Meaning of GLOSS

This name is given to additions to an ancient text made by later copyists, with the intention of clarifying some archaic expression, or even to explain or improve it, when, in the opinion of the glossator, it had an obscure meaning.

Their function was not to expand the text, but rather they were written in the margin. However, as omissions in the copies were also written in the margin, in later copies some glosses could and did pass into the body of the text.

They differ from interpolations in that they were intentionally added to the content of the text.

One of the tasks of textual criticism, in its search to reconstruct the primitive text, is the identification and excision of the glosses, as well as the interpolations, of the text.

It should be said, however, that the critical study of the text has shown that the impact of such variations in the transmission of the text on its content and doctrine has been of minimal importance.

In 1965, the Bible Societies published an edition of the Greek New Testament in which the glosses have been carefully identified, adding another tool to the rigorous knowledge of the Scriptures.