Apographa refers to established copies or transcripts of certain texts, usually religious or
ecclesiastical, rather than the
original autographs by the original authors or writers.
Issues
There are scholars and theologians who consider only the original autographs of Scripture as infallible and as final authority, while others hold more to what is called the "Ecclesiastical Text" view, that
Scripture canon is also authoritative in various renderings in later copies or
manuscript traditions, or established "apo-grapha" (meaning "copied-writings"), and not just the
original autographs alone. The reason being that the "original autographs" no longer actually exist, in tangible extant form, so later verified copies of copies, or "apographa", are the only real tangible or present "canon" that we have, and providentially preserved for current knowledge. And that the "apographa" or "Ecclesiastical Text" is all that is really available and should be mainly considered realistically, from established and accepted confessions, church traditions, revivals, productivity, understandings, and interpretations, and should be all that is accepted reasonably, efficiently, or sufficiently, for study or edification.
Regarding Westcott and Hort's work, according to Bible scholar and translator
Bruce M. Metzger
Bruce Manning Metzger (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American biblical scholar, Bible translator and textual critic who was a longtime professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who served on the board of the ...
, "the general validity of their critical principles and procedures is widely acknowledged by scholars today."
[Bruce M. Metzger ]
A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition (companion to the UBS Greek NT)
/ref>
See also
* Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...
* Verbal plenary preservation
In Protestant theology, verbal plenary preservation (VPP) is a doctrine concerning the nature of the Bible. While verbal plenary inspiration ("VPI") applies only to the original autographs of the Bible manuscript, VPP views that, "the whole of Sc ...
References
Textual scholarship
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