怎么处理5800多份手抄本？
当然首先把它们排序人档，分类可能是按：
- 材料：纸莎草或羊皮纸，羊皮纸在 4 世纪开始取代纸莎草（虽然最新的纸莎草可追溯到 8 世纪）
- 书籍风格：卷轴或手抄本（书籍格式）
- 书写法： 大写（uncial script, majuscule）和小写（minuscule）。抄写员在公元 2 世纪至 8 世纪使用uncial书写，但在 7 世纪和 8 世纪，笔迹质量下降，手稿变得难以阅读。 9 世纪引入了小写，可以更快速书写的小写字母。
- 估计的抄写地点：在世界某个地方发现的手稿往往与来自世界该地区的其他手稿非常相似，这可能是由于来自同一来源。
- 预计抄写年份：
- 内容：
四本uncials是：
- Sinaiticus (א) (aleph) 四世纪 大英图书馆
- Alexandrinus (A) 四世纪 第梵蒂冈图书馆
- Vaticanus (B) 五世纪 大英图书馆
- Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) 五世纪 法国国家图书馆
然后分析内容：
文本批判是对手抄本的研究分析，以便从所有变体中重建可能的原始文本。
归纳为文本类型
新约手抄本被归纳为三个主要的手稿传统（文本类型text-type）：
- 亚历山大文本类型、
- 西方文本类型
- 拜占庭文本类型。
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| [source: https://biblequestions.info/2020/08/08/what-are-new-testament-text-types/] |
- 亚历山大文本比其他类型的文本更短，也没有那么精致。在现存的近 6,000 份手稿中，大约 30 份属于亚历山大式，这往往是最简洁的。
- 西方文本起源于西地中海周围的拉丁语地区。尽管它比较古老，但学者普遍认为这种文本类型过于自由(liberal)。
例：Bezae (D) 四世纪 部分福音书和使徒行传 剑桥 - 拜占庭文本佔大多数（约 90％），在传统中相对较晚。具有较优美的语法，以及对内容不清晰的神学问题，附加上解读改动。
What to do with the 5,800+ manuscripts?
Of course, first sort them into files, the classification may be according to:
- Material: Papyrus or parchment, parchment began to replace papyrus in the 4th century (although the latest papyrus dates back to the 8th century)
- Book Style: Scroll or Codex (book format)
- Writing Style: uncial script (or majuscule) and minuscule. Scribes used uncial writing from the 2nd to the 8th century AD, but in the 7th and 8th centuries handwriting quality declined and the manuscript became difficult to read. The 9th century introduced minuscule (lowercase) characters that were smaller and could be written more quickly.
- Estimated Location: Manuscripts found in one part of the world tend to be very similar to other manuscripts from that part of the world, possibly due to being from the same source.
- Estimated Transcription Year:
- Content:
The four uncials are:
- Sinaiticus (א) 4th century British Library
- Alexandrinus (A) 4th century Vatican Library
- Vaticanus (B) 5th century British Library
- Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) 5th century National Library of France
Then analyze the content:
Textual criticism is the research analysis of manuscripts of all the variants in order to reconstruct a possible original text.
Generalized to Text-Type
The New Testament manuscripts are grouped into three main manuscript traditions (text types):
- the Alexandrian text-type,
- the Western text-type,
- the Byzantine text-type.
- Alexandrian text-type is shorter and less refined than other types of texts. Of the nearly 6,000 manuscripts in existence, about 30 are of the Alexandrian type, which tends to be the most concise.
- The Western text-type originated in Latin-speaking regions around the Western Mediterranean. Although it is relatively old, scholars generally believe that this type of text is too liberal.
- e.g.: Bezae (D) c. 400 Gospels and Acts Cambridge
- Byzantine text-type: Most manuscripts belong to this group (about 90%) and are relatively late in the tradition. It has a more elegant grammar, as well as additional interpretation changes for unclear theological issues.
