The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM)

See what's new in our Digital Manuscript Collection!

Explore newly added manuscripts and view more images: https://buff.ly/zNM9AhX

CSNTM’s Lead Research Fellow and Assistant Executive Director, Dr. Denis Salgado, recently collaborated with Katie Leggett of Critical Texts on a blog post exploring Greek New Testament palimpsests in the Liste.

The article examines the potential of multispectral imaging (MSI) to recover hidden texts from these valuable yet often understudied manuscripts, highlighting how this technology can help scholars better analyze and understand important witnesses to the New Testament text.

Read the article here:
https://buff.ly/k1tThWv

In Matthew 27:17, we find one of the most interesting textual variants in the New Testament. When Pilate asks whether the crowd would like him to release Jesus or the heinous criminal Barabbas, some manuscripts read “Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Christ.”

The reading "Jesus Barabbas" was known to the Church Father Origen and seems to serve the purpose of disambiguating between two men named Jesus: "Jesus Barabbas" who was the "son of the teacher," and "Jesus" who was "called the Christ." External support is stronger in favor of the omission of “Jesus” before "Barabbas." However, the reading "Jesus Barabbas" is supported by significant witnesses, such as Family 1 and GA 038 (Codex Koridethi).

It is possible that some scribes were offended with the association of the name "Jesus" with a criminal, so they deleted the name and left only "Barabbas." This variant is important because it provides a captivating choice for the crowd in the story: choosing to receive Jesus the criminal or Jesus the Messiah.

See the variant here: https://buff.ly/HSbUSzU

Should you trust your Bible?

Take this 60-second challenge to see how much you really know about the history, preservation, and study of the New Testament: https://buff.ly/6ssIESr

CSNTM’S SUMMER CHALLENGE Visit the post for more.

See the latest additions to our Digital Manuscript Collection!

Visit: https://buff.ly/4Tj62O9

97.35% of surviving Greek New Testament manuscript pages have never been transcribed.

Today, transcribing a single manuscript can require hundreds of hours of painstaking work from multiple scholars. But new AI technology could help us accelerate that process dramatically—turning years of labor into weeks.

This summer, we're raising funds to develop tools that will unlock thousands of pages of manuscript evidence, making them more accessible for research, Bible translation, and future generations.

The manuscript data already exists. The models are ready for development.

The only thing needed now is funding.

Thanks to several generous donors, every donation will be MATCHED up to $100,000.

Make a DOUBLED gift today: https://buff.ly/QCaKrCr

Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros (1436–1517): As archbishop of Toledo, he organized and funded the publication of the Complutensian Polyglot. The first printed polyglot of the entire Bible, it featured parallel columns of Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Aramaic text.

Our new series on the changing landscape of Greek New Testament manuscripts begins with Albania—whose manuscript collection has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent decades. Its history is an extraordinary story of survival: through invasions, communist rule, and one of the most aggressive anti-religious campaigns in modern Europe.

The story of Albania demonstrates how access, cataloguing, rediscovery, and digitization can dramatically reshape the manuscript landscape itself.

https://criticaltexts.com/greek-new-testament-manuscripts-in-albania/

GA 0206 is a fragmentary parchment leaf containing text from 1 Peter 5, held in the Museum of the Bible collection. In 2023, the CSNTM team captured images of this small and fragile manuscript during an expedition. Those images, along with others from the trip, have since been added to the digital collection.

Explore the high resolution images here: https://buff.ly/8JH3M15

Looking back on a successful third biennial CSNTM Text & Manuscript Conference!

Thank you to everyone who joined us, presented research, asked thoughtful questions, and contributed to the rich discussions surrounding the Editio Critica Maior, Exegesis, and Translation. These conversations are advancing New Testament scholarship and strengthening the broader scholarly community.

We're especially grateful to our presenters for sharing their expertise and insights, and to our organizers and volunteers whose hard work made this event possible.

Thank you for making this conference such a meaningful, encouraging, and collaborative experience for all. We look forward to sharing more from this year's presentations and research in the weeks ahead!