The Women Behind Your Critical Editions

Today, in cooperation with the INTF in Münster, we co-publish an important post written by Greg Paulson and Katie Leggett in order to highlight some of the women behind the critical editions in wide use today. Paulson and Legett have interviewed five women currently working on the editions, talking about their background, qualifications, and unique contributions to the editions. (Dora Panella in the picture is not currently working on the editions but might get something in later on.)

The staff at the INTF is half female and has more female NT text critics than any other institution in the field. Therefore we are happy to highlight these amazing women here!

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By Greg Paulson with Katie Leggett

From left to right: Katrin Landefeld, Megan Burnett, Marie-Luise Lakmann, Annette Hüffmeier, Dora Panella, Katharina Sandmeier

It's well known that the critical editions produced at the INTF in Münster—the Nestle-Aland, the UBS Greek New Testament, and the Editio Critica Maior (ECM)—are renowned worldwide and provide the basis for almost all modern New Testament translations around the globe. Most will also know that Barbara Aland was the first female director of the INTF, serving from 1983-2004, and leaving an indelible legacy on the institute and the wider field of New Testament textual criticism. A lesser-known fact, however, and one that we are also very proud of, is that half of the INTF's current staff working on these acclaimed critical editions is female.

In this blogpost we would like to introduce you to some of the highly qualified women behind your critical editions. Through these short interviews we hope you get to know them better and see how each of their contributions has a direct impact on the most widely used Greek New Testaments in the world.

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Dr. Marie-Luise Lakmann

Tell us about your academic background and what brought you to the INTF:

After studying Classical Philology (Greek, Latin, Pedagogy) at the University of Münster, I began a project called Platonism in Antiquity in 1985 led by Matthias Baltes, which was a comprehensive study of the history of Plato's philosophy in texts and commentaries. As part of this project, I wrote my doctoral thesis called "Der Platoniker Tauros in der Darstellung des Aulus Gellius" (Leiden 1993). In 2002, the INTF advertised a position to collaborate in developing a digital edition with the most important manuscripts of the New Testament, called "Digitale Edition der überlieferungsgeschichtlich wichtigsten Handschriften des Neuen Testaments mit kritischem Apparat auf einer Website," better known as NT Transcripts (http://nttranscripts.uni-muenster.de/). 

The purpose of the project was to make digital transcriptions of the most important Greek New Testament manuscripts and produce an apparatus online, further developing the Collate program created by Peter Robinson. This was a pioneering work in the field when digital tools were only in their infancy and essentially the beginning of the NTVMR. My fascination with philological work on Greek texts and the constantly expanding digital possibilities in the field made this position very appealing. I’ve been working as a researcher in various areas of New Testament editions and textual criticism ever since NT Transcripts. As a 22-year veteran of the INTF, I’m proud to say I've been at the INTF the longest of the current employees. Since I've been part of the INTF for nearly one-third of its lifespan, I've had the privilege of seeing numerous fascinating developments in the field of New Testament textual criticism in these 22 years. Throughout my time here, my enthusiasm for textual criticism has continued to grow the more deeply I engage with the many facets of this field. I greatly enjoy working with the sources of the New Testament and especially grappling with philological challenges of the text, which requires a meticulous and sometimes even detective-like approach.

What specific project(s) are you working on at the INTF? How does your work directly affect the critical editions?

One focus of my work is the transcription and collation of New Testament manuscripts. This task has remained a constant throughout my tenure at the INTF and is still ongoing! In 2007 I began working on the ECM of the Catholic Letters, which was the continuation of the project first envisioned by Kurt Aland and others in the 1960s. Under the direction of Barbara Aland, the first volumes of the ECM were published, and the current director Holger Strutwolf, secured funding from the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts until 2030 to make the editions of Acts, Mark, Matthew, and Luke (in this order).

Preview of digital ECM Matthew

As part of the ECM team, I provide transcriptions of selected manuscripts and compile the text-critical apparatus of the Greek manuscripts based on these transcriptions. This work is carried out verse by verse in four stages: regularization of the variants, establishing variation units, determining the order of the variants, and post-editing and correcting the apparatus. This results in the Greek apparatus you see in the ECM (digital and print). Another major project has been an intensive revision of the Nestle-Aland 28th edition apparatus. For this I worked with Beate von Tschischwitz, who was an integral part of the INTF staff until retiring at the end of 2016. We revised the entire apparatus, making it more user-friendly and incorporating the new findings of the ECM Catholic Letters.

I also worked as co-editor on the ECM Mark, and now Matthew, supporting the editorial team. We meet regularly to discuss places where there are significant differences in the manuscript tradition. Sometimes establishing the Ausgangstext can be resolved quickly, other times we come back again and again to try and discern the best solution for particularly difficult passages. I am also involved in indexing and transcribing in the NTVMR as well the digital edition, and I assist in maintaining the Kurzgefasste Liste.

A particularly enjoyable responsibility is coordinating and supervising the student workers at our institute, which includes training them in Greek paleography and how to use digital tools to produce transcriptions and upload microfilm and digital images of manuscripts.

Who (past or present) has had the biggest influence on your formation as a scholar?

By working on the research project "Platonism in Antiquity" I became familiar with aspects of academic research that are also fundamental to my work at INTF. The leader of this project, Prof. Matthias Baltes (1940-2003) was a role model for many students and staff thanks to his prolific knowledge, enthusiasm, and disciplined approach to work.

What do you wish more people knew about the INTF or the work you do there?

That in the long history of the INTF, which celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, groundbreaking work on the New Testament has been and continues to be pursued in a way that is unparalleled in the world. The institute remains at the forefront of New Testament studies, pioneering numerous groundbreaking projects in areas such as manuscript studies, critical editions, and digital humanities.

What is your all-time favorite critical edition of the New Testament?

The Nestle-Aland 28th edition, on whose revision I worked intensively. 

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Dr. Megan Burnett

Tell us about your academic background and what brought you to the INTF:

I studied Biblical Studies, first a BA at Southwest Baptist University and then an MA and PhD at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where I wrote my dissertation Codex Washingtonianus: An Analysis of the Textual Affiliations of the Freer Gospels Manuscript (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2022).

After graduating, I saw a position funded jointly by the German Bible Society and INTF as a research fellow for the hand editions of the Greek New Testament. This 3-year postdoc position was previously held by Dora Panella. I was excited at the prospect of working at the INTF because it's the premiere institute for NT textual criticism and I wanted to pursue this career. 

What specific project(s) are you working on at the INTF? How does your work directly affect the critical editions?

My primary task is to revise the Nestle-Aland (NA) edition, implementing new information from the Editio Critica Maior as it becomes available. For the forthcoming 29th edition of the NA, I updated the text and apparatus of Mark and Revelation. The book of Acts was done primarily by Dora, which means the NA29 will contain major updates to these three books. Apart from these changes, further changes that will appear in the NA29 edition are more cosmetic. For example, the NA (and the UBS GNT) will no longer use letters to signify majuscules, utilizing their Gregory-Aland numbers instead.

Editing program view of NA29 Mark

Besides revising the NA, I also attend the NA and UBS GNT editorial meetings and take the meeting minutes. It has been fascinating to see the decision-making processes of the editors firsthand. The NA and the UBS GNT have different target audiences and purposes, which is reflected in how the editors determine what information they include in the apparatus. The NA includes more apparatus units to illustrate the transmission of the text. For the UBS GNT, which is the base text for Bible translations in over 700 languages, the editors only include textual variants that are potentially significant for translation.

What do you like about working at the INTF/doing textual criticism?

I became interested in biblical studies when I underwent a crisis of my Christian faith as a young college student at Southwest Baptist University. It was there that my professors introduced me to a whole new way of understanding the Bible, and it began to come alive for me. The historical characters of the NT went from being people of “ye olde ancient days” to people of a concrete time and place, with distinct cultures and worldviews.

I didn’t become interested in textual criticism until seminary. There, Dr. Bill Warren, who has been very influential in my formation as a scholar, set up an excellent research center called the Center for New Testament Textual Studies. I started transcribing a few manuscripts, and it all snowballed from there. Ironically, I did some introductory work on textual criticism in undergraduate studies, and I found it to be quite boring at the time! It seemed so esoteric and removed from an understanding of the New Testament. It wasn’t until I started engaging with the manuscripts that I realized how important and practical it all is. Either the manuscript evidence says one thing or it says something else. That clarity appeals to me. Of all biblical study disciplines, textual criticism is the closest to a hard science. I appreciate the wealth of data (i.e., NT manuscripts) that text critics have available for research. The INTF has done a great deal to make this data accessible through its Virtual Manuscript Room (https://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/).

Concerning my job specifically, I have been intrigued by what exactly goes into the creation of the critical editions. One thing I appreciate about textual criticism is that the work is similar no matter where one goes in the world. I did my studies in the USA, but then moved to Germany to do my professional work. And though I certainly experienced some cultural differences, I have found that my work as a text critic remains largely unchanged. This work entails collaborating with people from all over the world. No matter where we are, it seems like we’re all on the same team.

What do you wish more people knew about the INTF or the work you do there?

It’s a pet peeve of mine, but textual criticism isn’t the same as biblical translation. Whenever I tell people what I do, they often say, “Oh, so you do translation work.” I try to explain that I do the work that needs to happen before translation can start, but they often still don’t understand. A lot of folks are simply used to having the Bible around and have spent little time thinking about where it came from.

Certain sectors of the community also have a particular bugbear about the phrase “initial text" (Ausgangstext) and think it somehow denigrates the textual authority of the NT. As a committed Christian, I have no problem with this term and know it is not at all intended to weaken the authority of the Bible as the living word of God. In my experience, my colleagues at the INTF have a high respect for the New Testament and for the work they do as text critics.

Do you have advice for others (or specifically for women) wanting to enter this field?

Learning to do textual criticism is like learning to drive a car. You can read all the books you want, but you don’t learn to drive until you get behind the wheel. If you want to do textual criticism, you have to work with the manuscripts themselves. Reading books about manuscripts will not be enough.

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Dr. Annette Hüffmeier

Tell us about your academic background and what brought you to the INTF:

I studied to be a secondary school teacher in ancient Greek, history, German, and mathematics, but I actually only worked at a school during my teacher training period. Since I really enjoyed delving deeply into academic topics, I decided to pursue a PhD (1996-1999). My doctoral thesis was called “Pythagorean Sayings in Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras.” I had laid the foundation for this years earlier during my year abroad at Trinity College in Dublin during which I obtained my M. Litt.

After I began my teacher training period, I took maternity leave to focus on raising my children. I began supporting the existing intensive Greek courses at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in the late 1990s and was eventually offered a temporary part-time teaching position there in 2007. In 2010, Gerd Mink at the INTF was due to retire and I successfully obtained his position.

My position is split between teaching at the Protestant faculty and researching at the INTF. Even though these two roles certainly require more work than one full time position, I wouldn't want to miss out on either! Combining work and family at the beginning when my children were young was only possible because my husband reduced his work hours (before he later retired). Thankfully, I was able to work flexibly, teaching and working at the INTF in the mornings when our daughters were at nursery and school and then finishing the rest at home (often) late in the evenings when the children no longer needed me.

Each October, I teach an intensive Greek course for beginners who after six or nine months are going to take the state qualification Graecum. After a few months with the basics, we move to reading Plato and finally Paul. The course is supplemented with classes on the world of Paul. While the intensive pace can be exhausting, it is very rewarding to have close contact with the students and to witness positive growth. This work is connected with the INTF because often our graduates go on to work as student assistants, for example in transcription, patristics, or at the Bible Museum.

At the INTF I can work independently, utilizing my skills in classic ancient Greek, but I also enjoy collaboration with colleagues. We're part of a larger interdisciplinary project in which everyone knows they can't be successful on their own and that they stand on the shoulders of their predecessors. The opportunity to collaborate internationally is also a particularly rewarding aspect of the work.

What specific project(s) are you working on at the INTF? How does your work directly affect the critical editions?

I work almost exclusively on the ECM. My primary tasks are creating and refining the apparatus, coordinating the versional and patristic contributions to it, working in the editorial team, a lot of proofreading, giving presentations on the ECM both locally and internationally, and representing the INTF in various external committees like IGNTP and SBL. My work —together with that of Marie-Luise — is the critical apparatus, which would not exist without our combined efforts. We collaborate on the four steps she mentioned above, with the goal to make the apparatus as comprehensible and readable as possible. I also work with the versionists and patristic scholars to coordinate material so we can identify certain variants that are not present in Greek manuscripts and determine how probable it is that these go back to lost Greek readings. If a positive decision is made, I work with the versionists to retro-translate the versional wording into Greek, which can then be found in the apparatus.

I also work extensively to refine the apparatus, checking the multiple instances of lectionary readings, examining the references to synoptic parallels or adding punctuation to the initial text (again along with Marie-Luise). As a member of the ECM editorial committee, I am one of five that votes on textual decisions and uses the help of the CBGM to do this. When I first started with ECM Acts 14 years ago, I was the only female on the committee and a complete newcomer in the field. It was very intimidating working alongside such seasoned textual critics, but thankfully I held my own and was able to stay on.

Preliminary CBGM General Textual Flow diagram for Matthew 16:26/6-8

Who has had the biggest influence on your formation as a scholar?

My former Greek teacher at school (Manfred Kretschmer) and my Greek professor in Classics (Prof. Dr. Matthias Baltes), who sadly passed away far too early.

What do you wish more people knew about the INTF or the work you do there?

How hard we all work (together) and how we struggle over every textual decision that is made. Each decision is scrutinized extensively, and we strive to remain objective and keep ideology out as much as possible. Unfortunately, a common fallacy is that our work is largely done by computers. It's not the CBGM that automatically generates the many thousands of textual decisions behind our critical editions. We humans do that! Of course we are supported by digital tools in this endeavor, but our task as scholars with these thousands of textual decisions is to carefully weigh every single one.

Do you have advice for others (or specifically for women) wanting to enter this field?

Don't let yourself be discouraged on your career path. If you believe that what you are doing is worthwhile, then keep steadily working at it (but without wearing yourself down). Set measurable, interim goals for yourself and seek out help when needed. Network as much as possible. Always keep learning and consider early on what you are (not) prepared to sacrifice for your career.

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Dr. Katrin Maria Landefeld

Tell us about your academic background and what brought you to the INTF:

I studied Latin, Greek and Theology in Bielefeld and Münster and then completed my doctorate in classical Greek Philology, writing my dissertation on prayer in the works of Epictetus. At that time, I was a tutor for Latin and Greek, then had various other teaching assignments, and finally was a lecturer in Bielefeld and Bochum. While working on my doctorate, I saw a position advertised for student workers at the INTF. That is how I got to know Marie-Luise Lakmann. I worked in the Patristics Department for about a year as a research assistant gathering citations from editions of Church Fathers. After my time there, I taught Latin in Bochum and in 2020 came back to the INTF to work on a project with Prof. Dr. Holger Strutwolf, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schmid and Dr. Troy Griffitts. Our project was called “Theory of Variation on the basis of an open digital edition of the Greek New Testament.” It investigated the emergence of variants in Acts of the Apostles. We tagged the text and variants morphologically, making it possible to search for certain grammatical phenomena. Specifically, I studied corrections in particular manuscripts. I found that the examination of single places of correction can be profitable for judging specific variants and their emergence. We also looked at genealogical connections of manuscripts and found that 05 and 08/1884 are probably connected in this way.

In 2023, I returned to the Patristics department and now work together with David Vasquez. In addition to my work in Patristics, I am writing my Habilitation, a commentary on Augustine's “De musica” book 6, in which Augustine combines music theory with theology.

What specific project(s) are you working on at the INTF? How does your work directly affect the critical editions?

The church fathers are often early witnesses to the text of the NT so it's important to include this information in the ECM. Since we often know when and where church fathers lived, they are valuable for understanding the transmission and reception of the NT. Church fathers quoted Scripture in a variety of works, such as homilies and commentaries, and in numerous forms, such as allusions and direct quotations. My task is to collect and evaluate these Patristic NT citations and assign them to variant readings in the ECM apparatus. All the church fathers and their respective works consulted are listed in the printed edition of the ECM. There is also a database of Patristic citations that is open to the public, so everyone can see what material was used and evaluated for the editions. Although we only incorporate direct quotations in the ECM apparatus, the database offers the full context of the quotation (and bibliography) so that readers have exhaustive evidence at their fingertips if they wish to research further. As new editions of the NA appear, the Patristic citations will be revised based on the ECM.

INTF database of Patristic citations for Mark 1:1

Why did you decide to pursue this field?

I got to know the INTF while studying in Münster and was fascinated by the combination of Theology and classical languages being utilized there. I pursued this field because I found the idea of working together in this interdisciplinary team really inspiring, and I am grateful to be working here now.

What do you like about working at the INTF/doing textual criticism?

First and foremost, the team at the INTF is great! It is a wonderful experience to work together on such a monumental project developing an esteemed critical edition. Textual criticism is a field where you are able to scrutinize textual and grammatical details, which is something I enjoy.

Who (past or present) has had the biggest influence on your formation as a scholar?

There are many people who have influenced my formation as a scholar, I’ll only name a few here. Dr. Peter Prestel was my Latin and Greek teacher in Bielefeld, with whom I have worked together for many years. He piqued my interest in classical languages, and I could always come to him with questions while I was studying. I’m very grateful to him for all his help and for giving me the chance to teach language courses. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Rainer Henke, Prof. Dr. Christian Pietsch and Prof. Dr. Samuel Vollenweider have also had an immense influence on me and my work. They supervised several theses/papers throughout my studies and enhanced my interest in ancient philosophy and theology. Now, Prof. Dr. Christian Pietsch and Prof. Dr. Holger Strutwolf are supervising my Habilitation. Through conversations with them, the idea of writing a commentary on Augustine's early work “De musica” for this project emerged, allowing me to combine again my interest in theology and textual studies. Finally, the team at the INTF continues to impact me and my work. To all these people, I am very grateful.

What is your all-time favorite critical edition of the New Testament?

The ECM, of course :)

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Dr. Katharina Sandmeier

Tell us about your academic background and what brought you to the INTF:

I studied Egyptology, Coptology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Münster. These disciplines offer a joint BA program here in Münster. When I started, I was still undecided about which field I would find most interesting. I then took courses in Coptic language and culture and found both fascinating. In my MA program I focused on Coptology and decided I wanted to make it my profession. As I was finishing my MA thesis in 2014, there was an opening at the INTF, and it soon became a second home. This was immensely lucky since jobs in such a specialized field are rare, and I didn’t even have to move to a new city! One of my main interests during my studies was book culture and codicology; the New Testament and its witnesses have a lot to do with that. So, I was able to enrich my area of speciality and be employed while doing so. I started as a student assistant working part-time while I wrote my PhD on Coptic and Greek punctuation and segmentation. (Just finished!) Since 2022 I’m a full-time researcher and the heart of the Coptic department at the INTF – which, after Siegfried Richter left, is made up of a student assistant and myself.

What specific project(s) are you working on at the INTF? How does your work directly affect the critical editions?

I work on the Coptic tradition of the NT for the ECM. Egypt was under Roman rule by the time Christianity spread, and letters from the Greek alphabet, along with some characters from Demotic, were used to reproduce the Coptic language in written form. Around the 4th or early 5th century, the NT was translated from Greek into different dialects of late antique Egypt, most commonly Sahidic, Bohairic, and Fayyumic. Coptic is important for a critical edition because we can figure out which of the different textual traditions within the Greek was used as a source text for the Coptic translation. The Coptic support of a certain variant in the Greek critical apparatus helps us ascertain that this reading was established quite early on.

ECM Matthew Coptic apparatus editing program. This particular passage shows where the Coptic tradition can be cited (circled in red).

The first step is cataloging all relevant witnesses, which in the Coptic tradition are often quite fragmentary and can be scattered across different collections and museums. The electronic repository of all known Coptic NT MSS is called the SMR database and can be found here: <http://intf.uni-muenster.de/smr/> This was begun here at the INTF by Gerd Mink and Franz-Jürgen Schmitz in the 1970s (back then, of course, in printed form) and is still growing today. The second step is to transcribe all Coptic witnesses from available images. For some witnesses there are editions which can be collated and utilized, but many have never been published or even worked on in any form! The existing critical editions of the Coptic NT are quite old and therefore don’t include many of the MSS we know today. After collection and transcription, the final task is to connect the Coptic tradition with the variants of the Greek source texts in the critical apparatus of the ECM, determining which Greek variants are possible Vorlagen for the Coptic translations. I have carried out this work on the ECM of Acts and Mark and right now am working on ECM Matthew. I have already started on transcriptions for ECM Luke as well.

What do you like about working at the INTF/doing textual criticism?

It’s amazing to see how numerous Greek variants can result in the same Coptic translation while at the same time, a certain Greek expression can be rendered with different Coptic phrases. Sometimes these nuances are due to a specific Coptic dialect, but also within the same dialect there seem to have been options to choose from which – as far as we know – have little or no difference in the meaning. I also really enjoy the search for parallels in the versions, like the old Latin, Syriac, Gothic or Ethiopic translations of the NT. Similarities between the versions when they differ from the Greek variants can indicate the attestation of a reading which has been lost in the Greek tradition. Looking for these makes for some great eureka moments.

Who has had the biggest influence on your formation as a scholar?

That would be Siegfried Richter. He was my supervisor when I joined the INTF and introduced me to Coptic textual criticism. During this collaboration, I learned not to dwell on mistakes made but to be happy that they were found before publication! When I first began, Richter once compared my way of working to a tank: I would choose a direction and once that path was chosen, put all my energy towards full speed ahead. From him, I learned that it’s sometimes necessary to take a step back and get a different perspective, to pause and make sure the direction and destination are (still) right. I think about this view very often when I face a new challenge. I’m sure he doesn't know how much of an impression his words have made on me!

What do you wish more people knew about the INTF or the work you do there?

Curating the SMR-database and transcribing all relevant Coptic MSS are necessary prerequisites before the work of assigning Coptic to Greek variants can even begin. Each of these elements is an immense amount of work. Most people see either the database/transcription aspect or only the text-critical work that is done here. It is important to acknowledge the thorough treatment of the whole Coptic NT tradition being carried out at the INTF and how much effort it takes to organize and research this tradition so that we can accurately represent it in the ECM.

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We hope you’ve enjoyed these short profiles about the talented women contributing to the critical editions. In a field historically dominated by men, we are privileged to collaborate with such skilled and dedicated women. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for their years of hard work and commitment and hope these scholars will inspire future generations, and particularly more women, to pursue the field of New Testament textual criticism!