The present paper highlights the importance of attending to the ancient textual tradition within the process of translation. It argues that many of the scribes of the NT manuscripts perceived their own work in a similar light to many Bible translators today, since they considered clarity of communication to be one of their goals. For this reason, they often made emendations of a sort similar to those that are recommended to contemporary translators. Translators are able to derive benefit from attending carefully to the NT textual tradition to learn how ancient scribes understood the text and sought to communicate its meaning clearly to their readers.
