DESPITE PERSISTENT AND OFTEN HEATED

D discussions about the validity of biblical criticism and its effect on Christian faith, many Christians know little about the background of the New Testament. How were the books of the Bible originally writ-ten? How did they come down to us through the centuries? How do we account for differences among the ancient manu-scripts and among the modern translations based on them? In this book J. Harold Greenlee addresses these and related questions to introduce the student and lay reader to New Testament textual criticism.

Among the topics he considers are the methods and tools employed in producing ancient manuscripts; the history of the biblical text, the basic principles of textual criticism and how they are applied, and the effect of textual criticism on our understanding of the Bible.

"The most important thing," writes Greenlee, "is to believe and obey the New Testament, not merely to know the story of its origin. Yet the lack of acquaintance with the history of the New Testament as we have it today has led to misunderstanding and confusion." This book will go a long way toward clearing up that confusion, and Greenlee's balanced treatment will help to allay the suspicion with which many evangelicals regard textual criticism.