NT Critic
Berean Standard Bible · NT & related texts
How this worksGuide & definitions

Quick start

  1. Choose a book and chapter using the picker at the top.
  2. Read the Berean Standard Bible text in the main column.
  3. Hover a verse number in the passage to open a manuscript list and timeline.
  4. Click a verse number or use “Full verse page” for GA lookup, commentary, Greek tools, and (on ECM books) textual apparatus.
  5. Click any manuscript siglum (e.g. 01, P46) to open its catalog record.

This book

A visionary work from Rome (2nd c.), circulated widely in the East and cited as Scripture by some early writers. Quoted as authoritative by many church fathers; the Muratorian Fragment treats it as useful but not public reading in every church. Often grouped with “almost canonical” literature.

The chapter view is for reading and quick manuscript discovery. Hover verse superscripts for a preview; open the verse page for full lists, timelines, and analysis tools.

Extrabiblical text

Extrabiblical writings are listed separately from the 27 NT books. Each includes a public-domain English translation plus a scholarly witness catalog — Greek papyri and codices, major versional witnesses, and inventory cross-links (LDAB, Trismegistos, P.Oxy).

Witnesses are drawn from standard scholarly catalogs (CPG, LDAB, Repertorium Kirchenväter-Papyri, and related inventories). Each entry is tagged Verified, Approx., or Tradition to show how confidently it is identified. Where fragment coverage is known, the list narrows by section — but this is still not a full critical apparatus, and scholarly totals often exceed our catalogued list.

Witness lists come from our extrabiblical catalog (Firestore + bundled JSON). Each entry is tagged Verified, Approx., or Tradition. Where fragment coverage is documented — especially for Hermas, Didache, and Thomas — the list narrows by section. Versional witnesses without unit data still appear at every address. Counts are catalogued witnesses, not the full scholarly total.

Sources

English text: Berean Standard Bible (helloao API). NT manuscript catalog and apparatus: Münster NTVMR. Extrabiblical catalog: scholarly inventories with bundled JSON + Firestore. Pre-indexed lists enable fast hover; apparatus XML is fetched live on ECM verse pages.

Extrabiblical · canon discussions

A visionary work from Rome (2nd c.), circulated widely in the East and cited as Scripture by some early writers.

Quoted as authoritative by many church fathers; the Muratorian Fragment treats it as useful but not public reading in every church. Often grouped with “almost canonical” literature.

English text: Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1891). Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Shepherd_of_Hermas. Reading text is a public-domain English translation for orientation — not a critical edition of the Greek or Coptic original.

Witnesses are drawn from standard scholarly catalogs (CPG, LDAB, Repertorium Kirchenväter-Papyri, and related inventories). Each entry is tagged Verified, Approx., or Tradition to show how confidently it is identified. Where fragment coverage is known, the list narrows by section — but this is still not a full critical apparatus, and scholarly totals often exceed our catalogued list.

Shepherd of Hermas 12Extrabiblical writings are listed separately from the 27 NT books. Each includes a public-domain English translation plus a scholarly witness catalog — Greek papyri and codices, major versional witnesses, and inventory cross-links (LDAB, Trismegistos, P.Oxy).

Open section
Full workspaceShepherd of Hermas 12:1

Hover a verse number in the passage to open a manuscript list and timeline. Open the workspace for GA lookup and the sample witness list — not every surviving manuscript.

§1ON FEARING GOD, AND NOT FEARING THE DEVIL. "Fear," said he, "the Lord, and keep His commandments. For if you keep the commandments of God, you will be powerful in every action, and every one of your actions will be incomparable. For, fearing the Lord, you will do all things well. This is the fear which you ought to have, that you may be saved. But fear not the devil; for, fearing the Lord, you will have dominion over the devil, for there is no power in him. But he in whom there is no power ought on no account to be an object of fear; but He in whom there is glorious power is truly to be feared. For every one that has power ought to be feared; but he who has not power is despised by all. Fear, therefore, the deeds of the devil, since they are wicked. For, fearing the Lord, you will not do these deeds, but will refrain from them. For fears are of two kinds: for if you do not wish to do that which is evil, fear the Lord, and you will not do it; but, again, if you wish to do that which is good, fear the Lord, and you will do it. Wherefore the fear of the Lord is strong, and great, and glorious. Fear, then, the Lord, and you will live to Him, and as many as fear Him and keep His commandments will live to God." "Why," said I, "sir, did you say in regard to those that keep His commandments, that they will live to God?" "Because," says he, "all creation fears the Lord, but all creation does not keep His commandments. They only who fear the Lord and keep His commandments have life with God; but as to those who keep not His commandments, there is no life in them."