Marcion Smackdown in Atlanta (SBL)

At the last annual SBL meeting in San Diego, my Swedish colleague Mikael Winninge, who chairs the Formation of Luke and Acts program unit, mentioned the idea to have a joint session with New Testament textual criticism to discuss Marcion’s Evangelion, the “Western Non-Interpolations,” and the transmission of Luke. I thought this was a very good idea, and so put him in contact with the chairs of the NTTC session, and proposed a few potential contributors to such a session, not least Dieter Roth who has just published his monograph on Marcion’s text of the Gospels.

Consider what Judith Lieu says in her review mentioned in the last post:

In the cautious conservatism of its conclusions it is also unlikely to attract the popular attention through publicity and . . . gained by other more assertively daring reconstructions, whose conclusions may be swiftly adopted and used to rewrite the history of the past with as much confidence as have been applied to the more conventional hypotheses of New Testament origins.

So, some of the “other” scholars who are not mentioned by name in Lieu’s review, but have made “more assertively daring reconstructions” of Marcion’s text than Roth (right photo) will be present at the session, e.g., Markus Vinzent (left photo) as will Lieu herself. I expect an interesting and fruitful debate. Followers of this blog who are attending the meeting would not want to miss it. 

Personally I changed my travel plan so that I do not need to head to the airport in panic after Tuesday breakfast. I will stay an extra day and enjoy the best wine saved for the last.

Formation of Luke and Acts; New Testament Textual Criticism
Joint Session With: New Testament Textual Criticism, Formation of Luke and Acts
11/24/2015
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
 
Room: Courtland (Atlanta Conference Level) - Hyatt
This session with the Formation of Luke and Acts Section addresses Marcion’s Evangelion, the “Western Non-Interpolations,” and the transmission of Luke. Patricia Walters, Rockford University, Presiding

• Dieter Roth, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
  Marcion’s Gospel: Reconstructions and Their Implications (30 min)
• Jason BeDuhn, Northern Arizona University
  Marcion’s Evangelion and the Two Source Hypothesis (30 min)
• Ronald van der Bergh, University of Pretoria
  Marcion’s Legacy and the Old Testament Quotations in Codex Bezae’s Luke (30 min)
• Judith Lieu, University of Cambridge
  Marcion’s Gospel and the Question of Theological Tendency (30 min)
• Markus Vinzent, King’s College - London, Respondent (20 min)
• Discussion (10 min)

Judith Lieu on Roth’s Text of Marcion & the Value of Patient Reading

Judith Lieu, whose own book on Marcion was published earlier this year, has a good review of Dieter Roth’s recently published The Text of Marcion’s Gospel (Brill). The whole review is worth reading, but here is the conclusion in which she extols the virtue of patiently listening to even “recalcitrant and often unhelpful” textual witnesses:

Roth concludes his analysis of the sources with a reconstruction of Marcion’s Gospel... Some will feel disappointed by Roth’s resolute refusal to indulge in imaginative reconstruction or speculation, or even to do more than hint at what conclusions he thinks might be drawn regarding the history of Marcion’s Gospel. They would, however, do well also to take note that he makes no claim to recover Marcion’s Gospel as the latter produced it, but only the earliest recoverable form of its text — a mantra now familiar more generally in studies of the New Testament text.

This is a book for specialists: readers will have to be able to follow Roth as he works directly and meticulously through his Greek and Latin sources, avoiding explanation of the implications of variations in word order or tense, and as he discusses the textual history and variants of specific verses. In the cautious conservatism of its conclusions it is also unlikely to attract the popular attention through publicity and blogs [except the really good ones, of course. —Ed.] gained by other more assertively daring reconstructions, whose conclusions may be swiftly adopted and used to rewrite the history of the past with as much confidence as have been applied to the more conventional hypotheses of New Testament origins. Yet in age which favors the rewriting of past master-narratives and embraces imaginative reconstruction, it is important that the call to heed the recalcitrant and often unhelpful witness of the textual sources be heard, and that we be reminded that hearing demands time, close attention, and linguistic skills that are too quickly being lost or dismissed as irrelevant. Few readers of Marginalia may go on to read The Text of Marcion’s Gospel, but hopefully they will recognize and defend the sort of scholarship which it represents. [Read the rest here.]

I have only read the beginning and end of Roth’s book, but it looks like all that Lieu says it is.

The Text of the Lord's Prayer in Marcion's Gospel

My friend Dieter Roth, specialist on the reconstruction of Marcion's Gospel, tells me that his new article on "The Text of the Lord's Prayer in Marcion's Gospel," has been published in ZNW 103 (2012): 47-63.

Although Peter Head surely doesn't remember the papers from the SBL in Atlanta 2010, I remember enjoying Dieter's excellent presentation on this topic very much. We were in the same session, and I remember the other paper on Marcion delivered after my paper and right before Dieter's. This German scholar who first had some major problems getting into his computer because of wrong access code, so he had to borrow mine instead and inserted a UBS stick (it subsequently turned out he had pressed Shifts lock on his computer). Moreover, the presiding Amy Anderson by mistake sent him a note to the effect that he should come the the conclusion (5 mins. left) when there was actually plenty of time left. Well he hurried up, but a little later, as I had pointed out her mistake she quickly scribbled down and passed him another note, 10 mins. left ... and he burst out something like, "She keeps sending me these notes ..." And there was warm laughter.

A New Reconstruction of the Text of Marcion's Gospel and a New Doctor

Congratulations to Dr. Dieter Roth, Edinburgh University, who has just been awarded a PhD!

Thesis Title: “Towards a New Reconstruction of the Text of Marcion’s Gospel: History of Research, Sources, Methodology, and the Testimony of Tertullian”

Examined By: Ulrich Schmid and Paul Parvis

Abstract:

This thesis provides the initial and foundational steps for a new reconstruction of the text of Marcion’s Gospel. Though Harnack’s 1924 magisterial work on Marcion remains valuable and important, shortcomings in his reconstructed text of the Marcionite scriptures, as well as advances in critical methodology, text criticism, and patristic studies have led to the recognition that new reconstructions of Marcion’s scriptures are a scholarly desideratum. With the text of Marcion’s Apostolikon examined and reconstructed in a 1995 work by Ulrich Schmid, this thesis provides the most important elements for a new examination and reconstruction of Marcion’s Euangelion.

Chapter 1 provides an extensive history of research, not only to provide the context and rationale for the present work, but also to provide the first in-depth scholarly survey of work on Marcion’s Gospel in 150 years. In addition, since several flaws in earlier studies arose out of a lack of an accurate understanding of the status quaestionis at various points in the history of research on Marcion’s Gospel, by considering and engaging with previous scholarship such errors can be avoided.

Chapter 2 begins with a consideration of the sources for Marcion’s Gospel and provides a comprehensive listing of verses attested as present in, verses attested as absent from, and unattested verses of this Gospel. The chapter concludes with a methodological discussion, highlighting the particular importance of understanding the citation customs of the witnesses to Marcion’s text and noting the significant citation customs of Tertullian demonstrated by Schmid’s and my own research.

Chapter 3 begins the analysis of the data found in Tertullian, the most extensive and important source for Marcion’s Gospel. This chapter examines all of the verses that Tertullian attests for Marcion’s Gospel that are also cited elsewhere in Tertullian’s corpus and focuses particularly on how these multiply-cited passages provide insight into Tertullian’s testimony to readings in Marcion’s text.

Chapter 4 continues the analysis of Tertullian’s testimony by examining the remaining verses, i.e., those attested for Marcion’s Gospel but not multiply-cited in Tertullian’s corpus.

Chapter 5 provides a reconstruction of the 328 verses in Marcion’s Gospel for which Tertullian is the only witness and offers not only readings for Marcion’s text, but also the relative certainty for those readings.

Chapter 6 summarizes and concludes the thesis, along with brief mention of avenues for future research.

Dieter is planning to continue the work with a complete reconstruction, which means that for the moment public access to the thesis is restricted. If anyone is interested in various issues related to reconstructing Marcion's Gospel a few recently published articles by Dieter address important aspects of working with Marcion's Gospel and the testimony for it:

“Matthean Readings and Tertullian’s Accusations in Adversus Marcionem,” The Journal of Theological Studies 59 (2008): 580–97;
“Marcion’s Gospel and Luke: The History of Research in Current Debate,” The Journal of Biblical Literature 127 (2008): 513–27; and
“Did Tertullian Possess a Greek Copy or Latin Translation of Marcion’s Gospel?,” Vigiliae Christianae 63 (2009): 429–67.

Read also about my first meeting with Dieter in Edinburgh earlier this year, as I was there for the Northern Scholar's Lecture, here. And last week I had the pleasure to meet Dieter again at the SBL, and he joined us for our record breaking ETC blogdinner.

And don't forget to look up Dieter's piece in the SBL Forum "American versus British Ph.D. Programs: Three Doctoral Students Reflect on Their Decisions. Why I Chose To Start in an American Ph.D. Program and Finish in a British One"