A system of basic tools designed to function together for a specific purpose. In biblical research the term refers to the system of annotated symbols used to alert the reader to information important for analysis of the printed text. In a critical edition of a biblical text the apparatus includes:

• symbols to indicate points where the printed text differs from one or more primary ms(s). A complex set of symbols has developed over the past two centuries to mark inserted, omitted, transposed or other types of variant wording. Some recent critical texts substitute standard numeric notation.

• symbols to designate individual mss. & recensions. The sequence of individual mss. is determined by standard catalog reference codes rather than antiquity. Papyri are regularly listed first in numeric sequence [e.g., p64, p75]. Uncial codices are given next in alphabetic order of their symbols [e.g., Alef (Sinaiticus), B (Vaticanus), D (Bezae)]; then minuscules (numbered), ancient translations, & scriptural quotations in Christian writers before the 10th c. CE. Because of space limitations, the date, location & other data about these mss. are generally given in a detailed preface to the volume rather than in the apparatus itself.

Cross references to parallel passages elsewhere in scripture (canonical & non-canonical) are not strictly part of the textual apparatus but are included in critical editions because of their bearing on the wording of particular passages.

The first printed editions of the Greek NT had no critical apparatus. In 1550, however, Robert Étiennne printed the 5th edition of Erasmus' text with marginal notes indicating variant passages in a text edited by Spanish scholars. In 1734 J. A. Bengel introduced a "critical apparatus" below the textus receptus to rank ms. variants that had a better claim to be older. Subsequent critical editions elevated the preferred readings into the main printed text. The apparatus was developed to show the ms. evidence on which the preferred reading was based & major alternatives, to allow biblical scholars to make independent informed judgments about the history of the text without having to research separate mss. in person.

Other On-line Resources:

• Modern Critical Text: annotated hyper-linked illustration explains the apparatus of a modern critical edition of John 1:3-5 (from Timothy W. Seid's Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts).
• Greek New Testament  - introduction to a searchable internet edition of the "majority text" with "extensive and exhaustive critical apparatus" explains in detail reasons for and systems of comparing variant readings in NT mss, with links to sample pages including Matt 13 (Original Text Project).
• Critical Apparatus Modules - blog explaining the importance of a critical apparatus in determining the original text, with brief descriptions of four digital modules (Accordance Bible).