The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels

The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by John William Burgon is a detailed defense of the Byzantine or Majority Text of the New Testament, which Burgon believed was the most reliable and authentic representation of the original manuscripts of the Gospels. This work, published posthumously and edited by Edward Miller, is part of Burgon’s larger campaign against modern textual criticism, particularly the critical theories of scholars such as Westcott and Hort, who favored older manuscripts like Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. Burgon’s thesis in The Traditional Text is that the “Traditional Text,” which underlies the King James Version and is preserved in the majority of extant Greek manuscripts, is the most faithful transmission of the original Gospels. He argues that the vast majority of Greek manuscripts (commonly referred to as the Byzantine text-type) have retained the true readings of the New Testament, whereas a few older manuscripts (the Alexandrian text-type), though earlier, have been corrupted over time.