Fri Jun 21 15:51:43 1996

From owner-tc-list  Fri Jun 21 15:51:43 1996
Return-Path: 
Received: by scholar.cc.emory.edu (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
	id PAA18021; Fri, 21 Jun 1996 15:49:44 -0400
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 15:46:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maurice Robinson 
To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Subject: Re: On "examples" and "proof"...
In-Reply-To: <199606162023.QAA18404@r02n05.cac.psu.edu>
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
content-length: 1878



On Sun, 16 Jun 1996, William L. Petersen wrote:

> I am more than happy to use statistics, which I often do in my work.  By the
> way, how many Byzantine or Alexandrian readings are there in Justin, or
> Tertullian, or the Didache???  Statistics anyone???  Indeed, let's use
> examples and statistics, for then, at least, we will all be speaking the
> same language, examining the same evidence.

Since I too am equally willing to use statistics, I would only ask that
statistical data be properly utilized.  E.g., once someone cites how many
"Alexandrian" readings there are in Justin or Tertullian, I want to know
how many of those same readings are simultaneously "Byzantine"; similarly
with any "Western" or "Caesarean" readings also found in early fathers.

>From within a Byzantine-priority perspective, readings which are
dually-shared by both the Byzantine and any other texttype are simply
Byzantine readings from which the other texttype(s) happened not to
depart.  Once this point is granted, and once patristic idiosyncracies are
discounted, I have little doubt that one will find the non-Egyptian
fathers preceding the fourth century to be far more "Byzantine" in overall
character than otherwise has traditionally been claimed.

Note that this point has nothing to do with the supposed "distinctive"
Byzantine readings which Hort and others have attempted to use to "prove"
non-existence of the Byzantine Textform in the pre-fourth century era, but
rather involves ALL the extant variants known in the patristic writings.

Bring on the statistics, gentlemen.....

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

Back