Η ΚΑΙΝΗ
ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ.
Text
With Critical Apparatus
Published By The
British And Foreign Bible Society
In Connection With Its Centenary
146, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C.
1904.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The text of this Greek Testament was in the main first published by the Bible Society of Württenberg at Stuttgart in 1898. It was prepared for that Society by Professor Eberhard Nestle, D.D., of Maulbronn, and he revised the several editions which followed the first one. By the kind permission of the Württenberg Society the British and Foreign Bible Society was permitted to adopt its latest text (the 4th) and to publish it in England under Dr Nestle's care in 1904.
The text is the resultant of a collation of three of the principal recensions of the Greek Testament which appeared in the latter half of the 19th century, viz. those of Tischendorf, editio octava 1869–72 (as reproduced in the 4th edition by Oskar von Gebhardt, 1898); of Westcott and Hort, 1881 (impression of 1895); and of Bernhard Weiss, 1894–1900 (second edition 1902). The readings adopted in the text are those in which at least two of these editions agree. An exception to this rule has been made in St Mark i. 1; St John v. 3, 4, and vii. 52–viii. 11. These passages have been retained in the text, but they are placed within special marks.
Besides this edition with critical apparatus, another is published containing the text by itself.
The apparatus at the foot of each page indicates every variation of any importance in the resultant text above it, in words, spelling or punctuation, from (1) the Textus Receptus, and (2) the Greek Text which avowedly or inferentially underlies the English Revised Version of 1881. For the purpose of comparison a Greek Testament printed for the Society at the University Press, Cambridge, in 1876 has been used in the main to represent the Textus Receptus as hitherto published by the Society. It gives (but not with perfect accuracy) the text of the Elzevir edition of 1624, which was based on that of Robert Estienne [Stephanus], Paris 1550, and which took the name of Received Text from the preface to the edition of 1633.
The readings of the English Revisers are gathered (1) from the list furnished by them and reproduced by Scrivener (Cambridge 1881, 1894) and Palmer (Oxford 1881, 1901); and (2) inferentially from a comparison of their English with the Greek text of the present edition. In some cases these readings can only be inferred with probability, and not with certainty.
Variations are indicated in the footnotes as follows:―
| No Mark | A reading found in the Textus Receptus (or the Society's 1876 edition of it) which takes the place of that in the resultant text above; e.g. Mt 1,1. |
| + - | Plus indicates something added to the text, and minus something omitted from it; e.g. Mt 1, 6. 18. |
| () | When a Greek reading is enclosed in curved brackets, the variation is only one in punctuation, accentuation, or spelling; e.g. Mt 1, 8. 9; 3, 17. |
| | | An upright bar in the text marks the beginning of a new verse when that is not made clear by the punctuation. An upright bar in the apparatus separates the variations in a single verse; e.g. Mt 1, 6. |
| 1°, 2° &c. | When the same word recurs in a verse, the nuermeral indicates the particular instance in the series to which the variation applies; e.g. Mt 1, 5. |
| κ.τ.λ. | Is used in the cases where a particular reading or spelling will recur in the N.T., and the correction is made at its first occurrence, once for all; e.g. Mt 1, 1. |
| S | (=Stephanus-Elzevir's or the Society's edition.) S stands for the T.R. when at the same place a variation occurs in that text, and in the Eng. R.V.; e.g. Mk 1, 16. |
| R | (=Revisers.) R, by itself, indicates a variation which occurs only in the Revisers' text, and is one of those to be found in Scrivener's list of the Revisers' avowed readings; e.g. Mk 1, 16. |
| R | Indicates a reading of the Revisers, which has been inferred from their English, but is not specified by Scrivener; e.g. Mt 1, 6. |
| (R) | The R is enclosed in curved brackets when the inference as to what was the Revisers' reading is probably, but not absolutely certain; e.g. Mt 3, 7. |
| SR SR S(R) | Are used when the variation is common to T. R. and R. V., with more or less certainty in the latter case, as already explained; e.g. SR, Mt 10, 25; SR, Mt 1, 5; S(R), Mt 3, 7. |
| Rt,Rt | Are used when the variation occurs in the Revisers' text, as distinguished from their margin; e.g. Rt Mt 3, 16; Rt John 4, 11. |
| Rm,Rm | Are used when the variation occurs in the Revisers' margin, as distinguished from their text; e.g. Rm Mt 1, 18; Rm John 4, 24. |
| m1, m2 | Are used when there are more marginal readings than one; e.g. Mk 8, 16. |
| ] | Indicates the limit in the text to which a variation applies; e.g. Mt 2, 17. |
| ⟦ ⟧ | Double brackets mark passages which the critical editors, or a majority of them, consider very early interpolations; e.g. Mk 16, 9. |
| < > | Indicate a passage for which ancient authority is in part wanting; e.g. John 5, 3. 4. |
| fin. | Finis, end of the verse. |
Accents and breathings are only inserted in the aparatus when the variation turns upon them. In the use of initial capitals for Θεός, Κύριος, Χριστός, Πνεῦμα, Διάβολος, etc. the general usage of the English and American Revisers is followed. Σατανᾶς is always regarded as a proper name.
The black type for quotations, the strophic arrangement for poetry, and the division into paragraphs, chiefly follow Westcott-Hort. The verse division is that of Stephanus, 1551.
The side margins contain parallel-references compiled from (1) the R. V. or Luther's translation, (2) quotations from the O. T. found in Westcott-Hort and Tischendorf-Gebhardt, and (3) other sources.
The Bible House, London,
March, 1904.
This work (Η ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ Text with Critical Apparatus, by Eberhard Nestle), identified by http://sites.google.com/site/nestle1904/, is free of known copyright restrictions.
Version 2.2 (July 27, 2012)
Edited by Diego Santos