In the latest issue of the Southeastern Theological Review, Maurice Robinson has a review of Jovan Stanojević’s recent book Orthodox New Testament Textual Scholarship: Antoniades, Lectionaries, and the Catholic Epistles, Texts and Studies (Third Series) 26 (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2021).
The review is interesting because Stanojević is Eastern Orthodox himself and argues for a revision to the Antoniades edition, the standard form of the Greek NT text in the Orthodox church, as I understand it. Robinson, of course, has coedited a Byzantine edition which is not the Orthodox standard. No one in this situation is apparently happy. The review is online (p. 97ff).
Thanks for posting this. I will have to make a point to read Stanojević.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for Eastern Orthodox Christians, but for myself, an approach to the NT text that accepts the text "witnessed by the majority of majuscule manuscripts, almost all minuscules, all versions since the third century, and the Greek Fathers from the end of the fourth century onward" as the usual default, except that “In cases in which [the] original or earliest variant readings are not ambiguous … the earliest reading should be adopted," is exactly what I'd like to see more of.
Maurice Robinson did well to write about the presentation of the CJ in smaller type and in italics in the Antoniades edition of 1904.
ReplyDeleteAnother way to express doubt about the authenticity of text is the addition of sharp brackets in the Antonides NT. EvJohn 7,53-8,11 is placed between << ... >>.
For balance, it should be pointed out in any discussion of the Orthodox position on the heavenly witnesses that Vasilios Antoniades even disagreed with the Orthodox position on the majority text of the Pericope Adulterae! So he is the outlier, and pretty extreme in the Hortian mode.
DeleteAnd there has been a robust defense of the verse among the Orthodox, Greek, Russian, Serbian et al writers since the 1600s.
From my studies to date (tweaks and additions appreciated) these are Orthodox supporters of the verse.
Cyril Lucaris (1572–1638)
Peter Simeonovich Mogila - (1596-1646) - Romanian Orthodox - Metropolitan of Kiev
Græco-Russian Synod at Jassy, 1643 - Orthodox Confession of Faith - signed by the Eastern Patriarchs
Synod of Jerusalem, 1672 - approves Confession
Theophane Prokopowicz- (1681-1736)
Hyacinth Karpinski - (1721-1798) Russian Orthodox
Eugenius Bulgaris (1718-1806) world-class scholar
Gorodetsky Nikolai Ivanovich Platon, (1737-1812) Metropolitan of Moscow,
Ireneus (Ivan) Yakimovich Falkowsky- (1762-1823)
Neophytus Vamvas (1770-1856)
Mikhail Petrovich Bulgakov, (1816-1882) - (Metropolitan of Moscow Macarius)
Mikhail Luzin (1830-1887) - Russian Orthodox Bishop
Your thoughts welcome!
Steven Avery
Dutchess County, NY USA
https://linktr.ee/stevenavery
Reluctance, on the part of Orthodox scholars, to adopt a text of Matthew-Jude that is predominantly Byzantine, is difficult to understand.
ReplyDelete