Over at the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft website, there is a German press release about a recent meeting of the new NA/UBS committee. Below is a translation into English. The most important news here is the projected date of completion (2021/22), the expected changes covering Mark and Acts, and the changed order of books.Editors of “Nestle-Aland” and Greek New Testament meet at Bible Museum in Washington
Preparations for a new edition of the authoritative scholarly texts
Stuttgart / Washington. The editors for the Greek New Testament and the Novum Testamentum Graece (“Nestle-Aland”) met at the newly opened “Museum of the Bible” (MOTB) in Washington, DC. After the conference, the contours for new editions of the world’s two leading scholarly editions of the Greek New Testament are emerging. The Global Council of the United Bible Societies (UBS) recently recruited the international panel.
The editions are being prepared at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research founded by Kurt Aland at the University of Münster under the direction of Prof. Holger Strutwolf. In addition to him, the following scholars have been appointed as editors: Prof. Christos Karakolis (University of Athens), Prof. David Parker (University of Birmingham), Prof. Stephen Pisano (Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome); David Trobisch (Green Collection, Oklahoma City) and Dr. Klaus Wachtel (University of Münster). This ensures that the experiences and interests of different regions and denominations (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) are incorporated. In addition, Dr. Simon Crisp (UBS) and Dr. Florian Voss (German Bible Society) are working with the panel.
“The research of the text of the New Testament is at an exciting stage,” reports Florian Voss. As part of a large-scale, international research project in Münster, Birmingham and other cities, the Greek initial text of the entire NT, the so-called Urtext, is newly constituted. As a result, among other things, the Greek text is changing in many places. “This will also affect the interpretation of the text and the translation,” explains the editor for the German Bible Society. New editions are planned for 2021/2022. They will bring changes especially in the Gospel of Mark and Acts. Furthermore, the scholars are considering adapting the order of the New Testament writings to the tradition prevalent in the manuscripts, according to which Acts is immediately followed by the so-called Catholic Letters: the Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude.
The German Bible Society, in consultation with the United Bible Societies, publishes the most important scholarly editions of the Biblical texts. The editions are the basis of Bible translation and exegesis worldwide.
Interesting news, thanks.
ReplyDelete"Herausgeber" is editor, not publisher.
Best wishes,
A. Nonymous
yup.
DeleteFixed. Thanks
DeleteAs for adopting the order of the New Testament writings to the tradition prevalent in the manuscripts, I can see that the restorationist impulse is alive and well. But I wonder how far it will continue to go? Perhaps we should also restore the use of uncials in the NA/UBS, as opposed to minuscules, since that's what the manuscripts used. Perhaps we should remove paragraph divisions, since the manuscripts didn’t have them. Perhaps we should remove punctuation, too, since the manuscripts didn’t have punctuation. Perhaps we should also remove the verse numbers from the NA/UBS, since the manuscripts had no verse numbers.
ReplyDeleteAJM: what's the order in the TR?
DeleteSame as the NA28?
DeleteAh, okay.
DeleteWas that the right answer professor? I'm thinking the various editions of the TR have the same order as we have now, but I could certainly be wrong.
DeleteThe translation, which speaks of "the original Greek text of the entire NT, the so-called Urtext" doesn't quite reflect "der griechische Ausgangstext des gesamten NT, der sogenannte Urtext". Since in general the Ausgangstext cannot be assumed to be 'the original text'.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why they would refer to changes in the Gospel of Mark and the Acts of the Apostles. (Acts I understand, because of the ECM) Is this a mistake for John (hence giving a deadline for the John ECM)? They can't do Mark without doing the other synoptics, I thought this was scheduled for a while later.
ReplyDeleteGood translation catch, Pete! Now fixed. As for Mark, I understand that is on the docket next for INTF and was started already—at least the collating—while they were still working on Acts. Not sure why John isn’t mentioned though.
ReplyDeleteUrtext is original text when translated! So the translation would actually be: the Greek initial text of the entire NT, the so called original text.
DeleteTransliteration to avoid original text is not translation, even if you don’t like ‘original text’.
Even ‘so called’ can be misleading, since it also means ‘known as’.
Tim
I think ursprüngliche Texte is usually "original text," no?
DeleteThanks for that brief update.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone ascertain how many members of the group responsible for contributing to the future NA compilation(s) are members of the Center For Inquiry?
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/about
Trobisch?
ReplyDeleteOf course it does not seem that editors of either NA29 nor UBS6 will actually be empowered to do any editorial work on the text of the Greek NT. The text will be delivered by the ECM.
ReplyDeletePMH, my understanding is that the committee will use the ECM, but with authority to reject the ECM’s editorial text if they decide to. But I’ve only heard that through the grapevine.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs an update to this, I just saw that Florian Voss put out a statement that these editions are now due out in 2024.
ReplyDelete