Tue Jun 11 19:45:46 1996

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Date: Tue, 11 Jun 96 16:10:54 PDT
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From: Vincent Broman 
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In-Reply-To: <199606112213.SAA25554@r02n05.cac.psu.edu> (wlp1@psu.edu)
Subject: Re: Theories of textual transmission / Alexandrian text / etc.
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wlp1@psu.edu asked:
> Why, in all these discussions, have NONE of the earliest witnesses to the NT
> text been mentioned? ...
> Quite frankly, I don't understand why one would choose to busy one's self
> with 4th cent. through 12th cent. evidence, while at the same time totally
> ignoring the 2nd through 3rd. cent. evidence.

I think the 2d-3d cent. evidence is well-trod ground that we are all taking
for granted.  It is useful, but substantially biased as a sample, and
it doesn't solve the problem of explaining the history of the text.

Imagine someone saying:
  All the second century witnesses that we can classify are more-or-less
  "Western", and the Alexandrian type of text doesn't appear till the
  early third century, marking the latter text as obviously late and a mere
  derivative of the earlier forms attested by Tertullian et al.
You would expostulate:
  But wait! that doesn't explain where p66/p75 come from! There must
  have been proto-Alexandrian MSS in the 2d century, they just haven't
  been preserved.

There is a similar mystery about the origins of the Byzantine tradition.
Hort had an explanation for it, but that explanation has been abandoned.
Others have talked vaguely about scribal processes evolving it gradually,
but there still is this fish in the chowder:
Where did A/W/Chrysostom/Gothic come from?  The evidence seems to
say that they descend from pre-4th century ancestors somewhere between
Greece and Palestine of which no physical traces survive.

How that could happen is interesting to discuss.

Vincent Broman             Email: broman@nosc.mil                    =   o     
2224 33d St.               Phone: +1 619 284 3775                  =  _ /- _   
San Diego, CA  92104-5605  Starship: 32d42m22s N 117d14m13s W     =  (_)> (_)  
___ PGP protected mail preferred.  For public key finger broman@np.nosc.mil ___

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