This article was reposted in two parts because it was too large as one.
Which Bible 4, Part 1
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
Eating Crow
Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ. I was wrong. The real question is, what do I intend to do
about it? After all, crow is rather a
tasty dish. It’s the realization that
one’s mentors’ work contains the error.
It’s the emotional feeling of disloyalty, the feeling of being a Judas;
that’s what really hurts. Still, truth
has merit for Truth’s sake. Truth is not
what we think we know. Rather, Truth is
the One we follow, Jesus Christ. We
ought not be amazed that we err, even blunder, stumble, and fall, when we
undertake to follow Jesus. Even so, He
lifts us up. Still, the error is totally
mine.
What Exposed the Errors
These errors were first
uncovered by the article written by Dr. Daniel Baird Wallace of Dallas
Theological Seminary, “The Majority-Text Theory: History, Methods and Critique”,
in The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (JETS) 37/2
(June 1994) pages 185-215.[1]
Let’s try to trace this essay together, so that you will have a better
idea of my errors and their source.
A Brief Outline of Attendant History
During the fourteenth through
sixteenth centuries the Ottoman Empire expanded into eastern Europe controlling
lands as far west as the Adriatic, and approaching Vienna. In 1529 Vienna is under siege, by 1547 much
of Hungary is under Ottoman rule.
Ottoman failure to take Vienna turns the tide; they are finally defeated
on September 11, 1683.[2]
Still, many Orthodox prefer
Ottoman to Venetian rule: Venice is responsible for the attack on
Constantinople. In 1201 Venice
negotiates a secret treaty with Egypt.
In 1203 Constantinople is attacked and falls to Crusaders.[3]
Refugees flee into western
Europe, bringing much of their art, scholarship, and other treasures with them;
among these treasures, ancient Bible manuscripts, Byzantine text manuscripts.
A Timeline of Text Criticism
1516-1535: Desiderius Erasmus of
Rotterdam (1466-1536), a leading humanist issues five editions of the Greek New
Testament,[4] which were published by
Johann Froben.[5] These editions are primarily Byzantine text
documents. They become the Textus
Receptus.
1522: The Complutensian Polyglot (1514, but not published
until 1522), a competing publication is issued.
The New Testament contains Greek and Vulgate in parallel columns. The Old Testament has Hebrew, Vulgate, and
Septuagint in parallel. It is initiated
and financed by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436-1517) and
published by Complutense University.[8]
1524: Erasmus publishes his
Of free will: Discourses or
Comparisons, an
attack on Luther.[10]
1536: Calvin publishes his Institutes of the Christian Religion.[13]
1546-1551: Robert Estienne or Stephanus (1503-1559), a French, later Swiss
printer publishes four editions, the Stephanus Greek New Testament, which is
essentially the Erasmus’ text.[14]
1565-1582: Theodore Beza (1519-1605), a French, later Swiss theologian
issues two editions of the Greek New Testament in Erasmus’ text, with possible
consideration of Codices Cantabrigensis and Claromontanus.[15]
1618–1648: The Thirty Years’ War.[16]
1624-1633: Elzevir, Bonaventura (1583-1652) and Abraham (1592-1652),[17] Dutch printers publish
two notable editions of the Greek New Testament in Erasmus’ text.[18] Isaac (1596-1651) is also involved in the
trade.[19]
1640-1660: The English Revolution.[20]
1648: the Peace of Westphalia treaties are signed ending the Thirty Years’
War and providing a terminus for the Reformation.[21]
1650: approximate beginning of the Age of Enlightenment.[22]
1689: Richard Simon (1638-1712), a French text critic is possibly the first
to identify manuscript families.[23]
1736: Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752), a German Lutheran scholar
identifies known manuscripts as either African (today, Alexandrian) and Asiatic
(Byzantine). He publishes a [Defense]
of the Greek Text of the New Testament.[24]
1757: Johann Salomo Semler (1725-1791), a German text critic continues classification of
manuscripts by families (i.e. Alexandrian and Byzantine).[25]
1774-1775: Johann Jakob Griesbach (1745-1812), a German text critic
publishes Novum Testamentum Graecum.[26]
1775-1783: The American Revolution.[27]
1789-1799: The French Revolution.[28]
1794: approximate beginning of the Age of Reason.[29]
1808: Johann Leonhard Hug (1765–1846), a German Roman Catholic orientalist
publishes Einleitung in die Schriften des Neuen Testaments.[30]
1831: The Trinitarian Bible Society is founded.[31]
1837-1841: Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann (1793-1851), a German philologist
and text critic issues three New Testament editions. “[He is] the first major editor to break from
the Textus Receptus, seeking to restore the most ancient reading current in manuscripts
of the Alexandrian text-type, using the agreement of the Western authorities (Old
Latin and Greek Western Uncials) as the main proof of antiquity of a reading
where the oldest Alexandrian authorities differ.”[32]
1840-1843: Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf (1815-1874),[33] a German text critic issues several
editions of the Greek New Testament with critical apparatus, which are
published by the Didot family.[34]
1844: Tischendorf discovers forty-four pages of a
Septuagint, then the oldest known LXX manuscript, in the trash at Saint
Catherine's Monastery.[35] These are published in 1846.17
1845-1891: Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (1813-1891), an English text
critic and advocate of the Byzantine text authored and edited several works on
text, text criticism, and translation.[36]
1849: Tischendorf publishes the Greek New Testament, with Witness of
Ancient Recessions, Critical Apparatus, and Rules of Criticism.[37]
“Basic rule: The text is only to be sought from ancient
evidence, and especially from Greek manuscripts, but without neglecting the
testimonies of versions and fathers.
1. A reading altogether peculiar to one or another ancient document is suspicious; as also is any, even if supported by a class of documents, which seems to evince that it has originated in the revision of a learned man.
2. Readings, however well supported by evidence, are to be rejected, when it is manifest (or very probable) that they have proceeded from the errors of copyists.
3. In parallel passages, whether of the New or Old Testament, especially in the Synoptic Gospels, which ancient copyists continually brought into increased accordance, those testimonies are preferable, in which precise accordance of such parallel passages is not found; unless, indeed, there are important reasons to the contrary.
4. In discrepant readings, that should be preferred which may have given occasion to the rest, or which appears to comprise the elements of the others.
5. Those readings must be maintained which accord with New Testament Greek, or with the particular style of each individual writer.”
1. A reading altogether peculiar to one or another ancient document is suspicious; as also is any, even if supported by a class of documents, which seems to evince that it has originated in the revision of a learned man.
2. Readings, however well supported by evidence, are to be rejected, when it is manifest (or very probable) that they have proceeded from the errors of copyists.
3. In parallel passages, whether of the New or Old Testament, especially in the Synoptic Gospels, which ancient copyists continually brought into increased accordance, those testimonies are preferable, in which precise accordance of such parallel passages is not found; unless, indeed, there are important reasons to the contrary.
4. In discrepant readings, that should be preferred which may have given occasion to the rest, or which appears to comprise the elements of the others.
5. Those readings must be maintained which accord with New Testament Greek, or with the particular style of each individual writer.”
1853-1859: Tischendorf, under the patronage of Czar Alexander II and with
the aid of Russia, discovers and obtains Codex Sinaiticus, which is published
in 1862.14
1857-1872: Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813-1875), an English text critic
issues his great critical edition of the New Testament.[38]
1881: Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901),[39] a British bishop, and Fenton
John Anthony Hort (1828-1892),[40] an Irish theologian,
publish The New Testament in the Original Greek.[41]
1881: John William Burgon (1813-1888),[42] an English theologian
refutes Westcott and Hort in the Quarterly Review.[43]
1896: The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of
the Holy Gospels[44] and The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels
Vindicated and Established[45]are published after
Burgon’s death. In the latter he outlines his “seven Tests of Truth,” which he also calls “Notes
of Truth.”
“Notes of Truth.
1. Antiquity, or Primitiveness;
2. Consent of Witnesses, or Number;
3. Variety of Evidence, or Catholicity;
4. Respectability of Witnesses, or Weight;
5. Continuity, or Unbroken Tradition;
6. Evidence of the Entire Passage, or Context;
7. Internal Considerations, or Reasonableness.”
1. Antiquity, or Primitiveness;
2. Consent of Witnesses, or Number;
3. Variety of Evidence, or Catholicity;
4. Respectability of Witnesses, or Weight;
5. Continuity, or Unbroken Tradition;
6. Evidence of the Entire Passage, or Context;
7. Internal Considerations, or Reasonableness.”
Burgon: “We do not advocate perfection in the Textus
Receptus.” “I am not defending the ‘Textus
Receptus.’ ”
1898: Eberhard Nestle (1851-1913) a German text critic publishes the first edition of his Novum
Testamentum Graece.[46]
1902: Baron Hermann von Soden (1852-1914), a German scholar publishes Die
Schriften des Neuen Testaments in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt.[47]
1912-1981: Edward Freer Hills (1912-1981), an American text critic supports
the Textus Receptus, even to the extent of approving Erasmus’ reverse
translations from Latin.[48]
1924: Burnett Hillman Streeter (1874-1937),[49] a British text critic
publishes The Four Gospels, claiming that Origen used two text-types.[50]
1927: Erwin Nestle (1883-1972) Eberhard’s son publishes the thirteenth
edition of his father’s Novum Testamentum Graece.[51]
1929: Herman Charles Hoskier (1864–1938), a British text critic most
known for collating “every known
Greek manuscript of the Apocalypse up to 1918” publishes Concerning the
Text of the Apocalypse.[52]
1952: Kurt Aland (1915-1994), a German text critic publishes the
twenty-first edition of Nestle’s Novum Testamentum Graece.[53]
1950: Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910-1990),[54] a British scholar
publishes The Books and the Parchments (Revell, Westwood, NJ, 1950, 1953, 1963:
287 pages).
1967: Harry August Sturz (possibly 1940-1997) publishes The Byzantine Text-type and New Testament. Ostensibly,
Sturz shows that the Byzantine Text is neither the God nor the Garbage text of
Textual Criticism.[55]
1970: David Otis Fuller (1903-1988)[56] an American pastor
publishes Which Bible? that includes an article by Hodges. “[This article] made an impression on
Gordon D. Fee sufficient for him to pen an article that sparked a lively debate
between Hodges and Fee within the pages of JETS and elsewhere.”1
1976: Jakob van Bruggen (b. 1936), a Dutch theologian
publishes The Ancient Text of the New Testament.[57]
1977: Wilbur N. Pickering (biography not found), an American missionary translator publishes The
Identity of the New Testament Text.[58]
1978: The Dean Burgon Society is founded.[59]
1981: Bart D. Ehrman (b. 1955)[60] authors New
Testament Textual Criticism Quest for Methodology. [61] Ehrman’s Rule of text criticism states that
preservation requires perfection: that is, no textual corruptions may exist in
at least one of three cases: either in all manuscripts, a set of manuscripts,
or a single manuscript.1
1982: Arthur Leonard Farstad (1935-1988) and Zane Clark Hodges (1932-2008),
American pastors publish The Greek New Testament According to the
Majority Text.[62]
1987: Willem Franciscus Wisselink (biography not found) publishes Assimilation
as a criterion for the establishment of the text: a comparative study on the
basis of passages from Matthew, Mark and Luke.[63]
1987: Theodore Peter Letis (1952-2005) publishes The Majority Text:
Essays and Reviews in the Continuing Debate.
1987-2009: Gordon Donald Fee (b. 1934), a Canadian
theologian publishes the NICNT commentaries on 1 Corinthians, Philippians, 1
& 2 Thessalonians; as well at the NIBC commentaries on 1 & 2 Timothy,
& Titus.[64]
1988: Majority Text Society established.
This organization appears to be defunct.
Attempted communications with P.O. Box 141289, Dallas, Texas, 75214 and www.majoritytext.org
have so far failed.
1991: William Grover Pierpont (1915-2003)[65] and Maurice Arthur
Robinson (biography not found),
American text scholars publish The Greek New Testament according to the Byzantine/Majority
Textform.[66]
1992: Bruce Manning Metzger (1914-2007),[67] an American text critic
publishes The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption,
and Restoration.[68]
1993: the United Bible Societies (UBS) publish their fourth edition of The
Greek New Testament, which is similar to the Nestle-Aland twenty-sixth
and twenty-seventh editions.22
1993: Eldon Jay Epp (biography
not found) and Gordon D. Fee,
American text scholars publish Studies
in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism. [69]
1994: Daniel Baird Wallace (b. 1952), an American text scholar publishes “The Majority-Text
Theory: History, Methods and Critique”, in The Journal of the Evangelical
Theological Society.
2002: David Alan Black (b. 1952),[70] an American text
scholar publishes Rethinking
New Testament Textual Criticism.66
2008: David C. Parker (biography
not found),[71] a British text scholar publishes An Introduction to the New
Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts.66
2010: The Center for Study and Preservation of the Majority Text (CSPMT) is
founded.[72]
2012: the Nestle-Aland twenty-eighth edition is released.[73]
2013: Pickering issues In Defense of Family 35.
2013: The Byzantine Greek New Testament (BGNT) Family 35 is
published by CSPMT.[74]
Notes on A Timeline of Text Criticism
A timeline of text criticism shows that history, text
criticism, theology, translation, and other fields are inseparably and
intricately intertwined. Any attempt to
separate them, results in a contorted view of reality, ending with the
destruction of them all. The more we can
embrace the total reality, the better the results we shall find. Some of the above contributors will attempt
to convince us that we can better understand text criticism by separating it
from its whole reality: this is misleading and untrue. There is no text criticism apart from
history, theology, translation, and other fields.
Some of the above contributors are intellectual or
ivory-tower snobs: they believe that qualification begins and ends with the
letters, PhD. These have quite forgotten
that the Holy Ghost is given to all Christians: educated and uneducated, kings
and peasants, male and female, slave and free, wealthy and paupers, young and
old alike. In bygone years, after a man
had gained a lifetime of experience, he was awarded a PhD and invited to share
that precious experience. Nowadays,
bright young people are pushed into the PhD through a process of intense
education, devoid of life experience; the product is contaminated with large
numbers of educated fools, who have no practical wisdom.
What does education accomplish? It is not the end of the race, it is merely
the beginning of the race. A BA/BS
degree qualifies one to be a starter in some race of practice. An MA/MS or Th.M. qualifies one to begin to
write, it merely shows that certain minimal writing skills have been learned
and demonstrated. A PhD merely shows
that certain more advanced speaking and writing skills exist. None of these degrees establishes that a
subject matter expert has developed.
“I was no prophet, nor was
I the son of a prophet; I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:
when the Lord took me as I
followed the flock, and the Lord
said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”[75]
People in the above timeline are honored and respected for
their hard work and for what they accomplished by it, not for any degrees or
titles they may possess.
A timeline of text criticism shows that worthy adversaries
sharpened each other.[76] We are as indebted to Westcott as we are to
Burgon. I must enter the same bloody
battlefield to fully uncover my errors and find better answers. You must come with me, because you seek the
Truth as well.
A timeline of text criticism reveals an immense gap between 1650
and 1830. We found what we could to fill
that gap. One word stands out as
descriptive, radicalism: evidently it was a period of great social upheaval. Text criticism may not have advanced during
this period, but it is impossible to believe that the newly published texts and
translations did not instigate that great social upheaval. From a Christian perspective this marks the
radical departure away from trust in authority and revelation, toward trust in
individual personal intelligence. Man
becomes his own god, and God is eventually proclaimed to be dead, or at least
unnecessary. From the perspective of
text criticism, man no longer needs God to resolve the mystery, the problems
can be solved with science and statistics; or so man falsely assumes.
We may not leave a timeline of text criticism without
observing that the Renaissance (fourteenth-seventeenth centuries),[77] Reformation (prior to
1517-1648),[78]
and Counter-Reformation (1545-1648) are all part-and-parcel with the early
years of this timeline.
Finally, we observe that a timeline of text criticism
records a tendency toward division into separate groups that eventually stop
talking to one another, at which point real growth ceases.
[1] http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/37/37-2/JETS_37-2_185-215_Wallace.pdf
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Froben
[6] http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/martin-luther-posts-95-theses
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII_of_England
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complutensian_Polyglot
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Bible
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_libero_arbitrio_diatribe_sive_collatio
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Bondage_of_the_Will
[12] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15772a.htm
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutes_of_the_Christian_Religion
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Estienne
[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Beza
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War
[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Elzevir
[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Elzevir
and http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/185436/Elzevir-Family
[19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Elzevir
[20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Revolution
[21] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia
[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment
[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Simon
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Albrecht_Bengel
[25] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Salomo_Semler
[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jakob_Griesbach
and http://books.google.com/books/about/Commentarius_ criticus_in_textum_Gr%C3%A6cum.html?id=EkAhHAAACAAJ
[27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution
[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
[29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Reason
[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Leonhard_Hug,
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07515a.htm, and http://books.google.com/books/about/Einleitung_in_die_Schriften_des_Neuen_Te.html?id=GMBSAAAAcAAJ
[31] http://www.tbsbibles.org/
[32] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Lachmann
[33] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_von_Tischendorf
[34] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_family
[35] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine%27s_Monastery,_Mount_Sinai
[36] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Henry_Ambrose_Scrivener
[37] Novum
Testamentum Graece. Ad antiquos testes recensuit, Apparatum Criticum multis
modis auctum et correctum apposuit, Commentationem Isagogicam praemisit Constantinus
Tischendorf (please forgive my crude attempts at translation). http://www.bible-researcher.com/bib-t.html
[38] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Prideaux_Tregelles
[39] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Foss_Westcott
[40] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenton_John_Anthony_Hort
[41] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Testament_in_the_Original_Greek
[42] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burgon
[43] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarterly_Review
[44] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21112/21112-h/21112-h.htm
[45] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38960/38960-h/38960-h.html
[46] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novum_Testamentum_Graece
[47] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann,_Freiherr_von_Soden
[48] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_F._Hills
[49] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnett_Hillman_Streeter
[50]
According to Bruce, p. 185
[51] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Nestle
[52] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_C._Hoskier
[53] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Aland
[54] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._F._Bruce
[55] http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Byzantine_Text_type_and_New_Testamen.html?id=DsBxnQEACAAJ
[56] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Otis_Fuller
[57] http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0887560059
[58] http://www.biblesupport.com/e-sword-downloads/file/2201-pickering-dr-wilbur-n-the-identity-of-the-new-testament-text-iitopxexe/
[59] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Burgon_Society
[60] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_D._Ehrman
[61] http://books.google.com/books/about/New_Testament_Textual_Criticism.html?id=jqXJnQEACAAJ
[62] Farstad Arthur L. and Zane C. Hodges, The
Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text
(Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 1982: 810 pages)
[63] http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Comparison.html?id=k2-fPgAACAAJ
[64] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Fee
[65] http://www.reltech.org/TC/v08/Pierpont2003obit.html
[66] http://www.bible-researcher.com/bib-p.html
[67] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_M._Metzger
[68] http://www.questia.com/library/90273036/the-text-of-the-new-testament-its-transmission-corruption
[69] http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2012/09/top-ten-essential-works-in-new.html
[70] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alan_Black
[71] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C_Parker
[72]
e-letter from Paul Anderson, President-CSPMT, Washington, D.C.
[73] http://intf.uni-muenster.de/NA28/en.html
[74] http://www.bgnt.net/
[75]
Amos 7:14-15
[76]
Proverbs 27:17
[77] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance
