A Case for the Inclusion of Acts 8:37
Scholars involved in textual criticism agree that the Byzantine text-type represents the “majority text” of extant Greek manuscripts. Textual critic Daniel Wallace states that there are over 5,700 Greek manuscripts in existence [1] and that between 80-90% [2] of them support the Byzantine tradition. Kurt and Barbara Aland, in their book on textual criticism, put text-types in five categories: usually distinctly Alexandrian, Alexandrian with foreign influence, mixed text-types including Caesarean, Western, and Byzantine. In their chart, they list approximately 60 manuscripts that are primarily Alexandrian (includes some non-Alexandrian), [3] which is approximately 1% of extant manuscripts. Textual scholars today typically agree that there are only about 30 core Alexandrian manuscripts. The World History Encyclopedia published an article commenting on text-types stating, “The Alexandrian text is shorter and less polished than those of other types...
