Helmut Koester on A Century of NT Scholarship

The Centenary edition of the Harvard Theological Review contains an interesting article: H. Koester, 'New Testament Scholarship through One Hundred Years of the Harvard Theological Review' HTR 101.3-4 (2008), 311-322.

It contains a couple of interesting observations about NT textual criticism:

a) between 1908 - 1937 half (51) of all the articles on NT (102) in HTR dealt with textual criticism (in the same period there was nothing on intertestamental literature, or Philo, or Josephus);

b) between 1938-1968 'contributions to the field of New Testament textual criticism have dwindled to a small number' (p. 315; 14 articles) (with many more on Judaism, and the Greco-Roman world);

c) between 1969-2006 'the area of New Testament textual criticism has shrunk to a mere seven contributions' (mostly by E.J. Epp) (while other fields expanded: general NT; Judaism; ancient Christianity).

In reflecting on these he offers some comments on the state of German scholarship, on the study of Judaism in this period, as well as on the importance of Coptic sources; in relation to textual criticism he wrote:

'New discoveries of manuscripts, particularly of New Testament papyri, brought new excitement to the scene of New Testament study, and American scholars, some educated in Europe, such as James Hardy Ropes, or coming from Europe, such as Kirsopp Lake, played an important role in this discussion. Later, the center of these investigations had moved to the text-critical institute in Munster, where it became streamlined without achieving any significant progress, as J. Eldon Epp (sic) has so aptly argued in several publications.' (p. 321)