THE BASE TEXT
 

The base text in this edition is formed on the parsimony principle. At each unit of variation we have adopted the reading of the majority of witnesses, thus reducing the apparatus to the smallest possible compass.

The rule occasionally produces inconsistencies. For example, the witnesses are nearly equally divided between εόρακεν and εώρακεν in two places at 6.46, and the majority reading produces the one the first time and the other the second.

There is one exception to this rule. The verses 7.53-8.11 are absent in the majority of majuscules. However, removing it from the text would have introduced technical problems.

We emphasise that the base text is purely a matter of convenience. It happens to be the text of the majority of majuscule manuscripts. That is all.

We always provide the readings of Nestle-Aland 27 and the Textus Receptus.

The base text is omitted for two verses, 8.30 and 14.18. This is because there are no variants in either of these verses in any of our witnesses.