The preparation of this present work has been greatly facilitated by the excellent textual studies of the Ape. published during this century, making it the most thoroughly studied NT book, from the viewpoint of text.

Survey of twentieth-century developments

The commentaries of Bousset and Allo are rich in textual references; both however were superseded by the commentary of R.H. Charles, who in vol. II included the Greek text of the Ape. with extensive critical apparatus. Latin sources, meanwhile, were carefully presented by H.J. Vogels. These works, in their turn were superseded by the masterly apparatus prepared by H.C. Hoskier representing thirty years of labour collating and recording in toto the variants found in every Greek manuscript of the Ape. known in his day, plus a comprehensive treatment of the ancient versions. While today some doubt is expressed about the accuracy of his citations of some versions, his careful work on the Greek text is definitive and irreplaceable.

The Greek material presented in Hoskier's apparatus has been studied and carefully analysed by J. Schmid of Munich, who has aimed at determining manuscript families and the allegiance of the Fathers. In his major work his task is sixfold: (1) accurately to define the two medieval forms of the text of the Ape.