Monday, July 30, 2012

Summer Trivia: Conjecture

17
Can you (a) name this publication and (b) correct the error on this particular page:
























Update: Stephen Goranson found the error, "electric" for "eclectic," and Maurice Robinson identified the publication – the first edition of Metzger's The Text of the New Testament published in 1964. In the image to the left you can see Tjitze Baarda's conjecture in his copy – I think it was he who notified Metzger who corrected the error in the 2d edition.

17 comments

  1. Juan Hernández Jr.7/30/2012 10:23 pm

    The 3rd, enlarged edition of Metzger's "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration."

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  2. As soon as you asked people to spot the error in a mystery publication, am I the only person who right away thought "oh gosh, I hope it isn't something I wrote!"

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  3. Of course, I shouldn't have worried: finding a mistake in one of my works wouldn't be difficult enough to make for an interesting contest!

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  4. Metzger's 2nd edition of the "Text of the NT"?

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  5. Books is Metzger's The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration , 2nd edition, page 103. Mistake is the misspelling of the city Basel as "Basle" in the seventh line of text.

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  6. Dear J. K.,

    I don't think writing "Basle" is any more of a mistake than an American writing "favour" on line 14. For example, the New Oxford American Dictionary says that "Basel" is the "German name for Basle."

    Now what's the real mistake?

    Sincerely,

    Jonathan C. Borland

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  7. I would not give the TR 400 years of dominance without a rival based on earlier material but rather around 300 to the time of Griesbach and Lachmann.

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  8. Curiously electric-->eclectic?

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  9. If it was an electric book that would be curious.

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  10. Juan Hernández Jr.7/31/2012 3:56 pm

    Hey, I cry foul! :) I'm looking at Metzger's 3rd ed, p. 103, and it is identical to the photograph! Perhaps the unaltered page appeared in more than one edition?

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  11. Juan, tell me, is the third edition curiously electric - that would be shocking!

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  12. Juan Hernández Jr.7/31/2012 6:33 pm

    I stand corrected!

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  13. My copy of Metzger's 2nd edition is only "curiously eclectic,"

    However, his first edition (1964)is indeed "curiously electric", even though batteries were not included.

    Nevertheless, I find that by rapidly flipping the pages of either edition a soothing breeze will result.

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  14. And the winners are: Stephen Goranson and Maurice Robinson!

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