New Testament Transcripts Prototype: Guide

How to Find Your Way

Navigation Bar

This is what appears at the top of the page when you access the NTTranscripts Prototype. It is called a “navigation bar”. You use it to access the different parts of the Website’s contents.

On the left, you have a drop-down menu of manuscript descriptions. If you click on the arrow, you get a list of the manuscripts of which transcripts exist on this Website. If you click on one of the manuscript names, you are taken to a concise description of that manuscript.

In the middle, you have the drop-down menus that allow you to navigate to specific passages of the text, e.g. to 1 John. The subsequent menus are used to choose chapter and verse. Nothing will happen until you click the Go! button on the right.

Farther to the right, you have a choice of text critical information and texts to be displayed. The default is Word By Word. Here, the results of a word by word collation of the transcribed manuscripts are shown along with the Nestle-Aland text and apparatus. The other options are Verse By Verse, where the transcripts are collated verse by verse against Nestle-Aland. Moreover, you have the option of directly choosing a transcript of a manuscript here. The subsequent menus are used to choose chapter and verse. Nothing will happen until you click the Go! button on the right.

On the far right, there are two links. The Search link takes you to the search function, and the Help link takes you to the guide you are reading now.

The line below these menus contains links that allow you to move quickly to related information. When you first enter the Website, you will see a Verse by Verse App. link that will take you to the same passage you are in, namely the Inscriptio, but with a verse by verse apparatus of the transcripts. You will also see a Next link that will take you to 1 John 1:1. Depending on where you are in the text, you will see links named Previous, Word by Word App., Inscriptio, or Subscriptio here.

Nestle-Aland Text and Apparatus

Apparatus

Below the Nestle-Aland text, you will see the apparatus of variants. This apparatus is based on the new transcripts included. It lists every single variation found in these transcripts. If you click on a manuscript number, you are taken to the transcript of that manuscript. Red color indicates that the letters were supplied by the editors; they are not found in the manuscript. Red numbers indicate the number of characters that would fit in the space available. Underdots indicate that the characters can’t be identified with certainty in the manuscript. Green links indicate that corrections have been made to the manuscript. Clicking on green links brings up small windows telling you about alterations by later hands.

If you move your mouse pointer over a word in the Nestle-Aland text, an apparatus specifically relating to that word will appear to the right of the apparatus just mentioned. This apparatus lists the supporting evidence not just for the variants, but also for the Nestle-Aland reading (“positive apparatus”). If you move the mouse pointer on to another word, this apparatus changes accordingly. If you would like to make the information “stick” while you move the mouse pointer elsewhere, click on the word and the apparatus will appear in the lower right corner.

You can resize the frames within the window by dragging them with the mouse pointer.

How to Find Your Way – A Transcript page

This is an example of what you see when you access a transcript. At the top, you will have a View by Page link. This allows you to see the transcript in the layout of the manuscript, i.e. in multiple columns, as the case may be, and with line breaks in the corresponding places.

Below that, you have links that allow you to quickly move to the other chapters of the book (in the default mode, called View by Chapter), or to the other pages of the manuscript (in View by Page mode).

In the transcript’s text, hyphens mean that the text is not contained in the manuscript (part of manuscript physically missing). Dots between square brackets mean that whole lines are illegible. Whenever one or more letters are legible, the rest of the line is supplied by the editors (red color). If the text expected here doesn’t fit, red numbers are used to indicate the number of characters that correspond to the space available. Underdots indicate that the characters can’t be identified with certainty in the manuscript. Green links indicate that corrections have been made to the manuscript. Moving over green links brings up small windows telling you about alterations by later hands. The image above shows the small window that pops up if the mouse pointer hovers over the green word in 1 Joh 1:5 in this transcript. It shows the alterations that correctors one and two (C1, C2) have made to the first hand’s text (*) on the same physical copy.

If you click on a verse number, a collation of that verse based on the new transcripts will appear in the lower part of the window.

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