Textual variants in the Epistle to the Ephesians

Textual variants in the Epistle to the Ephesians are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.

Most of the variations are not significant and some common alterations include the deletion, rearrangement, repetition, or replacement of one or more words when the copyist's eye returns to a similar word in the wrong location of the original text. If their eye skips to an earlier word, they may create a repetition (error of dittography). If their eye skips to a later word, they may create an omission. They may resort to performing a rearranging of words to retain the overall meaning without compromising the context. In other instances, the copyist may add text from memory from a similar or parallel text in another location. Otherwise, they may also replace some text of the original with an alternative reading. Spellings occasionally change. Synonyms may be substituted. A pronoun may be changed into a proper noun (such as "he said" becoming "Jesus said"). John Mill's 1707 Greek New Testament was estimated to contain some 30,000 variants in its accompanying textual apparatus which was based on "nearly 100 [Greek] manuscripts." Peter J. Gurry puts the number of non-spelling variants among New Testament manuscripts around 500,000, though he acknowledges his estimate is higher than all previous ones.

Legend

A guide to the sigla (symbols and abbreviations) most frequently used in the body of this article.

General sigla

# beginning with 0: uncial

# not beginning with 0: minuscule

^* superscript: original reading

^c superscript: scribal correction

^ms superscript: individual manuscript

^mss superscript: multiple manuscripts

^pt superscript: partial attestation

^vid superscript: uncertain reading

arab: Arabic versions

arm: Armenian versions

𝔐 or Byz: Byzantine text-type

cop: Coptic versions

sa: Sahidic version

bo: Boharic version

eth: Ethiopic versions

ƒ: Greek manuscripts family

geo: Georgian versions

goth: Gothic versions

it: Italic/Vetus Latina

lat: most Italic and Vulgate

latt: all Italic and Vulgate

𝔓: papyrus

𝑙: individually numbered lectionary

Lect: most or all numbered lectionaries

parenthesized (): approximate reading

rell: all other extant manuscripts

slav: Slavic versions

syr: Syriac versions

vg: Latin Vulgate

ς: Textus Receptus

Uncial sigla

א‎: Codex Sinaiticus (01)

A: Codex Alexandrinus (02)

B: Codex Vaticanus (03)

C: Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (04)

D^ea: Codex Bezae (05)

D^p: Codex Claromontanus (06)

K^e: Codex Cyprius (017)

K^ap: Codex Mosquensis I (018)

L^e: Codex Regius (New Testament) (019)

L^ap: Codex Angelicus (020)

P^apr: Codex Porphyrianus (025)

S: Codex Vaticanus 354 (028)

V: Codex Mosquensis II (031)

W: Codex Washingtonianus (032)

Z: Codex Dublinensis (035)

Γ: Codex Tischendorfianus IV (036)

Δ: Codex Sangallensis 48 (037)

Θ: Codex Koridethi (038)

Ξ: Codex Zacynthius (040)

Π: Codex Petropolitanus (New Testament) (041)

Φ: Codex Beratinus (043)

Ψ: Codex Athous Lavrensis (044)

Ω: Codex Athous Dionysiou (045)

ff¹: Codex Corbeiensis I

ff²: Codex Corbeiensis II

g¹: Codex Sangermanensis I

k: Codex Bobiensis

Critical editions

T8th: Tischendorf's 8th Edition of Editio Octava Critica Maior

WH: Westcott and Hort (1881)

NA: Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle–Aland)

UBS: United Bible Societies

ECM: Editio Critica Maior

Textual variants

Textual variants in the Epistle to the Ephesians

2 Textual variants in Ephesians 1

Ephesians 1:1

ἐν Ἐφέσῳ – א^c, A, B³, D*, G, K, P, Ψ, 33, 81, 88, 104, 181, 326, 330, 436, 451, 614, 629, 630, 1241, 1877, 1881, 1962, 1984, 1985, 2127, 2492, 2495, Byz, Lect, it, vg, syr, cop, goth, arm

omitted by – 𝔓⁴⁶, א*, B*, 424^c, 1739

Ephesians 1:7

χαριτος – majority

χρηστοτητος – Α 365 cop^bo

3 Textual variants in Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:1

αμαρτιαις – majority

επιθυμιαις – Β

Ephesians 2:15

καινον – majority

κοινον – 𝔓⁴⁶ F G

και μονον – K

Ephesians 2:20

Χριστου – 𝔓⁴⁶ Β G 88 436 1739 1881

του Χριστου – D K 181 326 614 629 630 1877 1984 2495

Κυριυ – א A P Ψ 33 81 104 330 451 1241 1962 2127 2492 sur^h cop^bo arm eth

του Θεου – 1985

omit – C

0 Textual variants in Ephesians 3

Ephesians 3:1

2 Textual variants in Ephesians 4

Ephesians 4:14

του διαβολου – Alexandrinus

της πλανης – rest of mss.

Ephesians 4:28

ταις χερσιν το αγαθον – 𝔓⁴⁶, א^b, B, a, vgst

το αγαθον – Porphyrianus, 6, 33, 1739, 1881

το αγαθον ταις χερσιν – L, Ψ, 323, 326, 614, 630, 945

το αγαθον ταις ιδιαις χερσιν – K, 2495

εν ταις χερσιν αυτου το αγαθον – 629

ταις ιδιαις χερσιν το αγαθον – Sinaiticus, A, D, F, G, 81, 104, 365, 1175, 1241, 2464, vg^cl

1 Textual variants in Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:9

φωτός – 𝔓⁴⁹, א, A, B, D*, G, P, 33, 81, 330, 629, 1739*, 1877, 1881, 1962, 2127, 2492, Lect, it, cop

πνεύματος – 𝔓⁴⁶, D^c, K, Ψ, 88, 104, 181, 326, 436, 451, 614, 630, 1241, 1739^mg, 1877, 1984, 1985, 2495, Byz, ℓ 809, syr^h

1 Textual variants in Ephesians 6

Ephesians 6:12

μεθοδιας – 𝔓⁴⁶

αρχας προς τας εξουσιας – rell

See also

• Alexandrian text-type
• Biblical inerrancy
• Byzantine text-type
• Caesarean text-type
• Categories of New Testament manuscripts
• Comparison of codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus
• List of New Testament verses not included in modern English translations
• Textual variants in the New Testament
• Western text-type

Further reading

• Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, ed. E. Nestle, K. Aland, Stuttgart 1981.
• Bruce M. Metzger & Bart D. Ehrman, "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration", OUP New York, Oxford, 4 edition, 2005
• Bart D. Ehrman, "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament", Oxford University Press, New York - Oxford, 1996, pp. 223–227.
• Bruce M. Metzger, "A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament", 1994, United Bible Societies, London & New York.

External links

• The Comparative Critical Greek New Testament
• Variantes textuais (in Portuguese)
• Varianten Textus receptus versus Nestle-Aland