Book Review: New Testament Text and Translation Commentary

Format:  Hardcover
Page Count:  944
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Publication Date:  2008
Language: English
ISBN-10: 141431034X
ISBN-13: 978-1414310343
List Price:  $39.99

Many thanks to my friends at Tyndale House Publishers for sending along a review copy of Philip W. Comfort’s New Testament Text and Translation Commentary.

In the media today there is much noise from Bart Ehrman and others about the supposed widespread corruption of Biblical manuscripts and the overall unreliability of the Bible.  While many of these types of books are full of interesting conjecture, the message they’re delivering needs to be read with a wary eye and received with much caution.  Many Christians do not take these sorts of anti-Biblical claims very seriously, but in reality they do have a negative impact on both the Christians and non-Christians in the culture around us.  As opportunities arise to engage others in conversation on these topics, we should be ready to address their concerns with a proper mixture of boldness, honesty, and respect.  That’s all fine and good, but what if you have a strong conviction for the reliability of the Bible, but don’t necessarily feel equipped to speak intelligently about these anti-Biblical claims?  Rather than avoiding these types of conversations, I’d encourage you to equip yourself with the tools you’ll need to speak intelligently about Biblical manuscripts and their relation to our modern English translations.  One such tool I’d encourage you to add to your library is the New Testament Text and Translation Commentary by Philip W. Comfort.

The aim of the New Testament Text and Translation Commentary is to show how and why our English translations differ, especially when there are variations in the underlying Greek manuscripts.  The bulk of this book is comprised of the actual commentary itself, but readers will want to begin with the introductory material and appendices.  Working through these materials prior to working with commentary will give the reader a basic understanding of the art of textual criticism and will better prepare them to make the best use possible of the commentary.  The topics covered in the introduction and appendices are as follows:

•    Introduction
o    1.  The Practice of New Testament Textual Criticism
o    2.  Significant Editions of the Greek New Testament
o    3.  Significant English Versions
o    4.  Abbreviations
o    5.  How to Use the commentary
o    6.  Glossary
•    Appendix A – Scribal Gap-Filling
•    Appendix B – Aland’s Local-Genealogical Method
•    Appendix C – Metzger’s Judgment of Variant Readings according to Text-Types
•    Appendix D – The Importance of the Documentary Considerations

The commentary follows the canonical order of the New Testament, beginning first with the gospel of Matthew and ending with the book of Revelation.  The English translations commented on in this volume are:

•    King James Version (KJV)
•    New King James Version (NKJV)
•    Revised Standard Version (RSV)
•    New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
•    English Standard Version (ESV)
•    New American Standard Bible (NASB)
•    New International Version (NIV)
•    Today’s New International Version (TNIV)
•    New English Bible (NEB)
•    Revised English Bible (REB)
•    New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
•    New American Bible (NAB)
•    New Living Translation (NLT)
•    Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
•    The NET Bible (New English Translation) (NET)

The significant versions of the Greek New Testament interacted with in this volume are:

•    Textus Receptus (TR)
•    Westcott and Hort’s The new Testament in the Original Greek (WH)
•    United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (3rd & 4th editions) (NU)
•    Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (26th & 27th editions) (NU)

As I stated above, the aim of this commentary is to show how and why our English translations differ, especially when there are variations in the underlying Greek manuscripts.  The commentary lays out where there are differences in the English translations and shows which Greek manuscript \ variant they follow.  Comfort offers many insightful comments throughout the book, helping the reader understand how a particular Greek text or variant reading underlying the English translations may have influenced the translators’ decisions.

Serious Bible students from interested laypeople to seminary students and even pastors will benefit from the New Testament Text and Translation Commentary.  My own New Testament studies have been greatly enhanced by this volume.  I’m sure it will become a mainstay at your desk as much as it has on mine.  Readers who enjoy this book will also want to check out these other Tyndale House Publishers’ titles by Philip W. Comfort:

•    The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts (Carol Stream, IL:  Tyndale House Publishers, 2001)
•    The Many Gospels of Jesus (Carol Stream, IL:  Tyndale House Publishers, 2008)

Philip W. Comfort (D. Litt. Et Phil., University of South Africa) is a professor of New Testament at Coastal Carolina University and Senior Editor of Bibles and Bible Reference at Tyndale House Publishers.  He has published several books on Bible translation and textual criticism.

You may download this review as a PDF: 

Buy this book on Amazon:  New Testament Text and Translation Commentary