Editing Bible (section)

===Variants===
All biblical texts were treated with reverence and care by those who copied them, yet there are transmission errors, called variants, in all biblical manuscripts.{{sfn|Wegner|2006|p=41}}{{sfn|Black|1994|p=24}} A variant is any deviation between two texts. Textual critic Daniel B. Wallace explains, "Each deviation counts as one variant, regardless of how many MSS [manuscripts] attest to it."{{sfn|Wallace|2009| p=98}} Hebrew scholar [[Emanuel Tov]] says the term is not evaluative; it is a recognition that the paths of development of different texts have separated.{{sfn|Tov|2001|p=18}}

Medieval handwritten manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible were considered extremely precise: the most authoritative documents from which to copy other texts.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Damascus Keters|url=https://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/collections/jewish-collection/pages/damascus.aspx|website=National Library of Israel|access-date=1 July 2020|archive-date=28 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728235241/https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/jewish-collection/Pages/damascus.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> Even so,  Hebrew Bible scholar [[David M. Carr|David Carr]] asserts that Hebrew texts still contain some variants.{{sfn|Carr|2011|pp=5–7}} The majority of all variants are accidental, such as spelling errors, but some changes were intentional.{{sfn|Black|1994|p=60}} In the Hebrew text, "memory variants" are generally accidental differences evidenced by such things as the shift in word order found in 1 Chronicles 17:24 and 2 Samuel 10:9 and 13. Variants also include the substitution of lexical equivalents, semantic and grammar differences, and larger scale shifts in order, with some major revisions of the Masoretic texts that must have been intentional.{{sfn|Carr|2011|pp=5–7, 18, 24, 29, 42, 55, 61, 145, 167}}

Intentional changes in New Testament texts were made to improve grammar, eliminate discrepancies, harmonize parallel passages, combine and simplify multiple variant readings into one, and for theological reasons.{{sfn|Black|1994|p=60}}{{sfn|Royce|2013|pp=461–464, 468, 470–473}} Old Testament scholar [[Bruce Waltke|Bruce K. Waltke]] observes that one variant for every ten words was noted in the recent critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, the ''Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia,'' leaving 90% of the Hebrew text without variation. The fourth edition of the United Bible Society's ''Greek New Testament'' notes variants affecting about 500 out of 6900 words, or about 7% of the text.{{sfn|Wegner|2006| p=25}}
{{further|Textual variants in the Hebrew Bible|Textual variants in the New Testament}}