Textual variants in the Epistle to the Ephesians

Textual variants in the Epistle to the Ephesians are the subject of the study called textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual variants in manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to a text that is being reproduced. An abbreviated list of textual variants in this particular book is given in this article below.

Most of the variations are not significant and some common alterations include the deletion, rearrangement, repetition, or replacement of one or more words when the copyist's eye returns to a similar word in the wrong location of the original text. If their eye skips to an earlier word, they may create a repetition (error of dittography). If their eye skips to a later word, they may create an omission. They may resort to performing a rearranging of words to retain the overall meaning without compromising the context. In other instances, the copyist may add text from memory from a similar or parallel text in another location. Otherwise, they may also replace some text of the original with an alternative reading. Spellings occasionally change. Synonyms may be substituted. A pronoun may be changed into a proper noun (such as "he said" becoming "Jesus said"). John Mill's 1707 Greek New Testament was estimated to contain some 30,000 variants in its accompanying textual apparatus which was based on "nearly 100 [Greek] manuscripts." Peter J. Gurry puts the number of non-spelling variants among New Testament manuscripts around 500,000, though he acknowledges his estimate is higher than all previous ones.

Textual variants
Ephesians 1:1
 * ἐν Ἐφέσῳ – א$c$, A, B$3$, D*, G, K, P, Ψ, 33, 81, 88, 104, 181, 326, 330, 436, 451, 614, 629, 630, 1241, 1877, 1881, 1962, 1984, 1985, 2127, 2492, 2495, Byz, Lect, it, vg, syr, cop, goth, arm
 * omitted by –, א*, B*, 424$c$, 1739

Ephesians 1:7
 * χαριτος – majority
 * χρηστοτητος – Α 365 cop$bo$

Ephesians 2:1
 * αμαρτιαις – majority
 * επιθυμιαις – Β

Ephesians 2:15
 * καινον – majority
 * κοινον – F G
 * και μονον – K

Ephesians 2:20
 * Χριστου – Β G 88 436 1739 1881
 * του Χριστου – D K 181 326 614 629 630 1877 1984 2495
 * Κυριυ – א A P Ψ 33 81 104 330 451 1241 1962 2127 2492 sur$h$ cop$bo$ arm eth
 * του Θεου – 1985
 * omit – C

Ephesians 3:1

Ephesians 4:14
 * του διαβολου – Alexandrinus
 * της πλανης – rest of mss.

Ephesians 4:28
 * ταις χερσιν το αγαθον –, א$b$, B, a, vgst
 * το αγαθον – Porphyrianus, 6, 33, 1739, 1881
 * το αγαθον ταις χερσιν – L, Ψ, 323, 326, 614, 630, 945
 * το αγαθον ταις ιδιαις χερσιν – K, 2495
 * εν ταις χερσιν αυτου το αγαθον – 629
 * ταις ιδιαις χερσιν το αγαθον – Sinaiticus, A, D, F, G, 81, 104, 365, 1175, 1241, 2464, vg$cl$

Ephesians 5:9
 * φωτός –, א, A, B, D*, G, P, 33, 81, 330, 629, 1739*, 1877, 1881, 1962, 2127, 2492, Lect, it, cop
 * πνεύματος –, D$c$, K, Ψ, 88, 104, 181, 326, 436, 451, 614, 630, 1241, 1739$mg$, 1877, 1984, 1985, 2495, Byz, ℓ 809, syr$h$

Ephesians 6:12
 * μεθοδιας –
 * αρχας προς τας εξουσιας – rell