F

Farstad et al., 1979. Arthur Farstad et al., The New King James Bible, New Testament. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1979.

This is a revision of the King James version that does not make any alterations on the basis of a revised Greek text, but adheres to the readings presumed to underlie the King James version. A very helpful feature of the version is its marginal notes, in which most of the significant differences between its underlying text and that of Aland Black Metzger Wikren Martini 1975 are indicated. Also indicated are significant differences from Hodges and Farstad 1982. The revision was done by several conservative scholars under the direction of Farstad.

Farstad, 1993. Arthur Farstad, The NKJV Greek-English Interlinear New Testament. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993.

This interlinear uses the text of Hodges and Farstad 1982, and in the margin it presents in Greek and English the significant variations of Aland Black Metzger Wikren Martini 1975 and of Scrivener 1881. Word studies are also included in the margin. The New King James Version (see Farstad et al. 1979) is printed in parallel. The interlinear translation is generally good, but it may be wondered why Farstad chose not to distinguish singular pronouns from plural in it. A mistranslation occurs in Matthew 21:7, where the Greek text reads he sat on them, rather than they set [him] on them.

Fell, 1675. [John Fell], Novi Testamenti Libri Omnes. Accesserunt Parallela Scripturæ Loca, necnon variantes Lectiones ex plus 100 MSS. Codicibus et antiquis versionibus collectæ [All of the Books of the New Testament, Augmented by Parallel Scripture References, and by a collection of the various Readings from more than 100 Codex Manuscripts and from the ancient versions]. Oxonii, e Theatro Sheldoniano 1675.

John Fell was the Dean of the college of Christ Church at Oxford University, and undertook with this (anonymous) volume to provide his students with an edition of the New Testament in which the various readings of several sources, including those of the collation published in Walton's Polyglot (see Walton 1657), were arranged at the foot of the page for easy comparison with the text (from Elzevir 1633). His design was "to remove the apprehensions which had been raised. . .by the great number of various lections contained in Bishop Walton's Polyglot," by exhibiting them in such a way that the reader could readily see "how little the integrity of the text was affected by them." (Horne, Introduction, vol 4., p. 688).

In addition to the readings derived from Walton, Fell presented readings from the Memphitic and Gothic versions, and from the following Greek manuscripts (according to the notation of Scrivener and Miller 1894):

Paul. E (10th century)
Act.38 & Paul.44 (13th century)
Act.39 & Paul.45 & Apoc.11 (date undetermined)
Act.40 & Paul.46 & Apoc.12 (11th cent.)
Evan.63 (10th cent.)
Evan.64 (12th cent.) as collated by Dodwell

He also noted the readings of the following collections, previously published:

The Barberini collection of readings*
The Bodleian readings
The notes of Courcelles (see Courcelles 1658)

*The Barberini collection was found by Poussin in the Barberini Library of Rome, and was published by him at the end of a commentary on Mark in 1673. It consists of readings from twenty manuscripts from the Vatican Library, collated by Caryophilus of Crete around 1620. The manuscripts are not identified separately in the collation.

Fell's Preface (32 pages) is of some value, and his edition provided both the impetus and the plan for the very important work of Fell's younger colleague at Oxford, John Mill. Fell's edition also had an influence in Germany, where it was re-edited by the Pietist leader Augustus Herman Francke (Halle, 1702), and studied by Bengel (see Bengel 1725). It also provoked the reaction of von Maestricht (see von Maestricht 1711)

Finegan, 1974. Jack Finegan, Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Finegan's "introduction" is unlike others in that most of the book is devoted to lengthy and detailed examples of critical procedure, with the aim of giving the student some practical experience of textual criticism. The examples demand close attention to be followed, but are very instructive.

Folsom, 1869. Nathaniel S. Folsom, The Four Gospels: Translated from the Greek Text of Tischendorf, with the Various Readings of Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Meyer, Alford, and Others; and with Critical and Expository Notes. Boston: A. Williams and Company, 1869.

Here is a literal translation of the text of Tischendorf 1856 for the four Gospels, followed by an Account of Manuscripts and Various Readings which gives a very careful and complete English collation of the editions listed in the title.

Ford, 1799. Henry Ford, Appendix ad Editionem Novi Testamenti Graeci e Codice Alexandrino descripti a C.G. Woide: in qua continentur Fragmenta Novi Testamenti juxta Interpretationem Dialecti Superioris Aegypti, quae Thebaica vel Sahidica appellatur, e Cod. Oxoniens. maxima ex parte desumpta: cum Dissertatione de Versione Aegyptiaca. Quibus subjicitur Codicis Vaticani Collatio. Oxonii: e Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1799.

This volume is chiefly an edition of certain fragments of the Sahidic version, begun by Charles G. Woide and finished by his colleague Henry Ford after his death.

It also includes a collation of the Codex Vaticanus which Ford had discovered among Woide's papers. The readings given here had originally been collected for Richard Bentley (see Bentley 1720) by an Italian named Mico, who collated it against the text of Cephalaeus 1524. Mico wrote the readings of the Vatican manuscript in the margin of a copy of Cephalaeus' text, and delivered it to Bentley about the year 1720. Like all of Bentley's collations it remained unpublished. Woide saw it, however, and transcribed the readings into his own copy of Bishop Fell's edition; he also neglected to publish it. After the death of Woide, this copy came into the possession of Henry Ford, along with Woide's Sahidic papers, and so it happened that Ford finally published Mico's collation as an item of Woide's literary remains. Concerning the collation as published by Ford, Tregelles warns (Introduction, p. 162) that since the readings had been transferred by Woide from the margin of one edition to another, "in some places the peculiarities of the text of Cephalaeus were assumed as though they were found in the Vatican MS." The original collation of Mico was discovered in Bentley's copy of Cephalaeus' text, preserved with all of Bentley's books and papers at the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Bentley himself was aware of some inadequacies in it. In 1726 his nephew Thomas Bentley examined the Vatican manuscript in order to verify Mico's collation, and found that Mico sometimes confused the readings of the first hand with those of later correctors. Bentley therefore, in 1729, commissioned the Abbate Rulotta to revise Mico's collation. Rulotta's report to Bentley, also among Bentley's papers in the Trinity College Library, was discovered in 1855, and was published by A.A. Ellis in Bentleii Critica Sacra, 1862. Mico's collation as supplemented by Rulotta was for Tregelles the principal source of information on the readings of the Vatican manuscript.

Fowler, 1981. Everett W. Fowler, Evaluating Versions of the New Testament. Cedarville, Illinois: Strait Street Incorporated, 1981.

Fowler's book is largely a spirited defense of the King James version against its modern rivals, but the reader need not be in agreement with Fowler's argument to find the book interesting and useful. He classifies and arranges in tables a great deal of English information on readings of Westcott and Hort 1881, Nestle 1927, and Aland Black Metzger Wikren Martini 1975 that differ significantly from Estienne 1550, and also gives much information on the readings followed by each of the major English translations.