Reading Critical Apparatus: standard signs

   

The following symbols are from Metzger's Commentary for the UBS text:

Variant Ratings: 

{A} {A} The letter {A} signifies that the text is certain.

{B} {B} The letter {B} indicates that the text is almost certain.

{C} {C} The letter {C} indicates that the Committee had difficulty in deciding which variant to place in the text.

{D} {D} The letter {D}, which occurs only rarely, indicates that the Committee had great difficulty in arriving at a decision. In fact, among the {D} decisions sometimes none of the variant readings commended itself as original, and therefore the only recourse was to print the least unsatisfactory reading.

^{Class/Group Symbols:}

Byz The reading of the majority of the Byzantine witnesses.

Lect The reading of the majority of the lectionaries selected, together with the text of the edition published by Apostoliki Diakonia, Athens.

  

 P = Papyrus.

Comments: 

al     -  alia (other witnesses)

bis       -   twice

cf.      confer (compare)

i. e.    -   id est (that is)

e. g.   -   exempli gratia (for example)

^{vid vid} the most probably reading of a manuscript, where the state of its preservation makes a complete verification impossible; or the apparent support of a Church Father for the reading cited, where stylistic and contextual factors do not permit complete certainty.

^{acc. to   -   acc. to Jerome} variant reading of manuscript(s) according to the witness of Jerome

^{acc. to Irenaeus acc. to Irenaeus} variant reading of manuscript(s) according to the witness of Irenaeus

Witness Superscripts: 

^{1 1,2,3,c} Successive correctors of a manuscript in chronological sequence to the extent this can be determined. The symbol ^c at the end of the sequence refers to the latest corrector. Correlative with *.

* The original reading of a manuscript (when the reading of a manuscript has been corrected); correlative with ^c.

^{a a} Typically used to indicate the first corrector’s hand for א .

^{c c} indicates the corrector or the last of successive correctors of a manuscript.

Versions (Early Translations): 

it   -  Old Latin

vg  -  Vulgate

syr -  Syriac.

cop  -  Coptic.

goth  -   Gothic version.

  arm  -  (Künzle; Zohrab). Armenian, from the fifth century

eth  -  Ethiopic, from about 500. The agreement of the following editions; for Rev the Hoffman edition is taken as the basis.

special superscripts:

^{mss   -    mss} manuscripts of an early version, or of a Church Father’s text, when differing from the edited text.

^{gr   -    gr} a citation from a Greek fragment of the work of a Greek Church Father which is preserved complete only in a translation.

^{lat    -   lat} a Latin translation of a work by a Greek Church Father which has not survived entire in its original form.

^mg   -    ^mg textual evidence contained in the margin of a manuscript.

^txt    -    ^txt the text of a manuscript of the New Testament when it differs from another reading given in the margin (^mg), or in the commetnary section (^com) which accompanies the text of a Church Father.

mss   -  mss   -  manuscripts.

^{ms   -   ms} manuscript of an early version, or of a Church Father’s text, when differing from the edited text.

^{p   -}    syr^p (Pusey/Gwilliam; Gwilliam/Pinkerton/Kilgour; cf. Aland/Juckel). Peshitta, first half of fifth century.

^pal    syr^pal (Lewis/Gibson, Palestinian Syriac Texts; and others). Palestinian Syriac, from about the sixth century.

^h    syr^h (White; Bensly; Vööbus; Aland; Aland/Juckel). Harklensis (A.D. 616).

^{h with *}   syr^{h with *} A Syriac reading in the text enclosed between an asterisk and a metobelos.

^hmg syr^hmg A Syriac Variant reading in the margin. Harklensis (A.D. 616).

^sa   cop^sa Sahidic (Hintze/Schenke; Horner; Kasser; Quecke; Schüssler; Thompson)

^bo   cop^bo Bohairic (Horner)

^fay    cop^fay Fayyumic (various fragments)

^ro    eth^ro Roman edition of 1548–1549. (Ethiopic).

^pp     eth^pp (Pell Platt [based on the Rome edition of 1548–49)

Early Christian Writers:

Origen (d. 253/254)

Hippolytus (d. 235)

Ambrosiaster (d. after 384)

Ambrose (d. 397)

Basil, the Great (d. 379)

Clement, of Alexandria (d. before 215)

(John) Chrysostom (d. 407)

Cyprian (d. 258)

Cyril, of Alexandria (d. 444)

Irenaeus (d. II)

Lucifer, of Calaris (d. 370/371)

Marcion^{acc. to Tertullian/Origen/Adamantius/Epiphanius} (d. II)

Pelagius (d. after 418)

  Augustine (d. 430)

Speculum (d. V)

  John-Damascus (d. before 754)

  Methodius (d. III)

 Tertullian (d. after 220)

  Theodoret, of Cyrrhus (d. about 466)

  Hilary (d. 367)

  Maximus-Confessor (d. 662)

  Valentinians^{acc. to Irenaeus/Hippolytus} (d. II)

  Ptolemy^{Flora acc. to Irenaeus} (d. II)

  Jerome (d. 419/420)

  Sedulius Scotus (d. IX)

  Eusebius, of Caesarea (d. 339)