Words Are Not Enough: Paratexts, Manuscripts, and the Real New Testament

An innovative study of the manuscript history of the New Testament, encompassing its paratexts--titles, cross-references, prefaces, marginalia, and more.

How did the Bible come to be? In Words Are Not Enough, Garrick V. Allen argues that our exploration of New Testament origins must take account of more than just the text on the page. Where did the titles, verses, and chapters come from? Why do these extras, the paratexts, matter?

Allen traces the manuscript history of Scripture from our earliest extant texts through the Middle Ages to illuminate the origins of the printed Bibles we have today. Allen’s research encompasses formatting, titles, prefaces, subscriptions, cross-references, marginalia, and illustrations. Along the way, he explains how anonymous scribes and scholars contributed to our framing--and thereby our understanding--of the New Testament.

But Allen does not narrate this history to try to unearth a pristine authorial text. Instead, he argues that this process of change is itself sacred. On the handwritten page, Scripture and tradition meet. Students, scholars, and any curious reader will learn how the messy, human transmission of the sacred text can enrich our biblical interpretation.

Garrick V. Allen is Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow. He has written dozens of academic articles, popular pieces, and multiple award-winning monographs, including The Book of Revelation and Early Jewish Textual Culture, which won a Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise, and Manuscripts of the Book of Revelation, which won the Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship.