In this book, ‘document’ means a manuscript. The following quotation underpins not only this definition, but the entire concept of the book:

“The first step towards obtaining a sure foundation is a consistent application of the principle that KNOWLEDGE OF DOCUMENTS SHOULD PRECEDE FINAL JUDGEMENT UPON READINGS.”

The source of this (the part in capitals is often quoted) is one of modern textual criticism’s key texts, Westcott and Hort’s introduction to The New Testament in the Original Greek (p. 31). The meaning of the quotation is this: before deciding which of one or more different wordings is likely to be the source of the others, the scholar should know about the character and nature of the documents which contain the different wordings. They go on to write that “If we compare successively the readings of two documents in all their variations, we have ample materials for ascertaining the leading merits and defects of each” (p. 32).

This book follows not only the implications of Hort’s famous dictum but also the example of many predecessors by beginning with an introduction to the study of the manuscripts of the New Testament, in particular those in Greek and the oldest languages into which it was translated. The focus will be on two ways of studying a document: as a physical item, of a particular size, format, age, and so forth, and as what will be called a ‘tradent’ of the text or texts which it contains. The former belongs to the discipline of palaeography, the latter to textual criticism.

D. C. Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts, 2-3.