INTRODUCTION

The Four Gospels, the Tetraevangelium, is the book of Christianity – not four books, but one codex. Such manuscripts comprise more than a half of all continuous-text Greek copies of New Testament writings. In every ancient language of Christianity, copies of the Gospels predominate among what survives. And in case this preoccupation is seen as an ancient phenomenon, be it noted that the Gospels in these ancient languages are traditionally far better served with editions and results of research than is any other part of the New Testament. Moreover, more editions of Gospel manuscripts have been published, in facsimile or in some other form. Finally, it should be observed that many statements made about the New Testament text in general are really statements about the Gospels which have been extrapolated to the rest. I am thinking particularly about the entire concept of text-types and textual groupings. The result is that, while the number of research questions on which nothing has been said is small, the selection of views on many matters which have been discussed is a challenge to the author of a book such as this.

I have already written an introduction to the text of the Gospels, and see no value for anyone in my repeating myself. What follows will therefore contain some cross-referencing to matters which I have discussed in detail there.