Text Criticism of the Old & New Testaments
Journals
TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism. TC is an electronic journal dedicated to the study of the Jewish and Christian biblical texts. Articles on any aspect of the textual criticism of the Jewish and Christian scriptures (including extracanonical and related literature) are welcome, and contributions that transcend the traditional boundary between textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and New Testament textual criticism are especially encouraged. We would also like to see articles that discuss the relationship between textual criticism and other disciplines.
An Annotated Bibliography of the History of Textual Criticism (Michael D. Marlowe) See also the Bibliography on English Versions of the Bible.
Text
Critical Series by Daniel B. Wallace. Text critical lectures by
Dr. Daniel B. Wallace using the RealPlayer format.
Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts. Timothy W. Seid.
The
main focus of the web is on the process used to study the ancient manuscripts
upon which the New Testament is based. While the language discussed is Greek,
almost everything is explained with transliterations into English and, where
applicable, translations from standard English Bibles.
Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, 8th
major critical ed. (complete, high-quality, scanned images of this classic
work)
NT Textual Criticism Reference Chart, 2d ed. (170K .pdf file; Acrobat v. 5 required) This is a
4-page reference chart designed to insert inside the cover of an NA27 Greek NT.
It includes a variety of info, including MS groupings by both the more
traditional text types and Aland's alternate categorization.
Some Second Thoughts on the Majority Text (Daniel B.
Wallace)
The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are they
Identical? (Daniel B. Wallace)
Inspiration, Preservation, and New Testament Textual Criticism (Daniel B.
Wallace) from GTJ 12 (1991): 21–50; also published in New Testament
Essays in Honor of Homer A. Kent, Jr ., edited by Gary T. Meadors (Winona
Lake, IN: BMH, 1991).
Vaticanus resource page (Wieland
Willker)
"Erasmus and the Textus Receptus"
(Bill Combs) DBSJ 1 (1996): 35-53.
Erasmus, His Greek Text, and His Theology (Douglas K.
Kutilek)
The Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript (Constantin von
Tischendorf) This is C.T.'s personal account of his discovery; written in 1864.
Text and Tradition: The Role of New Testament
Manuscripts in Early Christian Studies, (CD-pdf) The Kenneth W. Clark
Lectures, Duke Divinity School, 1997 (Bart D. Ehrman) Part 2: Text and Transmission: The Historical Significance
of the "Altered" Text
The Neglect of the Firstborn in New Testament
Studies (Bart D. Ehrman) Presidential Lecture, Society of
Biblical Literature, SE Region, March 1997 [This is an assessment of the
current state of textual criticism among both NT scholars and the untrained.
The "firstborn" is the discipline of textual criticism. The article
includes an extended discussion of the textual variants at Luke 22:19-20.]
The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism (A. E. Housman)
An Illustration of MS Transmission (Rodney
J. Decker; large file, 338K, v. 4 .pdf; on this site); this is a single page,
color chart that attempts to illustrate some of the historical factors
that account for the fragmentary state of the extant MS evidence. It does not
profess to represent actual MSS or specific stemma, but it does illustrate
well, I think, that the process of MS transmission was anything but
"normal" (as some majority text advocates would argue). No
documentation is included--for that, see Aland's Text of the NT, 2d ed.
(esp. pp. 49-64).
"Inspiration and Preservation of Scripture" (Rolland
McCune) .pdf file (Contains Detroit Baptist Seminary's statement on
preservation--relevant in light of the noise being made on this subject by PCC
in recent years.) The statement is also available
separately.
Two separate critiques of Carsten
Thiede's dating of the Magdalen papyrus (P64) (Sigrid Peterson)
An article by Thiede that includes a nice color
photo of 7Q5 or see photo alone. (This is a very small papyrus fragment that
some think, probably wrongly, is from Mark's gospel.)
The
Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism.
Old and New in Textual Criticism: Similarities,
Differences, and Prospects for Cooperation (James R. Adair,
Jr) TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, Volume 1 (1996).
Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, 8th major
critical ed. (complete, high-quality, scanned images of this classic work)
Hermann von Soden's Griechishes Neues Testament: Text mit kurzem Apparat is now available on the TC Ebind page (Complete, high-quality, scanned images; von Soden's Schriften des Neuen Testaments, his major critical edition, is due online by fall at the same site.)
NT Manuscripts
Papyri, P1 through P76; 200 CE to 700 CE copies
Letter Uncials; 046 through 0250; 2nd to
14th century copies
Numbered Minuscules, 1 through 1985; 9th to 16th
century copies
Minuscules, 2 through 399; 9th to 16th
century copies
Minuscules, 404 through 999; 8th to 16th
century copies
Minuscules, 1012 through 2768; 9th to 16th
century copies
The Idea of the Sanctity of the Bible Text and the Science of Textual
Criticism. Menachem Cohen.
Old Testament Textual Criticism. From The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism.
Old and New in Textual Criticism: Similarities,
Differences, and Prospects for Cooperation (James R. Adair,
Jr) TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, Volume 1 (1996).
The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit. Cambridge
University Library. The conservation and research conducted at Cambridge
University Library on the 140,000 fragments of Hebrew and Jewish literature and
documents rescued from the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo.
The Princeton Geniza Project.
The Computer Geniza Project of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at
Princeton University seeks to extend the methodologies available to Hebrew and
Arabic scholars working with the documents found in the Geniza chamber of the
Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo in the late 19th century. The project is dedicated
to transcribing documents from film copies to computer files, creating a full
text retrieval text-base of transcribed documents, developing new tools such as
dictionaries, semantic categories and morphological aids to further the study
of Geniza texts.
The Schoyen Collection: Checklist of Manuscripts.
The Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts.
Jewish National and University Library. "The
Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (IMHM) has undertaken the task of
collecting microfilm copies of all Hebrew manuscripts extant in public and
private collections. Over 60,000 reels, representing more than 90% of known
Hebrew manuscripts are available for the use of scholars and interested laymen.
The IMHM located in the Jewish National and University Library offers scholars
a unique facility to study, compare and collate Hebrew manuscripts found in
distant locations on different continents. All the vast printed resources of
Hebraica and Judaica are available in the same building. Adjoining the IMHM are
the Department of Manuscripts of the JNUL housing 10,000 original MSS and the
Hebrew Palaeography Project which is conducting research on the codicology and
palaeography of medieval dated Hebrew MSS."
Text of the Old Testament
(Samuel Macauley Jackson) Taken from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge.
Aramaic Mnemonics in Codex Leningradesis
(David Marcus) TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, Volume 4
(1999). Abstract:
This article outlines the nature and extent of the Aramaic mnemonics which
occur in some Masorah magna notes in Codex Leningradensis. The various problems
involved in the interpretation of these mnemonics are discussed, and a
practical suggestion is offered concerning how these mnemonics may be useful
for modern scholars. A complete list of the Aramaic mnemonics--along with translations,
references to the biblical text, and notes--is given in the Appendix.
The Leningrad Codex at the West Semitic Research
Project. This site contains a
page on General Information; Leninrad f.40b (Folio 40b – a page of
biblical text; Leningrad Carpet Page (An illuminated
pate).
