TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 23 (2018)

The current volume 23 (2018) of TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism is now complete with six fine articles and nine reviews, linked below. The journal is flourishing, and some good things will happen next year. Many further articles and reviews are already in the pipeline. As one of the editors I would like to welcome your submissions!

Volume 23 (2018)

Articles

Garrick V. Allen, “There Is No Glory and No Money in the Work”: H. C. Hoskier and New Testament Textual Criticism

Abstract: Focusing on the work and life of H. C. Hoskier, this article explores the broader intellectual context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century textual criticism. This examination illuminates the deep context of current trends in textual scholarship on the New Testament, arguing that the discipline has much to learn from the dark corners of the tradition. 

Jonathan Hong, In Search of the “Old Greek” in the Septuagint Psalter: A Case Study of LXX Psalms 49 and 103

Abstract: Till today Rahlfs’s edition from 1931 is the standard text when it comes to the Greek Psalter. However, important discoveries were made after 1931, for example the Psalm scrolls from Qumran and early Greek manuscripts. This article includes the new material and argues that the original text of the Septuagint has been a freer translation than the text reconstructed by Rahlfs. It also shows that the new Greek manuscript findings of Papyrus Bodmer XXIV (Ra 2110) and Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 5101 (Ra 2227) attest to a particularly strongly Hebraized text-form.

Jesse R. Grenz, Textual Divisions in Codex Vaticanus: A Layered Approach to the Delimiters in B(03)

Abstract: In this article, I am concerned with the various delimitation markers found in Codex Vaticanus. While some scholars have assumed an overall coherence between these markers, I argue that they must first be examined on their own to determine their function and relation to one another. This is done first by understanding textual delimitation as a part of transmission and scribal habit. After examining the spacing, ektheses, paragraphoi, and Greek section numerals, I conclude: (1) only the spacing and ektheses are original to the work of the scribes; (2) the paragraphoi were later additions for the purpose of reading, and sometimes correct the original divisions of the scribes; and (3) finally, the later additions of Greek section numerals were for ease of reference and can both agree and disagree with previous division markers. The data presented below has implications for any further conclusions about the purpose and relationship of these divisions to the larger textual tradition.

Michael Dormandy, How the Books Became the Bible: The Evidence for Canon ­Formation from Work-Combinations in Manuscripts

Abstract: This paper contributes to a developing conversation about the New Testament canon. I consider the way manuscripts combine different works and investigate to what extent, even before canon lists became widespread, manuscripts combined only those works that were later affirmed as canonical. My method is to establish the works contained in all Greek New Testament manuscripts, dating from before the end of the fourth century. There are a number of cases where only a fragment survives, containing a small part of one work, but where there are also page numbers that enable us to estimate what else might have been present. My results demonstrate that the works that are now considered canonical were rarely combined with works now considered noncanonical. However, they also demonstrate that single-work manuscripts were widespread.

Elijah Hixson, Two Codices with a Common Corrector: The Secondary Corrections in N 022 and Σ 042

Abstract: Since their discovery, scholars have known about the close textual relationship between two sixth-century Greek codices of the Gospels. That Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus (N 022) and the Rossano Gospels (Σ 042) were copied from the same exemplar is rarely questioned. However, both manuscripts also feature primary and secondary corrections. Based on the ink, pen nib width, scribal hand and textual affinity of the corrections, as well as some similar mistakes elsewhere in the manuscripts, it seems that the same scribe corrected both manuscripts using the same second exemplar. Specifically, the scribe of 042 was responsible for secondary corrections in both 042 and 022, and the second exemplar to which the corrections were made might have been a close textual relative to another sixth-century purple codex, Codex Beratinus-1 (Φ 043).

Alan Taylor Farnes, Scribal Habits in 𝕻¹²⁷ (P.Oxy. 74.4968)

Abstract: The scribal habits in 𝕻¹²⁷ confirm James R. Royse’s findings that early New Testament scribes omit more than they add. Although 𝕻¹²⁷ reflects more omissions than additions, the scribe’s habits are nevertheless strikingly different than Royse’s scribes. Royse also wonders if scribal conventions may have changed, becoming more fixed in post-Constantine Christianity. Such a question would require an investigation of many later manuscripts. 𝕻¹²⁷, however, does not represent a fixed, more stable text. Rather, the opposite is true: 𝕻¹²⁷ displays a high degree of textual variance. More studies of this type are needed to determine if 𝕻¹²⁷ is indicative of the fifth century or if other fifth-century witnesses exhibit textual fixity.

Reviews

Marietheres Döhler, Acta Petri: Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar zu den Actus Vercellenses (Thomas J. Kraus, reviewer)

Liv Ingeborg Lied and Hugo Lundhaug, Snapshots of Evolving Traditions: Jewish and Christian Manuscript Culture, Textual Fluidity, and New Philology (Marcus Sigismund, reviewer)

Alan Mugridge, Copying Early Christian Texts: A Study of Scribal Practise (Michael Dormandy, reviewer)

Ernst Würthwein and Alexander Achilles Fischer, The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica (Andrew W. Dyck, reviewer)

Michelle Fletcher, Reading Revelation as Pastiche: Imitating the Past (Michael Sommer, reviewer)

Zachary J. Cole, Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts: Text- Critical, Scribal, and Theological Studies (An-Ting Yi, reviewer)

Larry W. Hurtado, Texts and Artefacts: Selected Essays on Textual Criticism and Early Christian Manuscripts (Thomas J. Kraus, reviewer)

Terrance Callan, Acknowledging the Divine Benefactor: The Second Letter of Peter (Jörg Frey, reviewer)

Nicola Reggiani, Digital Papyrology I: Methods, Tools and Trends (Thomas J. Kraus, reviewer)