The Hexapla Institute Relaunched

 

The Hexapla Institute was founded in 2001 to publish a “Field for the Twenty-First Century.” Over the past 25 years, the Institute has made certain but limited progress, publishing only one of its volumes (Job 22–42) during this time, even though several dissertations were completed on Genesis, Numbers, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Job. The progress has been slow due to the project’s lack of funding and editors who are already heavily committed to other academic projects (all routine challenges and difficulties for academic projects of this sort). Below is a brief update on what’s the same and what exciting new developments are on the horizon.

The Original Purpose

A new chapter in the life of the Hexapla Institute is now being written, one that hopefully will include many volumes of the Edition published within its pages. But this new chapter continues to be guided by the original purpose of the Hexapla Institute: to publish a new critical edition of the remains of Origen’s Hexapla. We exist to research, edit, and publish a critical text of Origen’s Hexapla. We still intend to carry out this mission in both print (with Peeters) and digital formats (with our database currently in development stages). The Hexapla Institute's Editorial Committee with Alison Salvesen, Bas ter Haar Romeny, Peter Gentry, and yours truly remains the same. I'm excited to announce that the volumes for the Secunda (Benjamin Kantor) and Numbers 19–36 (Andrew McClurg) are in process of being typeset, proofed, and published. Thus, our mission remains the same. The changes listed below have been enacted to advance the original purpose of publishing a New Field. 

A New Chapter

The Hexapla Institute was never set up as its own independent research and education organization, and thus it was not setup to receive donations or even to apply for research grants. There were attempts to affiliate it with other such organizations over the years but to no avail. Thus, what was needed was a move to set up the Hexapla Institute as its own independent charitable tax-exempt organization with 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service (USA). And we have now submitted the application for such recognition from the IRS and now wait for their determination. In the meantime, we are still raising funds from gifts which can be retroactively determined tax deductible in order to continue the work.

The work on the Institute’s database continues more efficiently and systematically than ever. And the Institute’s new Fellowship program for residential PhD students at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will be of interest to readers of this blog.

Following the Work

The Hexapla Institute is not going on social media. We want to spend more time on enduring deep work rather than the ephemeral tweet. The new website will have a blog that will be used for updates on the project as well as drawing attention to the significance of the work. But it does plan to send out a Newsletter with some regularity to keep folks updated. If you want to subscribe to the email list, you can do that here.

I'm excited about this new chapter in the life of such an important Institute carrying out very meaningful and valuable work. I hope you will join me in my excitement about the work ahead. If you're interested in the fellowship program or even learning more about editing the hexaplaric materials themselves, do not hesitate to reach out to learn more.

New Review of ECM Revelation

My review of the ECM Revelation volumes is out today in Religious Studies Review. Per the format, it is short, so don’t expect a deep dive. Instead I tried to hit the high points. You should be able to read it without the paywall using this gift link. Here are the last few lines:

The entire team is to be warmly congratulated. Readers of Revelation will be in their debt for decades to come. It remains now for others to digest the results and use them to better understand the textual history of this remarkable book.

Before on the blog, I mentioned some of the most important changes and alerted readers to the fact that, for the first time ever with an ECM, most of the edition would be put online for free. That has now been done which is really remarkable since the edition costs $800 USD. Here are the links:

1. Text (introduction only, 78 pages). The main apparatus is available in the digital ECM at the VMR (here). For the punctuation, textual structure and paratextual details, I gather you still need the physical copy.
2. Supplementary Material 
3. Studies on the Text 
4. Studies on Punctuation and Textual Structure 

New book: Scribal Habits in Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Andrew Wilson has a new book coming out in SBL’s Text-Criticism Studies series. It’s a major study of scribal habits and is something Andrew’s been working on for some 20 years! (I remember reading his chapter on the subject in MAR’s Festschrift during my PhD.)

Publisher's Description

Singular readings (textual variants attested in only one Greek New Testament manuscript) are considered among the least reliable of all textual variants, far more likely to be scribal changes than the words of the authorial text. In this groundbreaking study, Andrew W. Wilson revisits long-held suppositions about textual variants and how they arose through a thorough analysis of more than ten thousand readings likely to be scribal errors. Wilson takes this evidence and reevaluates previous studies of scribal habits to assess the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies for determining what those habits were and what impact they might have had on the wording of New Testament textual transmission. Biblical scholars and students interested in the formation of biblical texts will find new possibilities for how to approach disputed wording in the New Testament.

Table of contents 

To give you a taste of the book, here is the table of contents courtesy of Andrew.

Discount

Finally, over on Facebook, Juan Hernández, who edits the series, shared that you can order the book at a 30% discount through June 5 via the SBL online bookstore. Use discount code SP2026.

‘The Most Beautiful and Glorious Task of Learned Men’

“The most beautiful and glorious task of learned men” — that may be the best description of textual criticism I’ve ever come across. It’s from the sixth-century Roman senator, Christian writer, and monk Cassiodorus. In his book Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning, he has an entire section on the importance of correcting biblical manuscripts as part of the proper study of the Bible. 

Ezra in Amiatinus (source)

He closes his section on the three ways the Scriptures have been divided (by Jerome, Augustine, and the LXX) by saying, “Now it remains for us to say how we ought to correct scribal errors in Holy Scripture.  What use is it to read through many texts and not to know what should properly be corrected in them?” (XIV.5). His next section (XV) gives 16 points on how to do it properly. Here is his first one:

1.  You, therefore, who have a good knowledge of divine and secular letters and the understanding to discover what is not in harmony with common usage, read through sacred literature in the following manner; for the few who are learned must prepare material for the simple and less educated community. Therefore, first read carefully and correct the errors of the writers in such a way that you do not deserve criticism for trying to correct others without due deliberation; this kind of correction is, in my opinion, the most beautiful and glorious task of learned men.

And here are his last two.

15.  I pray also that you who presume, nevertheless, to emend, make the letters you add so beautiful that they appear to have been written by the scribes.  For it is wrong to find in that beauty anything foul which afterwards may shock the eyes of scholars. Consider, therefore, the sort of case entrusted to you, your service to Christians, the treasury of the Church, the enlightenment of souls. See carefully to it, therefore, that no error is left in the truth, no falseness in the purity, and no scribal mistakes in the corrected text. 

16.  First, with the Lord’s aid, we have listed the nine volumes of the law and detailed the introductory writers with their commentaries as carefully as we could. Next we touched on the three divisions of the whole divine law which our ancestors have given us. Then we included a section on the rules covering emendation of texts of divine authority to prevent disruption as well as the transmission of troublesome confusion in the text to posterity because of excessive liberty with the text.  Now we must discuss in all respects the excellence of divine reading so that each passage may abound in its own sweetness.

The whole thing is worth reading, and it’s online here courtesy of James W. and Barbara Halporn. 

Among the reasons Cassiodorus is important is that he is thought by some to be the inspiration behind the famous depiction of Ezra the Scribe in Codex Amiatinus. The nine books in Ezra’s bookcase do match Cassiodorus’s description of the Bible into nine parts.

Now the next time someone tells you textual criticism is boring, you just tell them it’s actually the most beautiful and glorious task of learned men!

Review of UBS6 in Themelios

The latest issue of Themelios is a special issue dedicated to D.A. Carson and the influential NSBT series he edited for three decades. The bulk of the issue is taken up by key authors from the series who summarize and reflect on their volumes. If you’ve never heard of the NSBT series, this would be a great way into it.

But this is not a blog about biblical theology so we’ll save that for another place. Instead, this blog post is to alert you to my review of UBS6 that is also in this issue. I am thankful to the editors who let me go a little longer than the typical Themelios review. Here’s the introduction

First published in 1966, the UBS Greek New Testament hits its 60th birthday this year. It has long been the preferred hand edition for its intended audience of translators, students, and pastors. The arrival of this new, sixth edition is a major publishing event, especially as it is accompanied by a completely new textual commentary (reviewed separately). So much has changed with this edition that it can fairly be called the most significant update to the UBS edition in fifty years (when the third edition was first linked with the Nestle-Aland). By way of review, we can highlight the salient changes under the following headings: editors, format, text, and apparatus.

And part of the conclusion: 

I expect this edition to increase the UBS’s already loyal fan base, especially among those new to the Greek New Testament. If I have an overriding concern, it is that the apparatus surrenders too much in the process so that those of us accustomed to leaning on the UBS for its extra detail will now have to go elsewhere, perhaps all the way to the ECM. But all editions have their limits, and this one is no different. It makes for an excellent hand edition, one that is well conceived and well executed, and promises to carry on the UBS legacy for many years to come—perhaps another sixty.

The only thing I would add is that I’ve now been using the UBS6 since I picked it up at SBL in November and I have really enjoyed it. I love the thinner size, the better typeface, the much cleaner page, and the simplified introduction. I would dare to say that the changes make this a true competitor to the THGNT in terms of simplicity and easy of use—especially for new students. I am myself a proponent of the NA, so I won’t be abandoning that any time soon. But I have adopted the THGNT for my first year Greek students the last few years and I am now thinking carefully about switching to this. I like that it has the visual benefits of THGNT, but with a better apparatus. Personally, I have been using UBS6 whenever I want to enjoy the simple pleasure of reading without distraction.

This same issue of Themelios also has reviews of the accompanying textual commentary by Thomas Haviland-Pabst and Kruger’s new volume on miniature codices by Ched Spellman. I will also be reviewing the commentary for JTS and have just been approved to present a combined review of UBS6 and the textual commentary at ETS this fall in Denver. If you are a glutton for reviews, come along.

Lanier on UBS6

Over on his new YouTube channel, Greg Lanier has posted a long, 45-minute review of UBS6. I haven’t watched it all yet, but what I did watch was in-depth and thorough. Overall, he seems to like it but recognizes that it will not supplement the NA edition the way it has in the past given the reduction in the apparatus. My own review is forthcoming in Themelios, and I’ll post it here when it's out. Until then, give Lanier’s video a watch.