new testament textual criticism since 1881

NEW TESTAMENT

TEXTUAL CRITICISM

SINCE 1881Graduate Research LecturesHeritage Christian University

Doug Burleson

GOALS OF NT TEXTUAL CRITICISM

• Establish the original text. • Secondary goals:–Trace the history of the

transmission of the text. –Look for insights into the

history of the church. Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

WITNESSES TO THE GNT

• Papyri (127 total)• Uncials (majuscules)• Cursives (minuscules) • Lectionaries • Versions • Church fathers

Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

WITNESSES TO THE GNT

• DIVERGENCE of the text (time of writing – AD 325) – make note of diverse copying styles • CONVERGENCE of the text

(AD 325 – 700). • STANDARDIZATION of the text

(AD 700-1500). Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

ERASMUS’ EDITIONS• Published four editions of Greek NT

from 1515-27. • Based on a total of SIX Greek

manuscripts from 11-15 centuries. • His third edition becomes the basis of

the textus receptus (“received text”) that dominates the next 350 years of NT textual study.


AFTER ERASMUS• Stephanus (Stephen Estienne) publishes Greek

NT • Theodore de Beza prints a text that becomes

standard for Reformation groups• Elzevir made 7 editions of Greek NT in 2nd

edition (1633) says “here you have the text, not received by all, in which we give nothing altered or corrupted.”

• This is this general presumption in textual studies until 1881.


LEADING UP TO 1881• John Mill (1645-1707) • Johann Bengel (1687-1752) • Johann Wettstein (1693-1754) • Johann Greisbach (1745-1812) is a

major turning point because he continues to develop principles of TC that Westcott-Hort build on.


FOUR MAJOR FIGURES

• Lobegott Friedrich Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874)• Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813-

1875) • Brooke Foss Westcott (1812-1901)

and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892)


WESTCOTT-HORT (1881)

• The New Testament in the Original Greek (2 volumes)

• W-H map out textual groups (depending on “Neutral text” – Vaticanus) and develop methodology for evaluating scribal variants that is still very influential.

• Their NT included NO apparatus!Graduate Research Lectures 2011, Heritage Christian University

SINCE 1881?• Some developments, but also could be

described as an “interlude”“All of these exemplary advances in accumulated

materials, in the tools of research, and in our control of the data have NOT yet resulted, it seems to me in

decisive progress in certain critical areas of NT textual criticism, namely in the textual character of the critical

editions of the twentieth century; in the theory and history of the earliest NT text; and in the evaluation of

readings.” (Eldon J. Epp, HTR, 1980)


SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENTS?

• GATHERING AND COLLATING (TEXT THEORIES)–Majority Text Theory – Belief in statistical

probability, all early Byzantine’s must have worn out (“vanishing hypothesis”), and that internal arguments are irrelevant.

– Von Soden (and others) desired to collect and collate and publish all known Greek manuscripts

– Rise of critical editions: 1898 The Novum Testamentum Graece - edited by Eberhard Nestle (1883-1972)



• NEW DISCOVERIES– It was around 15 years after W-H that the

Oxyrynchus Papyri began to be discovered (1896f). Then the Chester Beatty papyri (1930-1931) and the Bodmer Papyri (1956-1957).

–We now have at least 80 more papyri, more than 200 additional uncials, at least 2600 additional miniscules, and perhaps 2000 additional lectionaries that either were unavailable to or not utilized by W-H.



• METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS–Test Readings–Claremont Profile Method–Genealogical Relationships of MS Stemma– Frustration with volume of materials yet to

be analyzed has also led to these developments. Computer technology is helping in the collection/evaluation too.


new testament textual criticism since 1881

Education