Textual variants in the Book of Revelation are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in the Book of Revelation is given in this article below.
Most of the variations are not significant and some common alterations include the deletion, rearrangement, repetition, or replacement of one or more words when the copyist's eye returns to a similar word in the wrong location of the original text. If their eye skips to an earlier word, they may create a repetition (error of dittography). If their eye skips to a later word, they may create an omission. They may resort to performing a rearranging of words to retain the overall meaning without compromising the context. In other instances, the copyist may add text from memory from a similar or parallel text in another location. Otherwise, they may also replace some text of the original with an alternative reading. Spellings occasionally change. Synonyms may be substituted. A pronoun may be changed into a proper noun (such as "he said" becoming "Jesus said"). John Mill's 1707 Greek New Testament was estimated to contain some 30,000 variants in its accompanying textual apparatusAdam Fox, John Mill and Richard Bentley: A Study of the Textual Criticism of the New Testament 1675–1729 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1954), pp. 105–115; John Mill, Novum Testamentum Graecum, cum lectionibus variantibus MSS (Oxford 1707) which was based on "nearly 100 [Greek] manuscripts."Metzger and Ehrman (2005), p.154 Peter J. Gurry puts the number of non-spelling variants among New Testament manuscripts around 500,000, though he acknowledges his estimate is higher than all previous ones.Peter J. Gurry, "The Number of Variants in the Greek New Testament: A Proposed Estimate" New Testament Studies 62.1 (2016), p. 113
Legend
Textual variants
Revelation 1:5 ('freed us from') – , א, A, C, 2020, 2081, 2814 ('washed us from') – P, 046, 94, 1006, 1859, 2042, 2065, 2073, 2138, 2432
Revelation 1:6 ('kingdom') – א, A, 046, 1854, 2050, 2351 ('kings') – P, Byz
Revelation 2:1
Revelation 3:1
Revelation 4:1
Revelation 5:9 ('redeemed to God') – A, eth ('redeemed to God us') – 046, 1006, 1611, 1859, 2020, 2042, 2053, 2065, 2081, 2138, 2432, cop א ('redeemed us to God') – 94, 1828, 2073, 2344, cop ('redeemed us') – 2065*, 2814, Cyprian
Revelation 6:1
Revelation 7:1
Revelation 8:13 – א, A, P, 046, 1424, 1841, 1862, 93, 456, 627, 920, 1611, 2329, 2351, Byz, Philoxenian, Harklean, Vulgate, Old Latin, Boharic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Ansbert, Bede, Oikoumenios, Primasius, Caesarius, Tyconius – P, 2074, 104, 241, 256, 2059, 2081, 620, 922, 2186, 2286, 2814, Byz, Armenian, Slavonic, Andreas, Victorious — 42, Oikoumenios
Revelation 9:1
Revelation 10:1
Revelation 11:17 — Boharic, Tyconius, Beatus, 1841, 051, 2074, 35, 1006, 911/2040, 1740, 469, 757 — P, Sinaiticus, 0308, C, 2344 — Byz, 2814
Revelation 11:18 ('thy servants and prophets') – , א, 0308 ('thy servants prophets') – A, Byz
Revelation 12:1
Revelation 13:18 ('six hundred sixty-six') – א A P 046, most minuscules, Byz lat syr cop arm eth Irenaeus Hippolytus Origen Victorinus Gregory Primasius Andrew Beatus Arethas ('666') – 051 Byz ('six hundred sixty-five') – 2344 ('six hundred forty-six') – it ('six hundred sixteen') – C vg Irenaeus Tyconius Caesarius ('616') –
Revelation 14:1
Revelation 15:1
Revelation 16:1
Revelation 17:1
Revelation 18:20 — C, 051, 2329, 35, 2059, 2081, 2344, 2186, 2286, 2814, Vg, it, Byz — Sinaiticus, A, P, 046, 1424, 1841, 1862, 82, 93, 456, 627, 920, 1611, 2074, 2053, 2062, Byz — Hippolytus, syr
Revelation 19:1
Revelation 20:1
Revelation 21:1
Revelation 22:14 ('those who do His commandments') – 046 94 205 209 1611 1854 1859 2030 2042 2065 2073 2138 2329 2377 2432 2814 Byz it syr cop (Tertullian) Cyprian Tyconius (Caesarius) Andrew (Beatus) Arethas ('those who keep His commandments') – arm ('those who wash their robes') – א A 1006 1841 2020 (2050) 2053 2062 it vg cop eth Ambrose Apringius Fulgentius (Primasius) Haymo
See also Alexandrian text-type Biblical inerrancy Byzantine text-type Caesarean text-type Categories of New Testament manuscripts Comparison of codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus List of New Testament verses not included in modern English translations Textual variants in the New Testament Western text-type
References
Further reading
Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, ed. E. Nestle, K. Aland, Stuttgart 1981. Bruce M. Metzger & Bart D. Ehrman, "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration", OUP New York, Oxford, 4 edition, 2005 Bart D. Ehrman, "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament", Oxford University Press, New York - Oxford, 1996, pp. 223–227. Bruce M. Metzger, "A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament", 1994, United Bible Societies, London & New York.
External links The Comparative Critical Greek New Testament Variantes textuais Varianten Textus receptus versus Nestle-Aland