Francis Karl Alter

Who was Francis Karl Alter?

Francis Karl Alter, a Jesuit, born in Silesia, and professor of Greek at Vienna, was an editor of the Greek text of the New Testament. His edition was different from those of Mill, Wettstein, and Griesbach, because he used only the manuscripts housed at the Imperial Library at Vienna. It was the first edition of the Greek New Testament that contained evidence from Slavic manuscripts.

Alter used twelve manuscripts of the Gospels, six of the Acts, seven of the Pauline epistles, three of the Apocalypse, and two Evangelistaria. He also used readings from the Coptic Bohairic version, four Slavonic codices and one Old Latin codex. Most of these Vienna codices were also examined by Andrew Birch.

Marsh gave this opinion:

It was not the Textus Receptus, and it was not an important edition for textual criticism, but Alter's comparison of Slavic and Greek texts did provide material for future textual criticism.

Alter also edited Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and wrote an essay on Georgian literature.