THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT: ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE EDITIONS*

KURT ALAND
UNIVERSITT MNSTER

H E ERA of modern N T editions began almost exactly a century ago, when Tischendorfs "editio octava maior" broke new ground in this field. Since then decisive changes have taken place, in particular as regards the material, but also as regards the methods of N T textual criticism. Attempts have twice been made to work the new material into one large edition. Work on Legg's edition was broken off after the second volume and von Soden's edition failed to gain influence. Of the two, von Soden was the more ambitious. He not only set up a new text, but, at the same time, tried to bring in the entire history of the N T text, including the ramifications of the Koine. Without any doubt, he accomplished more in this work than his critics often acknowledge. Nevertheless, the statement already made on publication, that the entire work would have to be done again, was quite correct. Legg simply reprinted the Westcott-Hort text and collected together in his critical apparatus the material which was accessible to him. Certainly anyone would gladly avail himself of the assistance offered in Legg's two volumes, but even so, he would never be able to dispense with Tischendorfs critical apparatus, which, in spite of its being a century old, still forms the basis of all textual criticism. In May 1966, The Greek New Testament was published under the responsibility of a group of editors and on behalf of the United Bible Societies two conditions equally new and unusual. The success of this edition has been extraordinary and it has already been reprinted several times. Early in 1968, a second edition is to be brought out, containing a number of changes in text, some of great significance. As well as this, the assessment of some text variants in the critical apparatus will be changed and an initial series of corrections of unclear or incorrect notes will follow. These modifications will be clear to the user only on closer scrutiny. The things which will immediately catch his eye are the changes on the title page. A new name, that of Professor Dr. Carlo M. Martini, S J . , has been added to those of the editorial Committee, and an additional note "in Cooperation with the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, 1 ' is appended to the title. The latter is the result of the already very considerable cooperation of the Institut fr neutestamentliche Textforschung at Mnster University in the work of
* An invited paper read at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature on December 29, 1967. For publication it has been abbreviated. EDITOR.
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forming the critical apparatus and it expresses the fact that responsibility for the revision and scientific preparation of the edition's apparatus has been transferred to Mnster. The addition of Professor Martini's name has significance with regard to our future program. Professor Martini is professor of New Testament Textual Criticism at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In future, The Greek New Testament will be under the patronage not only of the International Bible Societies, but also of the Pontifical Biblical Institute. The same plan is under way for the Nestle-Aland edition, which likewise will, in future, be distributed by the United Bible Societies and the Pontifical Biblical Institute, under the responsibility of the same editorial committee as The Greek New Testament. However, responsibility for the conception as a whole will, to a great extent, remain with Kurt Aland. For in the Nestle-Aland edition, which will continue to appear under this name, the critical apparatus is just as important as the text and the marginal notes are also of some significance. Naturally, a number of problems arise, in particular that of the frequently differing text form. In the course of the coming year, 1968, the editorial committee will have to discuss all the passages, in which the existing proofs or manuscript of the new Nestle-Aland edition differ from The Greek New Testament. Should agreement on these passages be reached, the text of The Greek New Testament will be changed or vice versa. After the publication of the second edition, which already includes a number of anticipated text alterations, a third edition is contemplated, probably for 1970, which will alter the text to such an extent that it will be identical with the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland. Of course, a number of small differences will remain, for example, in paragraphing, in the orthography, in the use of capital or small letters, etc. These differences arise from the differing purposes of the two editions. Nestle-Aland, for example, is not divided up according to pericopes, but, within the gospels, according to individual logia and to other results of form criticism, etc. In details such as punctuation it follows more closely the rules of classical philology, for it is, indeed, intended exclusively as a scientific pocket edition for use in universities and by N T specialists, whereas The Greek New Testament addresses itself to a much wider circle, beginning with translators, for whom it is specially designed. In comparison with earlier editions, the new Nestle-Aland will have a considerably higher standard, its aim being to provide the specialist working on the N T text with all the material he might need. Since the average number of variants per page will be 20, while the number of variants per page in The Greek New Testament is, on the average, 1.6, the differences between these two editions will be clear. The Nestle-Aland will, for instance, quote manuscript witnesses for all those passages, which have given rise to differences of opinion from

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Tischendorfs time until the present and which have resulted in the differences in the various editions over the past hundred years. In addition, the Nestle-Aland includes not only all exegetically important variant readings, but also those in which the major manuscripts differ, i. e., their significant variant readings, including the single readings of the papyri. The user will not only be given all the material necessary to enable him to make an independent decision about the text, but also all that he needs to reconstruct the history of this text. But we will have to forego an attempt to reconstruct the development of the Koine in all its detail. The so-called Koine-manuscripts will appear under the siglum M (i. e., majority text). The manuscripts belonging to the majority text will, naturally, be quoted in the preface (according to our collations we can now already list several hundred). It will, of course, be mentioned in the critical apparatus if the majority text splits into two or more groups. But it cannot be the intention of a pocket edition to attempt a complete history of the Koine. Its task is to make available the material necessary for the establishment of the original text, i. e., the form, in which the N T writings first appeared. The new Nestle-Aland will not only offer more variant readings than its earlier editions, but will also present them differently and more precisely. The siglum (i. e., Hesychian or Egyptian text) will disappear. It will be replaced by a list of its manuscript witnesses. Apart from the fact that, wherever necessary, manuscript witnesses pro et contra a reading will be noted, it will also be possible in the future, where only the witnesses for a variant reading are quoted, to deduce e silentio which manuscripts support the reading printed in the text. For a certain number of manuscripts will be completely collated with all the variant readings. In the gospels, these include, besides all the papyri, the uncials X A B C D W O K L P Q R Z r A H ^ the extant fragments of uncial manuscripts (about 125 uncials in all) and the minuscules f1, f13, 28, 33, 565, 700, 892, 1010, 1241, and 1424. Of course, all other Greek manuscripts which are important for a special variant reading will be included, but in differing combinations, according to the circumstances. When the old translations are quoted, the Syriac versions will, naturally, be individually named, and the same will apply for the Old Latin and Coptic witnesses. Of these, the newly-discovered major manuscripts will be regularly consulted. By means of a wellplanned system, we have avoided excessive growth of the apparatus and will be able to keep it within justifiable limits. Provision has also been made that the apparatus remains clearly arranged and legible. This edition too will be available in 1970. Through these two editions the urgent needs are met. But the decisive question is: has enough been done? I believe that the asking of this question already implies a negative answer.

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The Nestle-Aland edition cannot be more than a manual edition offering the scholar all he needs for his day-to-day work, which involves making decisions about the competing variant readings under discussion at the present time and surveying those important variant readings contained in the major N T manuscripts. However, the Nestle-Aland edition cannot replace a large comprehensive critical edition of the NT. By way of comparison, the Nestle-Aland is to a comprehensive edition, what a medium sized Latin dictionary is to the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. Of course, the shortened version must contain a reliable extract from the complete work, and it must provide all the essentials for everyday work ; but it can never replace the comprehensive edition, and the scholar will always use the latter as a basis for his own independent work, even though he is glad to have the shortened version for daily use and quick reference. And that which applies here to the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland holds to an even greater extent for the other pocket editions in use today. 1 One hundred years have passed since an edition last appeared, which summed up what was known about the tradition of the N T text. Without doubt, Tischendorfs accomplishment was immense, but how many manuscripts did he use for his critical apparatus? Of the more than 80 papyri known today, he used only parts of one single manuscript (i. e., p11, of which, at that time, only about one-third was accessible). Of the now-known uncials, he used at most 80 (possibly only 64), i. e., a maximum of 30%. It cannot be ascertained with any certainty how many minuscules he used. It was at most 150, for Westcott and Hort explained (vol. 2, p. 77), that in their time, this number of minuscules were known in their entire content. This is about 6% of the 2764 minuscules known today. Tischendorf consulted some lectionaries, but only very few (mostly uncial lectionaries). In the case of the translations, he knew and utilized the Curetonian Syriac, but not the Sinai tic Syriac, which was only discovered in 1892. All the editions of the Vetus Latina, used by Tischendorf, are completely out of date, not to mention the fact that many manuscripts have been discovered since then. In fact, it so happens that even the editions of the Vetus Latina, which our generation used until the appearance of Jiilicher's Itala edition and the edition of the Vetus Latina Institute at the monastery of Beuron, Germany, were more often than not unreliable. As an example, one need only mention Johannes Belsheim. Of the Coptic text of the N T only the initial fragments were known to Tischendorf. Nowadays, as is well known, the situation is such, that even Horner's edition, the last volume of which appeared little more than 40 years ago, is completely out of date and insufficient. All the great critical editions of the church fathers first began to appear after Tischendorfs death.
1 For further details see my The Gospels Reconsidered, pp. 8-9; and Studien zur berlieferung des Neuen Testaments und seines Textes, pp. 58-60.

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In spite of this, as already said, Tischendorf's edition is and remains the indispensible basis for the person involved in textual criticism, for the editions of both von Soden and Legg are unreliable in the information they give. And besides this, von Soden's edition is difficult to use because of its complicated system of sigla. So the situation is in no way basically improved by the use of von Soden or Legg. Already in 1957, I explained at the Congress of New Testament Scholars in Oxford :
But in the critical apparatuses of all editions, including the one of von Soden, no fewer than 1938, or 77% of these Mss. [i. e., total of cursive manuscripts] have remained unused. It is likely that the majority of them belong to a late stratum immediately preceding the textus receptus, but apart from the fact that this has in general been taken for granted and not really proved, a closer investigation shows that 735 of these cursives which have not been used in the editions of the last hundred years were written earlier than the 12th century.3

During the ten years since then, the number of known minuscules has increased by more than 250. Accordingly, from a present-day point of view, the percentage of minuscules not used in the older editions is higher. As far as the uncials are concerned, none of the existing editions uses more than 50% of the number now known, and, for the most part, they fall far below these percentages. The only exceptions are the Nestle-Aland, The Greek New Testament, and the Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum. The Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum, for instance, in its newly published 4th revised edition, in addition to the uncials already used, has introduced 68 uncials (with few exceptions complete) into its critical apparatus. Besides this, in most cases in the earlier editions (e. g., when Merk and Bover quote the number of uncials used by them as 121 and 120 respectively), the term "used" can only refer to a very sporadic consultation of the uncials. Such is our present situation, and every N T scholar the world over, who is working on textual criticism, is very much aware that a comprehensive critical edition of the Greek N T is overdue, indeed excessively overdue. Von Soden definitely recognized the right moment, but he aimed too high and strove towards his goal with insufficient prerequisites. When the Chester Beatty papyri became known, the need for such an edition was even more urgent. It was therefore understandable that N T scholars were enthusiastic when, in 1942, a plan was launched for an " International Project to Establish a New Critical Apparatus of the New Testament.'' The Gospel of Luke was to be dealt with first. It was said that the volume containing the critical apparatus would be ready within a few years and that a few years later, a critical text of the Gospel of Luke based on this apparatus would be published. Since then, twenty-five years have come and gone and all that has appeared is a specimen six verses of the Gospel of Luke. I do not want
a

The Gospels Reconsidered, p. 7.

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to discuss this specimen, for even when this volume of Luke is available, it cannot be compared with the comprehensive critical edition of which we have been speaking. It will contain, with the printing of the Textus Receptus, only a collection of material, i. e., the first step towards a complete critical edition of the Gospel of Luke. The same will apply for any subsequent volumes which may be published. Since the Bodmer papyri have been edited, the absence of a comprehensive critical edition of the N T given rise to continually increasing criticism of N T textual research, all the more so, since manuscript material has become available during the last decade to an extent which would have been unimaginable a short time before. Therefore recently, consultations have taken place between the European centers for text criticism and a number of specialists in the Greek tradition, the old translations, and patristic quotations, about the possibility of creating such an edition. Until now, the specialists have all been Europeans, but the circle can be enlarged at any time. It hardly needs saying that such an enterprise is possible only with combined effort. In 1968, in conjunction with the annual conference of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, there will be a seminar, during which, under the direction of K. Aland, the principles of such a comprehensive critical edition will be discussed. By then, preparations will be so far advanced as to make this possible. To avoid even the semblance of competition with the International Project, work on the edition will definitely not start with the gospels, but elsewhere most probably with the Pauline epistles. Initially, the work of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Mnster was certainly not directed towards such a comprehensive critical edition. At its foundation nine years ago, this would have been absolutely impossible. Today the situation has changed. The first condition for such an edition is, of course, as complete a knowledge as possible of all the manuscript material. The numbers achieved speak for themselves. For comparison, I place the numbers quoted in the 4th "List of Manuscripts'' (by von Dobschtz) alongside those appearing in the 7th "List" (Lists V-VII by K. Aland): List IV 48 208 23703 1609 4235 List VII 81 267 2764 2143 5255

Papyri : Majuscules: Minuscules : Lectionaries : Total:

s von Dobschtz listed numerically as far as 2401, but numbers 2362-2392 were not related to manuscripts (this was done later by K. Aland). In this way the number 2370 is reached.

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That is an increase of 1020 manuscripts in the years between 1954 (when List V appeared) and 1967. Of course, we have not yet reached the absolute total. But we may assume that any future increase will take place slowly, and it is not too much to say as far as the knowledge of manuscript tradition is concerned, that the start of work on a comprehensive critical edition is assured. Not only are the manuscripts known by name, as was earlier the case for the most part, but we have photo copies or microfilms of about 80% of them at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research. In this form, we possess at present: 76 239 2385 1778 papyri uncials minuscules lectionaries

i. e., a total of 4478 manuscripts, which is more than were known of at the beginning of our work. And this number is increasing steadily. The next stage of the work has also long since begun. Any comprehensive critical edition will have to make use of all papyri and all uncials, but in the critical apparatus it could not possibly do this with all 2764 minuscules. This is impossible not for reasons of space and clear arrangement, but because the amount of work entailed can neither be performed nor justified, for the majority of the minuscules either have the pure, so-called Koine text or reflect only the later development of this text. The striven-for comprehensive critical edition is concerned with ascertaining the original text of the NT, i. e., the text in which the N T writings were put into circulation by the author or a collector (e. g., the Pauline epistles) and with making available all the material necessary for the discovery of this text. Therefore years ago we began to sort all the minuscules critically. One thousand passages in the N T were selected, where the manuscripts show characteristic differences. This is many more test passages than a philologist usually refers to for the classification of the manuscript of a classical author. Any manuscript which agrees with the Koine text in all these passages or gives only insignificant variant readings, which are explained by the inner development of the manuscript, can be disregarded for the comprehensive critical edition. More than 1000 manuscripts have already been examined in this way. The Institute has already begun to examine and edit the papyri and uncials, which until now have remained unpublished or insufficiently edited, with special attention to the papyri. The lectionaries, however, remain a problem for us too. It is out of the question to use here a sorting system, similar to that used for the minuscules. Certainly, it will not be necessary to use a system of 1000 test passages, but, just as certainly, more test-passages will be needed than have been used before. A final solution has still not been found, because other Institute work

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has stood in the way of this, for besides its work within the Greek sphere, the Institute has long since also turned to the old versions. Jlicher's Itala edition will soon be completed. In addition, the Institute years ago began to collect information about the Coptic manuscripts of the NT, which in recent years have been impressively increased by a series of very important discoveries and publications, notably the collections of the Pierpont Morgan Museum and the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana. A list of these Coptic manuscripts, comparable with the list of Greek manuscripts, is being prepared, as is a critical edition of the Catholic Epistles. The manuscripts of both these works are near completion. Furthermore, a collection of information on the Ethiopian version of the N T has been started. The patristic quotations from the N T present a very difficult problem. The Institute has large collections and has already systematically dealt with quite a number of the church fathers. But there is still important work to be done here, for the material of all the editions, including The Greek New Testament, originates from Tischendorf and is not based on original sources, i. e., the modern critical editions of the church fathers, many of which are indispensable for the early history of the text of the NT. The discussions which are to take place in 1968 must show whether and to what extent the plan for a large, comprehensive edition of the N T can be realized. This plan was not initiated by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, but, of course, as soon as it is required, the Institute is willing to undertake such a task, which is not only of the greatest urgency and importance, but is, in fact, unavoidable. The accomplishment of this immense undertaking will only be possible if the efforts of all those concerned, both internationally and interconfessionally, are effectively combined.

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