Omanson

Question 1

Papyrus

Answer 1

used for the earliest manuscripts;

a material made from the pith of the papyrus plant that was cut into thin strips and pressed together to form pages for writing

Question 2

Parchment

Answer 2

a material made from animal skins; used beginning around the 4th century.

Question 3

Uncials

Answer 3

Manuscripts written using capital script

Written without separation between words and sentences (scriptio continua)

Question 4

Minuscules

Answer 4

Manuscripts written using small, cursive script

Question 5

Text Types

Answer 5

manuscripts which consistently agree by having the same variant reading in passages where manuscripts have two or more variant readings

Question 6

Alexandrian Text

Answer 6

Considered to be the most faithful in preserving the original; may go back to the early 2nd century

Does not show the degree of grammatical and stylistic polishing characteristic of the Byzantine text

Important witnesses include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus

Question 7

Western Text

Answer 7

Can be traced back to the 2nd century

Chief characteristic is fondness for paraphrase

Question 8

Byzantine Text

Answer 8

Also called the Majority text; sometimes called the A-text (Codex Alexandrinus)

Is considered to be the latest of the distinctive text types and is characterized by stylistic clarity and completeness

Question 9

First three rules of transcriptional probability

Answer 9

The more difficult reading is to be preferred (more difficult to the copyist)

The shorter reading is to be preferred

In parallel passages that reading which involve verbal differences is usually to be preferred to one which agrees in wording

Question 10

What external criteria is used to choose between variant readings?

Answer 10

The date and character of the witnesses

The geographic distribution of the witnesses that support a variant

The genealogical relationship of texts and families of manuscripts