What is the Greek New Testament?

An Explanation of GNT

There is no document in the history of the world that has so many differing copies or so many numerous copies than the Greek New Testament. Although the Hebrew Old Testament is much older, the Hebrew scribes were much more careful in their transcriptions than the scholars who transcribed the Greek New Testament.

That being said, there are two essential facts to keep in mind regarding the proliferation of Greek manuscripts:

First, though there are many small differences in the varying manuscripts, we can rely on the Greek New Testaments published most recently because although they are further from the originals as far as time is concerned, they are closer to the originals than medieval and renaissance copies due to the scientific methods applied to evaluating the reliability of various manuscripts. In other words, scholars have graded every available manuscript considering its age, location, and divergence from other manuscripts.

Second, though there are many small differences in varying manuscripts, we can rely on our modern Greek New Testaments because the differences do not change meanings in any major way and no doctrines of the Church are called into question by an alternate manuscript.

The Greek text that we use at our church is the Greek New Testament, Fourth Edition by Deutcshe Bibelgesellschaft in 1994. The Editorial Board is Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger.