New Testament Textual Criticism: External Evidence, Internal Evidence and Weighing the Byzantine Text-Type by Tab Malfa 11/15/2022 External Evidence This discussion will examine the text-critical issues of John 5:3-4 and 1 Timothy 6:5. The issues raised in this discussion will be evaluated by the three main guidelines for weighing external evidence: 1. Check the date of the witness and the date of the text-type that it embodies. 2. Check the geographical distribution of the witnesses that endorse a particular variant. 3. Check the geological relationship of the texts and families. The reading supported by multiple text-types is the stronger reading (not necessarily the most manuscripts). 1 Beginning with the first textual variant in John 5:3. The text reads as follows: ἐν ταύταις κατέκειτο πλῆθος τῶν ἀσθενούντων, τυφλῶν, χωλῶν, ξηρῶν . (Among these, were lying down a multitude of sick people: of blind, lame, withered, author’s trans.). The issue in this text is whether or not the words after ξηρῶν are original. The UBS translation committee judged them not to be original and for good reason. The oldest and the best texts do not support them. Papyrus 66 does not contain the words in question. Bruce Metzger dates the manuscript at A.D. 200 and indicates that it is a very important manuscript. 2 Bruce and Barbara Aland also date the text at A.D. 200 and give it a category I rating. 3 The next manuscript that omits the words after ξηρῶν is the Alexandrian text papyri 75. Metzger dates this manuscript A.D. 175 and states that it is the earliest witness to the Gospel of Luke and one of the earliest to the Gospel of John. 4 The Alands date the manuscript in the third century and give it a category I rating. Codex Sinaiticus is next in our list of manuscripts. Most New Testament textual critics give the pride of place to this Alexandrian manuscript. Bruce Metzger states, “Primacy of position in the list of New Testament manuscripts is customarily given to the fourth century codex of the Greek Bible…..Codex Sinaiticus.” 5 And of course, the Alands concur and give it a 1 Stanley Porter, Fundamentals of New Testament Textual Criticism, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015), 104-108. 2 Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of The New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, (Oxford: Oxford University Press1992), 39-50. 3 Category I: “Manuscripts of a very special quality which should always be considered in establishing the original text (e. g. the Alexandrian text belongs here). The papyri and uncials through the third/fourth century also belong here automatically, one may say, because they represent the text of the early period (if they offer no significant evidence they are bracketed)” Bruce & Barbara Aland, The Text of The New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981), 100, 106. 4 Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of The New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 41. 5 Ibid. 42.