Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Answers to Dan Wallace Quiz

4
Dan has now published the answers he was aiming for in his quiz a couple of days ago (here), and it seems that we have done rather poorly (see the brief discussion here). I scored nil out of seven attempted questions, which, I think, looks impressive in comparison to my senior colleague’s nil out of ten.

4 comments

  1. Yeah, thanks Dirk.

    I guess you could either say that I scored 0/10 or that DW scored 0/10 on my scale.

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  2. Any careful reader can see that Dan has not actually answered his own questions:
    E.g. No. 1: The first published Greek New Testament was ...
    Answer:
    "But the Novum Instrumentum, published on March 1, 1516, has the honor of being the first Greek New Testament printed by a moveable type printing press to be published."

    But the question did not ask: "The first Greek New Testament printed by a moveable type printing press to be published was ..."?????

    No. 2: How many of the original New Testament books still exist?
    Answer: "The correct answer is “d.” All of the original documents vanished long ago."

    But the question did not ask: "How many of the original New Testament documents still exist?"

    So I grant myself 10/10.

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  3. Since I’m fluent in Merkin the quiz was easy. But if not for my Merkinness, my answers might be:

    1. The first published Greek New Testament was . . .

    made by some unknown scribe in the late 200’s or early 300’s, possibly under Eusebius’ supervision.

    2. How many of the original New Testament books still exist?

    There were no original New Testament books. They were scrolls.

    3. How many manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament are known to exist today?

    Um . . . Twenty-eight? All the others only contain parts of the Greek New Testament.

    4. A textual variant is:

    A feature in the text of one witness that does not correspond to the text of another witness, or, in the case of versional evidence, to the meaning of the text of another witness.

    5. The prevailing theory of textual criticism held today among scholars is known as:

    Eclecticism.

    6. The oldest complete New Testament known to exist today is:

    Codex Fuldensis.

    7. Westcott and Hort were:

    Two scholars who, in 1881, published a critically revised Greek text and a book explaining the theories that guided their text-critical decisions.

    8. The long ending to Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16.9-20) is not found in:

    Aleph’s cancel-sheet of Mk. 14:54-Lk. 1:56, and B.

    9. The total number of textual variants among the Greek manuscripts, ancient versions, and patristic commentaries on the New Testament is:

    a big but trivial number. The variants that matter are those that make a translatable difference, and those which shed light on the transmission-history of the text.

    10. The most important rule for textual critics to follow when deciding on the wording of a particular textual problem is:

    Start by favoring the reading that explains why the others were created (but don’t stop there).

    Yours in Christ,

    James Snapp, Jr.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Fluent in Merkin--"
    That was a hard one to look up, given the filter settings on my server. But it apparently is internet slang for "fluent in the American variety of written English"

    ReplyDelete