Since exegesis must go hand-in-hand with textual criticism, the student of the interpretation of the New Testament needs to have some acquaintance with both the materials for the establishment of the text of the New Testament, and the principles governing their use for that purpose. The present note is designed as an introduction to the subject for beginners in the art of textual criticism, so far as it is concerned with the Pauline Epistles. A good popular account is contained in Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts by Sir Frederic Kenyon (4th ed., 1939): for more advanced study the same author's The Textual Criticism of the New Testament (Macmillan) may be recommended, and A. H. McNeill and C. S. C. Williams' Introduction to the N.T. (Oxford, 1953); and, for a full discussion of the textual criticism of the Pauline Epistles, The Text of the Epistles by G. Zuntz (Schweich Lectures for 1946, Oxford University Press).

MATERIALS

The materials for the establishment of the text of the Pauline Epistles consist of (a) Greek manuscripts; (b) ancient translations; (c) quotations in the writings of early Christian authors.

(a) Manuscripts are either on papyrus or vellum. Of the papyri, the most important is p48 (the Chester Beatty Papyrus), which was written about a.d. 200, and contains (with some omissions due to imperfections in the papyrus, chiefly in Romans and I Thessalonians) Romans, Hebrews, I and II Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians in that order.