The study of the New Testament text is far broader than the reconstruction
of its earliest attainable wording. As historical artefacts, manuscripts
preserve information about the context in which they were produced and
their use in subsequent generations, as well as pointing back towards an
earlier stage in the transmission process. References made by Christian
authors to the textual culture of the early Church, in addition to their
biblical quotations and more general scriptural allusions, transmit
information about the treatment of the documents as well as attitudes to
(and the form of) the canonical text at the time. The task of the modern
textual scholar is as much to map the continuity of the New Testament
tradition as to reach behind it for a primitive form which was unknown to
most later users.