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 21Extrabiblical 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 21:1

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 SUMMER LIVING TREES ARE DISTINGUISHED FROM WITHERED BY FRUIT AND LIVING LEAVES, SO IN THE WORLD TO COME THE JUST DIFFER FROM THE UNJUST IN HAPPINESS. He showed me again many trees, some budding, and others withered. And he said to me, "Do you see these trees?" "I see, sir," I replied, "some putting forth buds, and others withered." "Those," he said, "which are budding are the righteous who are to live in the world to come; for the coming world is the summer of the righteous, but the winter of sinners. When, therefore, the mercy of the Lord shines forth, then shall they be made manifest who are the servants of God, and all men shall be made manifest. For as in summer the fruits of each individual tree appear, and it is ascertained of what sort they are, so also the fruits of the righteous shall be manifest, and all who have been fruitful in that world shall be made known. But the heathen and sinners, like the withered trees which you saw, will be found to be those who have been withered and unfruitful in that world, and shall be burnt as wood, and made manifest, because their actions were evil during their lives. For the sinners shall be consumed because they sinned and did not repent, and the heathen shall be burned because they knew not Him who created them. Do you therefore bear fruit, that in that summer your fruit may be known. And refrain from much business, and you will never sin: for they who are occupied with much business commit also many sins, being distracted about their affairs, and not at all serving their Lord. How, then," he continued, "can such a one ask and obtain anything from the Lord, if he serve Him not? They who serve Him shall obtain their requests, but they who serve Him not shall receive nothing. And in the performance even of a single action a man can serve the Lord; for his mind will not be perverted from the Lord, but he will serve Him, having a pure mind. If, therefore, you do these things, you shall be able to bear fruit for the life to come. And every one who will do these things shall bear fruit."