The thought of doing their own work of textual criticism in the Greek New Testament, for many Greek students, is to approach a maze of hopelessness and impossibility. They have seen statements here and there in various books of the principles of textual criticism, but have never found a simple manual which not only provides the principles, but also gives a step-by-step discussion on how to accomplish the task.

This present work gives the student a simple explanation of the work of textual criticism, and also that step-by-step discussion of how to do it. The author first identifies the sources of New Testament textual criticism. Second, he discusses the categories or families of the New Testament manuscripts. Third, he presents the classes of scribal errors that one must be aware of if he is to do textual criticism.

Fourth, he gives a simple explanation of how to apply the principles of New Testament textual criticism and actually accomplish the work.

Fifth and finally, he shows the student how to synthesize the material and draw conclusions.