Majority and Eclectic Greek New Testament References

Terry B. Ewell, 30 March 03

Below you will find annotated references that best state the positions for the Majority Text (also know as Byzantine or even Ecclesiastical Text), textus receptus, and the Eclectic Text.  Space doesn’t allow for a definition of each so please see the references. Links were current as of the date above. Notice I do not include any of the “King James Only” sites since I find the rhetoric often inflammatory and usually lacking scholarly reasoning.

 
Overview

http://www.friktech.com/rel/canon/types.htm.  This site gives a simple overview of Greek manuscripts, textual traditions, a brief history of English bibles, and issues confronting translators.  The site has a slight bias towards the Eclectic Textual tradition.

http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/howgetbible.htm, “How We Get Our Bible,” by Jason Dulle provides a generally neutral and simple overview of the textual traditions.

Majority Text

Wilbur N. Pickering, The Identity of the New Testament Text, rev. ed. (Nashville:Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980). This is a classic work in defense of the Majority Text.

 David Otis Fuller, Which Bible?, 5th ed. (Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1975). This is a collection of writings.  The sequel is titled, True or False?

 http://www.esgm.org/ingles/imenu.html.  This site is a sequel to Pickering’s book.  It contains the most straight-forward AND scholarly presentation of this position on the web.

http://www.esgm.org/ingles/appendh.h.htm. “What Difference Does it Make?” In this article Pickering discusses differences between the Majority and Eclectic textual traditions.  Difficult to read for the uninitiated but excellent.

 
Eclectic Text

Bruce Manning Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 2nd ed. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968).  A classic work from a leading scholar in the field of New Testament studies.

 
http://www.bible.org/docs/soapbox/91b2.htm, “The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are They Identical?”  A well-considered argument by Daniel B. Wallace.  Also see: http://www.bible.org/studies/soapbox/89c3.htm, “Some Second Thoughts on the Majority Text.”

 
Resources for Further Investigation

http://www.bible-researcher.com/title.html. Scroll to the bottom of the page for further articles.  The site has many other interesting features.  The articles display balanced points of view; criticisms of both viewpoints.

 
Electronic Bible Translations

http://www.biblestudytools.net/InterlinearBible/. A good interlinear site although it does not have the majority Greek text. Requires downloading fonts.

 
http://www.kuyper.org/thetext/pub.html.  This site for The Institute for Renaissance and Reformation Biblical Studies contains a new English version of the Majority Text.

 
http://www.olivetree.com/handheld/products/index.html. This site has many English and other language translations many of which are free.  It also contains several versions of the Greek New Testament.

 
http://www.bible-researcher.com/links03.html.  Bible links given on the bible-researcher web site.

 
http://www.ntgateway.com/greek/.  Another site with links.