Thursday, January 10, 2019

Important Series for New Testament Textual Criticism

6
I’m slowly working on a syllabus for a new ThM-level course in NT textual criticism and that means putting together a student-friendly bibliography. I thought it might be helpful to students to have a list of the most important text-critical series. Here’s what I have so far. See what you think. Anything I should add or change?

ANTF = Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung (transl. Works on New Testament textual research). Published by de Grutyer and edited by the director of INTF (formerly Kurt Aland and now Holger Strutwolf). Includes the extremely important Text und Textwert series as well as a number of other very important works. 50 volumes. Full list at https://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/16070.
(N)CHB = (New) Cambridge History of the Bible. Organized chronologically and covering a full range of issues, the series was recently updated in a completely new edition, but the original volumes are still worth consulting. Orig. 3 volumes; now 4 volumes. Full list at https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/new-cambridge-history-of-the-bible/5012DD455841A9074F8A0C996A57ABC5.
NTGF = New Testament in the Greek Fathers. A series started, I believe, by Gordon Fee to study the text used by the Greek Fathers and now published by SBL. It was founded with special attention to methodological refinements and that remains a hallmark. 9 volumes. Full list at https://www.sbl-site.org/publications/books_ntgrf.aspx.
NTTSD = New Testament Studies, Tools, and Documents. Arguably the premier series for text-critical research. This series combines and continues two older series: New Testament Tools and Studies (NTTS), founded in 1965 and Studies and Documents (SD), founded in 1935. 60 volumes. Full list at https://brill.com/view/serial/NTTS.
Swanson = New Testament Greek Manuscripts: Variant Readings Arranged in Horizontal Lines Against Codex Vaticanus by Reuben J. Swanson. The subtitle tells you what you need to know. This novel format led to a quite useful series which gives an immediate sense of variation in the select manuscripts and is often the quickest route to full collations of important manuscripts. Dogged only by its regular lists of errata, Swanson died before finishing the series and it is now in the hands of Kent Clarke. 9 volumes. Full list with lots of background on Swanson’s work at http://www.biblical-data.org/4therecord/4_record.html.
T&S = Texts and Studies. Another good series, this one now published as a “third series” by Gorgias. Noteworthy for, among other things, publishing papers from the biennial Birmingham Colloquium on New Testament Textual Criticism. 18 volumes. Full list at https://www.gorgiaspress.com/texts-and-studies. For reprints of the older, “first series,” see https://www.gorgiaspress.com/text-and-studies.
TCS = Text-Critical Studies. A series published by SBL Press and currently edited by Michael W. Holmes. Covering both testaments, this series has not been as significant as the others but may be more notable for being the only affordable one! Under the direction of Holmes, it is once again publishing new volumes after a hiatus. 11 volumes. Full list at https://www.sbl-site.org/publications/Books_textcritical.aspx.
Important text critical works are sometimes published in other major series such as LNTS, SNTSSup, NovTSup, etc. and as individual volumes by the major publishers.

6 comments

  1. Gorgias has two series by the title "Texts and Studies". The one you mentioned is officially "Texts and Studies Third Series", but Gorgias also does reprints of the older incarnation, "Texts and Studies, First Series": https://www.gorgiaspress.com/text-and-studies (note: this URL lacks the 's' at the end of 'text').

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent. Thank you. I've updated that. Is there no "second series" then?

      Delete
    2. The First Series, begun by J. Armitage Robinson, was published by CUP between 1896 and 1952. There were ten volumes, most of which were subdivided into separate fascicles. Volumes I–VIII appeared between 1896 and 1916; Volume IX is Souter's edition of Pelagius; Volume X is Conolly's text of the Explanatio Symboli.

      The "New Series" (i.e. the second series) was also published by CUP, under the editorship of C.H. Dodd. Seven volumes appeared between 1954 and 1963, including Moir's edition of Codex Climaci rescriptus and Chadwick on the Sentences of Sextus.

      The Third Series, edited by D.C. Parker and D.G.K. Taylor, began under the auspices of the short-lived University of Birmingham Press, with the first volume (of papers from the first Birmingham Colloquium) appearing in 1997, which was co-published in the USA by SBL. Gorgias Press took over from Volume 2 onwards, and was finally granted the rights to reprint Volume 1 in 2013.

      An exciting development, announced at SBL last November, is that Gorgias has partnered with De Gruyter to make all its books available online on their electronic platform. This will enable individual chapters to be downloaded.

      I'm always glad to hear from potential authors for the series: although the cover price is often high (although not as astronomical as some of the European presses), Gorgias' frequent promotions mean that books in the series are often available with 60% off.

      Delete
    3. Sorry, the First Colloquium was held in 1997; the first volume appeared in 1999.

      Delete
    4. Thanks for that detail, Hugh!

      Delete
  2. TENT (Brill) has some important works.

    ReplyDelete