Yesterday I posted a link to the third video in Dr. Joshua Bowen’s series on the topic of textual criticism where he discussed some of the methods and rules utilized by textual critics when they engage in their craft. In the final video of the series, Dr. Bowen discusses the textual criticism of the New Testament.
Bowen utilizes NA27 which stands for “Nestle-Aland 27th edition.” The most current edition is NA28. Regardless, the formatting is the same. A glance at the critical apparatus of NA27/28 reveals that there are a lot of textual variants. This isn’t surprising given how many manuscripts of the NT that we have extant. If you go back and watch the second video of the series, Bowen explains why critical editions generally choose the readings that they do.
The Amateur Exegete 