The Apparatus

The apparatus is not a critical one, that is, it is not designed to provide manuscript evidence for the readings in the main text and the alternative readings in the apparatus. Instead, it is comparative and provides alternative readings from the nine critical texts used in constructing the text and seven others. Regardless of which these critical texts one may have a preference for, the Common Text and its apparatus allows the reader to compare its readings with the others at a glance. The texts are noted in the apparatus in the following order and by these designations:

AS - Souter (1947)

BW - Weiss (1894)

CT - Tischendorf (1869)

GR - Griesbach (1806)

HV - Vogels (1949)

MT - Majority Text (Robinson & Pierpont 1991)

MT^H (Hodges & Farstad 1985)

NA - Nestle-Aland (27th edition 1993/UBS4)

NA^B (25th edition 1963)

NA³ (Nestle-Aland 26 1975/UBS3)

NA² (UBS2 1968)

NA¹ (UBS1 1966)

TR - Textus Receptus (Stephanus 1550)

TR^E (Elzevir 1624)

TR^S (Scrivener 1902)

WH - Westcott & Hort (1881)

The Apparatus Index can be displayed in a separate window.

Alternate readings are marked in the text by placing those words in [brackets] with a footnote number that corresponds to the verse number where the variant occurs. This number corresponds to the number in the apparatus. If there are two or more alternate readings in a single verse then both will be marked with [brackets] but only the first is numbered as follows:

The items are separated in the apparatus by | and appear as:

When words are inserted by one or more authority the place in the text is marked [*]¹⁰ and appears in the apparatus as:

When words are omitted by one or more authority the text is marked

and appears in the apparatus as:

Quotations from the Old Testament are printed in the text in italics and their references noted in the apparatus:

If no critical text is indicated for an alternate reading then the source is the same as the previous one:

When two or more alternate readings are given in the apparatus for the same portion of text they are separated by commas:

An alternate reading within an alternate reading is indicated in the apparatus by parentheses and its authority is cited after the main variant:

When an alternate reading appears in the apparatus and its secondary edition (MT^H, NA^B, TR^E, etc) agrees with the main text the reading of the secondary edition is noted in the apparatus by [txt] and appears as:

When an alternate reading occurs more than once in the same verse each occurrence will be marked in [brackets]. The first occurrence will be fully annotated in the apparatus and the second will simply be noted as "ditto." Re-occurrences of the same reading later in the chapter will not be marked in the text but will be noted in the apparatus at the first occurrence. These will appear in the apparatus as:

There are some alternate readings which do not appear in the apparatus. These are those which involve the use of the final Nu and Sigma with the third person singular, third person plural and so forth. These occur so frequently and the present text follows the practice the Nestle-Aland text without reference.