Manuscript Families

MANUSCRIPT FAMILIES

Textual Critics have divided the manuscript evidence into four major categories. These families all contains groups of texts.

1. Old Testament Families. The Massoretic Texts.
The Massoretes were a group of Hebrew scholars who worked at preserving the Scriptures and the traditions of the Jews (the word trwsm, masora, means “tradition”). There were initially two groups: The Eastern Massoretes were located in Mesopotamia. The Western Massoretes began in Tiberias. The Western Massoretes eventually gained in prominence and it is the result of their work which survives today. The Massoretes developed a system of vowel-points, but there was initial resistance to this among certain Jewish groups who felt that this was a sacrilegious adding to the Word of God. Although verse divisions were known in the Talmudic Period, they were not numbered by chapters until the 16th Century. The Septuagint Family.
This was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, formed in 250 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt. The problem with the Septuagint was that it made no attempt to be a word-for-word translation. It was, instead, a “Dynamic Equivalent,” much as is the New International Version. There were also wide variations within different copies of the Septuagint. The Samaritan Pentateuch.
The Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Massoretic Text in about 6000 instances (most of these are mere differences in spelling). One interesting difference is seen in Exodus 20:17 where an eleventh commandment is inserted - to build a sanctuary upon Mount Gerazim. About 1900 of these instances the Samaritan Pentateuch agrees with the Septuagint against the Massoretic Text.

Dead Sea Scrolls.
The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls had a profound impact upon Old Testament Textual Criticism. On the one hand, there was evidence that the Massoretic Scrolls were very accurate in their rendition of the Hebrew Bible. At the same time, it was discovered that there were some Hebrew manuscripts which seemed to follow the Septuagint reading. This indicates that perhaps some of the differences in the Massoretic Text versus the Septuagint are not just translational but point to differences in copiest transmission.

2. New Testament Families. The Proto-Alexandrian Texts. This group is also referred to as the Neutral Text and the Hesychian Text. This family of texts is represented by the some of the oldest Texts, including the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, both dating back to the 4th century. It is also represented by Papyrus 66 and Papyrus 75, both of which date to the beginning of the third century. It was originally thought that these texts do not exhibit the grammatical and stylistic polishing that were found in some of the other families. However it is now evident that these manuscripts were corrected by later scribes. The Western Text.
These texts were used in the West and particularly in North Africa. This family of texts is represented by Codex Bezae (Codex D) as well as the Old Latin and Syriac translations, some of which are as early as the 2nd century. It was used by Marcion, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Cyprian. It was rejected by Wescott and Hort. The Byzantine Text.
Also known as the Syriac Text. It was adopted in Constantinople and was used as the common text in the Byzantine world. A great majority of late uncials and minuscules belong to this group It is from this family that Erasmus produced his Textus Receptus. Martin Luther also translated his German Bible from this family. The King James Version reflects this family of texts. Dr. Laird Harris makes the following observation about this family of texts.

Scrutiny of the Byzantine family reveals a multitude of small mistakes and numerous unexpected readings which seem unreasonable." (1971:92).

It is for this reason that most of the modern translations have turned away from the Byzantine Family to use a compilation of the Western and Neutral Texts. The Alexandrian Text.
This family of texts originated in Alexandria, Egypt. It includes Codex Ephraemi (Codex C), the Coptic Versions, and certain of the Alexandrian early church fathers. The Caesarean Text.
This is thought by some to be a compilation of the Western and Alexandrian readings. It is associated with Origen and Eusebius as well as with Codex Koridethi, a manuscript containing the gospels which was discovered near the Caspian Sea and dates to the ninth century (Q). In summary, we find that the textual evidence can be categorized into five major groups. The oldest of these is the Proto-Alexandrian. The great majority of manuscripts are in the Byzantine Family.

Textual

Family|

Description| Dates|
Proto-Alexandrian|Older Texts

Sinaiticus; Vaticanus|2nd-4th Century|
Alexandrian|Ephraemi|3rd-12th Century|
Western|Bezae & Latin Fathers|2nd-13th Century|
Caesarean|Compilation of Alexandrian & Western?|3rd-13th Century|
Byzantine|Textus Receptus; KJV|5th-10th Century|

Harris notes the advantages of the fact that the manuscript evidence is divided into these various families. Laird Harris summarizes:

It thus develops that we do not have an embarrassing welter of three thousand manuscripts disagreeing in confusing ways, but that these manuscripts have been copied with considerable care from a few old and standard editions. (1971:91). Has God's word been lost? Not at all. When all of the texts have been examined, the total amount of differences found between the various texts is very small indeed. Furthermore, not a single doctrine is to be found to be changed in any manuscript.