Shepherd on Narrative Analysis as a Text Critical Tool

Thomas R. Shepherd, 'Narrative Analysis as a Text Critical Tool: Mark 16 in Codex W as a Test Case' Journal for the Study of the New Testament 32 (2009), 77-98.

Tom Shepherd uses a narrative approach to show that some themes (notably the power of Christ) which appear in Mark 16 are also characteristic of Codex W as a whole. This suggests that narrative approaches can be useful for text critics 'in delineating and mapping out the theological emphases of an individual passage and its implications for an entire book.' (p. 96)

New TC Resources List at NT Gateway

Over at NT Gateway is a new resources page listing TC books an articles. Only two items up so far, but I'm sure it will grow.

Audio resources for Textual Criticism

I had an email from a reader asking about audio resources on Textual Criticism. Does anyone know of a list anywhere? Or should be create a list here?

Computers and Ancient Language

Two new articles show how computers can potentially assist in paleography and linguistics:

The first follows an Israeli acheivement which could potentially create a "Google-like search engine" for corpora of manuscripts and which could also be used to match fragments dispersed across modern collections. Those of us who have spent time with such manuscripts will realize the limitations to such technology.

The second involves a lost language from the Indus valley. A mega-civilization there may have predated the great societies of the Ancient Middle East. Mathematicians have used algorithms to discover regular patterns in the surviving cuneiform-like texts; hopefully, these discoveries will lead to the unraveling of the language, its texts and the history of this lost civilization.

Interviews with Hurtado, Kloppenborg, Köstenberger, Wallace et al.

Check out the scholar interviews on Broadcast Depth that have been posted or will be in the near future:

Darrell Bock. Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary. Forthcoming on 3 September 2009.

Larry Hurtado. Professor and Head, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. 20 August 2009

John Kloppenborg. Professor and Chair, Department and Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto. 13 August 2009.

Andreas Köstenberger. Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology and Director of PhD Studies, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. 27 August 2009.

Thomas Schreiner. James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, School of Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Forthcoming on 10 September 2009.

Robert Yarbrough. Associate Professor and Chair, New Testament Department, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Forthcoming on 17 September 2009.

And in case you missed it (like I) you might want to check out this interview with Dan Wallace on Tolle Lege! (Rob Kashow). As usual Dan mentions new discoveries of manuscripts, for example:

During our time in Germany, two of us went to England to photograph a newly discovered MS owned by a private party. Sorry, but I’m not allowed to tell any more details than that—except that it’s a tenth-century Gospels MS and that we will be posting those images on our site soon.

Second National Patristic Conference in Cambridge

The Second National Patristic Conference is taking place in Cambridge next week (SECOND NATIONAL PATRISTIC CONFERENCE), Wed - Fri (9-11 Sept.)

As well as a load of interesting patristic type papers (as one must expect, including an especially interesting one on 1 Clement) there are a couple of text related papers, and a couple of others on non-canonical texts:

Tim Carter Marcion and the Codex Bezae

Hugh Houghton Chapter Divisions in the Old Latin Versions of John

Stephan Witetschek How Ascetic is the Gospel of Thomas?

Michael Steenberg The Gospel of Truth and the Truth of the Gospel: assessing the scope of Valentinian influence on the works of Irenaeus