Summary of findings
Identifying the page model of an original document or "archetype" is the key to the content, format and structure of the New Testament book which was derived from it by a process of repeated copying.
The project:
- Confirms some critics' suspicions that in a few cases an NT book derives from two or more original archetypes, and that in one case three NT books derive from a single archetype.
- Identifies the 30 original archetypes behind the 27 NT books
[1]
to a fairly high degree of accuracy with the help of a technique which will normally expose any interpolation representing more than about three lines of UBS Greek text (120 Greek letters).
- Reveals the detailed hierarchical structures which the writers had in mind when planning their archetypes.
- Identifies which NT documents had multiple editions.
- Reveals evidence that some archetypes were in codex format.
- Reveals evidence that the archetypes behind the gospel of John and 2 Corinthians were in the form of separate sheets. Within each archetype the sheets would have been attached together at an edge or corner. But it appears that in these cases the attachment was not sufficiently secure to prevent the displacement of some sheets, either accidentally or deliberately.
Notes
1. The additional three archetypes arise as follows:
Romans was originally two letters;
2 Corinthians was originally three letters;
Philippians was originally three letters;
1 Timothy, Titus and 2 Timothy originally constituted a single document - a tract disguised as three letters.