Western text-type

The Western text-type is a diverse group of manuscripts of the New Testament whose text is similar to that of early Christian writers in Rome and Gaul, including Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. These texts tend toward longer passages than is found in the other groups of texts, frequently augmented with glosses, additional details, and the original passages are replaced with longer paraphrases. In at least two Western texts, the Gospels appear in a variant order: Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. The term "Western" is a bit of a misnomer because members of the Western text-type have been found in the Christian East, including Syria.

The most prominent witnesses to the Western text-type are Codex Bezae in the Gospels and Codex Claromontanus in Paul's letters as well as the Old Latin and Old Syriac versions.

Codex Sinaiticus is Western in the first eight chapters of John.

See also: Alexandrian text-type, Byzantine text-type, Caesarean text-type.