Joosten, Conflicting Exegetical Tendencies in the Septuagint (LXX 8)

For general orientation to this series of posts see here.

Jan Joosten, ‘To See God: Conflicting Exegetical Tendencies in the Septuagint’ in Die Septuaginta - Texte, Kontexte, Lebenswelten: Internationale Fachtagung veranstaltet von Septuaginta Deutsch (LXX.D), Wuppertal 20.-23. Juli 2006 (ed Martin Karrer & Wolfgang Kraus; WUNT 219; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 287-299.

A fascinating topic is the object of Joosten's article on the Septuagint Pentateuch. He explores the conflicting tendencies observed in the LXX with regards to "seeing God". One sees traces of what has come to be called "palestinian exegesis", i.e. the "toning down" of passages envisaging the "seeing of God". This tendency is found already in the Hebrew Bible and it is followed by the Targum and the Midrash. In Philo and the New Testament, God has become ἀόρατος ("invisible"), i.e. impossible to be seen, whereas the dominant notion prior to this period was that "to see God" was dangerous but not impossible (pp. 288-289).

At the same time, the opposite tendency is observed in the LXX. One finds passages where, not only is the notion of "seeing God" let to stand, but it is often introduced at the expense of the Hebrew. Joosten finds Hayward's "intertextual" explanations "fragile" and tries to explain this opposing tendency as originating from Egyptian influence. Seeing the god was an important feature in Egyptian religion and this element came through at various points in the LXX Pentateuch. He supports his theory by presenting additional instances in the LXX where Egyptian culture has permeated the version and argues that the LXX is "no flat translation" but "intertwines a great number of inputs" (p. 299). Joosten highlights the need to discern "tendencies" in the translation before attributing divergences between the Hebrew and the Greek to theological reasons. However, his rejection of Hayward's intertextual explanations need not be a pre-requisite for establishing his own theory. Intertextuality observes the use of similar language, but it does not comment on the translator's motivation. It is possible that both explanations could work together.

--
Μυρτώ Θεοχάρους
Chr. Adamopoulou 8
190 09 Pikermi, Attiki
Greece
ecclesiologia.blogspot.com

ETC Dinner at SBL Atlanta

We had a great dinner on the Monday evening. Christian Askeland had organised our own room at the local Hard Rock Cafe so we had a great space and enjoyed good food and fellowship and varied discussion around the table. Here are some pictures. Names can be provided in the comments if you wish (Eric!).

Back from SBL: First Thoughts

Arrived back in the UK this morning and back in Cambridge around lunch-time, so after some eating, unpacking, sitting still, and loading up the washing machine, a few moments for early reflections (in no particular order).

1. Pity not to have any decent WIFI in the Hyatt or the Marriott - this is presumably why no one has posted any blog about any TC papers as yet - I couldn't even check emails except for the first day.
2. I managed to do a gym workout every day (although without either a pool or any concept 2 rowing machines these were a bit limited to cycling, weights and jogging) and keep well below my meal budget (except for a bit of a blowout at the ETC dinner - some photos later I think).
3. Disappointed not to see much of Atlanta. I managed a bus trip to Marietta, and a walk yesterday to the Olympic Park and then down Auburn Avenue to the Martin Luther King Centre (we chose to do this rather than visit the Aquarium since MLK really did live in Atlanta, whereas the fish are all imported for tourists to look at - typical American tourist-fakery), but was otherwise lucky to get any fresh air some days.
4. Professionally speaking it was fine - my paper on Four-Gospel Codices (or not!) seemed to go OK and will go into a collection of essays from that session (with some more ideas that came to me from some helpful feedback and further reflection); I had a good meeting with a publisher about a book (nothing specific I want to announce now though); and a surprise invitation which sounds interesting (nothing specific I want to announce now though); and a good meeting with a PhD student who will finish soon (hint, hint!), as well as quite a bit of strong encouragement about my letter carriers book (as well as to publish last year's paper on those dots before I forget even more about them).
5. I went to a lot of presentations but can barely remember any of them now, while I remember lots of eating and sitting and driking and chatting with people. (I don't know if Tommy is planning to blog some more notes on specific papers)
6. I thought I did well in not buying too many books but have recently unpacked a stack of thirteen new books (and I have ordered a Codex Sinaiticus).
7. I can't think of anything else right now. I think it was all OK, although I don't think it is going to enter my memory as a classic SBL or as a particularly significant one in the field. YMMV.

4.

SBL Special on The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission

Special super saver for those readers who attend the SBL. Go to the Eisenbrauns booth - they sell my monograph,The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission, for $20!

Hurry up while stock lasts!

SBL GNT: Three Questions and Replies

Earlier this week I hosted a chat session on Facebook (here) about the SBL GNT (occasionally an old dog can learn a new trick or two). A few of the questions raised and answered may be of wider interest, so I am taking the liberty of posting them here as well.
Question: one person wondered why the selected critical editions where chosen, and why others (such as the earlier editions of the GNT by Eberhard Nestle) were not.
Reply: The selection of four editions to serve as primary resources for establishing the new SBL edition—WH, Tregelles, Robinson-Pierpont, and the Greek text behind the NIV translation—is based on a combination of reasons. Westcott-Hort—the starting point for both the early Nestle and the UBS editions—is a classic, and an obvious choice (and it was available in e-format). Re the Byzantine tradition: unlike WH, I’m convinced that at points, only the Byzantine tradition preserves the original reading, and so it had to be represented in the mix. Also, it is the textual tradition of choice for the Orthodox tradition, and so deserved to be represented. The Robinson-Pierpont edition (available in e-format) is an excellent representative of the Byzantine tradition, and thus was an easy choice in this regard. As for Tregelles, I’ve long been impressed by his independent and insightful judgment, an impression confirmed by David Parker’s analysis of the text of James in the Editio Critica Maior in comparison to earlier editions, which validated a high percentage of Tregelles’ choices. With Tyndale House having recently made it available in e-form, it commended itself as a good counterpoint to WH.
The choice of a modern critical edition was more complicated. First, there aren’t many to choose from. Second, the publishers were rightly concerned that the new edition have a clear and uncontestable copyright—both for the sake of the new edition, and out of respect for existing editions. Thus in light of their concerns it seemed best not to use NA26-7/UBS3-4 in the initial stages of creating the SBL edition. Once this decision was made, then the reconstructed Greek text behind the NIV translation commended itself as an alternative: it records, where it differs from UBS/NA, the independent textual choices of the original NIV translation committee (an international group of respected scholars), yet (because the NIV translation committee used the UBS/NA text as its starting point) it reflected, indirectly, the NA/UBS textual tradition as well. In effect, using the Greek text behind the NIV allowed the project to maintain a clear copyright, to acknowledge (indirectly) the well-earned excellence and stature of the NA/UBS editions, and to include (where the NIV differs from the NA/UBS text) a contemporary alternative perspective to the textual decisions of the committee responsible for the NA/UBS editions.
In short, the choice of these four editions to serve as initial resources (but certainly not the only resources) for building the new SBL text reflects a combination of historical considerations, text-critical theory, publishers’ concerns, and pragmatic considerations.
What about other editions? Each has benefits, but also drawbacks. For example, Tischendorf relied too heavily on Sinaiticus. Von Soden (still valuable as a source of information) built his text on flawed theoretical assumptions; and Vogels, Merk, and Bover are heavily influenced by von Soden. The original Nestle tradition was built on the editions of WH, Tischendorf, and (after Weymouth) B. Weiss, who like WH was heavily influenced by Vaticanus, so the Nestle text (up through the 25th edition) is very similar to WH. Either one would provide a good starting point, but both together add little to what one gains from either one alone. Similar considerations apply to other potential candidates (such as the Greek text, edited by R. V. G. Tasker, putatively behind the New English Bible).

Question #2: “Why is the NIV considered more standard than the NA in the Apparatus?”
Reply: I don’t consider the Greek text behind the NIV translation “more standard” than the NA text. The fact that “NIV” is visually more present in the apparatus than “NA” is largely a matter of pragmatism. Let me explain in two steps. First, once the Greek text behind the NIV was selected as one of the four primary resources for the new SBL edition (see the answer to the first question above for the reasons behind this choice), it had to be included in the apparatus alongside the other three editions. Second, from the start I wanted the apparatus to include the evidence of the NA/UBS text, from which the Greek text behind the NIV differs at about 235 or so places. So now the question was a practical one: how best to incorporate the NA testimony into an apparatus that already includes the NIV testimony? Option 1: insert the NA evidence at every one of the 6928 variants, or option 2: insert it explicitly only at those 235 or so places where it reads differently than the NIV, and for the other nearly 6700 places let the NIV stand for both NA and NIV. With either option, the full testimony of NA is present in the apparatus. However, option 2 results in a more compact apparatus, and reduces the chances for error in constructing the apparatus, so the choice was made to adopt option 2 rather than option 1. Note that the choice is entirely a pragmatic one, and does not imply any claim that the “NIV” is somehow “more standard” than NA. Given the sequence in which the apparatus was built, it was simply a pragmatic choice to cite NA only where it differs from NIV. In any case, the full testimony of NA is presented, either explicitly or implicitly, in the SBL GNT apparatus for every one of its 6928 variation units.

Question #3: Would the end product be different if I had started with the manuscripts rather than editions? That is, did the use of existing editions rather than the manuscripts as the starting point for the SBL edition bias the outcome?
Reply: I don’t think that the end result would have been any different if I had started with the manuscripts rather than existing editions. To explain why, let me quote a section from the Introduction to the edition:

Where all four editions agreed, the text was tentatively accepted as the text of the SBL edition; points of disagreement were marked for further consideration. The editor then worked systematically through the entire text, giving particular attention to the points of disagreement but examining as well the text where all four editions were in agreement. Where there was disagreement among the four editions, the editor determined which variant to print as the text; occasionally a reading not found in any of the four editions commended itself as the most probable representative of the text and therefore was adopted. Similarly, where all four texts were in agreement, the editor determined whether to accept that reading or to adopt an alternative variant as the text.

That is, once the four editions were compared, I then systematically went through the entire text of the NT in light of the manuscript evidence, not only where one or more of the four differed, but also where all four were in agreement (and at several places, I did adopt a reading not found in any one of the four). In short, the entire SBL text was decided on in light of the manuscript evidence (not on the basis of the editions); in addition, in view of the fact that there are places throughout where I either agree with each one of the four against the other three (SBL/WH vs. Treg NIV RP: 98x; SBL/RP vs. WH Treg NIV: 66x; SBL/NIV vs. WH Treg RP: 59x; SBL/Treg vs. WH NIV RP: 28x) or reject all four, I don’t think the use of existing critical editions biased the outcome.

"Wives PERmit to your husbands" (Col. 3:18 cj)

When I saw the facsimile from Sinai
I noticed the price was quite high.
The monastery's name
and my wife's is the same
and so she'll allow me to buy.

ETC SBL dinner

Following the Papyrology session which ends at 6:30 on Monday, we will head over for some classic America dining at the Hard Rock Cafe. We have two sets of reservations. One for those who are on the ball at 7:00 pm with Christian Askeland, and one for those who like to sit around and talk for a while with Peter Head (naturally) at 7:20. The restaurant is one block directly south from the conference hotels and on the left side of the street. Dinner runs between $12 and $20.

P46, P66 or P75 for a Fistful of Dollars

When I was in Edinburgh two years ago I noticed that Larry Hurtado had what looked as very ancient NT papyri mounted in frames on the wall in his office. These turned out to be very good replicas of P46 and P66 (as I recall), handmade by papyrologist Don Barker (Macquarie University).

Don Barker maintains the website New Testament and other Papyrus Manuscript Reproductions/Replicas. He has reproductions in stock of P46 (1 Cor 14.34 -15.6), P66 (John 3) and P75 (Luke 14.26-15.3) for $60 per item, but it is possible to order almost any papyrus manuscript that a customer wants if there is a suitable image to work from. In my experiences, replicas such as these are great for teaching purposes.

Don has agreed to run an "SBL Atlanta special" for us. He will bring a number of copies to the S22-329 SBL Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds Group session on 22 Nov. 4.00-6.45 PM, and will take 10% off the cost as a SBL/ETC special (i.e., $54/item)! It is possible to pre-order by sending me an e-mail at tomwas[at]spray[dot]se, and I will make a list – "The first at the mill can grind the first" (and I am on the top of the list). But you will have to be there at the session to make your purchase.

Sinaiticus at the SBL

The colour facsimile of Codex Sinaiticus which we announced three months ago, here, seems now to have been released, although Hendricksons' website indicates "Pub Date: February 2011." According to ITSEE news, it will be presented to the Director of the SBL along with David Parker's new book Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible at the forthcoming SBL Annual Meeting in Atlanta. If you are going to the SBL, don't miss the event to take place at the Hendrickson booth in the Exhibit hall at 3PM on Sunday November 21st.



If you are not going to the SBL, you can order David Parker's new book from Eisenbrauns here, or the British Library bookshop.

Holmes' SBLGNT on Facebook!

Logos Bible Software has just started a Facebook comment thread here to invite questions about the new SBL Greek New Testament edition that Michael Holmes announced on the ETC blog recently (don't forget to read the comments). A few days later, Stephen Carlson shared his initial impression of the edition here. And of course Rick Brannan working for Logos shared his thoughts.

Now you have the chance of discussing it again with Mike. He will be watching the Facebook thread for questions all week and post detailed replies on Tuesday the 16th at 10 a.m. PT. So go ahead and post your questions, to make sure that there is room and time for Mike to give thorough replies (I hope Mike has done all his SBL preparations...)

Emanuel Tov's Publications On-line

Emanuel Tov has graciously made available a large number of his publications on his website here, including his two volumes on Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Judean Desert.

Congratulations!

Dizionario del sapere-religioso del novecento

The 2 volume encyclopaedia: Albert Melloni (ed.), Dizionario del sapere-religioso del novecento has just been published by il Mulino of Bologna ISBN 8815137326. There is a section on philology and textual criticism of the NT by J. K. Elliott "Filologia e critica testuale del Nuovo Testamento" (pp. 897-907), preceeded by a corresponding section on the philology and textual criticism of the OT by Agustinus Gianto.

Mark 1:41 at International SBL

I'm grateful to the chairs of the Working with Manuscripts section of the International SBL that my paper proposal has been accepted for the meeting in London next July. The abstract is below:

The case for 'filled with compassion' in Mark 1:41

The reading ὀργισθείς 'becoming angry' has become very popular amongst commentators and has received recent impetus through adoption in the SBL Greek New Testament and in the 2011 edition of the NIV. Despite the fact that external attestation is considerably stronger for σπλαγχνισθείς 'filled with compassion', scholars have tended to be swayed by the consideration that they cannot imagine how any scribe might change the text towards the allegedly 'harder' reading ὀργισθείς. However, this paper will argue that it is far easier to conceive of someone replacing σπλαγχνισθείς by ὀργισθείς than the reverse for a range of reasons, including the currency of the term ὀργισθείς in contrast to the rarity of the term σπλαγχνισθείς. Considerations of morphologically related terms suggests that if σπλαγχνισθείς were to be corrupted by accident, the form ending is -ισθεις that it would be most likely to become is none other than ὀργισθείς. Moreover, if ὀργισθείς were the authorial text, the existence of such a convenient substitute as σπλαγχνισθείς is hard to account for by mere appeal to chance. This paper also considers methodological double standards which are sometimes applied in the advocacy of ὀργισθείς.

ITSEE Bitsy

Apparently, Jim West is considering – provided that he can acquire the proper clothing – to come to the Seventh Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament will be held at the ITSEE in Birmingham from 28-31 March 2011. I am certainly going to the colloquium, and I hope to be able to offer a co-written paper.

The Esther Scroll, POxy 4443

When I looked the other day at the way paragraphs were indicated in Greek biblical manuscripts, I was struck again by the apparent anachronistic way in which POxy 4443 indicates a paragraph: ekthesis + paragraphos + enlarged initial letter.
There used to be a time when the combination of such features was deemed to be indicative of a 5th century date. The Esther scroll is dated to the late first / early second century AD.
So how come that in manuscripts of the New Testament we only find the combination of these three features 300 years later? Chance?

P52 and John Rylands Library in the Press

J. K. Elliott has written a piece in Times Literary Supplement 29 October on the collection of biblical MSS in John Rylands Library in Manchester ("Manchester bibles").

Here is an extract:

A. S. G. Edwards’s Commentary article
(January 29) on the digitization of
forty Middle English manuscripts in
Manchester’s John Rylands Library as part of
an ongoing programme paid due respect to
Manchester’s medieval English texts. But its
holdings of biblical materials are also particularly
noteworthy, and many of them qualify
for various superlatives. The Library’s biblical
manuscripts – the largest number in Britain
outside London, Oxford, and Cambridge
– are regularly consulted and their distinctive
readings cited in most modern critical editions
of the Bible.

Two of its treasures are particularly well
known and regularly seen by visitors to its
newly refurbished building in Deansgate.
One (P.Ryl. 457) is the famous papyrus fragment
containing four verses of John 18 and
known to New Testament scholars as P52.
Experts are generally agreed that it was written
by the mid-second century, and thus this
tiny fragment is not only our first witness to
this Gospel, but the oldest example of any
New Testament text in the world – and probably
the earliest Christian writing extant. The
other is a papyrus portion of Deuteronomy in
Greek (P.Ryl. 458).

One can access the whole article by signing up for a free trial of TLS here.

Hurtado on Developments in NT/Christian Origins

On his blog Larry Hurtado has listed what he thinks are major developments in the study of NT/Christian origins over the last century or so. The first three in the list relate to textual criticism:

# The “de-throning” of the textus receptus and the turn to a critically-based NT text. Westcott & Hort (1880s) were crucial (though they built much on the work of earlier scholars). Today, all scholars agree that our editions of the NT must be based on sound critical principles and the best evidence subjected to critical analysis.

# The discovery & publication of early NT papyri. In particular, the Chester Beatty biblical papyri (which includes both NT & OT) in the 1930s had profound effects thereafter on scholarly notions about the early history of the NT writings. The Bodmer biblical papyri (1950s-1960s) furthered this. We now have copies of NT writings (often partial/fragmentary) that take us back to ca. 200 CE, and so allow us to peek back into the second century. This evidence still needs to be mined further, but has already generated significant shifts in scholarly views (e.g., the demise of the “Caesarean text” of the Gospels, and theories of a 3rd or 4th century “recension” behind the “Alexandrian” text of the Gospels).

# Methods in text-critical analysis. These include more soundly-based quantitative methods (prompted particularly by E.C. Colwell in the 1960s) for establishing textual relationships of manuscripts. Now, with the development of computer-applications, there are further developments, esp. the Muenster-based “Coherence Based Genealogical Method” for attempting to map the “textual flow” of the transmission of NT writings.

PhD Scholarship in OT Textual Criticism at the University of St. Andrews for 2011

The University of St. Andrews offer several PhD Scholarships in Divinity for 2011, one of which is:

The Emanuel Tov Scholarship: for a student working in the field of Text Criticism in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

The scholarship covers tuition fees for a UK or EU student, or a contribution of around £3500 per annum towards overseas tuition fees for a student from outside the EU.

An additional stipend of £1000 per annum will be offered to the recipient for three years. The Tov scholar will be supervised by Professor Kristin De Troyer, and will provide research assistance to her.

Further information is available from Ms Margot Clement, Postgraduate Secretary mc41@st-andrews.ac.uk

The closing date for applications is January 15, 2011

Oxford Bibliographies Online - Biblical Studies and Textual Criticism

The recently launched Oxford Bibliographies Online, claims to be an "expert guide to the best available scholarship across the social sciences and humanities." I cannot evaluate this claim, but there is a strong section on Biblical Studies. Below are the subjects and authors:

Afterlife and Immortality by Stephen L. Cook
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha by David A. deSilva
Canon, Biblical by Lee Martin McDonald
Chronicles, 1 and 2 by Steven Shawn Tuell
Corinthians, 2 by Thomas D. Stegman
Daniel by Carol Newsom
David by Victor H. Matthews
Deuteronomistic History by Gary N. Knoppers
Deuteronomy by Stephen L. Cook
Epistles, Catholic by Peter H. Davids
Exodus, Book of by Thomas B. Dozeman
Galatians by Mark D. Nanos
Galilee by Mark Chancey
Genesis, Book of by Victor H. Matthews
Gospels, Apocryphal by James Keith Elliott
Hebrews by Ellen B. Aitken
Interpretation and Hermeneutics by Stephen L. Cook
Isaiah by Marvin A. Sweeney
Israel, History of by Marc Brettler
Jesus of Nazareth by Pierluigi Piovanelli Job Carol Newsom
Joshua by Thomas B. Dozeman
Judaism, Hellenistic by Lester L. Grabbe
Judaism, Rabbinic by Rivka Ulmer
Judges, Book of by Gregory Mobley
Kings, 1 and 2 by Gary N. Knoppers
Mark, Gospel of by James Keith Elliott
Martyrdom by Jan W. van Henten
Matthew, Gospel of by Daniel J. Harrington
New Testament and Early Christianity, Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the by Todd C. Penner
New Testament, Rhetoric of the by Duane F. Watson
New Testament, Social Sciences and the by Dietmar Neufeld
New Testament, Textual Criticism of the by James Keith Elliott
Old Testament, Social Sciences and the by Victor H. Matthews
Passion Narratives by Ellen B. Aitken
Pastorals by Raymond F. Collins
Pentateuch by Thomas B. Dozeman
Philo of Alexandria by David T. Runia
Proverbs by Timothy J. Sandoval
Psalms by Stephen Breck Reid
Q by John S. Kloppenborg
Qumran/Dead Sea Scrolls by Carol Newsom
Revelation (Apocalypse) by Daniel J. Harrington
Sacrifice by William K. Gilders
Scriptures by Vincent L. Wimbush
Slavery by John Byron
Solomon, Wisdom of by Daniel J. Harrington
Synagogue by Anders Runesson
Synoptic Problem by John S. Kloppenborg
Thomas, Gospel of by Stephen J. Patterson
Twelve Prophets, Book of the by Marvin A. Sweeney


The section on New Testament textual criticism is authored by J.K. Elliott and includes the following sections (the introduction is freely available):


Introduction
Introductory Works
In English
In Other Languages
General Overviews
Essays
Collected Essays
Festschriften
Series
Reference Works and Bibliographies
Critical Editions of the Greek New Testament
Critical Editions of Synoptic Texts
Apparatus Critici and Thesauri of Readings
Text-Critical Methodology
Variants in Selected Books of the New Testament
Mark
The Acts of the Apostles
The Pastoral Epistles
The Letter of Jude
The Book of Revelation
Theology and Textual Variation
Text-Types
Western
Byzantine
Alexandrian
Facsimiles, Full Collations, and Photographs of Manuscripts
Introduction to Manuscripts
Papyri
Majuscules
Minuscules
Lectionaries
History of Printed Editions
Versions
Latin
Coptic
Syriac
Patristic Citations
Codicology and Paleography
Scribal Activity

New Dissertations from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

The Center for New Testament Textual Studies and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary announce details on two tc dissertations.

Yesterday, Min-Seok Jang successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled “A Reconsideration of the Date of Papyrus 46.” Jang (BA Yonsei University; MDiv Korea Baptist Theological Seminary; ThM NOBTS) compared 15 characteristics of p46 to a large number of papyri. In addition to the 80 papyri examined in previous p46 research , Jang examined 154 documentary papyri, 108 literary papyri, and 48 reformed documentary papyri, all categorized into five periods ranging from the second half of the first century to the second half of the third century. He concluded that p46 appears to have more in common with the papyri produced between A.D. 75 and A.D. 200 than with papyri from the later period. A narrower range between A.D. 100 and A.D. 150 is possible, but problematic.

Last week, David Champagne (BS Florida State University; BS Mississippi College; MA NOBTS; ThM NOBTS) passed his PhD comprehensives and has now begun work on his dissertation tentatively entitled, “An Analysis of Superscription and Subscription Traditions in New Testament Manuscripts.”

Birmingham Thesis on Arabic Versions of the Gospels

The Center for New Testament Textual Studies (New Orleans) is pleased to have received Hikmat Kachouh's thesis entitled "The Arabic Versions of the Gospels: The Manuscripts and their Families."

The thesis was submitted to the University of Birmingham in fulfillment of the PhD, and was supervised by D.C. Parker.

At first glance, what impresses the reader is the sheer size of the thesis. In three volumes, it comes to 1012 pages.

• Vol. 1: Thesis
• Vol. 2: The Abridged List of the Arabic Gospel Manuscripts and the Collation of the Test Passages
• Vol. 3: Textual data and stemmas
  

New NIV replaces old

The updated NIV is now available. Interestingly enough it seems that the old NIV is not. Of course one will be able to find it all over the web, but if you go to www.biblegateway.com you will find the nNIV is now the 'NIV' on offer whereas the oNIV is nowhere to be seen (at least I couldn't find it).

Can anyone do us a nice electronic comparison of the two texts and tell us the story in numbers?

On the back of the news that the SBL GNT got Mark 1:41 wrong, I'm torn between feelings of indignation and pity to see the same decision has been made in the nNIV: 'Jesus was indignant'. Crazy, when the internal arguments are so overwhelmingly against ...

Call for Papers: SBL London, 2011

Call for papers is open for the SBL International Meeting in London, July 4-8, 2011.

Program unit "Working with Biblical Manuscripts (Textual Criticism)" (chairs: Jan Krans & Tommy Wasserman):

Papers concentrating on any aspect of textual criticism are welcome, in particular the practical work with manuscripts. Examples of topics: papyrological insights, scribal habits, preservation techniques, technical developments, computer assisted tools, producing critical editions, evaluating the evidence of fathers or versions, discussion of particular passages, social historical studies, new projects, systematic-theological problems, teaching text-criticism in an academic setting, etc.

Go to the SBL site, log in, and make your submission! We have one submission already.

Peter Head has no excuses not to come this time – train from Cambridge to London ca. £20.