Such are the materials. What is the task of textual criticism? What kind of problems demand our attention? The reader who is used to the occasional note at the bottom of the page that runs ‘Other ancient authorities read…’, where a particularly significant or troublesome problem arises, may wonder what manuscript variation there is to demand so much attention. The kinds of problem and the scope of the variation are best shown by examining a specimen passage.

Translations of three manuscripts of Luke 6.1–10 will be studied and compared. The example is admittedly a particularly dramatic one, but I select it because it contains so much that can be considered. The examination will consist of two parts. The first will look in detail at the kinds of differences between the manuscripts, and describe ways of analysing them. The second will look at the cumulative effect of these differences, and at the distinctive character of each of the manuscripts. The investigation will therefore also show how text-critical studies are developed, by the accumulation of large amounts of small details in order to reach an assessment of a witness's character.

I set alongside each other three manuscripts of Luke 6 and graphically illustrate the variation between them. On the left is Codex Vaticanus. It is a manuscript of the entire Bible in Greek (one of only four surviving from antiquity).