A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament: For the Use of Biblical Students is a work of Frederick Scrivener, biblical scholar and textual critic. In this book Scrivener listed over 3,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, as well as manuscripts of early versions. The book is chiefly designed for the use of those who have no previous knowledge of the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. The main part of the work consists of descriptions of the manuscripts. Scrivener concentrated his attention on the most important manuscripts (especially five larger uncial codices). The later cursive manuscripts were too numerous to be minutely described as per the uncials. Scrivener described them with all possible brevity, dwelling only on a few which presented points of special interest and used a system of certain abbreviations.

Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (1813-1891) was a New Testament textual critic and a member of the English New Testament Revision Committee which produced the Revised Version of the Bible. He was prebendary of Exeter, and vicar of Hendon.