New Testament

===Establishing a critical text===
{{Main|New Testament manuscripts}}
The [[#Textual variation|textual variation]] among manuscript copies of books in the New Testament prompted attempts to discern the earliest form of text already in antiquity (e.g., by the 3rd-century Christian author [[Origen]]). The efforts began in earnest again during the [[Renaissance]], which saw a revival of the study of ancient Greek texts. During this period, modern [[textual criticism]] was born. In this context, [[Christian humanism|Christian humanists]] such as [[Lorenzo Valla]] and [[Erasmus]] promoted a return to the original Greek of the New Testament. This was the beginning of modern [[New Testament textual criticism]], which over subsequent centuries would increasingly incorporate more and more manuscripts, in more languages (i.e., versions of the New Testament), as well as citations of the New Testament by ancient authors and the New Testament text in [[lectionary|lectionaries]] in order to reconstruct the earliest recoverable form of the New Testament text and the history of changes to it.{{sfn|Metzger|Ehrman|2005}}