading or manuscript that left no descendants; the bottom entries in a stemma.
• Tetramorph Created December 31, 2015
  A combined image of the four evangelists
• The Textus Receptus Updated June 17, 2019
  History of the first-published Greek text and its many later incarnations.
• Text-Types and Textual Kinship
  The use of text-types in New Testament criticism, and the history of how they have been so used.
• Theology and Textual Criticism
  On the dangers of editing the New Testament on the basis of theology rather than the most unbiased methods available.
• Tischendorf's Text: see Critical Editions: Tischendorf
  About the various critical Greek editions edited by Constantine Tischendorf, especially his eighth and last.
• Titloi: See Divisions of the Text: Kephalaia, Titloi
  Name for a class of section headings found in many manuscripts.
• Transcript Created December 10, 2017
  Term for a copy of a text made by anyone other than the author.
• Modern-language Translations and textual criticism
  Concerning the difficulties in translating the Bible text, and dealing with textual variants when making a translation.
• [Inherent Probability,] Transmissional Probability, and Transcriptional Probability
  Three considerations to consider when trying to determine the original reading: What was the author most likely to write, and what were scribes most likely to perpetuate.
• Tree of Jesse Created May 2024
  A common manuscript illustration showing the descendants of Jesse in the form of a tree.
• E. A. Hutton's Triple Readings Created December 29, 2016
  A handy way of determining a manuscript's text-type that suffers badly from assuming the solution.
• Type 1, 2, 3, 4... variation Created December 10, 2017
  A count of the number of variant readings at a particular point, e.g. in a Type 2 variation, there are two readings.

U

• Uncial Script
  Describes the history of the style of writing used in the oldest New Testament manuscripts.
• United Bible Societies Text: see Critical Editions: United Bible Societies
  About the 1960s-era text that became the de facto standard New Testament text for most of the half century since its creation.

V

• Variorum Created December 10, 2017
  A term for an edition with a critical apparatus.
• Vaticanus's Chapters: See Divisions of the Text: The Divisions in Vaticanus
  About unique system of chapters found in Codex Vaticanus and its relationship to other chapter systems.
• vid
  Notation to indicate that, although this is the likely source of a reading, it is not entirely certain, usually because of damage.
• v.l.
  Symbol used in some apparatus for a variant reading, perhaps in the margin.
• Versions Updated May 2024
  Describes the various early translations of the New Testament into languages other than Greek.
• verso
  The left-hand page of a facing pair
• Volvelle Created December 10, 2017
  Concentric circular sheets which rotate around a pin, which can be used for reference.
• von Soden's Textual Theory: see Text-Types and Textual Kinship: Appendix III: Von Soden's Textual System
  About the textual classification proposed by von Soden, which was the first attempt, e.g., to find subgroups in the Byzantine text.
• Vulgate (Latin) Version: see Versions: Vulgate
  The Latin translation of the Old and New Testaments, edited by Jerome, which became canonical in the Catholic Church even though Jerome's work was sometimes cursory in the New Testament

W

• Western Non-Interpolations
  About the variants, mostly in Luke, where Westcott and Hort thought a shorter reading of D and its allies the original.
• Westcott & Hort's Text: see Critical Editions: Westcott & Hort
  About the nineteenth century text based mostly on the principles of F. J. A. Hort which revolutionized NT textual criticism.
• "Western" Text: see Text-Types and Textual Kinship: Western Text and the Table of Text-Types
  Information about the type of text contained primarily in the two uncials D and in the Old Latin versions.
• Whittaw, Whittawing, Whittawer, Whitleather Created May 2024
  The making of high-quality, attractive leather.
• Women as Scribes Updated January 26, 2019
  Hints that women may have written certain New Testament manuscripts.
• Ancient Writing Materials Updated May 2024
  Papyrus, parchment, paper, and other materials used to record other New Testament texts
• ω Created December 29, 2016
  The symbol used by Souter for the majority of manuscripts.

X-Y-Z

• Year of the World: see Dates and Dating Systems: The Year of the World
  Dates as used in the Byzantine calendar starting in 5508 B.C.E.

Thanks to the folks who have made corrections, suggestions, and additions, including Jean Valentin for photographs; Ulrich Schmid for information on Wachtel; Wieland Willker for proofreading corrections; Ulrich Schmid for information on manuscripts, Michael Holmes and Jimmy Adair for source materials; Ulrich Schmid, Jean Valentin, Christopher Eyton, and Vincent Broman for information on the Fathers; James Dowden; and anyone else whose names I have forgotten. Also to www.brainout.net for hosting these materials.