Tuesday, December 22, 2020

The Goal of NTTC according to Eldon Epp

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The second volume of Eldon J. Epp's collected essays and articles, Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism (covering 2006–2017) has just been published by Brill. Congratulations to the author who also turned 90 this year!

I have only browsed the volume, so for now I will just draw the attention to an introductory “notes for readers” which is freely accessible here, where Epp offers his own definition of the goal of New Testament Textual Criticism which he admits has varied, but as it stands now it is totally in line with my own view:

The Unitary Goal of New Testament Textual Criticism

New Testament textual criticism, employing aspects of both science and art, studies the transmission of the New Testament text and the manuscripts that facilitate its transmission, with the unitary goal (1) of establishing the earliest attainable text (which serves as a baseline), and at the same time (2) of assessing the textual variants that emerge from the baseline text so as to hear the narratives of early Christian thought and life that inhere in the array of meaningful variants.

Finally, I was also pleased to learn from the introduction “Developing Perspective” (accessible here) that Krister Stendahl from Sweden, then professor at Harvard University, gave the young doctoral student Epp the task to review a book on textual criticism by Fascher for the seminar and then with his other colleagues in the doctoral committee encouraged Epp to pursue a text-critical dissertation – well done! For another glimpse of Stendahl and a student at Harvard working on textual criticism in the 1950s, see here.

Monday, December 21, 2020

4QPsx: A Poorly Copied Manuscript

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Several details about the Dead Sea Scrolls are common knowledge. One of these details is that these manuscripts preserve a certain level of textual plurality previously unknown among Hebrew OT manuscripts. Although this detail is a fact, the nature of this textual plurality is mostly unknown by laypeople and scholars alike. We should be aware that common explanations explain most of this textual plurality. One of these explanations is poor copying. (In a previous blog, I discussed that some of this diversity results from scribes normalizing their biblical texts [such as 4QGenk]).

4QPsx is one manuscript, among many, that was copied poorly. Interestingly, some scholars date this manuscript, which preserves portions of Psalm 89, to 175-125 BC. If this is right, this manuscript is our earliest manuscript available that preserves a psalm; yet, it is an unreliable guide to the Psalter's state, and Psalm 89 in particular, during the second century BC. Several details about this manuscript suggest that this scribe was either an unskilled or a beginner scribe. Varying letter size, inconsistent space between lines, curved lines, cancelation dots to erase a mistake, inconsistent use of final letters, and the inability to space words properly are just a few of these details. (See Skehan’s article “Gleanings” for these and other points). 

4QPsx: https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/image/B-473784

Besides these scribal features, we should consider several other material features of this manuscript that call into question its dependability. This manuscript is unruled, and this reality contributes to some of the mistakes listed above. Indeed, the absence of a writing block made it challenging to space the words, and the lack of horizontal lines caused the scribe to write upwards and downwards at times. The fact that this manuscript is unruled is puzzling since most manuscripts at Qumran were (see Tov, Scribal Practices, 57, 104). More puzzling is that this manuscript was stitched before inscribing these words, which, again, is unusual (Scribal Practices, 34-37). This fact is evident since the scribe wrote around the stitching (“Gleanings,” 441). Thus, these two details suggest that this sheet of leather was previously a handle sheet (a protective piece of leather stitched unto inscribed sheets at a manuscript's beginning and/or end).

The scribal habits and the material features of this manuscript cast serious doubt on the text's reliability. Although some might understand this text as an alternative form of Psalm 89, I suggest that it is a recycled handle sheet (like Skehan): perhaps a scribe's school exercise. Overall, this text contributes to the textual plurality preserved at Qumran but provides no evidence to suggest that the OT existed in a state of fluidity during this time (fluidity meaning that the text had not yet reached its final form). Instead, this manuscript suggests that some manuscripts were copied poorly and, perhaps, some manuscripts are mere school exercises. As already noted, this manuscript may be our earliest manuscript preserving a psalm. This reality reminds us of a vital point of textual criticism: the earlier manuscript is not always better.


*For more information about this manuscript, see my dissertation, A Comparison of the Non-Aligned Texts of Qumran to the Masoretic Text. It can be accessed on ProQuest. You may also view the presentation that I gave at the Sacred Words Conference, where I discuss this manuscript in more detail. 

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Manuscript Hunters – New Website

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 Right now I am participating in the launch (via Zoom) of a new website, Manuscript Hunters – the result of a project at the University of Munich with wonderful resources on "manuscript hunters" like Tischendorf, Dunlop-Gibson and Smith-Lewis, Curzon, and many more. There are many fine resources here with timelines, illustrations, bibliographies and other features. The website will be updated continously. 

I have not looked at the website in any detail yet, so I do not know to what degree they have included critical perspectives relating to cultural theft, or (fantastic) discovery stories (see for example Eva Mroczek's article in Marginalia here).










Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Two Funded PhDs in NTTC with Garrick Allen

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This looks like a great opportunity for someone qualified. Titles are ripe for study. See Tommy’s work on this in the Pastorals. I expect the Gospels will yield the most interesting results with Hebrews a close second. Update 1/8/21: Garrick has one more spot open for this project. See here.


The Titles of the New Testament: A New Approach to Manuscripts and the History of Interpretation (TiNT) project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° 847428).
  1. The project seeks to digitally edit every form of every title in every non-lectionary Greek manuscript that preserves part of the New Testament, using this data to contribute to new research related to six research questions:
  2. the diachronic development of paratextual traditions (especially titles in all their forms);
  3. the provenance of New Testament works in historical imagination;
  4. the relationship between bibliography and canon;
  5. the design, codicology, and artistic features of manuscripts;
  6. scribal identities and the sociology of textual transmission; and
  7. traditions of textual segmentation.
The data produced by the project will also raise new research questions and be publicly available. The objectives of the project are to rethink the critical value of manuscripts beyond the purely textual concerns of traditional textual criticism and to explore titular traditions as expressive modes of communication and as aspects of reception history.

The Principle Investigator (PI) and team members will work together to produce titular profiles for each manuscript, using this information to inform innovative research on specific research topics.

We invite applications from PhD level researchers who propose to carry out work that addresses one of the the project’s six critical questions and which focuses on manuscripts and paratextuality.

Please submit a CV, as 1–2 page PhD project proposal, a writing sample (no more than 20 pages), and 2 references as your application. Please address informal enquiries to Dr Garrick Allen (Garrick.allen [at] glasgow.ac.uk).

Funding Notes

UK students: Tuition fees and annual stipend at UKRI rate
International/EU students: Tuition fees and bursary
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The scenery in Glasgow doesn’t hurt either.

Monday, December 14, 2020

Final Video: Shah on the Goalpost of New Testament Textual Criticism

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The last video from my TC class is now up at YouTube. In it, Dr. Abidan Paul Shah introduces his new book Changing the Goalpost of New Testament Textual Criticism (2020). Despite the trend among some scholars, he argues that we can and should pursue the original text as our goal in textual criticism. Thanks to Abidan for joining us. Again, remember to subscribe for new videos.

Friday, December 11, 2020

More videos: Anderson on Family 1, Hixson on the Tyndale Textual Commentary

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Two more videos from my ThM class on textual criticism are now live. In the first, Dr. Amy Anderson gives an overview and update of her work on the textual history of Family 1 in the Gospels. She also gives a helpful overview of the state of the discipline at the start. In the second, Dr. Elijah Hixson introduces the textual commentary being written to accompany the Greek New Testament Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge.

Amy Anderson

Elijah Hixson

Thanks to both my guests for joining my class. You can find all the videos in this series at the Text & Canon Institute YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe if you’re into that sort of thing.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The CBGM of Acts for Download

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Greg Paulson of the INTF in Münster has notified me that the CBGM for Acts can now be downloaded here

Greg has also made a tutorial how to install it and a brief introduction to how the CBGM works (very nice red circle in the image, just like the ones I use in my powerpoints, but no speech bubbles though).
 
In this connection, I would also like to mention Joey McCollum's crash course on the CBGM here and his own “Open CBGM” resource page here
 
Finally, my and Peter Gurry’s fuller introduction to the CBGM is now available with a 30% discount (code AM2020 at checkout, good to 31 Dec), in paperback ($15.40) or hardback ($25.90).