New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents

The essays in this volume, offered to Dr. Jenny Read-Heimerdinger on the occasion of her 70th birthday, cover subjects in New Testament textual criticism that are central to her research. In particular, the volume contains text critical studies of the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the early testimony of New Testament Greek and Coptic manuscripts, scribal tendencies in the first centuries, and linguistic approaches to textual criticism.

This volume honors Prof. James R. Royse on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday and celebrates his scholarly achievement in the fields of New Testament textual criticism and Philonic studies. An introductory section contains a biographical notice on the honoratus and a complete list of his scholarly publications. Part one contains nine articles on New Testament textual criticism, focusing on methodological issues, difficult passages and various textual witnesses. Part two presents eight studies on the thought, writings, textual record, and reception of Philo of Alexandria. This wide-ranging collection of articles will introduce the reader to new findings in the scholarly fields to which Prof. Royse continues to make such an outstanding contribution.

In The Early Textual Transmission of John Lonnie D. Bell utilizes a fresh approach for assessing the character of transmission reflected in the second and third century Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of John. The textual transmission of New Testament writings in the period prior to the fourth century has been characterized by a number of scholars as error-prone, free, fluid, wild, and chaotic. This study is an inquiry into the validity of this general characterization. Since John is the most attested New Testament book among the early papyri, is the best attested in the second century, and has the highest number of papyri that share overlapping text, it serves well as a case study into the level of fluidity and stability of the New Testament text in the earliest period of transmission.

This study offers the first sustained examination of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM), a computerized method being used to edit the most widely-used editions of the Greek New Testament. Part one addresses the CBGM’s history and reception before providing a fresh statement of its principles and procedures. Parts two and three consider the method’s ability to recover the initial text and to delineate its history. A new portion of the global stemma is presented for the first time and important conclusions are drawn about the nature of the initial text, scribal habits, and the origins of the Byzantine text. A final chapter suggests improvements and highlights limitations. Overall, the CBGM is positively assessed but not without important criticisms and cautions.

In Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts, Zachary J. Cole provides the first in-depth examination of the seemingly obscure, yet important topic: how early Christian scribes wrote numbers and why. While scholars have long been aware that Christian scribes occasionally used numerical abbreviations in their books, few have been able to make much sense of it.
This detailed analysis of numerals in manuscripts up through the fifth century CE uncovers a wealth of palaeographical and codicological data. Among other findings, Zachary J. Cole shows that some numerals can function as “visual links” between witnesses, that numbers sometimes—though rarely—functioned like nomina sacra, and that Christians uniquely adapted their numbering system to suit the needs of public reading.

Since ancient works were preserved by means of handwritten copies, critical enquiry into their texts necessitates the study of such copies. In P.Beatty III (P47): The Codex, Its Scribe, and Its Text, Peter Malik focuses on the earliest extensive copy of the Book of Revelation. Integrating matters of palaeography, codicology, and scribal practice with textual analysis, Malik sheds new light on this largely neglected, yet crucially important, early Christian papyrus. Notable contributions include a new proposed date for P47, identification of several previously unreported scribal corrections, as well as the discovery of the manuscript’s close affinity with the Sahidic version. Significantly, Malik’s detailed, data-rich analyses are accompanied by a fresh transcription and, for the first time, high-resolution colour photographs of the manuscript.

Early Christians built on the stories of Jesus' and Mary’s birth and childhood. Their later accounts, many of them found nowadays among collections of non-canonical ('apocryphal') texts, are important and interesting. They give insights into the growth of Christian theology, especially concerning the role and status of Mary, and also the way in which the earliest stories were elaborated and interpreted in popular folk religion.
A range of the earliest accounts is presented here in fresh translations. This second edition contains some texts originally in a variety of different languages such as Armenian, Ethiopic, Coptic and Irish, not available at the time of the first edition. The texts are arranged in small units and synoptically, in order to permit readers to compare texts and to see the differences and similarities between them.
J.K. Elliott has selected and arranged the texts, and he provides introductory and concluding chapters. He also includes a full and helpful bibliography to benefit readers who may wish to pursue this comparative study more deeply.

The collection of essays focuses on the twin areas of research undertaken by Prof. Michael W. Holmes. These are the sub-disciplines of textual criticism and the study of the Apostolic Fathers. The first part of the volume on textual criticism focuses on issues of method, the praxis of editing and collating texts, and discussions pertaining to individual variants. The second part of the volume assembles essays on the Apostolic Fathers. There is a particular focus on the person and writings of Polycarp, since this is the area of research where Prof. Holmes has worked most intensively.

In The Text of Marcion’s Gospel Dieter T. Roth offers a new, critical reconstruction of Marcion’s Gospel including various levels of certainty for readings in this Gospel text. An extensive history of research, overview of both attested and unattested verses in the various sources, and methodological considerations related, in particular, to understanding the citation customs of the sources set the stage for a comprehensive analysis of all relevant data concerning Marcion’s Gospel. On the basis of this new reconstruction significant issues in the study of early Christianity, including the relationship between Marcion’s Gospel and Luke and the place of Marcion in the history of the canon and the formation of the fourfold Gospel, can be considered anew.

Codex Alexandrinus is one of the three earliest surviving entire Greek Bibles and is an important fifth-century witness to the Christian Scriptures, yet no major analysis of the codex has been performed in over a century. In A Study of the Gospels in Codex Alexandrinus W. Andrew Smith delivers a fresh and highly-detailed examination of the codex and its rich variety of features using codicology, palaeography, and statistical analysis. Among the highlights of this study, W. Andrew Smith’s work overturns the view that a single scribe was responsible for copying the canonical books of the New Testament and demonstrates that the orthographic patterns in the Gospels can no longer be used to argue for Egyptian provenance of the codex.

The methodology of New Testament textual criticism, the critical evaluation of readings, and the history and texts of early Christianity is the focus of the influential work of J. K. Elliott. Texts and Traditions offers eighteen essays in his honour. The essays, by colleagues and students from his long career, reflect Elliott's wide interest and impact. From questions of the purpose and practice of textual criticism, to detailed assessment of New Testament literature and the readings of its manuscripts, to provocative studies of the reception of Jesus and the New Testament in the second century, this volume will be of value to those studying the New Testament and Early Christianity.

In 2001, the exciting but enigmatic 4th century Coptic Matthew text, Codex Schøyen, was introduced as an alternative, non-canonical Matthew. In this book, James M. Leonard refutes these sensational claims through fresh methodological approaches and easily accessible analysis. Leonard reveals that the underlying Greek text is one of great quality, and that Codex Schøyen can contribute to the identification of the earliest attainable text—but only with due concern for translational interference. Leonard shows how Codex Schøyen’s close alliance with Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus allows triangulation of the three to help identify an earlier text form which they mutually reflect, and how this impacts a dozen variant passages in Matthew.

The aim of this new Gospel Synopsis is to enhance the study of the Synoptic Gospels and provide insights into the synoptic problem through a clear presentation of the Greek text. Jenny Read-Heimerdinger and Josep Rius-Camps set out the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in turn, comparing each line by line with the other two.
A further innovative feature is that the text is presented according to two important Gospel manuscripts, Codex Bezae and Codex Vaticanus, rather than the usual eclectic edition of the Greek New Testament. Thus, not only are the differences between the Gospels clearly visible but also, the complexity of their relationship is more easily identified through the comparison of two divergent manuscripts representative of distinct traditions.

This is an important time for textual criticism of the New Testament. A fundamental re-evaluation is underway of both the purpose of the discipline and the nature of the manuscripts upon which it relies. The place of the controversial method of conjectural emendation is a debate that encompasses both of these issues. In this study, Ryan Wettlaufer explores the theory and practice of the method and then, using the Epistle of James as a case study, argues that conjectural emendation is an important tool that can be used to restore readings which were once found in the original text but now are No Longer Written.

In Critical History of the Text of the New Testament, 17th century Oratorian Richard Simon (1638-1712), ‘father’ of modern biblical criticism, surveys the genuineness, accuracy, authority, and reliability of all then known sources of the New Testament. He makes rigorous, objective, and expert use of a staggering quantity of material relating to the text—Greek and Latin manuscripts, early versions, quotations from the Old Testament in the New, from the Church Fathers and other commentators of all periods. Though in his day Simon was contradicted, opposed, persecuted, and silenced, it is precisely because, three centuries ago, he dared to be different, and because of his knowledge and his scrupulously “scientific” approach, that his work deserves to reach a wider audience.

As a first order witness of the Greek New Testament, Family 13 has a long history in the field of textual criticism. Nearly seventy years after Kirsopp and Silva Lake’s publication, La Famille 13 dans l’évangile de Marc offers an enlarged, wholly up-to-date and thoroughly revised study of the text of the Gospel of Mark for the witnesses considered as family members by Didier Lafleur. His extensive survey includes the history of the discovery of the manuscripts, their codicological description and new research on the text. The most part of the book is devoted to the edition of minuscule 788 (Athens, Nat. Lib. 74), considered by the author as the nearest member to the archetype of the group (f ¹³). Based on quite new collations for the all extant manuscripts, the edition provides a positive apparatus.

Considérée comme témoin de premier ordre du Nouveau Testament grec, la Famille 13 s’enracine profondément dans l’histoire de la critique. Soixante-dix ans après la publication de Kirsopp et Silva Lake, La Famille 13 dans l’évangile de Marc offre un panorama exhaustif sur le texte de cet évangile pour les témoins considérés par Didier Lafleur comme membres de ce groupe (f ¹³). Son étude englobe la mise en lumière des manuscrits, leur description codicologique et de nouvelles recherches philologiques. L’auteur édite le texte du minuscule 788 (Athènes, Bibl. nat. 74), qu’il considère comme le témoin le plus proche de l’archétype de la famille. Collationés à nouveaux frais pour le texte de Marc, tous les manuscrits de la Famille 13 apparaissent ici pour la première fois dans une édition critique.

The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis provides a thoroughly up-to-date assessment of every major aspect of New Testament textual criticism. The twenty-four essays in the volume, all written by internationally acknowledged experts in the field, cover every major aspect of the discipline, discussing the advances that have been made since the mid twentieth century. With full and informative bibliographies, these contributions will be essential reading for anyone interested in moving beyond the standard handbooks in order to see where the discipline now stands, a vade mecum for all students and text-critical scholars for a generation to come.

With the discovery of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri just over a century ago a number of important texts directly relating to ancient Christianity have come to light. While certain literary texts have received considerable attention in scholarship by comparison the documentary evidence relating to Christianity has received far less attention and remains rather obscure. To help redress this imbalance, and to lend some context to the Christian literary materials, this book examines the extant Christian epistolary remains from Oxyrhynchus between the third and seventh centuries CE. Drawing upon this unique corpus of evidence, which until this point has never been collectively nor systematically treated, this book breaks new ground as it employs the letters to consider various questions relating to Christianity in the Oxyrhynchite. Not only does this lucid study fill a void in scholarship, it also gives a number of insights that have larger implications on Christianity in late antiquity.

William L. (“Bill”) Petersen (1950-2006) was a prominent Diatessaron scholar and New Testament textual critic. This collection brings together thirty-two of his essays, enabling an overview of his impressive and wide-ranging scholarship on Romanos the Melodist, Tatian and his Diatessaron, Patristic studies, and New Testament textual criticism. It will be of value for all those interested in the state and method of these fields of study, on which it offers engaging and sometimes provocative perspectives.

Although consistently overlooked or dismissed, John 8.6, 8 in the Pericope Adulterae is the only place in canonical or non-canonical Jesus tradition that portrays Jesus as writing. After establishing that John 8.6, 8 is indeed a claim that Jesus could write, this book offers a new interpretation and transmission history of the Pericope Adulterae. Not only did the pericope’s interpolator place the story in John’s Gospel in order to highlight the claim that Jesus could write, but he did so at John 7.53–8.11 as a result of carefully reading the Johannine narrative. The final chapter of the book proposes a plausible socio-historical context for the insertion of the story.

In textual criticism, the 'scribal habits' in a manuscript (tendencies to make various sorts of changes) must be known in order to evaluate
its testimony. Colwell analyzed the scribal habits in P45, P66, and P75, by examining their singular readings. This book expands on
Colwell's work by studying P45, P46, P47, P66, P72, and P75, the six most extensive early New Testament manuscripts. All the singular
readings in these papyri are studied along with all the corrections.
The results, which incorporate many revised readings of these papyri, make possible the more precise use of these papyri in textual
criticism. Among the important discoveries is that the general tendency of these early scribes was to omit rather than to add.

This book provides transcriptions and images of some of the oldest parchment manuscripts of the Gospel of John in Greek. It contains also a complete critical apparatus of all the parchment manuscripts of John, including such important manuscripts as Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. The transcriptions and plates are restricted to fragmentary and difficult-to-read copies. These havereceived the same detailed treatment as was used by the International Greek New Testament Project to make an edition of the papyri of John (Brill: 1995). The International Greek New Testament Project is a European-American project currently collaborating with the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung (Münster, Germany) to make a critical edition of the Gospel of John in the Editio Critica Maior.