A nice little introduction to the study of NT textual criticism. Clear and short. ( )

Brevity is the soul of uselessness.

If you know anything about textual criticism, the fact that this book is only 79 pages long will probably worry you. If I tell you that, in addition, it is in very large print, with large margins, a lot of white space, and several blank tables, you'll wonder why the author even bothered.

There just isn't enough material in this book to adequately cover textual criticism. And what there is is often not very relevant. Given that the book doesn't give us enough information to judge between critical methods, do we really need to know that there are critics who practice "radical conservatism" or "reasoned conservatism"? (Particularly since these terms aren't found elsewhere.)

Then, too, we aren't given much information about the manuscripts, which are the heart of textual criticism, nor the methods of criticism.

It may be that this book is designed for people who don't want to do textual criticism, just to know what it is about. But if that is the idea, it strikes me as much too jargon-y. And, for anyone else, it is flatly too incomplete. It doesn't even have enough information to make a decent quick reference guide.

It should be admitted that I am not impressed with any of the available introductions to textual criticism, but this volume stands near the bottom of the list. I frankly can't understand why anyone bothered publishing this book. ( )

This book's brevity produces its strengths and weaknesses. It is too short to provide a good working knowledge of the field. It ought to be supplemented with a text such as Metzger's to allow for any proficiency. But, if one wants an excellent introductory text to the field, this is it. It gives enough information so that one is able to have the basics to start exploring this important field of scholarship. As another reviewer noted here as well, it is also excellent as a refresher for those who have worked in this field in the past but have let their knowledge slip away. ( )

If you have taken enough New Testament Greek in college or seminary to have covered textual criticism, then this book is a great resource. Anyone else will probably be lost. I have used it in my graduate work as a reminder on how to formulate compositions that deal with variants in the manuscripts. Great tables and outlines. It is a spartan treatment, but valuable in spite of that. ( )