Page 303 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

THE NEW TESTAMENT: AUTHORSHIP AND CORRUPTION 283

longer bore strict resemblance to the works which had been originally
authored, so that any scribe duplicating a parchment with great fidelity
was not necessarily creating an accurate reproduction of the original. 20
Additionally, "the early Christians did not necessarily treat the NT text
as a 'sacred' text'',21 one whose every letter was fixed and holy. They may
have felt themselves inspired, on occasion, to make alterations to the parch-
ment that lay before them.i"
Regardless of whether they considered themselves inspired or not, all
scribal interpolations must be recognised as corruption.

i. The Creation of Different Text Types

Scholars believe that the level of divergence (or corruption) within the NT
text reached its pinnacle towards the end of the second century C.E. Each
of the principal centres within the early church established its own textual
variations in the NT, differing from the text found in other localities. Aca-
demics have categorised these divergent texts into four major text types:

1. TheAlexandrian Text
The scribes in Alexandria generally shied away from changing the
substance of the text, preferring instead to make grammatical and
stylistic modifications. Their manuscripts are considered fairly accu-
rate in meaning.P

2. The VVestern Text
The 'Western' form, hailing from North Africa and Italy, was un-
checked and popular. It suffered numerous interpolations at the
hands of scribes who, forsaking accuracy, enriched the text using
traditional and even non-biblical material. 24

3. The Caesarean Text
This text type was a compromise between the previous two, following
the Alexandrian in substance while keeping any Western variants
that did not seem too implausible."

20 ibid, p. 7.
21 ibid, p. 6.
22 ibid, p. 6.
23 ibid, p. 12.
24 ibid, p. 13.
25 Metzger, P: 215.