History

More than 5,500 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament are known to exist today. They contain many textual variations. Yet millions of pastors, translators, exegetes and laypeople around the world are looking for a solid basis for their work with the New Testament. The UBS Greek New Testament is the most reliable and respected Greek edition of the New Testament. It is published by the German Bible Society - a member of the United Bible Societies.

The beginnings (from the establishment of the Editorial Committee up to the 1st Edition, 1966)

On the initiative of the American Bible Society (with the participation of the Scottish and Wurttemberg Bible Societies, and later of the Netherlands Bible Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society), a committee of experts was formed in 1955 to prepare for the publication of a new edition of the Greek New Testament. Its members included Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Bruce Metzger and Alan Wikgren. The new edition was to focus particularly on the needs of Bible translators. The textual apparatus of the 1st Edition of the Greek New Testament (1966) therefore offered variant readings only for passages that were particularly uncertain or were very important for the purposes of translation and exegesis. By using the alphabetical letters A-D, the new edition provided translators with a clear and convenient way of grading each variant included in the Greek text according to the editors’ certainty of its authenticity. In addition to the text-critical apparatus, the editors included a punctuation apparatus that set out differences in punctuation relevant to the sense of the text in the various Greek editions and in significant modern translations.

Further developments up to the present day

3rd Edition (1975): The Committee's intensive work brought about a fundamental overhaul of the Greek New Testament. Its revised principal text also became the basis for the 26th Edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece. The punctuation apparatus and the index of Old Testament allusions and quotations were also thoroughly reworked for this edition by the Translation Department of the American Bible Society.

3rd Corrected Edition (1983): While the principal text subsequently remained largely unchanged and was modified (along with the punctuation apparatus) only “in matters of punctuation”, the Institute for New Testament Textual Research made a thorough revision of the textual apparatus based on the work for the 26th Edition of Nestle-Aland, published in 1979.

4th Edition (1993): The textual apparatus of the Greek New Testament was upgraded again in line with revisions made to the 27th Edition of the Nestle-Aland. The principal text was not modified. At the same time, the punctuation apparatus was reworked by an expert from the United Bible Societies.

The UBS Greek New Testament provides a foundation for studies of the New Testament and especially for its translation worldwide. It offers users a reliable Greek text and explains the development of selected passages in cases where significant variants exist in the New Testament manuscripts.