Western Text-type - Witnesses

Witnesses

Sign Name Date Content
37 Papyrus 37 ca. 300 fragment of Matt 26
38 Papyrus Michigan c. 300 fragment of Acts
48 Papyrus 48 3rd fragment of Acts 23
69 Oxyrhynchus XXIV 3rd fragment of Luke 22
0171 4th fragments Matt and Luke
(01) ﬡ {Codex Sinaiticus} 4th John 1:1–8:38
Dea (04) Codex Bezae c. 400 Gospels and Acts
W (032) Codex Washingtonianus 5th Mark 1:1–5:30
Dp (05) Codex Claromontanus 6th Acts, CE, and Pauline Epistles
Fp (010) Codex Augiensis 9th Pauline Epistles
Gp (012) Codex Boernerianus 9th Pauline Epistles

Other manuscripts: 25, 29 (?), 41, 066, 0177, 36, 88, 181 (Pauline epistles), 255, 257, 338, 383 (Acts), 440 (Acts), 614 (Acts), 913, 915, 917, 1108, 1245, 1518, 1611, 1739, 1836, 1874, 1898, 1912, 2138, 2298, 2412 (Acts).

Compared to the Byzantine text-type distinctive Western readings in the Gospels are more likely to be abrupt in their Greek expression. Compared to the Alexandrian text-type distinctive Western readings in the Gospels are more likely display glosses, additional details, and instances where the original passages appear to be replaced with longer paraphrases. In distinction from both Alexandrian and Byzantine texts, the Western text-type consistently omits a series of eight short phrases from verses in the Gospel of Luke; the so-called Western non-interpolations. In at least two Western texts, the Gospels appear in a variant order: Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. The Western text of the Epistles of Paul - as witnessed in the Codex Claromontanus and uncials F and G - does not share the periphrastic tendencies of the Western text in the Gospels and Acts, and it is not clear whether they should be considered to share a single text-type.

Although the Western text-type survives in relatively few witnesses, some of these are every bit as early as the earliest witnesses to the Alexandrian text type. Nevertheless, the majority of text critics consider the Western text in the Gospels to be characterised by periphrasis and expansion; and accordingly tend to prefer the Alexandrian readings. In the letters of St Paul, the counterpart Western text is more restrained, and a number of text critics regard it as the most reliable witness to the original.

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Famous quotes containing the word witnesses:

    You are witnesses of these things.
    Bible: New Testament, Luke 24:48.

    Resurrected Jesus to his disciples.

    The writer isn’t made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.
    —E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)

    My tendency to nervousness in my younger days, in view of the fact of a number of near relatives on both my father’s and mother’s side of the house having become insane, gave some serious uneasiness. I made up my mind to overcome it.... In the cross-examination of witnesses before a crowded court-house ... I soon found I could control myself even in the worst of testing cases. Finally, in battle.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)