Friday, August 29, 2025

Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland on the Limited Value of Patristic Quotations of the New Testament

  

The primary authority for a critical textual decision lies with the Greek manuscript tradition, with the versions and Fathers serving no more than a supplementary and corroborative function, particularly in passages where their underlying, Greek text cannot be reconstructed with absolute certainty. (Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theology and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism [rev ed.; trans. Errol F. Rhodes; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995], 280)