Thu Jun 6 16:03:36 1996

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Subject: Re: "Alexandrian" Text
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Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 15:58:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Stephen C Carlson" 
In-Reply-To:  from "Nichael Cramer" at Jun 6, 96 02:16:53 pm
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It seems to me that once there exists a certain mass of documents, it
should be very difficult for once scribe's deviation from his exemplar
to be adopted by a large number of texts.  If there is no cross-checking,
then the unique reading would only descend to those MSS copied from it.
If there is cross-checking, then the probability that the variant would
continue to exist seems diminished.

The analogy to biological genetics seems apt.  The main way for a large
number of variants that constitute a text-type to be adopted is for the
transmission process to go through a bottleneck (i.e., reproductive
isolation).  Apparently the Lucian recension that had been proposed but
now largely abandoned as one such bottleneck, and I think the
conversion from uncial to minuscule is another.  Although, there could
be a textual analog to "genetic drift," it seems quite unlikely that a
majority text-type can coalesce at a late stage without going through a
transmissional bottleneck.

I understand that Diocletian's persecution had targetted and destroyed
many Christian manuscripts, and shortly thereafter Constantine legitimized
Christianity.  Obviously, more Bibles had to be produced at an increased
pace, and the local text around Constantinople would be the most prestigious
base.  This bottleneck can adequately account for the rise and dominance
of the Byzantine text-form, in a way that the sporadic process model can't.
Its corollary implies that a Byzantine-type text existed in the third century
(or was created rapidly in early fourth).

Is this reasonable or mad speculation?

Stephen Carlson
-- 
Stephen C. Carlson, George Mason University School of Law, Patent Track, 4LE
scarlso1@osf1.gmu.edu              : Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs
http://osf1.gmu.edu/~scarlso1/     : chant the words.  -- Shujing 2.35

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