Archive for category: Textual Issues

   CNN (probably among others) has been reporting that a team are currently in the process of taking high-resolution photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls to eventually post on the Internet. This will not only allow scholars from all over the world examine these fascinating manuscripts, but it will also allow ordinary folks like us to see them. If you would

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the analysis of these views has been brief and cursory. There is much more that could have been said on behalf of each, and the interested reader is encouraged to read at least the works cited for further information. It is hoped, however, that each view has been described sufficiently for the reader

If the various Byzantine positions represent the extreme documentary approach to textual criticism, relying mainly on external evidence, and the Thoroughgoing Eclectic position represents the extreme evidential approach with regard to the text contained within those manuscripts, relying mainly on internal evidence, then the Reasoned Eclectic position, at least as it claims, sits somewhere in the middle. This position, while

As the name suggests, the Eclectic school differs from the various defenders of the Byzantine text in that it does not, at least in general, favor any one particular text type. Rather, the Eclectics select the readings that fit their accepted criteria for determining the original wording of a particular passage, regardless (for the most part) of the readings textual

   The Byzantine-Priority position is often considered simply a further variant of the Majority Text position, especially by those who object to its conclusions. For example, Dr. Daniel Wallace, an advocate of the Reasoned Eclectic approach, frequently cites both Majority Text and Byzantine-Priority proponents together as Majority Text advocates. Proponents of the Byzantine-Priority view, however, distinguish themselves from the Textus Receptus,

The Ecclesiastical Text position could be considered, in essence, a variation on the Textus Receptus position described in the previous blog. However, while both agree upon the resulting textual tradition that must be appealed to as the authoritative text, the Ecclesiastical Text position arrives at that point in a very different way. The main proponent of this position in recent

   Zondervan has released its anticipated A Reader’s Hebrew Bible, the counterpart to their New Testament Reader’s Bible. I picked up my copy this past week and it is splendid. I will be replacing my BHS that I bring to church with this one since it gives glosses in the footnotes and other convenient features. Some of the most conspicuous features

Textual scholars are unanimous in their agreement that textual criticism applied to the extant manuscripts is necessary if the original readings of the New Testament are ever to be fully recovered. Those who hold to the view that only the King James Version of the Bible is the normative text of the church cannot be considered among rational, textual scholars.

When faced with the overwhelming task of evaluating the many New Testament manuscripts to determine the original reading of any passage, the textual critic must start with basic ground rules by which the various readings must be considered. These rules have developed over the last two hundred years, and are, more or less, adopted by textual scholars across the board.

   Constantin von Tischendorf was an industrious and prolific textual scholar. He expended much energy hunting out manuscripts, publishing more than any other scholar had before him, along with a number of editions of the Greek New Testament. His total number of publications exceeds 150, most of which relate to Biblical criticism. Tischendorf’s life’s ambition was to seek out the earliest

   The first official (i.e., sanctioned by the Pope) printed Greek New Testament appeared as part of the Complutensian Polyglot, a multi-lingual, multi-volume work. Although it was planned as early as 1502, was complete by 1517, and received Papal sanction by 1520, it was not published until 1522. While the Polyglot was in the process of being finished and sanctioned, a

   Once we understand the process by which the New Testament books were written and disseminated throughout the world, we are in a better position to understand the problem that faces anyone who wants to reconstruct the original New Testament text. The fact remains that the original manuscripts of the New Testament have long since perished, hence the modern textual scholar

   Due to the hasty nature by which the early New Testament manuscripts were transmitted, it is only to be expected that errors were introduced from the earliest time. Especially in the first two centuries A. D., when there was great pressure to make copies of the various New Testament books in a short period of time, it was easy for

   This is a large and fascinating area of study that can only be dealt briefly within the scope of a blog article. My purpose is to give an idea of how ancient manuscripts were written and distributed to help aid your understanding of the way the New Testament, under the Holy Spirit’s providential guidance, came together.    The majority of ancient

   The study of the various manuscript witnesses to the New Testament, commonly referred to as New Testament Textual Criticism, is, without doubt, of the most critical importance for the Christian church. For the non-Christian academic, the precise wording of the original Greek language texts is of scholarly interest, but nothing more. For the Christian, however, the text under examination is

   The Biblical Language Series published by Zondervan is comprehensive and pedagogically cutting edge. Just recently they have published the second edition of Basics of Biblical Hebrew by Gary D. Pratico of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Miles V. Van Pelt of Reformed Theological Seminary in Mississippi.    This first year grammar has emerged as a standard Hebrew grammar in the past few

Kevin Johnson writes, There are those who actually advocate that textual criticism is an essential thing for people to understand in practicing and exercising the faith.    I don’t need to advocate this, given that it is believers themselves who want to learn such matters when they ask “Where did we get our Bible?” and “Is the Bible we have today,

   During the past month, Dr. White gave an instructive primer on Textual Criticism, explaining the history of the transmission of the text, textual methods, and its practice in concrete Biblical examples. It should be self-evident that this apologetic field is essential for defending the faith and providing confidence that our source for the knowledge of God is true.    Because the

   For those who are really ambitious about learning textual criticism and want to place it in a concrete context (the various characteristics of the materials and the human process of making or copying actual manuscripts), I recommend the following classic primer on paleography, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Paleography, by Bruce M. Metzger.    Though someone with a

   A correspondent sent me a screen shot of his Logos program providing a textual comparison. Here is a shot of my Logos comparison screen, followed by BibleWorks doing the same kind of thing.

   Here’s an additional document for today’s DL (UBS2.pdf). I am hoping the landscape orientation doesn’t lose too much in the way of detail. Hopefully it will not. This will help to illustrate some common scribal errors, so download it and have it ready for the DL today. And here are some materials that I wish to make reference to as

   I pulled down an image of the end of Jeremiah and the beginning of Lamentations in Sinaiticus (a) from the British Museum. It is super high resolution (12 megs, 4000×5000 resolution). Here is a portion of it, just to give you a feeling of the nature of the manuscript. It is such a good quality picture you can see elements

   Why should you listen to the textual criticism series on the DL? Well, here is a brief portion of comments made by Islamic apologist Shabir Ally in our debate at Biola University last May regarding the text of the New Testament. How would you respond? It is my experience that especially Muslims are willing to repeat what leaders like Shabir

   This manuscript almost got me in trouble. I’ve told this story on the DL in the past, but I do not believe I have on the blog. This image comes from a book I purchased back in 1993 during the Papal visit to Denver. The “Papal Treasures” exhibit was in town, and Rich and I went to visit it one

   Jeff Downs sent me a link about the reading of 1 Timothy 3:16 in Codex Alexandrinus, and though I have a ton of things to be doing this morning before the DL (mainly packing!), I just could not resist taking the time to do what I love to do. Here’s a close up of the text. For those who are

I heard back from Dr. Robinson, and he mentioned that there is a better, fuller presentation of his position on line, available here. And he said he does read my blog! Made my day. Here is the argument Dr. Robinson presented, almost verbatim: It is peculiar that the na27/ubs4 editors would reason in such a manner, particularly since their own

I am tremendously honored to discover that Dr. Maurice Robinson, Senior Professor of New Testament and Greek at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC) reads my blog, though, I realize, it may just be that someone forwarded the current blog entry to him for his comment (I’ll hope for the former, but expect the latter). Anyway, Dr. Robinson

Fast “weekend” so I’m behind already. Peoria, IL, this weekend, back Tuesday, gone again Thursday for LA and the debate/conference/cruise! Time is short, blogging will be brief for a while. So as to utilize my time better, I tried to find a textual variant in the New Testament that involved an infinitive but that would also allow me to make

The following was submitted by Colin Smith as a part of his studies at Columbia Evangelical Seminary Introduction The final goal of textual criticism is the recovery of the words of the original writers of Scripture out of the many manuscripts of the New Testament available to the scholar today.  Since the Scriptures are the very foundation of Christian belief,