Ausgangstext, noun. Initial text, that is, the earliest recoverable version of a text that can be considered the direct predecessor to the surviving manuscript traditions (not the original text).
“When textual criticism speaks about the original text, it typically means this Ausgangstext. It is only with this text that genuine text critical methods are dealing. Textual stages that may have been situated between the autograph and the Ausgangstext, are not accessible to text critical means.” [bold emphasis mine] (Gerd Mink; English translation by Peter Gurry, citing from “Eine umfassende Genealogie der neutestamentlichen Überlieferung, Gerd Mink, New Testament Studies, Volume 39, Issue 4, October 1993, pp. 481-499)
It is revealing, tragic, and cautionary that the text critics continue to tell us that they do not believe we either have or can have the original inspired scriptures as written by the original inspired authors. Let God be true, but every man a liar.
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