Thursday, March 26, 2009

Recent Articles and Reviews in Textual Criticism in NTS, NovT, and TC

6
New Testament Studies

Volym 55 Number 1, 2009

Ulrich Schmidt, "1 Thess 2.7b, c: ‘Kleinkinder, die wie eine Amme Kinder versorgen’," 116-120

Abstract:
In einer exzellenten Studie hat B. R. Gaventa unlängst Bilder der Weiblichkeit in der paulinischen Theologie erörtert.1 Sie beginnt dabei mit einer Besprechung von 1 Thess 2.7b, entscheidet sich für die lectio difficilior NHPIOI statt HPIOI, und zwar sowohl aus textkritischen Gründen als auch aufgrund der Verwendung des Lexems NHPIOS bei Paulus.2 So wäre ‘infant’/Kleinkind bzw. unmündig zu lesen und TROFOS als ‘nurse’/Kindermädchen bzw. ‘wet nurse’/Amme zu verstehen. So kommt man zu folgender Textfassung:
2.7b ALLA EGENHQHMEN NHPIOI EN MESW hUMWN
2.7 WS EAN TROFOS QALPH TA hEAUTHS TEKNA.
[I transcribed the Greek font]

Novum Testamentum

Volume 51, Number 1, 2009

Ulrich Victor, "Textkritischer Kommentar zu ausgewählten Stellen des Lukas- und des Johannesevangeliums," pp. 30-77

Abstract:

Because of the completely contaminated textual tradition of the NT, it is essential that the textual critic as a rule confines himself to the instruments of philology and exegesis, the so-called internal criteria. The customary evaluation of manuscripts and manuscript groups according to their assumed quality and value within the tradition or according to their geographical distribution on the one hand ignores the reality of the transmission, and is on the other hand not a rationally defensible procedure. In this contribution I will demonstrate the arbitrary nature of the customary approach, while showing at the same time the gains to be made for the text by applying internal criteria.

Book review, pp. 90-94

Jeffrey Kloha reviews Jan Krans, .Beyond What Is Written: Erasmus and Beza as Conjectural Critics of the New Testament(Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), x + 384 pp., ISBN 978-9004152-86-1, ISBN 90-04-15286-5, € 138.00. (= NTTS, 35)

Book notes, pp. 99-103

J. K. Elliott writes brief notes on some books of interest, e.g., on Detlef Fraenkel's update of Alfred Rahlfs, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des alten Testaments I, 1: Die Überlieferung bis zum VIII. Jahrhundert (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2004) xxxiv + 566 pp., ISBN 3525534477

and

Roderic L. Mullen (ed.), The Gospel according to John in the Byzantine Tradition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007) l + 273 pp., ISBN 9783438051325.

Volume 51, Number 2, 2009

Book notes, pp. 199-204

J. K. Elliott writes brief notes on recent books, e.g., one of particular interest on James R. Royse,Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri (Leiden: Brill, 2008) xxix + 1052 pp. ISBN 9004161818 €265 (= New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents 36)

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism

Vol 13 (2008)


Tobias Nicklas, "Das Christentum der Spätantike: Religion von 'Büchern', nicht (nur) von Texten Zu einem: Aspekt der 'Materialität von Kommunikation'"

Abstract:
The author explores the question of whether early Christianianty should properly be called a "religion of books" rather than a "religion of the (single) book." He particularly looks at the early Christian use of the codex as the preferred book form.

Paola Marone, "Optatus and the African Old Latin"
Abstract:
This article looks at and analyzes the "African Old Latin" according to Optatus. By examining certain aspects of the quotations within the Adversus donatistas (i.e., quotations that appear in two variant forms), the author attempts to establish the context in which a revision took place.

P. J. Williams, "An Evaluation of the Use of the Peshitta as a Textual Witness to Romans"
Abstract:
The author evaluates NA27's representation of P as a witness to the text of the New Testament. Of 150 variants for which P is cited, he discusses those 48 for which he believes the citations are questionable or wrong.

I also note with satisfaction that all former volumes of the TC Journal is now back on-line after the servercrash! Some dead links still remain to be fixed.

6 comments

  1. Ulrich Victor?
    He once contacted me in quite an arrogant way criticizing my textcritical work.
    He calls himself a (classical) philologist, being superior to NT textual critics.
    This new article speaks in the same arrogant attitude. I will read it, but in my view he hasn't understood anything. An old-schooler. He only accepts internal arguments.

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  2. I fear that your impression comes quite near to the point. It leaves me wondering how somebody as U. Victor can virtually say "The true reading may be in any manuscript", and at the same time claim to know where to find it. This smacks of pure subjectivity.

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  3. Just read his first variant he is discussing, Lk 1:29, and immediately caught him wrong. He writes:
    "ἰδών wird von Lukas nie absolut gebraucht, wenn das Objekt eine
    Person ist."
    Just look at the previous instance of the word, Lk 1:12. This verse even might be an explanation for the addition of the word in 1:29(so Weiss).

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  4. Sometimes one wonders about those peer-review processes...

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  5. Exactly my impression. I found the tone of the Victor article very strange indeed.

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  6. Jörg Hartlieb2/28/2014 4:37 pm

    Tone and negative personal experience shouldn't be a reason, to read an article in a slapdash and biased way Especially since you yourself blame the - allegedly poor - quality of (peer-)reviewing here.

    So don't stop when you found your bias confirmed. But read on: "Wir müßten hier also ein αὐτόν erwarten (siehe unten zu
    10:32-33
    )"
    And there you find his analysis of all instances, including Lk 1:12, and by that a substantiation of his claim here: Lk 1:12 as event - not person.

    This analysis may be false. But than YOU have to give the reasons for that. In any case neither Victor (nor the reviewer) overlooked this relevant instance as you blame.

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