Александрийский тип текста Нового Завета

New Testament text type
In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Alexandrian text type is one of the main text types. It is the text type favored by the majority of modern textual critics and it is the basis for most modern (after 1900) Bible translations. Over 5,800 New Testament manuscripts have been classified into four groups by text type. Besides the Alexandrian, the other types are the Western, Caesarean, and Byzantine. Compared to these later text types, Alexandrian readings tend to be abrupt, use fewer words, show greater variation among the Synoptic Gospels, and have readings that are considered difficult. That is to say, later scribes tended to polish scripture and improve its literary style. Glosses would occasionally be added as verses during the process of copying a Bible by hand. From the ninth century onward, most surviving manuscripts are of the Byzantine type. The King James Version and other Reformation era Bibles are translated from the Textus Receptus, a Greek text created by Erasmus and based on various manuscripts of the Byzantine type. In 1721, Richard Bentley outlined a project to create a revised Greek text based on the Codex Alexandrinus. This project was completed by Karl Lachmann in 1850. Brooke Foss Westcott and F. J. A. Hort of Cambridge published a text based on Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus in 1881. Novum Testamentum Graece by Eberhard Nestle and Kurt Aland, now in its 28th edition, generally follows the text of Westcott and Hort.

Up until the ninth century, Greek texts were written entirely in upper case letters, referred to as uncials. During the ninth and tenth centuries, minuscules came to replace the older style. Most Greek uncial manuscripts were recopied in this period and their parchment leaves typically scraped clean for re use. Consequently, surviving Greek New Testament manuscripts from before the ninth century are relatively rare, but nine (over half of the total that survive) witness a more or less pure Alexandrian text. These include the oldest near complete manuscripts of the New Testament: Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and Codex Sinaiticus (both believed to date from the early fourth century). A number of substantial papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament survive from earlier still, and those that can be ascribed a text type, such as and from the second to the third century, also tend to witness to the Alexandrian text. The earliest Coptic versions of the Bible (into a Sahidic variety of the late second century) use the Alexandrian text as a Greek base, while other second and third century translations (into Latin and Syriac) tend rather to conform to the Western text type. Although the overwhelming majority of later minuscule manuscripts conform to the Byzantine text type, detailed study has, from time to time, identified individual minuscules that transmit the alternative Alexandrian text. Around 17 such manuscripts have been discovered so far and so the Alexandrian text type is witnessed by around 30 surviving manuscripts, by no means all of which are associated with Egypt although in that area, Alexandrian witnesses are the most prevalent. According to Robert Boyd, the Arabic manuscripts of the New Testament appear to have an origin within the Alexandrian text type. The Alexandrian text type is witnessed to in the writings of Origen (185 – c. 253), Athanasius (296–298 – 373), Didymus (313 – 398) and Cyril of Alexandria (376 – 444). The quotations of Clement of Alexandria also often agree with the Alexandrian text type, although sometimes they contain readings which are instead common in the Byzantine text type.

Sign Name Date ContentDiscovery Chester Beatty I 3rd fragments of Gospels, Acts 1931 Chester Beatty II c. 200 Pauline epistles 1931 Chester Beatty III 3rd fragments of Revelation 1931 Bodmer II c. 200 Gospel of John 1952 Bodmer VII/VIII 3rd/4th Jude; 1 2 Peter 1952 Bodmer XIV XV 3rd Gospels of Luke and John 1952 א Codex Sinaiticus 330 360 NT 1844 B Codex Vaticanus 325 350 Matt. — Hbr 9, 14 16th century? A Codex Alexandrinus c. 400 (except Gospels) 17th century C Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus 5th (except Gospels) 17th century? Q Codex Guelferbytanus B 5th fragments Luke — John 18th century T Codex Borgianus 5th fragments Luke — John 18th century I Codex Freerianus 5th Pauline epistles 1906 Z Codex Dublinensis 6th fragments of Matt. 1787 L Codex Regius 8th Gospels 18th century? W Codex Washingtonianus 5th Luke 1:1–8:12; J 5:12–21:25 1906 057 Uncial 057 4/5th Acts 3:5–6,10 12 20th century? 0220 Uncial 0220 6th NT (except Rev.) 1950 33 Minuscule 33 9th Romans 18th century? 81 Minuscule 81 1044 Acts, Paul 1853 892 Minuscule 892 9th Gospels 1877