How Variant Readings are Noted in the Greek New Testament
In this post I’m going to try to do something I’ve never done before: actually explain by way of example the extent and kind of variations you find in our surviving Greek manuscripts. In doing so I hope to show: (a) there are lots of variations and (b) most of them involve nuances of meaning but rarely anything of huge significance (and lots of them don’t affect the meaning at all). By way of introduction: I have previously indicated that virtually all translators use the Greek text established by an international committee of scholars for the United Bible Societies. I have also mentioned that this form of the text comes in two published versions. One is for translators around the world who are translating the NT into various languages into which it has not yet appeared. This is the kind of “student” edition that many first year Greek students use. That one is called the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, and it is now in its fifth edition. That’s the one I’ve been describing. [...]