How Do We Determine The Original Wording?

When the minority of the early mss. disagree with the majority, most of us in the Majority Text Society believe that the original wording of the NT is found in this majority. We do so for good reasons.

Weaknesses of the Minority Text

Advocates defend the minority text because the mss. that contain it are closer in time to the originals. But is a ms. better simply because it's older?

There are a number of reasons for rejecting these early mss. the minority text never circulated widely within the Church. It virtually disappeared after the fourth century with a few ms. descendants.

These few early mss. not only disagree with the M-text, they also disagree significantly among themselves. Current Gr. texts based on this minority often print words and phrases based on only one or two mss. In dozens of places they have produced a patchwork quilt -- a text not found as such in any known copy!

Strengths of the Majority Text

By contrast, the M-Text has had wide circulation and use throughout Church history. It is the type of text that has always been used in Gr. speaking Orthodox churches.

This circulation was especially strong in those very areas of the Roman Empire where the NT books first arrived and where the Church flourished, such as Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Colosse, and other places that became the Byzantine Empire.

Critics of the M-text point out that it has few early copies. But this is exactly what is to be expected if its copies were constantly worn out and replaced. Ironically, the minority text may have survived because it was seldom used and happened to circulate in the dry climate of Egypt, where it was more easily preserved. Besides, early papyri have now demonstrated that many M-text readings existed as early as minority ones.

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