Darrell Post Finds a New Member of Family 13 – L1080

In recent years, Darrell Post has worked to collate all manuscripts in John 11 and in this process he has just discovered a new member of Family 13 – Lectionary 1080 (Mount Athos, Great Lavra Monastery, A' 80, 13th century). Post tells me that the manuscript "was found to be a perfect match to Family 13 in its core group, in John 11:1-45. The lesson that covers 11:47-54 is of a slightly different pattern, but is a match to L547, also belonging to Family 13." 

This is the third lectionary which has been identified as a family member: 

In 1964, Jacob Geerlings analysed L547 in his study on The Lectionary Text of Family 13 according to Cod Vat Gr 1217 {Gregory 547) [ The Ferrar Lectionary] (Salt Lake City, 1964).

In 1982, Yvonne Burns published an article on L574, "A Newly Discovered Family 13 Manuscript and the Ferrar Lection System" in Studia Patristica 12 (pp. 278–299).

And now Post has identified a third lectionary, L1080, as a member of F13, but he points out that a full collation is necessary to see if it is a family member throughout the manuscript. Post sent me a chart which shows the pattern of readings in the chapter and also illustrates its close relationship to L547 in the lesson in 11:47–54.

Copyright of Digital Images of Biblical Manuscripts

The other day I attended an interesting professional development session on "Foundations of Copyright for Researchers" (by the way, this was not punishment for using academia.edu). One of the interesting things about this was a discussion about a recent UK court case and its implications for copyright of digital images - something many of us are interested in and use pretty much every day. 

In brief it seems that the Judge in this court case (Lord Justice Arnold) broadly ruled that simply taking a photograph of an object was not sufficiently "creative" to warrant the copyrighting of the digital image.  

"What is required is that the author was able to express their creative abilities in the production of the work by making free and creative choices so as to stamp the work created with their personal touch […] This criterion is not satisfied where the content of the work is dictated by technical considerations, rules or other constraints which leave no room for creative freedom.” 

If you are interested in this, then there is more information here: https://douglasmccarthy.com/2024/01/after-thj-v-sheridan/ (and also further reading and references to follow up). 

Want to learn to read Greek Manuscripts?

Reading manuscripts is one of the best ways to get into textual criticism and even theology of Scripture because it forces you to deal with what an actual person actually did for someone’s actual Bible. It doesn’t allow you to make assumptions about what you think should have happened and assume that the evidence will simply prove you right.

Dr. Jacob Peterson has created a wonderful website that takes readers who can read printed Greek texts from easy Greek manuscripts on to harder ones.

Screenshot of lesson 1

Just today, I stepped into the main room of CNTTS and saw that our newest employee was being trained on this website before he starts next week.

If you’ve ever wanted to be able to read the manuscripts themselves instead of relying on others to tell you what they say, I recommend xeirographa.com (with an x, not a χ).

A photo of xeirographa.com being used in the wild, which was definitely not staged.

Cole on Preservation and the Westminster Divines’ Sermons

Zach Cole of RTS Orlando has a new article out in JETS. Actually, it was out in September issue, but I just got my hardcopy. Zach’s been working on the subject of TC in the Westminster divines for a while now and his ETS paper this year built on that. It dovetails nincely with my recent article on the topic and I’ve been enjoying following Zach’s parallel work on the subject. I recommend this one. Here is the abstract.

Providential Preservation of Scripture and Textual Criticism in the Sermons of Westminster Divines

Abstract: The men who claimed that Scripture had been “kept pure in all ages” were also regular preachers who routinely dealt with textual variations and marginal readings. By giving attention to the manner in which they addressed text-critical problems in the pulpit, we can understand more precisely what the Westminster divines believed about the manner of God’s preservation of his word. It is argued that the authorial intent of WCF 1.8 allows room for the practice of textual criticism and that it does not require adoption of one particular strand of the Greek textual tradition as “approved” in every point of variation.

And here are his concluding observations in short form:

• First and most obviously, the men who affirmed that the word of God had been “kept pure in all ages” were aware of textual criticism and its challenges.
• Second, we do not find our preachers engaging in conjectural emendation, that is, advocating a reading that lacks extant manuscript support.
• Third, beyond these similarities across our preachers, we also find a modest diversity of approaches and practices when adjudicating textual problems. 
• Fourth, several of the Westminster divines show a degree comfortability with textual variation.

You can read the whole article here, although it may be paywalled for non-ETS members.