Canter Bridge

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The 27th edition of the Greek New Testament text in a critical edition is one of two standard presentations of the Greek text used by scholars. The other is published by the United Bible Societies. Think of them as Windows and Macintosh. Both do the same job and do it well, but they use different techniques to achieve their goals. Publishing New Testament scholars use both critical editions.

Among the scholarly guild, every new edition (this is, of course, the 27th) of ‘Nestle-Aland‘ or ‘NA‘ is greeted with an outpouring of precious funds from professorial book budgets around the world. I remember the move from 26 to 27 like a flock of migrating birds. Usuallly the changes are few and tend to be corrections in lists of manuscripts cited by the ‘apparatus’ at the bottom of each page. Still, when you’re working with a text considered sacred by millions of Christians—not to mention your scholarly colleagues who pour over every publication—you can’t but use the latest edition.

The Deutsche Bibelgeselschaft always brings out Nestle-Aland in superb binding that is built to last. Still, I remember with awe the day my college Greek professor loaned out his pile of ‘wornout’ Greek New Testaments. I’ve since worn out a few myself.

An introduction in both German and English introduces the reader to the sigla one needs to understand in order to use this book adequately. After that the biblical text follows. NA presents what scholars call an ‘eclectic text’. That is, all extant manuscripts are scoured for the various readings of every syllable, word, and phrase they might present. Text critics then utilize a mixture of art and science to suggest the ‘best’ reading, which—in spite of much scholarly ferment over the matter—usually means the reading that approximates to the ‘original’. The original manuscripts of the Bible no longer exist. In the New Testament the existing variants to not bring into question any real dogma of Christian faith, conspiracy theories to the contrary. Still, they are of utmost importance for the close reading and understanding of the text, to say nothing of the teaching and preaching that emanate from it.

If you’re a university or seminary student in an institution where you are required to or choose to learn Greek —shame on you if you have the opportunity and don’t seize it!—you’ll likely end up buying ‘NA27‘ or ‘UBS4‘.

Computers have cut away a bit at the need to own this expensive text in printed form. But middle-aged codgers like me who’ve worn a few out and use our computers for what they do best still can’t imagine lingering over the New Testament without holding ‘NA‘ or ‘UBS‘ in reverent hands.