H. A. G. Houghton. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A Companion to the Sixth Edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2025. 648 pages. €32.00. $89.95. Hardback.

With the recent release of the United Bible Society’s (UBS) 6^th edition of the Greek New Testament (spring, 2026) comes this new Textual Commentary by Hugh (H.A.G.) Houghton, professor of New Testament Textual Scholarship at the University of Birmingham, England. Users of the United Bible Society’s Greek New Testament are familiar with the text-critical apparatus and its well-known system of rating the level of certainty of the original text. Since its first edition in 1971, Bruce M. Metzger’s Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) and its subsequent second edition (1994) have been the mainstay for offering explanations of textual decisions through the 4^th revised edition (1993) of the UBS’s Greek New Testament. Metzger’s Textual Commentary was framed as the result of the editorial committee explaining why this or that reading was chosen and, to some degree, defending the editorial text. Some of Metzger’s explanations are brief, others quite extensive. Some consider variants not listed in the UBS at all, and his comments on the text of the gospels runs 222 pages while Acts occupies another 224.

Houghton’s work is quite different from Metzger’s in several respects. As a textual commentary, Houghton’s remarks are based only on the UBS6 variation units, with a conscious effort to be consistent in length for each unit. Rather than using the editorial text as his base, Houghton often begins with the majority text and considers each alternative in turn however, explaining the basis on which the editorial text is chosen. Furthermore, Houghton’s commentary utilizes scholarly conventions in the field that have changed markedly since Metzger’s initial work. The use of geographical “text types” for dating material, for example, turns out to have too many exceptions to be useful, and so each manuscript is now considered on its own age and characteristics. More attention is now given to who is responsible for variations in readings, such as the notion of a scribe working independently, rather than the role of an editor or marginal notation, and research subsequent to Metzger has shown that theological motivations for textual variations plays less of a role than once thought.

The most innovative aspect of Houghton’s commentary is its ability to service the needs of scholars while being simultaneously beneficial to non-specialists. Houghton makes abundantly clear that he aims to explain the apparatus to readers who are not experts in textual criticism. He does so in a manner that describes the current state of scholarship in each variation unit. For Houghton, textual criticism is not only about establishing the earliest attainable text, but also about how and why the biblical text has changed over the course of its transmission. In part, Houghton does this in his introduction, where he describes the text of the New Testament (pp. 4*–11*) and then proceeds to explain the “principles of textual criticism” (pp. 11*–30*). Some of this is familiar for those trained in traditional methods,¹ while some newer methods of digitized collating manuscripts using the “Coherence Based Genealogical Method”² are introduced. All the pertinent aspects are explained with clarity while directing readers to a selection of the essential secondary sources.³ Many features of the commentary are consciously designed to serve a wider readership: all Greek variants are translated and a glossary of select terms is placed at the back of the book. Readers will appreciate that Houghton’s commentary is keyed to the editorial text of the UBS6 and follows its revised sequence of books (gospels, Acts, catholic epistles, Pauline letters + Hebrews, Revelation). He provides a concise list of principal Greek manuscripts at the front of the volume as well as an overview of the text at the beginning of each book, in addition to an up-to-date bibliography and notes.

All explanations of variations are reasoned through carefully, and generally along the lines of reasoned eclecticism, so that the reader is able to gain a sense of the methods by which textual decisions are made. Those with mastery of Greek and technical skills will find what they need, while those with little or no language skills can use the book to great profit. From conversation with Houghton, this author has learned that he is very interested for more non-specialists with interests in the Bible to become familiar with how it comes together. One can imagine, for example, an interested non-specialist curious as to why her Bible has a footnote at the end of Mark 16:8 with a remark about some manuscripts ending the gospel here, whereas others continue. Turning to Houghton’s commentary, she finds, among other things, an explanation that the “Short Ending” is attested by the two oldest surviving manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, where the gospel ends abruptly “for they were afraid” (16:8). Houghton explains that “[i]n both cases, this is clearly the end of the text, marked with a coronis” (p. 114). Turning to the glossary, one finds that “coronis” is “A decoration to mark the end of a work” (p. 564), and the matter becomes more clear.

The volume is printed the same color and size as that of Metzger, and it would be difficult to imagine a volume more useful for expert and non-specialist alike. It is a fine tool, not simply to give one answers, but to help one think through the issues of evaluating textual problems and what they entail. It is an important successor to Metzger’s fine work, and in several ways an important replacement. As such, it is a most welcome addition to my own library and and highly recommended.