Meg. 8t–9a

To facilitate a comparison of the major variant readings, the following text is presented in a hybrid format. The format combines features of a critical diplomatic text, with an apparatus spelling out any variant readings in other manuscripts and early editions, and features of a score, which presents each manuscript or edition on separate lines. The first line invariably represents the Yemenite MS ColX, while the lines below collapse the textual evidence of all other textual witnesses into a few lines. These lines represent ad-hoc groups of manuscripts for that particular line which contain a major variant reading (plus, minus, alternative lexemes). Minor variant readings are presented along more traditional ways: a footnote in the main text corresponding to a list of variant readings in the apparatus. The abbreviations used for the textual witnesses can be found at pp. x-xiii above.

The groupings vary by block and the particular readings found for that stretch of text. Below these lines with the major readings, a base line indicates which manuscripts are represented in this block and to which groups the manuscripts or editions belong. For example, the following line is found in unit 2 below: