Background

The CNTR is an unincorporated nonprofit association run by volunteers, dedicated to the development of free and open resources that combine scientific standards with Christian scholarship to promote a greater understanding of the Greek New Testament. The CNTR was founded by Alan Bunning in 2013, expanding upon the previous work of the Scientific Greek New Testament Interlinear project that he had founded in 2003. For many centuries, the processes involved with textual criticism had been obscured to the average Christian due to incomplete data, restricted access, financial barriers, and educational obstacles. The CNTR has begun to address these issues by providing the public with a direct view of the early manuscript evidence in a way that is more understandable without having to learn Greek. Accordingly, the motto of the CNTR is “Bringing scientific textual criticism to the masses.” A full description of the CNTR project can be found in the Project Overview document and in this short (and slightly out-of-date) introductory video.

Purpose

The CNTR serves the needs of the global Church by releasing its materials for free under open licenses to further the spread of the Gospel and facilitate greater understanding of the Bible. None of this work is done merely for the sake of academic head knowledge, but rather that many would ultimately apply the words of Scripture and be born again of the Spirit (John 3:3) by repenting of their sins (Acts 2:38) and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord (Rom. 10:9-10). The CNTR endeavors to increase both the quality and quantity of biblical resources to aid believers in applying God's words to their lives and experience a dynamic personal relationship with God.

Impact

The impact of the CNTR has already been felt in the global Church as well as the Christian academic community. Numerous volunteers from all over the world have caught the vision and are contributing their time, effort, and finances. The CNTR has quickly become the most popular website for New Testament textual criticism and its resources are widely used in Bible teaching, Bible studies, and Bible translations all over the world. Some Bible translations are being made directly from the CNTR website, and the Bunning Heuristic Prototype (BHP) Greek New Testament created by the CNTR for unfoldingWord has already been translated into more than 30 different languages, providing the Scriptures for the first time to people groups all over the world. At least five different Greek New Testaments have now been created using the CNTR data, including the Tyndale House (TH) Greek New Testament and the Statistical Restoration (SR) Greek New Testament. The CNTR has achieved many significant academic accomplishments which are firsts in the fields of biblical research and textual criticism as discussed on the Milestones page. Much of this was made possible by the CNTR database which contains a number of advanced features not found elsewhere, enabling scholars to do data queries that had never before been possible.

Problems?

The CNTR project is a continual work in progress and various aspects of the CNTR database are at different stages of development, so please contact the CNTR to report any errors or discrepancies that you may find. Most of the data on the website is considered to be in a beta stage and therefore is restricted by copyright to prevent errors from being disseminated while it's being developed. When data is ready for public distribution, it will be released under an open license and made available for free download in the Resources page. If the manuscripts do not appear to be using Koine Greek characters, please download the free KoineGreek font. This website works best with the latest version of modern browsers, and if some webpages do not seem to be rendering correctly, try performing a hard refresh (Ctrl-F5) to ensure that the latest updates take effect.