Andrew Wilson, «Scribal Habits in Greek New Testament Manuscripts.», Vol. 24 (2011) 95-126
New Testament textual criticism lays considerable stress upon the ways that scribes altered the text. Singular readings provide the most objective and reliable guide to the sorts of errors scribes produced. This paper reports on a study of 4200 singular readings from 33 chapters of the New Testament, providing new insights into scribal habits and the history of the text.
118 Andrew Wilson
Of the scribes themselves, we may say that the vast majority were not
innovative editors continually transforming the text in novel ways. The
vast majority were instead faithful conservationists engaged in a tedious
task, whose efforts were less than perfect, as all human enterprises are.
No doubt this will leave textual criticism itself more prosaic for some.
If scribes tended to be conservationists rather than innovators, textual
criticism must be based on the same sort of cautious, careful, patient
efforts at restoring the text and its history that the scribes showed in
their copying task. Above all, New Testament textual criticism must be
based on evidence.
Addenda: Lists of Readings
The eight singulars that improved the sense in this study are:
1.- Acts 15,20:
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