SBL Presentation on the Future of Text-Types

At SBL last fall I gave a paper on the future of text-types for the session on the IGNTP anniversary. Hugh Houghton kindly asked if I would record it for the IGNTP YouTube channel and the videographers at my school kindly lent their time and talents to record it. (If it looks like I had the paper memorized, I did not. It’s just a camera trick and a teleprompter.) The outline of the paper is as follows:

1. Intro
2. Text-types as a solution (2:00)
3. Text-types as a problem (5:25)
4. Suggestions for progress (13:50)
1. Define “texts” (14:02)
2. Clarify their purpose (16:02)
3. Specify their relationship (17:08)
5. Conclusion (18:12)
6. Postscript (19:30)

Besides giving an overview of where I think the discussion on text-types is (and needs to go), this video explains why we are centering our TCI colloquium this summer on this question.

IGNTP Videos on YouTube

Today at SBL, I will be giving a paper in a special section on the 75th anniversary of The International Greek New Testament Project. Revisiting their website reminded me that the IGNTP set up a YouTube channel not long ago and it is full of videos. Today seemed like a good day to remind our readers of this great resource. Go check it out.

Interview with Elliott after 43 Years with the IGNTP

A few days ago, in conjunction with the recent meeting of the IGNTP Committtee, Professor J. Keith Elliott stepped down from active service after being on the committtee for 43 years (as editor, secretary and member). That is in fact a record hard to beat. If you look at the historical data on the IGNTP webpage, you can see that Eldon Epp was on the committee for 42 years, Gordon Kilpatrick (Elliott's Doktorvater) for 41 years, and Bruce Metzger and Thomas Pattie "only" for 38 years.

As the current secretary, I took the opportunity to interview Elliott. You will find the interview here. By the way, there is also a link back to our blog (to the post about how Kurt Aland got two votes on the UBS Committee). 

The picture here is of the file with papers that I inherited from Elliott, who served as secretary to the IGNTP Committtee 1987–2010 (I celebrate 10 years as secretary). It is packed with communication, editorial reports, treasurer's reports, and minutes. Nowadays there is a digital archive but we still keep hardcopies of the signed minutes.

“Text-Critical Thursdays” On-line (IGNTP)

Today Hugh Houghton on behalf of the IGNTP Committee announces Text-Critical Thursdays here (pasted below). This is an online seminar series that will take place in May and June on the Zoom platform with academic papers on New Testament textual criticism from conferences cancelled because of coronavirus. Sign up to the mailing list moderated by Hugh and myself; there are also a few places for further submissions.

The International Greek New Testament Project has set up an online seminar for New Testament textual criticism

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a number of cInternational Greek New Testament Project is establishing a series of online seminars for those who had papers accepted at such conferences to present their work online to a global audience.
onferences on the New Testament due to take place in the next few months have been cancelled. In order for scholars of the text of the New Testament still to benefit from sharing news of current research, the the International Greek New Testament Project is establishing a series of online seminars for those who had papers accepted at such conferences to present their work online to a global audience.

The series of seminars, entitled “Text-Critical Thursdays” is planned to run throughout May and June. Each session will last one hour on the Zoom platform, and will include one or two papers and time for discussion. The time will normally be from 1500 to 1600 UTC, but may vary according to the location of the presenters. Subject to the agreement of presenters, each session will be recorded and made available online for those who are not able to participate in the live session.

A dedicated mailing list has been set up for the seminar through the UK’s JISCmail service. Details of the seminar timetable, links to join the presentations and accompanying material will be disseminated on this ‘NTTC’ list. In addition it may be used for discussion of the paper and news of publications in the field (which would normally be displayed at such conferences). This is an openly accessible, public list on which individuals manage their own subscriptions and all posts will be moderated.
Those interested in presenting work at the seminar should contact Professor Hugh Houghton at the University of Birmingham, who is co-ordinating this initiative on behalf of the IGNTP. Participants have already signed up from the USA, Switzerland, the UK and Australia.

News: IGNTP Releases 350 Transcriptions of Manuscripts

Here is a pressrelease from the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP) announcing that 350 transcriptions can be downloaded and are freely available for re-use:

Open Data Release by the International Greek New Testament Project

The International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP), established in 1948, is working towards major new editions of the Gospel according to John and the Pauline Epistles using the latest digital tools.

In a move towards making its data openly available, the IGNTP has now released 350 of its transcriptions of Greek New Testament manuscripts under the Creative Commons Attribution licence, meaning that these files are freely available for re-use.

Dr P.J. Williams, chair of the IGNTP committee, said, “A huge amount of work has gone into these transcriptions, both from research projects funded by the British Academy and Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the work of volunteers from across the world. We are keen that the results of this pioneering effort to make full-text searchable transcriptions of New Testament manuscripts should be as freely available for re-use as possible, enabling others to carry out new research on the textual evidence for the New Testament in addition to our own work on the Editio Critica Maior.”

The transcriptions of John are available to view and download at the website www.iohannes.org/transcriptions. A companion site for the Pauline Epistles is at www.epistulae.org. In addition, further information and links to download multiple files are provided on the IGNTP’s own website at www.igntp.org. The transcriptions are encoded in XML and conform to the standards of the Text Encoding Initiative.

8th December 2017

New Website for the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP)

A brand new website of the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP) was launched this morning – the web address is the same www.igntp.org.

The complete redesign was done by no other than our talented co-blogger Peter Gurry who is not only a textcritic but also a professional web designer.

The old website has served since 2007, receiving thousands of visits from across the world, according to Hugh Houghton, the IGNTP officer who maintains the website on a regular basis.

New NT Papyrus Manuscripts

One of the great things about working in the field of NT manuscripts and textual criticism over the last decades has been the steady flow of new material. Just to show two strands of that flow:

• NA26 (published in 1979) listed NT papyri up to P88; and majuscules up to 0276. 
• NA27 (published in 1993) listed NT papyri up to P98; and majuscules up to 0301.
• NA28 (published in 2012) listed NT papyri up to P127; and majuscules up to 0303.

 Recently new manuscripts of both types have been added to the online list in the VMR:

P128: VI/VII  (5 frags; single col.): John 9.3-4; 12.12-13, 16-18. New York; MMA Inv. 14.1.527

P128 is the Johannine portion of P44, now categorised as a separate papyrus, following (I presume) the conclusion in the IGNTP John Papyri volume that the two fragments ‘are without doubt by different hands’. (photos of the small John fragments are in that book as well as at the VMR). Interesting that the Liste states that they are all from a single page, this would suggest a possible liturgical text (as the original editors). The John transcript folk have provided a transcript (the clue is in the name) which places the different fragments over three separate pages (and hence reflecting a continuous text).

P129: III (4 frags; single column): 1 Cor 7.36-39; 8.10-9.3; 9.14-17; 9.27-10.6

P130: III/IV (1 frag; single col.): Heb 9.9-12, 19-23

P131: III (1 frag.; single col.): Rom 9.18-21, 22- 10.3

These three are not attributed to any particular location, but clearly are the first fruits of the Green Collection papyri. So congratulations are due to the Green Collection for that. Clearly they are making progress on the publication of the first volume of their Greek papyri (mentioned previously on this blog). No photos are available as yet (although somewhere on this blog there is a fuzzy photo of the Romans papyrus). It is, of course, interesting to note that the dates now assigned to these papyri are a century later than were first pronounced (as this blog has suggested on many occasions). On other details we await the forthcoming publications.

Majuscules up to 0323 are also listed. Many of these are extremely interesting, but I don’t have time right now to work through them all.

Resources for Patristic Citations in New Testament Textual Criticism

Some seven years ago, Peter Head compiled a useful blogpost with advice on how to check patristic citations (link in the right margin).

However, in this post I would like to mention two additional resources:

1. International Greek New Testament Project: Bibliography on work on the NT text of Greek authors

Recently, IGNTP committee members Rod Mullen and Mike Holmes, both involved in the SBL series The New Testament in the Greek Fathers, took the initiative to compile a bibliography of work on the New Testament text of Greek authors.

The list "keeps track of recent work on establishing the biblical text in patristic writers. It includes the volumes published in the SBL New Testament in the Greek Fathers series, as well as a list of work in progress."

2. Biblindex

The Biblindex = Index of Biblical Quotations and Allusions in Early Christian Literature is maintained by Laurence Mellerin et al. of the Institut des Sources Chrétiennes. It includes all the 270.000 references in the published Biblia Patristica volumes, and an additional ca. 130.000 references on Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Theodoret of Cyrus, Procopius of Gaza, Jerome and more. Access to data is free, after registration. This is a real treasure trove.  

I will update Peter's original blogpost with this information.

Codex Bezae Goes Digital

The digital Codex Bezae has been released today in Cambridge Digital Library along with transcriptions of the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP). There is also a description of the codex written by David Parker. Here is the first paragraph:

There are half-a-dozen ancient manuscripts which are the foundation of our understanding of the text of the New Testament writings. Among these stands the copy known since the sixteenth century as Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis. Any manuscript which has survived from antiquity is a marvel for this reason alone, and as we explore its pages, we have a rare opportunity to explore a little of the written culture of late antique Christianity. Although in the past century some remarkable papyrus manuscripts have been recovered from the sands of Egypt, their discovery has in general served more to highlight the significance of the parchment manuscripts than to diminish it. 

Click this link to access high-resolution images and transcriptions of the IGNTP.