This first volume of Texts and Studies, Third Series gathers eleven papers from the First Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, held in 1997. The internationally-renowned contributors consider questions of history and methodology in the discipline as well as investigating individual points of textual interest. Topics related to editorial technique include examinations of aspects of the Textus Receptus, the ‘Pre-Johannine Text’ of the Gospel, the ratings system in the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament and the application of probability theory to textual transmission. There are thorough surveys of non-continuous papyrus witnesses to the New Testament and the Dura-Europos Gospel Harmony, alongside studies of variation in the form of the Beatitudes and the location of Emmaus.

Since the first publication of this volume in 1999, several of the papers have gone on to be widely cited in scholarly literature. As a whole, this book represents an interesting summary of the state of the art in a discipline which has undergone significant development in recent years. Following the demise of the original publisher, the University of Birmingham Press, this Gorgias Press edition makes the inaugural volume available once again at the head of its Texts and Studies series.

D.G.K. Taylor is University Lecturer in Aramaic and Syriac and Fellow of Wolfson College in Oxford. Prior to that, he was on the staff of the Theology Department in the University of Birmingham. He has published widely in Syriac Studies and is Series editor of the Library of the Christian East, as well as one of the founding editors of Texts and Studies, Third Series.