What is the Majority Text?

If you want to be sure that your printed copy of the U.S. Constitution is perfectly accurate, you can compare yours with the original, hand-written document at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. However, when it comes to the New Testament (NT), all its original manuscripts (mss.) -- penned by Peter, Paul, and other apostles in the first century -- have disappeared.

Almost all copies made from these originals during the early centuries were worn out, destroyed in the Roman persecution, or lost. The earliest known copy of any part of the NT is Papyrus (P) 52. This 2.5 by 3.5 inch fragment is usually dated about A.D. 125 and contains John 18:31-33, 37-38.

In all there are over 5,000 mss. of the Greek (Gr.) NT which survive today. This is far greater then the number of mss. for any other ancient document.

Among these thousands of Greek mss., about eighty-five percent agree among themselves to such a great extent that they might be called a "Majority Text" (M-text). The remaining fifteen percent represent mss. and groups of mss. that differ significantly from the M-text and may be described as "minority" forms of the text.

The most widely read translation in history, the King James Version (KJV), is based on the Textus Receptus (TR), a close cousin of the M-text.

The closest representation of the M-text in print is The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2nd ed., 1985). The only translation with footnotes showing M-text readings is the New King James Version (NKJV, Also by Thomas Nelson, 1985).

 

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