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| Erasmus started the Reformation wagon rolling down the hill - and jumped off. He is considered one of the great literary scholars of history. |
Erasmus, the almost Protestant genius who prepared Europe for the Reformation, edited the Greek New Testament everyone used. Once that was printed, it unleashed a storm of Greek learning and New Testament study. That is called the Majority Text, the Textus Receptus, the Byzantine Text, and the Traditional Text.
When Hort was loathing the Traditional Text behind the King James Version, the rationalists were assuming that a shorter version of a Biblical book or verse was the earliest one, with additions made later to fill out (and change!) the meaning. Wescott and Hort even took "the Son of God" out of Mark 1:1, with no explanation. I noticed that omission when I bought my first Greek New Testament at The Sources bookstore, about 1966. I have another copy of W-H now, with the same "correction."
As I wrote earlier, the 19th century liberals thought of Jesus as a good teacher who became the Son of God in the eyes of His followers. The apostates also thought Mark was the earliest Gospel because it was the shortest one. Do you remember your children's birth date by their height and weight?
Codex Alexandrinus - A - was given to King Charles I of England.
Tischendorf sought to make a name for himself in ancient artifacts. He revealed the writing underneath in
Codex Ephraim Rescriptus - C
He found the rumored
Codex Sinaiticus - Aleph -
and told some tall tales about that.
He got to see Codex Vaticanus - B - wrote a little about it and died.
Therefore, the Four Great Uncials (large volumes with large print) are -
- Aleph
- Alexandrinus
- Vaticanus
- Ephraim Recriptus
and three of them are associated with Tischendorf! That record is like finding the Vinland Map, the Piltdown Man, and the Lost Dutchman's Goldmine - all in the same swashbuckling career. Yale says the Vinland Map has 20th century ink, so I am guessing the map is a genuine fake.
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| The Majority Text is found in 90-95% of the manuscript evidence. The modern New Testaments are fashioned from snips and patches from the 5 - 10%. |
Those uncials listed above have no dates on them, and their histories are vague and uncertain. There is hardly any evidence for those abbreviated passages loved by liberals. It thought that they largely came from Egypt where Christianity was not strong and heresies were rampant.
The big secret is that the uncials have no children, so they represent 5 - 10% of the evidence.
The hated-by-apostates Majority Text is 90-95% of all the manuscript evidence.
Here is the fun part - these categories are endlessly tossed about, debated, changed, and blessed only when contrary to tradition. As one wit said, Greek text scholarship is not a science, no matter what they claim - it is more like poetry.
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| Tischendorf is a warning label. How did one man connect himself with three of the four great uncial texts? That is truly a marvel, a wonder, a bit of magic - or salesmanship. |
