The Doctrine Of Textual Criticism (and Preservation)
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, December 10, 2025 (Donate)
The Doctrine of Textual Criticism is a good thing.
Some confuse it with “higher criticism”, which is an 1800s attack on the
Bible, but textual criticism is something that is done to honor the text of
Scripture and systematically study its manuscripts.
What Is Textual Criticism?
Textual criticism of the Bible (specifically the New
Testament) is the scholarly process of comparing all available manuscript
copies to determine the earliest and most accurate form of the biblical text.
Just to give you an idea, there are over 24,000 ancient
copies and fragments of the New Testament and over 86,000 quotes of the Bible in
church fathers’ writing in the first 200 years alone. How do we assess these and
study all these? It is through textual criticism that it is done.
Because the original autographs of specific Bible books, by
apostles for example, no longer exist, scholars examine thousands of
handwritten manuscripts, early translations, and quotations from church fathers
to identify where small differences (variants) occur and which readings best
reflect the original wording.
The method works by analyzing external evidence and internal
evidence. External evidence considers the age, geographical distribution, and textual
family of the manuscripts. Earlier manuscripts and those found across different
regions often carry greater weight.
Internal evidence evaluates what the author is most likely
to have written and what scribes were likely to have changed, whether
accidentally or intentionally (e.g., cultic groups or enemies infiltration for instance).
Scholars consider context, grammar, style, and which reading best explains how
the others could have arisen.
Most variants are trivial, such as spelling differences (as
languages change) or word order changes that do not affect meaning—keep in mind
that many later copies of Koine Greek New Testament were made by people who
were not fluent in it—the language was a dead language by around AD 400. So
spotting a misspelling was more difficult and copying mistakes were more prone.
Even so, only a small fraction of variants are meaningful
enough to warrant deeper study, and none undermine essential Christian
doctrines. With the massive number of manuscripts available, especially for the
New Testament, scholars can cross-check readings rather easily.
Through this comparison process, scholars using textual
criticism identifies the reading that makes the most sense in the context based
on manuscript evidence. Modern Bible translations use this research to present
a text as close as possible to the original.
Overall, textual criticism works by carefully sifting the
manuscript evidence, weighing the text in context, and reconstructing the
earliest attainable form of the biblical text (often called “standard texts”.
Most Bible translations today come from standard texts like the (1) Nestle-Aland
Novum Testamentum Graece, (2) United Bible Societies Greek New Testament,
and (3) [for Hebrew] Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia text. The result is
that believers can rest assured the Bible has been preserved.
Erasmus and Early Textual Criticism
Erasmus (Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus) produced the first printed Greek New Testament (1516) using only a small handful of manuscripts, mostly late Byzantine copies (I discuss this text family in a later section). His textual criticism relied on collation and comparison: he placed his manuscripts side by side, noted differences, and selected the reading he believed was original, usually favoring the majority or clearest reading.
Because he lacked complete manuscripts for some sections
(such as the ending of Revelation), he back-translated from the Latin Vulgate
into Greek to fill gaps. Erasmus also consulted earlier editions of the Latin
to judge which Greek readings seemed most authentic.
His work was rushed for publication, yet subsequent editions
refined his choices as he attainted more manuscripts. Over time, later printers
incorporated marginal notes and corrections until this adjusted printed text
became known as the Textus Receptus, the “received text,” which shaped Tyndale’s
Bible Translation, the Geneva Bible and the King James Version.
Despite limited resources, Erasmus sought to restore the New
Testament’s earliest attainable form. As more manuscripts became available it
was time to look at them in a systematic way.
Discussion On Textual Criticism
Dr. Ron Rhodes, a well-known evangelical scholar and
apologist, affirms the value of textual criticism as a necessary and
God-ordained tool for preserving and understanding the biblical text. His
position is broadly in line with conservative evangelical scholarship. The
reliability of Scripture and the usefulness of textual analysis is a great confirmation
of that reliability.
Rhodes points out that the Bible we possess today is trustworthy,
even though it has been transmitted through thousands of manuscripts. He
stresses that textual variants do exist, but the vast majority are minor issues
such as:
·
Spelling differences
·
Word order changes
·
Stylistic variations that do not alter essential
doctrine.
The existence of variants is expected because these copies
were being done by fallible people. This actually shows the transparency and
honesty of biblical scholarship.
Textual criticism is the primary means by which God
has ensured the preservation of His Word (more on this in the next
section). The New Testament manuscripts are exceptionally numerous (tens of
thousands) and very early compared to other ancient texts (many in the first
and second century).
Christians should reject skeptical or liberal approaches to
textual criticism that assume the biblical text is fundamentally corrupt or
that reconstructing the original autographs is impossible. This violates God’s
Word where He promised to preserve His Word. Textual criticism shows a
continuity with the original text and confirms Christian doctrines rather than
threatens them.
No essential Christian doctrine hangs on any of the alleged
disputed textual variants. While acknowledging a handful of passages discussed in scholarly literature (for example, the ending of Mark is
debated in variants), Rhodes rightly points out that these do not affect the core
message of Scripture—since all things at the end of Mark match with other Gospel
accounts. Christians should understand the basics of textual criticism and be
informed, not fearful of it.
What Does Textual Criticism Look Like?
Dr. Ron Rhodes give a nice example of what textual criticism
looks like in practice. Once you see it, it is difficult not to understand.
The process is rather easy to grasp. Rhodes brilliantly explains:
“Let us suppose we have five
manuscript copies of an original document that no longer exists. Each of the
manuscript copies are different. Our goal is to compare the manuscript copies
and ascertain what the original must have said. Here are the five copies:
Manuscript #1: Jesus Christ is the
Savior of the whole worl.
Manuscript #2: Christ Jesus is the Savior of the whole world.
Manuscript #3: Jesus Christ s the Savior of the whole world.
Manuscript #4: Jesus Christ is th Savior of the whle world.
Manuscript #5: Jesus Christ is the Savor of the whole wrld.
Could you, by comparing the
manuscript copies, ascertain what the original document said with a high degree
of certainty that you are correct? Of course you could.
This illustration may be extremely
simplistic, but a great majority of the 150,000 variants are solved by the
above methodology.
By comparing the various
manuscripts, all of which contain very minor differences like the above, it
becomes fairly clear what the original must have said.”[1]
Of course, when you look at families of manuscripts (copies
of copies from the same text tradition), you tend to get the copy variants. For
example, there are two primary families of text—the Alexandrian and the Byzantine.
Alexandrian Text Family
Alexandria was a Greek city in Egypt. It was very influential
and a hub for Christianity for about 600 years. Many manuscripts came from this
area. The Alexandrian text family consists of Greek manuscripts that are
earlier and generally considered closer to the original wording by most
scholars—because of their age. They come mainly from Egypt and include Codex
Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus.
The obvious reason this text family ceased being copied
after some time was due to the Muslim invasions and the imposition of their false
religion by the sword which stifled the copying process in these lands.
Byzantine Text Family
The Byzantine text family represents the later, majority of
Greek manuscripts which had wider use in the Greek-speaking early church. This
family of texts is what Erasmus used to generate the Textus Receptus and
many other Western texts. With a thousand more years of copying—there are a lot
more in this text family.
There are other text families as well. But even with all
these variants, it is rather easily to see using all these texts to largely see
what was clearly written in the original autographs of Scriptures. Having more
copies actually helps.
Modes of Preservation
God promised to preserve His Word. This task is easy for an
all-powerful God. Consider some of the Scriptures relating to preservation:
1. Psalm 12:6–7 (NKJV) “The words
of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this
generation forever.”
2. Psalm 119:89 (NKJV) “Forever, O
Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”
3. Isaiah 40:8 (NKJV) “The grass
withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”
4. Matthew 24:35 (NKJV) “Heaven and
earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
Peter, in 1 Peter 1:23–25, explicitly cites Isaiah 40:8 and
applies it to the preached Word of God showing that it is enduring and
incorruptible. However, Christians have generally appealed to two very
different models of how God preserved Scripture.
One Inerrant Copy Model
The “one inerrant copy” view teaches that God kept a single,
perfect, error-free manuscript line intact through history. Some say this is
done for each language as well. According to this model, a particular copy or
printed edition (often associated with the Textus Receptus (TR)—although the TR
was developed by 6 copies—none of which were complete). Adherents of this
position suggest the TR, which all its updates over the years, uniquely
represents God’s preserved Word without meaningful variation. Preservation is
understood as perfect, continuous, and traceable through one
providentially protected “stream”.
Body of Manuscripts Model
The “manuscript copies with textual criticism” view teaches
that God preserved His Word through the entire body of manuscripts, not
one perfect copy. Because Scripture was copied thousands of times, minor
variations arose, but the abundance and geographical spread of manuscripts
allow scholars to compare them and rather easily determine the earliest,
original readings. Preservation is understood by the abundant copies that exist
and through careful comparison.
Both methods still rely on textual criticism to a degree (Erasmus’
early form with only a few fragmented copies) versus the latter systematic form
utilizing thousands of copies.
Conclusion
Textual criticism is a good thing. Having a multitude of
copies and following their ever so slight variants spellings and word order
show that what we have today is an accurate reflection of the original autographs
of Scripture in the New Testament text.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various
churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers
in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding
news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight
Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
[1]
Ron Rhodes, Manuscript Support for the Bible's Reliability, Accessed December
10, 2025, https://www.gospeloutreach.net/manevbib.html.
