Westcott and Hort Greek text
A scholarly edition of the text of the Christian Greek Scriptures compiled by B. F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort. (See SCHOLARLY EDITIONS; WESTCOTT, BROOKE FOSS; HORT, FENTON JOHN ANTHONY.) It was entitled The New Testament in the Original Greek and was first published in 1881. This Greek text was the culmination of nearly 30 years of work spent in studying the most authoritative ancient manuscripts available at the time.
Westcott and Hort researched the history of differences in ancient manuscripts. In doing so, they evaluated the age and quality of individual manuscripts and studied families, or groups, of similar manuscripts. They compared these ancient documents and carefully examined the context of each passage. They were thus able to identify mistakes and additions made by copyists. (See, for example, study notes on Mt 17:21; Mr 7:16; Lu 17:36; Joh 5:4; Ac 8:37; see also App. A3.) They produced what they felt was an accurate representation of the original text of the Christian Greek Scriptures.
In the mid-20th century, the New World Bible Translation Committee used this highly regarded text as the basis for its translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Since the time when Westcott and Hort published their work, other manuscripts have become available and this information has been incorporated in more recent scholarly editions of the Greek text, including the 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek text (2012; see NESTLE-ALAND GREEK TEXT) as well as the text by the United Bible Societies (4th edition, 1993). The committee consulted these newer editions when preparing the 2013 revision of the New World Translation.—See study note on Mt 7:13; App. A3.
More recent scholarly editions vary from the Westcott and Hort text in minor details only, which confirms the careful work done on this text. One example of such a textual variation can be found at Luke 4:17. The Westcott and Hort Greek text here reads “and he opened the scroll,” while the Nestle-Aland Greek text reads “and he unrolled the scroll.” Although different Greek words are used in different ancient manuscripts, the meaning of the passage remains the same.
Other examples can be found at Luke 10:42 and Philippians 2:26, where the Westcott and Hort text and the latest edition of the Nestle-Aland text differ slightly in wording because of small variations in the ancient manuscripts. These differences are of interest primarily to scholars; they do not change the overall meaning of the verses where they occur.—See study notes on Lu 10:42; Php 2:26; see also study notes on 1Pe 5:2.
The careful work underlying such scholarly editions as the Westcott and Hort Greek text adds to the evidence that the message of God’s Word has been accurately transmitted over the centuries down to our time.—Isa 40:8.