Singular readings (textual variants attested in only one Greek New Testament manuscript) are considered among the least reliable of all textual variants, far more likely to be scribal changes than the words of the authorial text. In this groundbreaking study, Andrew W. Wilson revisits long-held suppositions about textual variants and how they arose through a thorough analysis of more than ten thousand readings likely to be scribal errors. Wilson takes this evidence and reevaluates previous studies of scribal habits to assess the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies for determining what those habits were and what impact they might have had on the wording of New Testament textual transmission. Biblical scholars and students interested in the formation of biblical texts will find new possibilities for how to approach disputed wording in the New Testament.

Andrew W. Wilson is an independent researcher in New Testament textual criticism. He has been a Christian minister for more than thirty years. His publications include journal articles and essays on New Testament textual criticism.

This is one of the most exciting works on New Testament textual criticism I've read in some time. It confirms the findings of Royse (and others) that scribes generally tended to omit rather than add to the text. It's time, the author says, for the text-critical community to abandon its general acceptance of the canon "prefer the shorter reading." This canon, argues the author, is simply “false.” Cases of homoeoteleuton, he concludes, are especially common. Don’t miss this book if you want to keep up with the latest findings in the field of textual criticism. 
 
David Alan Black
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminar