A couple of weeks ago, Bill Mounce asked the question, “Which Greek text?” He compared the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (27th edition, German Bible Society) to The Greek New Testament (4th edition, United Bible Society). He also mentioned a few “specialized Greek texts” including Zondervan’s A Reader’s Greek New Testament. The NA27 and UBS editions of the Greek text are certainly the most common texts used by scholars and teachers.

However, there is another text that scholars should also consider: Robinson’s The New Testament in the Original Greek. Since Robinson holds to Byzantine priority, his text is based almost solely on Byzantine manuscripts, although he does include the ecclectic readings from the NA27/UBS texts in his apparatus.

Why is this text important to those who do not hold to Byzantine priority? Robinson’s text demonstrates that the Byzantine tradition includes many variants, a fact that is often missed in the apparatus of the NA27/UBS texts. Also, Robinson utilizes the canons of textual crticism on these variants – an exercise that may help ecclectic scholars.

Finally, Robinson reconsiders the orders of the books in his Byzantine edition of the New Testament. Instead of the standard Latin order, Robinson orders his book according to some Greek manuscripts: Gospels, Acts, Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, and Revelation.

So, as we consider Greek texts, we should not discount Robinson’s Byzantine text. It should be considered a scholarly work, even by those who disagree with his stance on Byzantine priority.