Greek New Testament Dot Net : The Original Text Project

GreekNewTestament.Net (Internet Edition With Extensive & Exhaustive Critical Apparatus) intends to collate and transcribe all extant manuscripts of the New Testament. Unlike printed critical editions of the Greek New Testament, Internet Greek New Testament Project aims to present the readings of the manuscripts of the New Testament and quotations from the Early Church Fathers in parallel.

Anyone who wishes to examine the textual witnesses for any particular text of the New Testament finds it difficult to gather relevant data from the many manuscripts themselves, since the manuscripts are scattered in numerous libraries all over the world. Furthermore, not everyone is proficient in all the languages of the ancient versions, nor does everyone have sufficient knowledge to be able to evaluate the data. Here, our goal is to present all the textual witnesses in one place and help you to evaluate the evidence.

The Original Manuscripts of the New Testament

We do not have the original manuscripts of the New Testament. What we have today are  copies of the copies of the copies of the autographs. Why?

Συντετέλεσται δῆτα καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἅπαντα, ὁπηνίκα τῶν μὲν προσευκτηρίων τοὺς οἴκους ἐξ ὕψους εἰς ἔδαφος αὐτοῖς θεμελίοις καταρριπτουμένους, τὰς δ᾿ ἐνθέους καὶ ἱερὰς γραφὰς κατὰ μέσας ἀγορὰς πυρὶ παραδιδομένας αὐτοῖς ἐπείδομεν ὀφθαλμοῖς τούς τε τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ποιμένας αἰσχρῶς ὧδε κἀκεῖσε κρυπταζομένους, τοὺς δὲ ἀσχημόνως ἁλισκομένους καὶ πρὸς τῶν ἐχθρῶν καταπαιζομένους,

All these things were fulfilled in us, when we saw with our own eyes the houses of prayer thrown down to the very foundations, and the Divine and Sacred Scriptures committed to the flames in the midst of the market-places, and the shepherds of the churches basely hidden here and there, and some of them captured ignominiously, and mocked by their enemies. (Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Book 8, Chapter 2)

In other instances stiffer resistance is offered when believers were asked to give up their Christian books. In the account of the martyrdom of Agape, Irene, and Chione, at successive hearings the three women were interrogated by the prefect Dulcitius of Thessalonica, who inquired, ‘Do you have in your possession any writings, parchments, or books (ὑπομνήματα ἢ διφθέραι ἢ βιβλία) of the impious Christians?’ Chione replied, ‘We do not, Sir. Our present emperors have taken these  from us’. On the next day Irene was once again brought before the court, the prefect asked, ‘Who was it that advised you to retain these parchments and writings (τὰς διφθέρας ταύτας καὶ τὰς γραφάς) up to the present time?’ ‘It was almighty God’, Irene replied, ‘who bade us love him unto death. For this reason we did not dare to be traitors, but we chose to be burned alive or suffer anything else that might happen to us rather than betray them’ (προδοῦναι αὐτάς, i.e. the writings).

After sentencing the young woman to be placed naked in the public brothel, the prefect gave orders that the writings (τὰ γραμματεῖα) in the cabinets and chests belonging to her were to be burned publicly. The account concludes by describing how, in March and April of the year 304, the three became martyrs for their faith by being burned at the stake. (The Canon of the New Testament, Bruce M. Metzger, page 108)

We have as many as eighteen second-century manuscripts of the New Testament, sixty-four from the third, and forty-eight from the fourth. Papyrus Ƿ52, the earliest extant record of a canonical New Testament text, is dated somewhere between 117 AD and 138 AD, that is about three decades after the autograph. There are approximately 5,805 Greek manuscripts (fragments or complete) of the New Testament, of which 323 are majuscules. The immense amount of the manuscripts exceeds all other ancient documents by hundreds of times. In addition, there are over 15,000 manuscripts in Syriac, Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic, Georgian, and Ethiopic versions. There are 2,453 lectionary manuscripts and more than one million quotations of the New Testament by the church fathers. Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone in reconstructing the entire New Testament.

But, as I have said elsewhere, no amount of learning, skill, and conscientious care, can quite replace a study of the manuscript itself. (Agnes Smith Lewis)

The wealth of material available for determining the exact wording of the original New Testament is overwhelming. Our dream is to collate all extant manuscripts of the Greek New Testament and publish them at this website. Currently, we are collating 17 uncials (majuscule script), 57 minuscules and 8 ancient versions. More will be added later.

NT Greek Manuscripts Being Collated:

  1. Codex Vaticanus (B) – Vatican Library
  2. Codex Sinaiticus (א) – British Library/Leipzig University/St. Catherine, Sinai
  3. Codex Alexandrinus (A) – British Library
  4. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) – Bibliothèque nationale de France
  5. Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis (D) – University of Cambridge
  6. Codex Basilensis (E) – Basel University Library
  7. Codex Boreelianus (F) - Utrecht University
  8. Codex Seidelianus I / Codex Harleianus (Harley MS 5684) (G) – British Library
  9. Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus (N) - National Library of Russia
  10. Codex Washingtonensis (W) – Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  11. Codex Monacensis (X) – Munich University Library
  12. Codex Dublinensis (Z) – Trinity College Library, Dublin
  13. Codex Sangallensis 48 / Codex Delta (Δ) – Abbey Library of Saint Gallen
  14. Codex Purpureus Rossanensis (Σ) - Diocesan Museum, Rossano Cathedral
  15. Codex Purpureus Beratinus (Φ) – Tirana, National Archives of Albania
  16. Uncial 071 (P. Oxy.III 0401) ✓ – Semitic Museum, Harvard University
  17. Uncial 073 ✓- Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai
  18. Minuscule 1 (Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2) – Basel University Library
  19. Minuscule 2 (Codex Basiliensis A. N. IV. 1) – Basel University Library
  20. Minuscule 44 (Add MS 4949) - British Library
  21. Minuscule 57 (MS Gr. 9) – Magdalen College
  22. Minuscule 65 (Harley MS 5776) – British Library
  23. Minuscule 72 (Harley MS 5647) - British Library
  24. Minuscule 83 (Codex Monacensis 518) (Gr. 518) – Bavarian State Library, Munich
  25. Minuscule 109 (Codex Neapolitanus) (Add MS 5117) – British Library
  26. Minuscule 113 (Harley MS 1810) – British Library
  27. Minuscule 115 (Harley MS 5559) – British Library
  28. Minuscule 116 (Harley MS 5567) – British Library
  29. Minuscule 182 – Laurentian Library
  30. Minuscule 185 – Laurentian Library
  31. Minuscule 190 – Laurentian Library
  32. Minuscule 195 – Laurentian Library
  33. Minuscule 200 – Laurentian Library
  34. Minuscule 201 (Add MS 11837) – British Library
  35. Minuscule 202 (Add MS 14774) – British Library
  36. Minuscule 272 (Add MS 15581 ) – British Library
  37. Minuscule 365 – Laurentian Library
  38. Minuscule 422 (Gr. 210) – Bavarian State Library
  39. Minuscule 438 (Add MS 5111) - British Library
  40. Minuscule 439 (Add MS 5107) - British Library
  41. Minuscule 449 (Add MS 4950) - British Library
  42. Minuscule 476 (Arundel MS 524) - British Library
  43. Minuscule 478 (Add MS 11300) - British Library
  44. Minuscule 479 (Codex Wordsworth) – Selly Oak College, Birmingham
  45. Minuscule 490 (Add MS 7141) - British Library
  46. Minuscule 491 (Add MS 11836) – British Library
  47. Minuscule 492 (Add MS 11838) – British Library
  48. Minuscule 497 (Add MS 16943) – British Library
  49. Minuscule 499 (Add MS  17741) – British Library
  50. Minuscule 500 (Add MS 17982) – British Library
  51. Minuscule 504 (Add MS 17470) – British Library
  52. Minuscule 532 – University of Michigan
  53. Minuscule 543 (MS 15) – University of Michigan
  54. Minuscule 556 (Codex Bodmer 25) – Bodmer Library
  55. Minuscule 560 (Ms. Hunter 475) - Glasgow University Library
  56. Minuscule 561 (Ms. Hunter 476) - Glasgow University Library
  57. Minuscule 652 – Bavarian State Library
  58. Minuscule 677 (Ms. 232) - University of Chicago Library
  59. Minuscule 682 – Scriptorium (VK 905), Orlando, Florida
  60. Minuscule 686 (Add MS 5468) - British Library
  61. Minuscule 687 (Add MS 11868B) – British Library
  62. Minuscule 688 (Add MS 22736) – British Library
  63. Minuscule 1152 (Ms. 129) – University of Chicago Library
  64. Minuscule 1424 (Gruber 152) – Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago
  65. Minuscule 2322 (HRC 24) – University of Texas
  66. Minuscule 2400 (Ms. 965) - University of Chicago Library
  67. Minuscule 2407 (Ms. 136) – University of Chicago Library
  68. Minuscule 2561 (MS. 44) – Benaki Museum, Athens
  69. Ƿ1 (Papyrus 1 / P. Oxy. 2) ✓
  70. Ƿ96 (Papyrus 96 / Pap. K. 7244) ✓
  71. Ƿ101 (Papyrus 101 / P. Oxy. 4401) ✓
  72. Ƿ102 (Papyrus 102 / P. Oxy. 4402) ✓
  73. Ƿ103 (Papyrus 103 / P. Oxy. 4403) ✓
  74. Ƿ110 (Papyrus 110 / P. Oxy. 4494) ✓

More…

Early Versions of the New Testament

  1. Peshitta
  2. Old Latin (a, f, q,  ff2)
  3. Vulgate
  4. Codex Curetonianus Syriacus
  5. Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus
  6. Philoxenian

Early Church Fathers

  1. Irenaeus (c. 202 AD) – see Matt 5:18
  2. Clement of Alexandria (c.150 – 215 AD) – see Matt 5:8
  3. Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235 AD) – see Matt 12:42
  4. Origen (c. 184 – 253 AD) – see Matt 5:4
  5. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263 – 339 AD) – see Matt 3:16
  6. Athanasius (c. 296 – 373 AD) - see Matt 5:8
  7. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – 395 AD) – see Matt 11:10
  8. John Chrysostom  (c. 347 – 407 AD) – see Matt 10:28
  9. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 – 444 AD) – see Matt 10:8

Printed Editions of the Greek New Testament Available

  1. Novum Instrumentum omne – Desiderius Erasmus (1516)
  2. Editio Regia – Robertus Stephanus (Robert I Estienne) (1550)
  3.  Novum Testamentum Graecum, cum lectionibus variantibus MSS - John Mill (1707)
  4. The Greek New Testament – Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1857)
  5.  Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior : 2 vols. - Constantin von Tischendorf (1869 & 1872)
  6. The New Testament in the Original Greek - Brooke Foss Westcott & Fenton John Anthony Hort (1881)
  7. Die Schriften des neuen Testaments, in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt / hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte: 4 vols. –  Hermann von Soden (Berlin: Glaue, 1902-1910)
  8. Many more… (see Matt 1:1)

The Original Text of the New Testament

The Greek New Testament was first printed in 1514 by Francisco Ximenes, and first published (for sale) in 1516 by Desiderius Erasmus. But before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440, books had to be copied by hand. As careful as copyists may be, when a book is copied by hand over a thousand years, mistakes are bound to happen. The New Testament is no exception to this rule. For that reason, the primary goal of Greek New Testament Dot Net’s textual research is the recovery of the original text of the New Testament. It is the purpose of this project to collate as many manuscripts as possible and to ascertain from the divergent copies which form of the text should be regarded as the original. Our purpose is to mark every variation found in all manuscripts, whether large or small, and to that purpose we have faithfully adhered.

I am confronted with a sacred task, the struggle to regain the original form of the New Testament.
(Lobegott Friedrich Constantin von Tischendorf, 1815-1874)

Sample Pages From The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 1 Matthew 8 Matthew 15 Matthew 22
Matthew 2 Matthew 9 Matthew 16 Matthew 23
Matthew 3  Matthew 10 Matthew 17 Matthew 24
Matthew 4 Matthew 11 Matthew 18 Matthew 25
Matthew 5 Matthew 12 Matthew 19 Matthew 26
Matthew 6 Matthew 13 Matthew 20 Matthew 27
Matthew 7 Matthew 14 Matthew 21 Matthew 28

Introduction To Greek New Testament Dot Net

An introduction and guide to this online edition of Greek New Testament will be provided once this project is completed. PDF and XML versions of the text will also be made available for download.

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We have spent a lot of time collating the New Testament manuscripts and making them available online for free. If you derive some benefits from this website, please consider supporting us in a more tangible way.

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