The Gospels and Epistles were read continually throughout the Eastern Churches in the Byzantine Empire, from the Greek originals themselves. The scribes who copied them must generally have had their ears accustomed to the sound of these texts, as they were read publicly in the churches of their locality, where the copies were made.
Nevertheless, most modern textual critics, primarily due to the work of Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, elevate Codices Vaticanus Gr. 1209 and Sinaiticus to almost absolute supremacy. This preference reduces all other manuscripts (found mostly in the Byzantine Empire) to complete insignificance. The conclusion of their discussions on text formation and mixture is that a vast numerical majority of witnesses must be considered as having no primary authority.
The primary reason for favoring the readings of Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus over thousands of other authorities is based on the hypothesis that scribes were more prone to add glosses rather than omit them. Particularly, it is thought that if a shorter reading were original, it would almost certainly attract supplementary glosses over time. Modern critics have essentially inverted the laws of evidence by placing excessive trust in the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts.
Should we prioritize the mere age of a few manuscripts over the large number of copies from subsequent centuries? Can two fourth-century codices outweigh the numerous manuscripts from the sixth century onward? Text critics who believe they know which manuscripts are more reliable are often prejudiced in favor of readings found in their preferred texts.
Even if we consider the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts to carry double or triple the weight of later uncials, there still remains a significant excess of ancient manuscript authority in favor of other readings. A reading that is attested by only one or two witnesses, or found in only a few other manuscripts, is unlikely to be original. The later a reading originates, the less likely it is to have been widely copied and distributed.
Errors made early in the copying process have a higher chance of being perpetuated in a large number of extant manuscripts. Therefore, we should not assume that a New Testament copy from the fourth or fifth century inherently offers a more trustworthy text than one from the tenth or eleventh century.
What Is The Majority Text / Byzantine Text?
The Majority Text (𝔐) is a term used to describe the readings supported by the majority of all surviving manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek, many of them written in minuscule script. In scholarly circles, this term is used to differentiate the text-type found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts from other forms of text which are in the minority (Alexandrian text-type, Western text-type, and Caesarean text-type).
Some scholars prefer the term Byzantine text-type, because according to them this is the form of text which is known to have predominated among the Greek-speaking world (Byzantine empire) from at least the fourth century until the invention of printing press in the fifteenth century. Others called it Asiatic Text (Johann Albrecht Bengel), Oriental Text (Johann Salomo Semler and Wilhelm Friedrich Rinck), Byzantine Imperial Text, Antiocheian Text, Antiochian-Constantinopolitan type of text, Constantinopolitan Text (Johann Jakob Griesbach), Lucianic Text, Lucianic recension, Syrian Text (Westcott and Hort), Ecclesiastical Text, Traditional Text (John William Burgon), K, or Koine Text (Hermann von Soden and Augustinus Merk).
In textual criticism, this form of text is often indicated by the abbreviation 𝔐 (for Majority Text) or Byz (for those who refer to it as the Byzantine textform). On this website, we’ll use the term ‘Majority Text‘ as we aim to collate and evaluate all existing Greek New Testament manuscripts, ultimately selecting the reading supported by the majority of these manuscripts.
Historical Development and Influence
The preparation of the fifty magnificent copies of sacred Scriptures ordered by Constantine for the churches of Constantinople was entrusted to Eusebius of Caesarea, whose affiliations were with Antioch; and everywhere the New Testament text used in Syria Palaestina began to make its way.
The separation of the Eastern and Western Empires was followed by the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, with the effect of confining the use of Greek to narrower limits, and giving increased power to the Constantinople tradition wherever the Greek Scriptures were used. Thus, the Byzantine / Constantinopolitan text that became the text of the Greek world, and with the revival of Greek letters in the West, under the teaching of Byzantine refugees, of the whole world.
Byzantine Text in Modern Textual Criticism
In the critical editions of Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf and Nestle-Aland, the Byzantine tradition is entirely abandoned and the text is based almost entirely on the two oldest manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus. Where these two manuscripts differ, Westcott and Hort usually follow Vaticanus; Tischendorf more often prefers Sinaiticus, the manuscript he discovered at St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai.
GreekNewTestament.Org aims to produce a form of text as close as possible to the form of text found in the majority of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in existence. This text was named by Johann Jakob Griesbach the “Byzantine text” – a name preferable to that of “Syrian” given it by Hort, since, whatever its origin, it was indubitably the standard text of the Byzantine Empire all through the Middle Ages.
Our Goals
- Produce a Majority Text of the Greek New Testament from an actual collation of the New Testament manuscripts.
- Produce a new English translation of the Majority Text.
- Produce a PDF file of the Greek New Testament with English translation that can be downloaded and can be used by anyone.
The nature of the Greek New Testament as a Divinely inspired text, every word of which is precious, bids us be extremely careful here, careful not to obtrude our crude guesses into the text, and careful not to leave any of the guesses or slips of the scribes in it.
The Majority Text : A Work In Progress
As we actively work to collate and review the manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, the Majority Text presented on this website remains an ongoing project. Updates and revisions are made regularly as new insights and data become available, with the goal of providing an increasingly accurate and reliable text.