Of continuous-text manuscripts of the New Testament written in Greek, only sixty-one contain the entire New Testament. Since the vast majority of manuscripts consists of only one of the four parts, the Gospels, the Apostolos, the Pauline corpus and Revelation, of the New Testament, it is not surprising that many of those which contain two or more are inconsistent in the character of their text in separate portions. The frequency of copying plays an important role in the explanation of the degree of variation and of the evidence from the manuscripts of textual alteration. The primary tool for every student of the Greek New Testament is the Greek manuscript copies. The most important tool continues to be the versions, in particular the three oldest, the Syriac, Latin and Coptic in their subdivisions. The use of databases provides an opportunity to check on editorial decisions and consistency.