Reconstructing the New Testament: Early Quotations

Eric Parker
08/07/22 - Reliability of the Bible

     Complementing the secondary Ancient VSS of the New Testament are the abundant quotations made by the Church Fathers. Typically, these early preachers, bishops, and writers are subdivided into three categories: Apostolic Fathers (c. 70-150 AD), Ante-Nicene Fathers (c. 150-300 AD), and Post-Nicene Fathers (300-400+ AD). Some listings trace quotations of Church Fathers up thru the thirteenth century. Our attention will focus on the earlier quotations as we illustrate initial testimony for the New Testament text.

     In all, there are over one million quotations of the New Testament in the writings of the Church Fathers. Bible scholar Bruce Metzger highlights the importance of this expansive testimony: “Indeed so extensive are these citations that if all the sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.” (B. M. Metzger, The Text Of The New Testament: Its Transmission Corruption, And Restoration, 1992, 3rd Edition, 86)

     Every verse of our New Testaments can be reconstructed from patristic quotations, making them a remarkable, faith-affirming evidence! This is not only true numerically, but also because of the early date of so many of these quotations; they often predate the manuscript evidence that we possess! The quotations provide insight into particular readings and text types that help validate later manuscript readings, especially highlighting the supremacy of the Alexandrian text type as more literal and faithful in its treatment.

     While an exhaustive listing of all these quotations is obviously beyond the scope of this meager bulletin article, the chart below illustrates a fraction of the available quotations (adapted from Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 55). For a comprehensive, searchable database of patristic quotations from each book of the Bible, see: http://www.earlychristiancommentary.com/FathersScripIndex/.

     While patristic quotations are incredibly valuable, we must remember that they are secondary to Greek manuscripts. Renowned New Testament translators Kurt and Barbara Aland explain: “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.” (K. Aland & B. Aland (Trans. E. F. Rhodes), The Text Of The New Testament: An Introduction To The Critical Editions And To The Theory And Practice Of Modern Textual Criticism, 1995, 280)

     This concludes our discussion of the most important sources behind the reconstruction of the New Testament. In our next few articles, we will highlight some of the variances that we do see in these sources and how they are easily spotted and overcome in the conscientious process of textual criticism. We close with this faith-building quote: “The wealth of material that is available for determining the wording of the original New Testament is staggering: more than fifty-seven hundred Greek New Testament manuscripts [now closer to 6,000, EP], as many as twenty thousand versions, and more than one million quotations by patristic writers. In comparison with the average ancient Greek author, the New Testament copies are well over a thousand times more plentiful. If the average-sized manuscript were two and one-half inches thick, all the copies of the works of an average Greek author would stack up four feet high, while the copies of the New Testament would stack up to over a mile high! This is indeed an embarrassment of riches.” (Ed Komoszewski, Daniel Wallace, and M. James Sawyer, Reinventing Jesus, 2006, 82)

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