1When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3They were saying among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4for it was very big. Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back.
5Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. 6He said to them, “Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him! 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.’”
8They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.
9Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they disbelieved.
12After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them as they walked, on their way into the country. 13They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.
14Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table; and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen. 15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation. 16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. 17These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; 18they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
New Testament textual criticism is the discipline in which the wording of the original text is determined. It is needed because the originals have turned to dust long ago and no two manuscripts are exactly alike. The word “criticism” in this context is not a subjective term, as if these scholars are personally critical. Rather, it means research.
New Testament textual critics examine two kinds of evidence when making decisions about the authenticity of a given text. External evidence is the hard data—manuscripts, ancient translations (or versions), and writings by church fathers (the bishops, priests, and scholars of the ancient church). All of this is compared to see if it can be determined which variants came from which and especially when each arose. Internal evidence is the soft data—what the author would be likely to have written and how the ancient scribes (or copyists) would be likely to have corrupted the text. The author’s writings are examined for their theology, coherence, style, and context. The scribe’s writings are examined via the manuscripts. No two manuscripts are exactly alike, so it is logical to assume that scribes along the way corrupted the text. Most of the corruptions are unintentional, involving spelling errors, transposition of words and letters, omissions, additions, errors due to hearing or sight or fatigue. But sometimes scribes also made intentional changes, often assuming that the manuscript they were copying had mistakes. So, even though internal evidence is an examination of the soft data, it cannot be ignored.
Textual criticism cannot be done by counting manuscripts. It is the weight of the manuscripts, not their number that is important. One axiom is always kept front and center when looking at external and internal evidence:
Choose the reading that best explains the rise of the other(s).
The more that external and internal evidence point to the same wording as authentic, the greater the certainty scholars can have. Among the hundreds of thousands of textual variants in the manuscripts, less than one percent of them are in any serious doubt. Yet no cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith is jeopardized by any of them.