Metzger,
Bruce Manning. The Text of the New
Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration, 2nd Edition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968.
When catechetized, e.g. the Westminster Confession of Faith,
learning is a corollary concern in life; it’s natural; additionally, this means the fear of the LORD and a three-fold call: humility, humility, humility.
CONTENTS
PART ONE: THE MATERIALS FOR THE
TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
1.
THE MAKING OF ANCIENT BOOKS
I.
THE MATERIALS OF ANCIENT BOOKS
II.
THE FORMS OF ANCIENT BOOKS
III.
ANCIENT SCRIBES AND THEIR HANDIWORK
IV.
“HELPS FOR READERS” IN NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS
V.
STATISTICS OF GREEK MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
2.
IMPORTANT WITNESSES TO THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
I.
GREEK MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
II.
ANCIENT VERSIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
III.
PATRISTIC QUOTATIONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT
PART TWO: THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CIRITICISM AS
REFLECTED IN PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
3.
THE PRE-CRITICAL PERIOD: THE ORIGINAL AND DOMINANCE OF THE TEXUS RECEPTUS
I.
FROM XIMENES AND ERASMUS TO THE ELZEVIRS
II.
THE COLLECTION OF VARIANT READINGS
4.
THE MODERN CRITICAL PERIOD: FROM GRIESBACH TO THE PRESENT
I.
THE BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIC TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
II.
THE OVERTHROW OF THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS
PART THREE: THE APPLICATION OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM TO THE TEXT OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
5.
THE ORIGINS OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM AS A SCHOLARLY DISCIPLINE
6.
MODERN METHODS OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
I.
THE CLASSICAL METHOD OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
II.
REACTIONS AGAINST CLASSICAL TEXTUAL CRITICISM
III.
STATISTICAL METHODS OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
IV.
LOCAL TEXTS AND ANCIENT EDITIONS
V.
ECLECTICISM, OR “RATIONAL CRITICISM”
VI.
METHODS OF DETERMINING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG MANUSCRIPTS
VII.
CONJECTURAL EMENDATION
7.
THE CAUSES OF ERROR IN THE TRANSMISSIN OF THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
I.
UNINTENTIONAL CHANGES
II.
INTENTIONAL CHANGES
8.
THE PRACTICE OF NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM
I.
BASIC CRITERIA FOR THE EVALUATION OF VARIANT READINGS
II.
THE PROCESS OF EVALUATING VARIANT READINGS
III.
THE TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PASSAGES
APPENDIX: CHECK-LIST OF THE GREEK PAPYRI OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR THE SECOND EDITION
GENERAL INDEX
INDEX OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PASSAGES
PART ONE: THE MATERIALS FOR THE
TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
THE MAKING OF ANCIENT BOOKS.
Variously in history, clay, stone, bones, wood, leather, metals,
pottery, potsherds, parchments (vellum) and papyri have been the substratum for
human notations. It’s an ancient form of Facebook, as it were. Human beings are writers and note-takers.
THE MATERIALS OF ANCIENT BOOKS. Papyrus arose in the marshlands of varied
areas, notably, Egypt. The plant was 12 to 15 feet high with a triangular root
the size of a man’s wrist. It would be
cut in 1 foot sections, sliced into strips, crisscrossed, and compressed into a
few layers.
Pliny the Elder in his Natural
History, 13.2ff., notes that King Euemenes (197-159 BC) in Mysia, Asia
Minor sought to be build a library that rivalled the Alexandrian library of
King Ptolemy (205-182 BC). As a result,
the Ptolemy placed an embargo on papryi to Asia Minor
A note on a definition. Parchment
= vellum. These were made from the
flayed skins of cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes, etc. They were de-haired,
washed, and smoothed. Some would be dyed
with purple with gold or silver ink.
Jerome inveighs against unneeded extravagance in a letter to Eustochium (Epist. xxii.32ff.):
“Parchments are dyed purple,
gold is melted into lettering, manuscripts are decked with jewels, while Christ
lies at the door naked and dying.”
Or, again, Jerome responds to an inquirer named Laeta who has asked how
to rear her young daughter (Epist. cvii.12):
“Let her treasures be not gems
or silks [Ed., like TFOs], but manuscripts of the holy Scriptures; and in these
let her think less of gilding and Babylonian parchment and arabesque patterns
than of correctness and accurate punctuation.”
So much for the ruthless repression of English vernaculars advocated by
Canterbury Arundel, Oxford, and Rome over the Wycliffite vernaculars or the
Anglo-Italians a century later in England.
Jerome advocated for biblical literacy for a young girl from unadorned
texts.
A normal Greek scroll was 35 feet long.
Sometimes, long volumes would have several scrolls. Luke was probably
one scroll. The same for Acts. There would be 2 to 3 columns. The height would be the length of the stick.
Scrolls, however, were somewhat inconvenient.
Early in the 2nd century, the “codex” (leaf-form) came into
extensive use in the church. One could
sew the leafs together. All the Gospels
and Acts could be put in one book or codex.
Constantine in 331 AD ordered 50 parchment (vellum or leather)
manuscripts from Eusebius, the scholarly church historian of Caesarea. These 50 volumes were anticipated for
proposed church construction in Constantinople.
Cf. Eusebius’ Life of Constantine,
iv.36. These were to be portable, convenient and legible. They were to be produced by professional
scribes. Some have wondered if the Codex
Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are two codices from this imperial order. Metzger thinks that Vaticanus has an Egyptian
rather than Palestinian provenance.
A formal style of writing
emerged, called uncials. This was a more
deliberate or ornate form of writing. By
the ninth century, a scribal reform resulted in smaller letters writing more
cursively, called miniscules. This became more popular. The volume would be
smaller, more economical, and could be published more quickly.
A palimpsest was a recycled
parchment (vellum/leather manuscript).
It would be cleaned, scraped, washed and reused. For example, 83 sermons by Ephraem, a 4th
century leader, were erased in the 12th century to produce a new New
Testament. It’s been called Codex Ephraemi.
In 692 AD, Canon 68 of the
Council of Trullo, condemned using or converting Scripture-texts. If guilty, one was to be excommunicated for 1
year. Yet, of 250 uncial manuscripts, 52
are palimpsest manuscripts.
The early church was involved
in manuscript production for churches, individuals and converts. Demand was
high.
Once Constantine legalized
Christianity, professional scriptoria (scriptoriums, if you will) arose. A scriptorium would have several trained scribes
equipped with parchment, pen and ink. They had a corrector called a διορθωτής. They were paid according to the number of
lines. Price fixing had been fixed earlier by Diocletian—25 denarii/100 lines
for a first-rate copy and 20 denarii/100 lines for a second-rate work. The Codex Sinaiticus, on this scale, would
have cost 30,000 denarii.
In the Byzantine period, the
Bible was prepared for monasteries as well as churches. It was an arduous,
fatiguing, but an honored duty.
A few quotes will give a sense
of it:
1.
“He who does not know how to write supposes it to be no labour; but
though only three fingers write, the whole body labours” (17).
2.
“Writing bows one’s back, thrusts the ribs into one’s stomach, and
fosters general debility of the body” (18).
3.
“As travellers rejoice to see their home country, so also is the end of a
bookd to those who toil [in writing]” (18).
4.
“The end of the book, thanks be to God!” (18)
5.
Cassiodorus, an Ostrogothic prince in Italy, later founder of a monastery
at Vivarium, Italy, and scribe said:
“By
reading the divine Scriptures [the scribe] wholesomely instructs his own mind,
and by copying the precepts of the Lord he spreads them far and wide. What happy application, what praiseworthy
industry, to preach unto men by means of the hand, to untie the tongue by means
of the fingers, to bring quiet salvation to mortals, and to fight the Devil’s
invidious wiles with pen and ink! For every word of the Lord written by the
scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan.
And so, though seated in one spot, the scribe traverses diverse lands
and through the dissemination of what he has written…Man multiplies the
heavenly words, and in a certain metaphorical sense, if I may dare say to
speak, three fingers are made to express the utterances of the Holy
Trinity. O sight glorious to those who
contemplate it carefully! The fast-travelling reed-poen writes down the holy
words and thus avenges the malice of the Wicked One, who cause a reed to be
used to smite the head of the Lord during his Passion” (18, citing Cassiodori Senatoris Institutiones,
I.xxx.1).
A renown Studium existed at Constantinople under Abbot Theodore the
Studite. He had some severities for
errant scribes. (1) Bread and water only
for that scribe becoming more interested in the subject-matter at the expense
of copying, (2) 130 penances if the parchments were not neat and clean, (3) 50
penances for taking someone else’s parchment, and (4) 50 penances for making
too much glue.
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