Editio Critica Maior

Editio Critica Maior (ECM) is a critical edition of the Greek New Testament being produced by the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung. It is a work (in progress) in multiple volumes, and is intended to cite a more complete list of variant readings than can be incorporated in a manual edition. The University describes the edition as follows:

The Editio Critica Maior documents the Greek textual history of the first millennium based on Greek manuscripts of special relevance for the textual tradition, on older translations and on quotations of the New Testament in ancient Christian literature. Based on genealogical studies of the material prepared for the first time with this completeness the text is being newly reconstructed.

The selection of manuscripts rests on an analysis of the entire primary tradition. Every selected manuscript is entered into a database with all its readings and registered in the critical apparatus. The edition thus offers information to answer continuative questions: How does the text change in the course of history and why? How was a text received in early Christianity?" [ [http://www.uni-muenster.de/INTF/ECM.html University of Muenster Institute for New Testament Textual Research description of Editio Critica Maior] ]

Currently, the volumes include the Catholic letters, and incorporate only 25 changes from the text used in the United Bible Societies 4th edition of the Greek New Testament and the 27th edition of the Nestle-Aland. The editors of these single volume New Testaments will incorporate these minor updates in future editions. [ [http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/ECM/ECM-index.html List of differences between the ECM and Nestle-Aland 27 = changes to Nestle-Aland 28] ] .

References