TC Books from Eisenbrauns

Eisenbrauns has a list of textual criticism books available at 15-40% discounts. Tommy Wasserman helped select the books for the sale too! Looks like bargains galore to be found!!

Update: Yes, I (TW) suggested to James Spinti, Marketing Director of Eisenbrauns and a regular reader of this blog, that they run a sales on some TC paperbacks, and specifically James Royse's monograph, which is just out in paperback (see previous blogpost). Eisenbrauns now offer it for $67.46 – now that is a bargain!

Since Eisenbrauns is the only publisher in the world (sic!) which have my own book on the textual tradition of Jude in stock, I am also happy that it is included in sales every now and then.

Royse on Scribal Habits Now in Paperback!

About a year ago, I was contacted by SBL Editorial Director Bob Buller who had read with interest my blogposts from the SBL 2008 book review session SBL24-129 in which James Royse's recent monograph Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri (NTTSD 36; Brill, 2008) was reviewed.

You can find links to the seven blogposts here .




The full text presentations from this SBL section are available under TC-Files in the right sidebar.

Bob also noted the subsequent discussion about the high price of the Brill edition. In fact, the very first remark in the comments to the first post was made on this point by Wieland Wilker: "The real shame is that this phantastic book is so expensive! 310 Euro! $ 369! Come one! This book belongs into the hand of every NT scholar."

Buller told me he was intrigued with the idea of making this work available in an SBL paperback. On the other hand, he was worried that SBL would end up with a lot of very expensive copies sitting in a warehouse, if the demand was not so great. We discussed the matter and I wholeheartedly recommended the enterprise.

Now I can tell you that the SBL paperback edition of Royse's monograph has been announced here and it costs $89.95 (i.e., under 1/4 of the harback list price). Now, that is still a lot of money for a book, but then you must keep in mind that this one is over 1000 pages long, and, as Wieland said, it belongs into the hand of every NT scholar!





In our conversation Bob Buller also asked for recommendations of other Brill books that would be worthwhile for the SBL to publish in paperback. Any suggestions?

Controversial New Article on Greek Archaeology and Palaeography

On the lighter side of things, America's Finest News Source has published an article on a recent National Geographic-sponsored controversy on the ancient world, here. Apparently, the textual tradition of the Iliad is not as reliable as once thought.

Center for Study and Preservation of the Majority Text

I am informed by Paul Anderson that with others he has just launched the Center for the Study and Preservation of the Majority Text: www.cspmt.org. The site is currently under construction. I'm not exactly sure what the 'preservation' will be, though perhaps it is in part defence. The most historically informative section may be the details of Byzantine families when they are uploaded. One gets a sense of the ethos through the interesting collocations in the In Memoriam section, which lists the perceived heroes of the cause.

Williams on the Long Ending of Mark

Interesting article in the recent Bulletin for Biblical Research: T.B. Williams, ‘Bringing Method to the Madness: Examining the Style of the Longer Ending of Mark’ BBR 20.3 (2010), 397-418.

Basically Williams argues that previous discussions of the style of the Long Ending have been methodologically unsound. So he proposes a sound method and procedure (or methodological procedure), applies this to the evidence (well, half of the evidence), and proposes that the style of the Long Ending is distinctly non-Markan. So no surprises there then.
Interestingly he states: 'due to spatial limitations and the fact that dissimilarity reveals more about authenticity than similarity, our discusson will be confined to strong indications of an un-Markan style plus instances that have wrongly been labelled un-Markan' (p. 404). This looks like dealing with only half the evidence to me.

How to Link to a Manuscript in the VMR

Readers of this blog may find it useful to be able to link to a certain MS in the List of MSS in the Virtual Manuscript Room (Münster). Martin Fassnacht recently told me that he had broadened this possibility.

The link to use for Papyrus 1 is the following: http://intf.uni-muenster.de/vmr/NTVMR/ListeHandschriften.php?ObjID=10001

It is the last five digits that identifies the specific MS. The first digit represent the type of MS, and the other four the Greg.-Aland number of that MS with zero digits to fill out if necessary:

1 = papyrus, e.g., 10120 = P 120
2 = majuscule, e.g., 20004 = 04 (Codex Ephraemi rescriptus)
3 = minuscule, e.g., 30081 = 81
4 = lectionary, e.g., 41775 = l1775

Below is a link to P1:
P1