blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
Lately I've been curious what the differences are between the TR Greek and the Alexandrian Greek. So I copied/pasted the Greek (with variants identified) from E-Sword into an Excel spreadsheet so I could quickly identify differences. I wanted to see:
1. How many verses (total and by book) were exactly the same,
2. How many verses had both TR and Alexandrian variants in them,
3. How many verses had only TR variants in them, and
4. How many verses had only Alexandrian variants in them.
Out of 7955 verses, I found that:
1. 2986 verses (38%) were exactly the same.
2. 4064 verses (51%) had both TR and Alexandrian variants
3. 719 verses (9%) had only TR variants
4. 186 verses (2%) had only Alexandrian variants.
I'm going to (out of curiosity) continue to take a look at the differences just to see what they are. I'm sure I'll have questions as time goes on.
I just wanted to ask two (sets of) questions:
1. I'd always heard that the OT scribes were very maticulous when they copied manuscripts, being very careful to ensure that each letter/word was copied as it appeared in the original. I was just curious if anybody knew what instructions were given to those who copied the NT manuscripts. What were their "marching orders"? Were they expected to just copy letter by letter and word by word what they saw, or were they given some latitude about how they did their job? (ie., similar to the latitude that translators nowadays seem to have)
2. As I look at the number of verses to compare, and the number of years (zero) I've trained in the Greek language, it makes sense to me that it might be to expect to be able to dogmatically come to a conclusion which is better. Maybe some of you are in the same boat I am. For those who have investigated the differences, how did you come to the conclusion that one set of manuscripts was superior to the other?
1. How many verses (total and by book) were exactly the same,
2. How many verses had both TR and Alexandrian variants in them,
3. How many verses had only TR variants in them, and
4. How many verses had only Alexandrian variants in them.
Out of 7955 verses, I found that:
1. 2986 verses (38%) were exactly the same.
2. 4064 verses (51%) had both TR and Alexandrian variants
3. 719 verses (9%) had only TR variants
4. 186 verses (2%) had only Alexandrian variants.
I'm going to (out of curiosity) continue to take a look at the differences just to see what they are. I'm sure I'll have questions as time goes on.
I just wanted to ask two (sets of) questions:
1. I'd always heard that the OT scribes were very maticulous when they copied manuscripts, being very careful to ensure that each letter/word was copied as it appeared in the original. I was just curious if anybody knew what instructions were given to those who copied the NT manuscripts. What were their "marching orders"? Were they expected to just copy letter by letter and word by word what they saw, or were they given some latitude about how they did their job? (ie., similar to the latitude that translators nowadays seem to have)
2. As I look at the number of verses to compare, and the number of years (zero) I've trained in the Greek language, it makes sense to me that it might be to expect to be able to dogmatically come to a conclusion which is better. Maybe some of you are in the same boat I am. For those who have investigated the differences, how did you come to the conclusion that one set of manuscripts was superior to the other?