The Greek New Testament According To The Majority Text : Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: "Majority Text" is the generic MS family of the KJV N.T.
Review: "Majority Text" identifies the continuous-use family of Greek MSS (i.e. - Koine, Byzantine, Lucian, etc.), represented in 85% to 95% of existing MSS. The Alexandrian (of Egypt; modern NT's) and Western families represent the rest. The KJV translators used the Majority Text family generically, but specifically those MSS of Estienne, Beza, Erasmus, & Polyglott. The "Textus Receptus" was not published until 1633, by Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir, in Leiden.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource with comprehensive critical sigla
Review: For those interested in textual criticism and wanting a different perspective from the Metzger-Aland paradigm, this volume is a good start. While individual MSS are not cited, one can still gain a plethora of information from the textual apparatus, which gives comparisons in regards to the various subgroups of M, the Critcal Text (Nestle-Aland/UBS), the TR, and the Coptic (Alexandrian) witnesses.

Areas for improvement: The critical apparati could use some cosmetic changes to facilitate easier reading. Of added benefit might be an appendix indicating all of the singular readings of the various cited witnesses, and perhaps adding citations from ALL uncials 6th century and before.

The stemmatic reconstruction of Revelation is intriguing, but the benefit to it may be further enhanced by including an appendix of where HF's Revelation disagrees with Robinson-Pierpont.

A very economically priced volume and very portable.

Rating:
Summary: The best Greek New Testament available today.
Review: I learned an eclectic approach to textual criticism at Dallas Seminary. Then, during my doctoral work, I learned about the Majority Text position and became convinced it is correct.

Whether one agrees with the Majority Text theory or not, this is an extremely well laid out Greek New Testament. It is easy to read. The textual apparatus is easy to follow. The fact that it is hardback makes it more durable than UBS or NA.

I highly recommend this book.

Bob Wilkin, Ph.D. Author of

Confident in Christ: Living by Faith Really Works

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Have
Review: I own the second edition of this book, which is apparently currently out of print. I am hoping that a new edition is the works, and so thought I would give a review. This book is a real boon to New Testament scholarship. It is a revival of scholarly lines of thinking that have lost popularity in the last centuries. Since time immemorial, the method of finding out whether a particular Greek manuscript contained an accurate rendering of the originals written by the apostles and their associates was to compare it against the majority of available Greek manuscripts (called 'witnesses' because they testify to what the original might have been). If you have a manuscript that said that Jesus walked on honey and a thousand others that said that he walked on water, then your manuscript is incorrect. The reason for this thinking is two-fold. First, on a mundane level, good quality manuscripts will tend to be used as sources for others, while bad quality manuscripts tend to get thrown by the wayside. The second, spiritual reasoning, is that God providentially preserves his written Word, so God will protect good manuscripts and cause them to be copied reliably. God will let the bad manuscripts fall into obscurity. So this was the thinking of the midieval and reformation scholars. This thinking also created the famous "Textus Receptus" which was used as a basis for the New Testament of the King James Version.

In the last century, European scholarship began to apply critical thinking to how manuscripts were transmitted and came up with some new ideas. They thought completely from a humanistic standpoint, that is, they didn't consider God's role in preservation of scripture at all. In addition, they gave weight to the idea that errors accumulate over time, and therefore older manuscripts are better than newer ones. That is, If you have a manuscript that says Jesus walked on honey, and a thousand others that say he walked on water, but the one that says he walked on honey is older, then it is probably correct, and the others are based on later manuscripts in to which errors have crept over time.

It just so happens that this is the state of New Testament textual criticism. We have thousands of newer manuscripts that tend to resemble each other and a few really old ones that are a little different, and tend to resemble each other.

The most popular Greek texts used by modern scholars are the Novum Testamentum Graece, which is based on the critical method, and the Textus Receptus, which is based on the majority method. Unfortunately, the Receptus is from the 16th century, and has a number of readings that are not majority readings because the compilers of the text had limited information available to them. So it came to pass that anyone 'scholarly' believed in the critical text, and only bumpkin preachers used the Receptus.

Lately, however, the theories used by the critical scholars have come under some serious fire. The critical text scholars proposed a theory for why all the later manuscripts have been 'corrupted', but this theory has never yielded any evidence that would prove it true. Also, some believe that the particular family of older manuscripts used by these scholars might have come from a heretical sect. Though this theory has also not yielded any evidence proving it true, enough doubt has been cast on the situation to warrant new respect for the majority of later texts. Maybe they really are better. So the book that I am reviewing was created as a modern update of the Textus Receptus based on the cutting edge of manuscript knowledge. It is not a perfect text, but it is a good one. I highly recommend that seminary students and Greek New Testament enthusiasts purchase it in addition to the critical text and the Textus Receptus.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding in scholarly research and textual accuracy.
Review: In Christianity there are basically two types of Greek texts used for the many different versions of English Bibles on the market. One is based on the Egyptian manuscripts used by the early Catholic Church which we today get the NIV. The other Greek manuscripts are those called the Majority Text (MT) that the King James Version is based on. You will find the MT to be accurate and its critical notes shows variations between the Egytian and MT. Lacking is notes on punctuation.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but Maurice A. Robinson's book is better
Review: New Testament in the Original Greek : According to the Byzantine-Majority Textform by Maurice A. Robinson is a better choice, because it's better quality both in print quality and in content then "The Greek New Testament According to Majority Text by Arthur L. Farstad (Editor), Zane C. Hodges (Editor)". The book by Robinson binding quality is simply superb and the Greek lettering is easy to read. The author seem to have avoided allowing his own personal believes (what ever they might be) influence his selection of Greek text and has followed a better method then Farstad/Hodges (which used von Soden's method) of deciding what is the majority reading. Therefore the Greek is closer to the Textus Receptus reading which the translators of the King James Version of the Holy Bible used. As much as I like the "Interlinear KJV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English by George Ricker Berry", I have to say I prefer Robinson's book. The reason why is because the book by Berry is very badly printed by Zondervan Publishing House. The Greek text is simply unreadable in places and the typesetting, choice of Greek font and layout (not straight in some places) indicate that they simply don't care about quality, but your money. Probably that's why they are the biggest publisher of that rubbish called NIV.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but Maurice A. Robinson's book is better
Review: New Testament in the Original Greek : According to the Byzantine-Majority Textform by Maurice A. Robinson is a better choice, because it's better quality both in print quality and in content then "The Greek New Testament According to Majority Text by Arthur L. Farstad (Editor), Zane C. Hodges (Editor)". The book by Robinson binding quality is simply superb and the Greek lettering is easy to read. The author seem to have avoided allowing his own personal believes (what ever they might be) influence his selection of Greek text and has followed a better method then Farstad/Hodges (which used von Soden's method) of deciding what is the majority reading. Therefore the Greek is closer to the Textus Receptus reading which the translators of the King James Version of the Holy Bible used. As much as I like the "Interlinear KJV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English by George Ricker Berry", I have to say I prefer Robinson's book. The reason why is because the book by Berry is very badly printed by Zondervan Publishing House. The Greek text is simply unreadable in places and the typesetting, choice of Greek font and layout (not straight in some places) indicate that they simply don't care about quality, but your money. Probably that's why they are the biggest publisher of that rubbish called NIV.

Rating:
Summary: English book names and chapter subtitles a key feature
Review: When I began to study New Testament Greek, I of course needed a good Greek New Testament. The majority text edition not only provided a durable hard cover, a great introduction, the text, and two sets of apparatus to indicate all of the variant readings, but it also had a key feature that helped me to choose it over the other available options - the book names and chapter subtitles (such as "The Rich Young Ruler", etc.) are rendered in English. This feature makes it much faster to to locate specific passages and it increases comprehension. There is no interlinear or sidebar translation, so the reader must still produce his own translation, which is what you want if you are a student. But since getting to the right place can be half the battle, this edition is a great time saver.

Rating:
Summary: English book names and chapter subtitles a key feature
Review: When I began to study New Testament Greek, I of course needed a good Greek New Testament. The majority text edition not only provided a durable hard cover, a great introduction, the text, and two sets of apparatus to indicate all of the variant readings, but it also had a key feature that helped me to choose it over the other available options - the book names and chapter subtitles (such as "The Rich Young Ruler", etc.) are rendered in English. This feature makes it much faster to to locate specific passages and it increases comprehension. There is no interlinear or sidebar translation, so the reader must still produce his own translation, which is what you want if you are a student. But since getting to the right place can be half the battle, this edition is a great time saver.