Three Direct Copies and Other Closely Related Manuscripts of the Pauline Epistles

Abstract

As part of work towards the Editio Critica Maior of Galatians, the use of the tools of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method and the MrBayes phylogenetic software has led to the identification of three Greek New Testament manuscripts which are direct copies (Abschriften) of surviving documents. This article provides the evidence that GA 1930 is a copy of GA 1978, GA 1935 is a copy of GA 1987, and GA 1959 is a copy of GA 467. No conclusive proof has yet been identified to confirm whether or not GA 2423 is a copy of GA 1730, GA 506 is a copy of GA 203, GA 1837 is a copy of GA 326, GA 1988 is a copy of GA 1984, or GA 1753 is a copy of GA 2279. However, it appears that neither GA 254 and GA 1523 nor GA 0150 and GA 2110 are directly related. The conclusion offers further observations on the identification of Abschriften.