Tue Apr 30 08:36:39 1996

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Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 08:33:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Swanson's Book
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On Tue, 30 Apr 1996, Nichael Cramer wrote:

> A couple of months ago I received a flyer in the mail (apparently sent to
> the SBL mailing list) for a series called "New Testament Greek Manuscripts"
> edited by Rueben Swanson and published by Bibal Press.

Not sure about the press.  William Carey Library Publishers should be 
responsible in the US, while Sheffield should be the British publisher.

> In short, I was wondering if anyone else is familar with this series and
> can comment on it?

I have previously mentioned it, and heartily recommend it.  For the 45 or 
so MSS which are regularly cited, one basically can reconstruct any 
feature of a given MS except for length of individual lines.  But all 
errors, corrections, and other niceties such as specific nomina sacra 
etc. are all used to advantage in various sub-apparatuses.  

The only reason I mentioned the Concordant Edition was because it 
provided in convenient form a running text of Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and 
Alexandrinus for the entire NT.  Swanson's work is only complete at this 
point for the gospels, plus, the only easy-to-read running text is his 
base text of Vaticanus (all others have to be read piecemeal from 
various lines in the apparatus).  But for text-critical purposes, 
Swanson's is in general one of the best items a student or scholar could 
buy.  Well worth the money (and a LOT cheaper than even IGNTP Luke!).
 
> A brief note:  While the complete list of included manuscripts is not
> included in the flier, judging from the example page included in the ad, it
> would appear that only one papyrus manuscript was included (p45).  On the
> other hand by my count at least 1/3 of the "45 critical manuscripts" are
> miniscules.

The example page was probably from Matthew (which was released as a 
limited test volume about two years ago).  All the relevant papyri are 
present where they exist in the text, as well as all relevant uncials; 
the minuscules are limited to a selection of those with the more 
non-Byzantine features (much as in the UBS selection), but with "M" still 
present to reflect the Byzantine majority, as well as full notation of 
various critical texts (TR, WH, N27/UBS4) where they deviate from the base 
text B.
 
> While I understand that claim on the cover of the flier that "New Testament
> study has changed forever!" is advertising hyperbole ;-) 

Unless someone thinks that all NT scholars are text-critics in the 
making, this is indeed hyperbole.  For those who want to dive in more 
deeply into NT textual criticism, this indeed is a valuable series and does 
change the manner of approach significantly. I plan to use it next year 
in my textual criticism class.

> but wonder 1] what --other than possibly convience-- advantage does this
> series really offer (other than, e.g., would be obtained from using the
> more standard editions I already own) and 2] given the somewhat apparently
> selective set of manuscripts used, am I correct in assumimg a certain,
> well, bias in the work of the editor?

The main difference is that ALL variants get listed, not merely those 
which the editors chose to cite (which has been a topic of some concern 
here on the tc-list).  Also, the list of MSS is really more 
representative than those found in most critical editions, since all 
papyri and uncials are included, as well as the most significant 
non-Byzantine minuscules.  The editor is "biassed" in that he holds to an 
eclectic position favoring the Alexandrian text (I would have used "M" as 
the base text, where he used "B"), but strictly speaking the entire 
edition is text-critically neutral, and is merely a strict reproduction 
of facts and data.  Buy it!

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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