Textual variants in the Book of Revelation is a topic that has captured the attention of millions of people around the world. Since its emergence, it has generated great interest and debate in different areas, from politics and economics to culture and entertainment. Its influence has extended to various spheres of life, and its impact continues to be the subject of study and analysis. In this article, we will thoroughly explore Textual variants in the Book of Revelation and analyze its relevance in today's society. From its origin to its evolution, we will examine its role in the contemporary world and reflect on its meaning for the future.
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Textual variants in the Book of Revelation are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in the Book of Revelation is given in this article below.
Most of the variations are not significant and some common alterations include the deletion, rearrangement, repetition, or replacement of one or more words when the copyist's eye returns to a similar word in the wrong location of the original text. If their eye skips to an earlier word, they may create a repetition (error of dittography). If their eye skips to a later word, they may create an omission. They may resort to performing a rearranging of words to retain the overall meaning without compromising the context. In other instances, the copyist may add text from memory from a similar or parallel text in another location. Otherwise, they may also replace some text of the original with an alternative reading. Spellings occasionally change. Synonyms may be substituted. A pronoun may be changed into a proper noun (such as "he said" becoming "Jesus said"). John Mill's 1707 Greek New Testament was estimated to contain some 30,000 variants in its accompanying textual apparatus which was based on "nearly 100 manuscripts." Peter J. Gurry puts the number of non-spelling variants among New Testament manuscripts around 500,000, though he acknowledges his estimate is higher than all previous ones.
A guide to the sigla (symbols and abbreviations) most frequently used in the body of this article.
Revelation 11:18