New book: Scribal Habits in Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Andrew Wilson has a new book coming out in SBL’s Text-Criticism Studies series. It’s a major study of scribal habits and is something Andrew’s been working on for some 20 years! (I remember reading his chapter on the subject in MAR’s Festschrift during my PhD.)

Publisher's Description

Singular readings (textual variants attested in only one Greek New Testament manuscript) are considered among the least reliable of all textual variants, far more likely to be scribal changes than the words of the authorial text. In this groundbreaking study, Andrew W. Wilson revisits long-held suppositions about textual variants and how they arose through a thorough analysis of more than ten thousand readings likely to be scribal errors. Wilson takes this evidence and reevaluates previous studies of scribal habits to assess the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies for determining what those habits were and what impact they might have had on the wording of New Testament textual transmission. Biblical scholars and students interested in the formation of biblical texts will find new possibilities for how to approach disputed wording in the New Testament.

Table of contents 

To give you a taste of the book, here is the table of contents courtesy of Andrew.

Discount

Finally, over on Facebook, Juan Hernández, who edits the series, shared that you can order the book at a 30% discount through June 5 via the SBL online bookstore. Use discount code SP2026.