The History of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece
Roman Catholic Theology
Final Report Abstract
The project is a historical investigation of the 28 editions of the Novum Testamentum Graece (NTG), first edited by Eberhard Nestle and published by the Württemberg Bible Society in 1898 and most recently, the 28th edition, edited by Holger Strutwolf and published in 2012 by the German Bible Society. The study summarizes trends in theological scholarship from the late 19th century to the first quarter of the 21st century and shows how these trends are manifested within in a critical edition. The project took the long, complicated, and largely unknown history of the world’s most popular critical edition of the Greek New Testament and broke it down into 5 comprehensible historical phrases. The comparison of each edition of the NTG showed that editions 1-2 (1898–1899) intended to replace the textus receptus in Germany, while editions 3-12 (1901–1924) and concomitant historical events, replaced the textus receptus worldwide and brought the edition into a new phase, phase 2, which witnessed the inclusion of manuscript attestations in the apparatus even though the text of the edition was still based on the majority agreement of printed editions. Phase 3 shows the important role text types had in 20th century textual criticism and the increasing priority placed on papyri, since these two features first appeared in the 13th edition (1927). In the next phase, phase 4, starting with the 26th edition (1979), the NTG, along with the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (GNT), achieved the privileged, but perilous position of morphing into a kind of textus receptus itself. Newly constructed on the basis of manuscript evidence, the NTG’s Greek text was identical to the GNT. In the following period, and current phase 5, the NTG again found itself in a new phase with the introduction of the NA28 (2013), which shows the first fruits of becoming the minor edition to the Editio Critica Maior (ECM). The NTG’s text is taken over from the ECM as each new edition of the ECM is published, and its apparatus is now a selection of manuscript witnesses, versions, and patristic citations that are included in the ECM. There were numerous surprises hiding in the archives. For instance, it was previously unknown that the Württemberg Bible Society acted as a committee that Eberhard Nestle had to formally meet with to propose changes to his own edition. It was also helpful to discover that the Württemberg Bible Society placed a lot of hope in sales of the NTG in particular to financially recover after WW2. And the fact that Kurt Aland (unsuccessfully) proposed Gordon Fee as an editor of the GNT/NTG is particularly enlightening—had this been successful, the NTG could have been taken to a different direction. The influence of many previously unknown complexities, contributors, and circumstances were discovered in archival research that illuminated the development and shed light on historical factors in fascinating ways. There will probably never be a need for another similar study on the history of the NTG since the three major information sources, a comparison of editions, research of relevant literature related to the edition (i.e., secondary sources), and archival research (i.e., primary sources) have been nearly exhaustively consulted. It will, however, be possible to issue revisions of the planned book publication once new editions of the NTG are published. This project therefore is not only one of a kind, but also has great potential for longevity since it can be updated and built upon as both the Greek text and New Testament textual scholarship evolve.
