新约手抄本中的变异
对于新约，现存有超过 5,778 份希腊文手抄本。 然而，没有两份手抄本是完全相同的（除了那些仅含几行字的小紙片），同样，在原文新約的 139,000 多字當中，在手抄本之间发现了超过 400,000 种不同的变体寫法。
手抄本故名思意，是人工抄写的，一个字母一个字母，一个字一个字地寫下來的。 对于其他抄写方式，也可以是一人大声朗读文本，抄写员会寫下他所听到的語句。 这是一个漫长而考人的过程，当然也大有可能发生人为错误。
有些变化是偶然的错误，遗漏了一个字母或一个单词，或者可能是读错了，听错了，写错了，有些可能是文士拼写上的错误。
其他错误可能是有意的，因为文士可能会遇到一些他认为不合适的句語，因此他“更正”了，寫在新手稿中，原意動機可能是好的，卻好心做了壞事，试图改进文本以使其更好，倒使後人不知所從。
例如，约翰三书 1:4 G5485 χάρις charis 對比 G5479 χαρά chara
由于我们沒有原本，因此也无法把某一手抄本与原本來进行比较。
在幸存的手抄本中，没有人知道到底有多少变异。
这些错误中的大多数 (可能90% ），都是由于马虎失误造成的，并且微不足道。
但没有人知道这将如何与新约的原本相比對，因为原本已失去了！
Variations in the Greek New Testament Manuscripts
For the New Testament, there are over 5,778 Greek manuscripts. However, no two manuscripts are exactly alike (except for those small scraps of paper containing a few lines), and likewise, of the 139,000 words in the original New Testament, more than 400,000 different variations of writing have been found between manuscripts.
Manuscripts, as the name implies, are hand-written, letter by letter, word by word. For other methods of transcription, it can also be that one person reads the text aloud, and the scribe writes down what he hears. This is a lengthy and tedious process, and of course, there is a high chance of human error.
Some variations are accidental mistakes, missing a letter or word, or maybe due to mispronunciation or hearing, and some may be spelling errors by the scribes.
Other errors may be intentional, as the scribe may have come across some words or sentences that he thought were inappropriate, so he "corrected" them, and trying to improve the Text to make it better, he wrote his improved text in the new manuscript The motive may be good, but caused a bad result, that we today don't know which to follow.
For example, 3 John 1:4 G5485 χάρις (charis) vs G5479 χαρά (chara)
Since we do not have the original, it is impossible to compare a manuscript with the original.
In the surviving manuscripts, no one knows exactly how many variations there are.
Most of these variations (probably 90%) are due to sloppy mistakes and are trivial.
But no one knows how this will compare to the original of the New Testament, because the original is lost!
