What Is Textual Transmission?

Textual transmission refers to the process by which a text is passed on over time, including copying, rewriting, editing, translating, and preserving it across successive media and manuscript traditions. It does not concern the meaning of the text, but its material and linguistic continuity. Transmission involves both intentional actions and unintended changes arising in the work of scribes and editors. In Evidence-Based Biblical Studies (EBBS), textual transmission constitutes a distinct class of data that enables the analysis of textual variants, disruptions in the continuity of transmission, and possible interventions in the text. Its aim is not the reconstruction of an “ideal text,” but the description of the actual history of transmission.

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