Why You Should Read a Book about Greek Texts

An Introduction to the Greek New Testament Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge. Wheaton, IL: Crossway , 2019.

Reviewed by Brent Niedergall

Solomon said, “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” (Eccl. 12.12)

In our world of almost universal education (the Western world), who has no experience with this weariness? Yet we keep turning to new books every day, one way or another. The book we are reviewing today is a book about a book. The book it is about is a new Greek New Testament. But wait! Don’t let your eyes glaze over just yet. The book we are reviewing is in English, so there is that. The topic of our book is something that touches right at the heart of every Christian, the source of our faith, our Bibles.

So… why should we care about a newly issued Greek New Testament and how it came about?

When I say newly issued Greek New Testament, it might surprise you how many various editions there are. Let me list some of the big ones to make my point. They’ve been churning out editions of the Nestle-Aland for years; there are five editions of the United Bible Society text, then there’s the Byzantine Textform of Robinson-Pierpont, the SBLGNT edited by Michael W. Holmes, and the various editions of the Textus Receptus. And there are plenty of other options too, which are either lesser-known or lesser-used. My point is, there are lots of options.

The newest option on the scene is the Greek New Testament, Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge (abbreviated THGNT). Yet another option! Why do we need another edition of the Greek New Testament? Dirk Jongkind aims to answer the question in this highly readable little book. He not only does that, but he also equips readers to make full use of this new edition while simultaneously explaining the basics of textual criticism in its methodology and theology. He does all of this in just 124 pages. It’s short and engaging. Here’s a summary of each chapter followed by a final comment.

1. Your Greek New Testament and the Manuscripts

Here Jongkind defends the reliability of the New Testament text and the doctrine of verbal inspiration. He labels textual criticism, “a discipline of approximation” (23). I like that. As to why we need another edition, the answer is fairly straightforward. There are lots of variant readings (an estimated 500,000 according to the stat in this book) and someone has to choose which variant is the right reading.

2. Practicalities

If you are familiar with Greek New Testaments, you don’t need this book to use the THGNT. The text is the most important part and the other features will be clear to anyone who has read other editions before. This chapter explains how the textual apparatus works. It also explains some unusual features like a different ordering of the New Testament books, an atypical presentation of paragraphing, and some spelling differences readers may be unaccustomed to.

Those who don’t read Greek may find this discussion to be so technical as to be of little benefit. There are hidden gems, but you will need to dig for them. Feel free to skip this chapter if you don’t read Greek.

3. Manuscripts

When it comes to manuscripts, the text critic has papyri, majuscules, minuscules, lectionaries, patristic citations, and ancient versions to consider. The THGNT limits its scope to only Greek manuscripts and specifically only papyri, majuscules from the fifth century and earlier, and a selection of later manuscripts that either add support or represent important variations. This chapter explains the reasons for the selections made.

4. How Decisions Are Made

The reason for an edition of the Greek New Testament is because someone has to make the call about which words to print. For most of the New Testament, variants are not an issue. This chapter explains how the editors of the THGNT made their decisions. The four major factors driving their decisions were the distribution of manuscript evidence, knowledge of the characteristics of individual manuscripts, knowledge of how we can sort manuscripts into groups by similarity, and knowledge of how scribes copied the text.

5. Why Not the Textus Receptus?

Why not? Three reasons and I’ll just quote them. 1. “There is no divine confirmation that the text as printed by Erasmus and those immediately after him was the restored (or perhaps intended) shape of the text that the apostles had delivered to the church.” 2. “Since the Christian faith is rooted in historical events, we should start our discussion of textual preservation not with what we think God should have done but with what God has done.” 3. “Not even the Textus Receptus is a fixed entity; one edition differs from the other” (90). Clear and compelling, this chapter is worth the cost of the book alone. You have to read the last sentence of the chapter for yourself. It’s good stuff.

6. Why Not the Byzantine Text?

This is another good question to ask. This chapter graciously summarizes the position of Byzantine priority and then argues that it’s best to take a case-by-case approach, largely because there is no support for the Byzantine text yet discovered from the early centuries. A comparison between the Byzantine text and majuscules from the fourth century seem to reveal evidence of harmonization and liturgical influence in the Byzantine tradition.

7. Biblical Theology and the Transmission of the Text

Can you think of any other books of New Testament textual criticism that delve into theology? Here Jongkind asks, “What can we learn about God and about Scripture, assuming that God allowed variation to happen?” That’s a great question. His three answers are great too. He also builds a case I had never thought about before. He says God ordained the temple to preserve the Old Testament text and that there was no comparable institution for the New Testament. What this means for textual criticism is that the reality of variants corresponds to the decentralized nature of God’s people.

8. Where to Go from Here?

The raison d’être for this book is to give confidence to readers of the Greek New Testament. Reading God’s Word is a privilege and a blessing. If you can read it in Greek, the blessing is even more so.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve never read a book on textual criticism before, this is the place to start. The book is simple and clear, the author defines all the terms for you. He also translates most Greek texts into English. There are plenty of examples of what textual criticism involves and why it’s so important. Jongkind presents it in a balanced and biblical manner. This book is worth reading no matter which edition of the Greek New Testament you plan to read. Really, this is a book worth reading whether you can even read Greek or not. There are lots of options when it comes to books to read. This is a good option.

Brent Niedergall is youth pastor at Catawba Springs Christian Church in Apex, North Carolina. He holds an MDiv from Shepherds Theological Seminary and is pursuing a DMin from Maranatha Baptist Seminary.