Following the General Introduction to the Ethiopic Version of the Synoptic Gospels and the edition of the Gospel of Mark in Ge'ez this volume contains a text-critical edition of the Gospel of Matthew based on 27 selected manuscripts. Since the textual tradition of the Gospel of Matthew is more complicated than Mark the scope of the edition had to be widened. The text is now presented in four fundamental versions: the earliest retrievable version whichoriginated in the fourth or fifth century AD, based on 12/13th century manuscripts, an alternative early version based on the 14th century manuscripts and two 17th century versions which shaped the text in its present form in Ethiopia. This is the first text-critical edition of the Gospel of Matthew in which the various strains of tradition have been properly separated. It will be of paramount importance for the critical apparatus of any future edition of the Greek New Testament. In order to faciliate this an English translation of relevant segments of the Ethiopic text has been added. The edition also contains a full list of errors in the Editio Princeps of 1548, specimens of text from a numberof early manuscripts and a wealth of information on early and more recent Ethiopic orthography.
