Which Text Is the TR?

Advocates for the Critical Text (CT) argue that there are few to no doctrinally significant differences between it and the TR. Daniel Wallace said in an interview with The Gospel Coalition, “Meaningful and viable variants…. comprise less than 1% of all textual variants. Yet, even here, no cardinal belief is at stake.”

Advocates for the Textus Receptus (TR) argue that there are a large number of doctrinally significant differences between the TR and the Critical Text. R.B. Ouellette said in his book, A More Sure Word: Which Bible Can You Trust?, “The new Critical Text leaves out many words that are essential to the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith” (65).

Both viewpoints cannot be right. Where does the evidence point?

This quiz features twenty verses chosen at random by a computer. Your job is to guess which one comes from the TR.

Note that you’ll need to scroll up the page to see your grade once you’re done.

The process used to select the twenty QUIZ examples

1. Every verse in the New Testament was placed in a column in a spreadsheet.
2. The next column over was filled with random numbers using the spreadsheet’s random-number-generation tool.
3. The spreadsheet was sorted according to the random number column, thereby randomizing the verses.
4. Twenty sequential verses were selected for this survey.