Text Criticism

The late Cambridge scholar F. H. Chase gives an insightful study on the Lord's prayer in the early Christian Church. The study first discusses the early Church and the Synagogue, then goes through an analytical study of every phrase of the prayer.

The story of the two women martyrs S. Perpetua and her slave S. Felicitas (d. 203 CE) have captivated generations of Christians. In this book, the late Cambridge scholar J. A. Robinson provides a study of the Greek and Latin texts of the Passio based on newly discovered manuscripts, as well as the original Latin text of the Scillitan Martyrs, another text of late 2nd century North African martyrdom.

The Apology of Aristides is the earliest Christian apologia to have survived in its entirety. It was written as a defense of the new Christian way of life against its many rivals and opponents, and details some of its leading ethical precepts. Long thought to have been lost, this early second-century work was rediscovered in a Syriac translation in a seventh-century manuscript preserved in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. This volume contains not only the standard edition of the Syriac text with critical notes, but also the first English translation and a study of surviving fragments in Greek, which were subsequently identified in the 'Life of Barlaam and Josaphat' (an early Christian reworking of the life of Buddha).

Only fragments survive of the writings of the Valentinian Gnostic teacher Heracleon (fl. 145-180 AD). The remnants can be found primarily in quotations in Origen's commentary on the Gospel of John. This study gives an edition of the surviving texts with extensive notes, biblical references, and indices. This volume is indispensable for the study of second century Gnosticism.

This volume collects together for the first time the most influential papers of the late scholar of Georgian and New Testament textual critic, J. Neville Birdsall. Professor Birdsall wrote on Greek witnesses to the New Testament text, the Georgian version of the New Testament, palaeography, patristics, and the theory of textual criticism. The collection fully demonstrates the author’s standing as one of the most learned and wide-ranging New Testament textual scholars of modern times.

This book attempts to determine the Gospel text used by Ephraim, and the bearing his quotations have upon the date of the Peshitta. Ephraim is one of the figures from the Syriac-speaking Church whose name is well known in both East and West. His surviving works are by themselves as voluminous as all other remains of Syriac literature earlier than 400 AD. Ephraim’s death in roughly 373 AD means that his Gospel text predates the 5th century and attests a text older than many of the extant manuscripts.

The sixteen studies in this volume explore a variety of topics pertaining to the transmission and reception of the New Testament text. Including articles by Barbara Aland, D. C. Parker, Eldon Epp, Gordon Fee, Everett Ferguson, and others, the results of these studies have important implications for the interpretation of the New Testament and for understanding the formative impact of the text on Early Christianity. Indispensable for those interested in textual criticism, this compilation will be a welcome resource for New Testament scholars, and those interested in Early Christianity.

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the oldest, famous, and most important manuscripts of the Bible. At least three scribes copied the text manually, and they were faced with many decisions: What do I do when I spot an error in the text I just copied? What is the right spelling of this word? Is it time for a new paragraph? This book studies a variety of textual and non-textual phenomena in Codex Sinaiticus. We discover more about this important biblical manuscript as well as the individuals with their own habits, qualities, and skill levels who produced it.

Did scribes intentionally change the text of the New Testament? This book argues they did not and disputes the claims that variant readings are theologically motivated. Using evidence gathered from some of the earliest surviving biblical manuscripts these essays reconstruct the copying habits of scribes and explore the contexts in which they worked. Alongside these are studies of selected early Christian writings, which illustrate attitudes to and examples of textual change.

This monograph examines the manuscript variants of the Peshitta (the standard Syriac translation) of Kings, with special attention to the manuscript 9a1. Manuscript 9a1 is of critical importance for the textual history of Kings, and Walter argues that there is overwhelming evidence that the non-9a1 Mss attest to an extensive revision. This monograph also discusses translation features of the Peshitta of Kings with special attention paid to harmonization and the leveling and dissimulation of vocabulary. Walter also treats the vorlage for the translation and treats its relation to the LXX and the Targumim.

The Psalm Headings remain one of the most difficult and puzzling pieces of the Hebrew Bible. The present study looks at how these titles were treated in the East Syriac traditions. This volume gives a history of research and presents a new critical edition based on previously unpublished manuscripts. The Psalm headings in the East Syriac tradition reflect the exegesis of the Antiochene school, especially Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. The headings contain a summary of Theodore's exegesis which had an important influence on the work of Syriac interpreters such as Ishodad of Merv and Bar Hebraeus.

This book presents a detailed analysis of the Aramaic mnemonics, those short witty sentences written in Aramaic as memory aids in the margins of one of the oldest extant biblical Hebrew manuscripts, the Leningrad Codex (1008 CE). The material is presented in clear, user-friendly charts. Each mnemonic is set alongside the Hebrew verses it represents. This book demonstrates the ingenuity of the Masoretes in their grand endeavor to preserve the text of the Hebrew Bible precisely in the form that it had reached them.

Eleven papers from the First Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, examining aspects of the Textus Receptus, the ‘Pre-Johannine Text’ of the Gospel, the ratings system in the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament and the application of probability theory to textual transmission, as well as surveys of non-continuous papyrus witnesses to the New Testament and the Dura-Europos Gospel Harmony, alongside studies of variation in the form of the Beatitudes and the location of Emmaus.

Although scholars have often made inferences about the Greek texts that lay behind the Old Syriac and Peshitta versions of the Gospels, very few have ever attempted to formulate systematic rules for such inferences. This volume investigates a wide range of textual phenomena and formulates clear and simple rules for the use of Syriac texts as witnesses to the underlying Greek. It becomes possible to uncover errors that have accumulated during the evolution of the Greek New Testament textual apparatus. Williams argues these errors generally stem from the unjustified use of Syriac witnesses.

A collection of ten original papers on the New Testament text, first presented in 2013, which reflect the diversity of current research. Examples of ancient engagement with the Bible include Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustine along with early translations.

This volume explores themes at the intersection of the Bible and science fiction. In the genre of science fiction in film, books, comic books, or fan fiction, we find portrayals of possible futures, altered pasts, supernatural or beyond-human beings. Just as in biblical literature, science fiction can contain metaphysical speculation. Departing from this intersection, the authors engage with biblical texts 'as' science fiction, asking different questions of their sources: can science fiction theory and practice yield new approaches to the discussion of biblical texts? The authors reflect on methodology and offer case studies that include, among others, superhuman biblical kings and uncanny divine intermediaries.

Scholars have long noted the importance of Isaiah in the Gospel of John, though few have focused exclusively on John’s use of Isaiah. The Servant of the Lord from Isaiah has also received much attention over the years, but commentators often only make passing reference to the Servant of the Lord in John. Day provides a systematic analysis of the Isaianic Servant in the Gospel of John.

The textual history of the New Testament is a dynamic tradition, reflecting differing readings, interpretations and uses of its canonical writings. These contributions represent original research by an international range of scholars, first presented at the Tenth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament.

While scholarship on nonverbal communication in the Hebrew Bible has traditionally focused on ritual dress, postures of worship, and related topics, there exist a number of non-ritual gestures in the text for which we have little understanding, such as occur in the book of Proverbs. As the premier source for moral pedagogy in the Hebrew Bible, Proverbs contains a number of gestures that, when properly interpreted, enhance an understanding of social values in ancient Israel. To aid in the process of decoding these literary features, Jones examines Ugaritic, Akkadian, Egyptian, and Sumerian texts, identifying similar gestures and anatomical idioms and how they are variously interpreted in their respective contexts. Though the particular religious and cultural systems of these neighboring entities are distinct, their ideology of social values—values imbedded in the fabric of daily life and indicative of the universally shared experience of all communities—comes to the fore through the medium of gesture.

The present study represents the first attempt to expand the methodological and practical framework of textual scholarship on the Greek New Testament from an Orthodox perspective. Its focus is on the Antoniades edition of 1904, commonly known as the Patriarchal Edition. The examination of the creation and reception of this edition shows that its textual principles are often misrepresented. In particular, it is shown to be more closely related to the Textus Receptus than to lectionary manuscripts. This is confirmed by an analysis of lectionary manuscripts using the Text und Textwert methodology and a detailed comparison of the Antoniades edition with the recent Editio Critica Maior of the Catholic Epistles. A textual commentary is provided on key verses in order to formulate guidelines for preparing an edition of the Greek New Testament that would satisfy the needs of Orthodox users in different contexts. This study offers a foundation for the further development of New Testament textual scholarship from an Orthodox perspective, informed both by modern critical scholarship and Orthodox tradition. It also provides a fresh translation of Antoniades’ introduction in an Appendix.

The first ever critical edition and complete translation of the Syriac Life of Saint Simeon of the Olives, who was an abbot of Qartmin Monastery in Tur Abdin and a bishop of the city of Harran in the late seventh and early eighth century AD.

This book investigates the biblical text of Codex Washingtonianus, also called the Freer Gospels, Codex W and GA 032. There are numerous distinctive features in this early and important gospel book, including the differing affiliation of its text in separate sections (known as block mixture). The study examines and evaluates the blocks of text in this manuscript through the extensive application of the technique of quantitative analysis, which sheds light on the textual relationship between Codex Washingtonianus and other gospel manuscripts. Paratextual features, orthographic variations, and singular readings are also described and analysed. This book thus functions as an investigation of the phenomenon of block mixture in itself as well as the character of this particular manuscript, confirming many of the findings of previous scholarship and providing new data from the context of modern research.