Novum Testamentum Graece

Novum Testamentum Grace (Latin: "New Testament - Greek " ) is since Erasmus of Rotterdam title of original -language editions of the New Testament, the most traditional Greek text directly ( Textus Receptus ) and / or Greek manuscripts orient.

In more recent times is meant by this title in particular a scholarly edition of the text of the New Testament. This critical edition ( currently in the 28th edition ) is managed by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. It is named after its first editors also known under the name " Nestle -Aland " (NA).

History

The first edition of Novum Testamentum Grace put the German theologian and orientalist Eberhard Nestle ago in 1898. The issue pursued the goal of the then-new scientific text editions of Tischendorf, Westcott / Hort and Weymouth together. The text was constituted respectively by the majority of the three issues (from the 3rd edition Weymouth was Bernhard Weiss replaced). Thus the importance of the hitherto prevailing Textus Receptus began to wane. Nestle already used a text apparatus which recorded the expenditure text used by him.

His son Erwin Nestle then developed in the 13th edition of 1927, the foundations of the text apparatus still in use. There, the readings of the manuscripts, translations, and antique reference points were placed themselves in the spotlight, especially for the first time. From the 17th edition he also began to deviate and change, based on new knowledge, be approved by the purely mechanical majority text of the three issues mentioned above.

With the 21st edition of 1952 Kurt Aland edition of the employees was. Here, the apparatus has been thoroughly checked against the original manuscripts. Above all, since 1930 the newly found papyri from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were included.

With the 26th edition of 1979, the text of the Novum Testamentum Grace is identical to the text edition of the Greek New Testament. It provides the much larger apparatus and differs in paragraph structure, spelling and punctuation. Both editions are now managed by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster. In the 26th edition has been redesigned by Kurt Aland and the still valid form of text and apparatus. The 27th edition retained the text of the 26th edition at, but extended the apparatus, the 28th edition changed the text to 30 points in the Catholic Epistles.

Text -critical method

The texts of the New Testament have been handed in over 5000 Greek manuscripts. None of them is the autograph of a New Testament Scripture. In a centuries -long Tradierungsprozess to the ongoing Copy text variants ( so-called interpretations ) have shown that some go back to writing, listening or understanding errors, and partly constitute deliberate changes, because the copyists the template (no longer) course, or he with the form of the text was not in agreement ( revision or review ). Such readings may reflect the tradition of interpretation of a particular region or time and are, therefore, not only for the text scholars and exegetes, but also for historians of great importance. In addition to manuscripts in Greek are also old translations, especially into Latin, Coptic and Syriac to the important sources of the New Testament textual tradition.

These manuscripts are the starting point of all employment with the New Testament and are today the basis of any translation into modern languages ​​. The Novum Testamentum Grace is a reconstruction of the Greek text of the New Testament on the basis of text-critical decisions about the value of a manuscript to the question text. The respective readings are first collected for the reconstruction ( collation ) and grouped, and then evaluated according to different criteria. These criteria include:

• The age of the manuscript,
• The testimony in many manuscripts,
• The testimony in independent manuscripts,
• The shorter reading ( lectio brevior ) takes precedence over the more detailed,
• The reading is independent of parallel passages,
• The more difficult reading ( lectio difficilior ) takes precedence over the simpler,
• Is the text in the style and language of the context and the idiosyncrasies of the author.
• The most original version is the one that can best explain the origin of all other readings.

The Novum Testamentum Grace as a result of this evaluation in the main text provides the reconstruction of the Greek text and in an extensive apparatus information on the textual evidence for the chosen and alternative readings. This method returns the scientifically oriented reader of the text or the translator with the tools for a reenactment of the reconstruction and, where appropriate, a deviating defensible decision on his preferred form of the text.

With this form of methodology and presentation, the Novum Testamentum Grace fundamentally different receptus from other text editions of the New Testament, such as the Textus and the majority text, deriving their text form from a particular textual tradition, without whose conditions and growth of this figure in detail documented.

The main sources of the Novum Testamentum Grace are called by the editors because of their age and their importance as permanent witnesses. These mainly include the following manuscripts in Greek:

• The papyri P45, P66 and P75 (2nd -3rd century )
• Codex Sinaiticus ( ℵ, 4th Century )
• The Codex Vaticanus (B, 4th Century )
• Codex Bezae (also called Codex Cantabrigiensis, D, 5th or 6th century )

Except for the Codex Vaticanus (since 1475 in the Vatican ) and the Codex Bezae mentioned manuscripts have been only retrieved in the 19th or 20th century and therefore offer today a since the New Testament beginnings no longer unprecedented quality of text traditions that the since 26th edition of Novum Testamentum also the Grace underlie.

Language of the New Testament

Although the ministry of Jesus and his disciples has first taken place in the Aramaic -speaking countries, the 27 books of the New Testament are written exclusively in Greek. The language of the New Testament is the so-called Koine Greek, which differs by simpler forms of classical Greek. The Koinégriechisch was that language that held as a general lingua franca the diversity of peoples and languages ​​of Asia Minor and Palestine in the time of Caesar and Octavian. It was later the official language of the Byzantine Empire and was gradually pushed back from the early Middle Ages during the Ottoman conquests.

Since there are 27 individual writings from very different historical, regional, sociological and religious contexts in the New Testament, great linguistic differences can be observed. The Greek of Mark or Matthew, which closely follows the Aramaic language world is kept very simple and plain. Of these, the good Greek of Paul's letters, or pseudo- Pauline letters lifts (eg the so-called Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians ) significantly. Almost philosophically is the reflexive language of John's Gospel, which still has many structural echoes of the Hebrew. The way from the simple language of the Gospels, to more complex forms of language is characterized by a unique way how the message of Jesus of Nazareth has made ​​its way from the Aramaic to the Greek language and imagination.

Content

The Novum Testamentum Grace contains bibelkundlich the selection of books, as they were held binding in the Christian churches in the New Testament canon.