Books and eBooks by the Director
This page provides a review of a reference work that was consulted while working on the Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament (ALT). To purchase a copy of the third edition, click here.
New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform
Compiled by Maurice A. Robinson & William G. Pierpont
The newest and most accurate Greek NT available
I have long believed the Majority Text (MT) to be superior to the Critical Text (CT, i.e., the NA/ UBS text) and even to the Textus Receptus (TR). My first introduction to the MT was via the textual footnotes in the NKJV. These reference Hodges and Farstad’s Majority Text.
Later I became aware of Robison & Pierpont’s MT, and having studied their differing methodologies, I came to believe that R&P’s was even more accurate. However, it should be noted that the differences between these two texts are minimal. This is even truer for the Second Edition of R&P’s text as some of the changes between editions brought R&P’s text into alignment with the H&F text. I discuss in detail my reasons for preferring the R&P’s MT to the CT and TR and even to H&F’s MT in my book Differences Between Bible Versions.”
So when I felt God was leading me to produce my own translation of the NT back in 1999, I naturally used R&P’s text. The First Edition of the text was available on my BibleWorks program, which I used extensively in my translation work. But I was also able to contact Maurice Robinson, and he graciously emailed me a digital copy of his text, with changes that had been made to it at that point in preparation for his Second Edition. So the First Edition of my Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament was as up-to-date as possible.
In 2005 I began work on the Second Edition of my ALT, and Dr. Robinson once again helped me out by sending me a list of changes between his First and Second Editions, so ALT2 could be based on the new edition. He also sent me a list of all of the Byzantine alternative readings that would appear as footnotes in his new edition. These indicate places where the Byzantine Greek manuscripts are closely divided. But I wasn’t able to include those in ALT2.
In 2007, I published a Third Edition of the ALT, along with an accompanying Companion Volume to the ALT. In this volume, I was able to include translations of the Byzantine alternative readings. In many cases, the difference between the main text and the alternate reading is so minor that it does not show up in translation. But my “Companion Volume” lists all of the alternate readings where the difference is translatable. But even then, most of the time, the difference between the main text and the alternate reading is very minor. So the reader can have full confidence in the integrity of R&P’s Greek text.
So I have been working extensively with this Greek text for some time, even before it was published. But it good to see that Dr. Robinson was finally able to get his text published in a very readable and usable format.
Review of New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform. Copyright (c) 2008 by Gary F. Zeolla.
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