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 18Extrabiblical 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 18:1

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.

§1AS IN THIS WORLD WE HAVE NO ABIDING CITY, WE OUGHT TO SEEK ONE TO COME. HE says to me, "You know that you who are the servants of God dwell in a strange land; for your city is far away from this one. If, then," he continues, "you know your city in which you are to dwell, why do ye here provide lands, and make expensive preparations, and accumulate dwellings and useless buildings? He who makes such preparations for this city cannot return again to his own. Oh foolish, and unstable, and miserable man! Dost thou not understand that all these things belong to another, and are under the power of another? for the lord of this city will say, 'I do not wish thee to dwell in my city; but depart from this city, because thou obeyest not my laws.' Thou, therefore, although having fields and houses, and many other things, when cast out by him, what wilt thou do with thy land, and house, and other possessions which thou hast gathered to thyself? For the lord of this country justly says to thee, 'Either obey my laws or depart from my dominion.' What, then, dost thou intend to do, having a law in thine own city, on account of thy lands, and the rest of thy possessions? Thou shalt altogether deny thy law, and walk according to the law of this city. See lest it be to thy hurt to deny thy law; for if thou shalt desire to return to thy city, thou wilt not be received, because thou hast denied the law of thy city, but wilt be excluded from it. Have a care, therefore: as one living in a foreign land, make no further preparations for thyself than such merely as may be sufficient; and be ready, when the master of this city shall come to cast thee out for disobeying his law, to leave his city, and to depart to thine own, and to obey thine own law without being exposed to annoyance, but in great joy. Have a care, then, ye who serve the Lord, and have Him in your heart, that ye work the works of God, remembering His commandments and promises which He promised, and believe that He will bring them to pass if His commandments be observed. Instead of lands, therefore, buy afflicted souls, according as each one is able, and visit s widows and orphans, and do not overlook them; and spend your wealth and all your preparations, which ye received from the Lord, upon such lands and houses. For to this end did the Master make you rich, that you might perform these services unto Him; and it is much better to purchase such lands, and possessions, and houses, as you will find in your own city, when you come to reside in it. This is a noble and sacred expenditure, attended neither with sorrow nor fear, but with joy. Do not practise the expenditure of the heathen, for it is injurious to you who are the servants of God; but practise an expenditure of your own, in which ye can rejoice; and do not corrupt nor touch what is another's nor covet it, for it is an evil thing to covet the goods of other men; but work thine own work, and thou wilt be saved."