The Identity of the New Testament Text

Revised edition

The fundamental difference between the many English trans lations of the New Testament in recent years and the King James Version of 1611 is the Greek text used for the translating Virtually every one of the newer translations has been made from a Greek text based on principles developed by B. F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort. The King James Version, however, was translated from the Textus Receptus, which is in the Byzan tine tradition.

In opposition to the popular stream of modem scholarship, Pickering examines the Westcott and Hort critical theory and finds it erroneous on many counts. He establishes seven prin-ciples for determining the identity of the New Testament text. antiquity, consent of witnesses, variety of evidence, continuity, respectability of witnesses, evidence of the entire passage, and internal considerations.

The importance of this book comes with the serious ques-tions it raises about the validity of the textual biases that have undergirded most New Testament translation work in the last one hundred years. Pickering issues a strong challenge for re-sponsible scholarship in studying the New Testament manu scripts without the erroneous preconceptions of the Westcott and Hort textual theory.

This revised edition contains significant additional evidence that further advances the author's case.

"The most formidable defense of the priority of the Byzantine text yet published in our day."

-The King James Version Deliate by D. A. Carson

"It is not often that one reads a book which reorients one's whole approach to a subject, but that is what this has done for me."

-John Wenham in the Evangelical Quarterly

"Pickering has done us a service in calling attention to Hortian fallacies."

-Alfred Martin, Moody Bible Institute