Tue Oct 1 04:01:40 1996

From owner-tc-list  Tue Oct  1 04:01:40 1996
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Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 15:55:26 +0800 (WST)
From: Timothy John Finney 
To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Subject: TC intro course etc.
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Concerning the request for texts for a TC intro. course,

Leonard Greenspoon has already noted that my review of Elliott and Moir's 
introductory text should be available through the TC website soon. You 
may wish to consider this as it talks about a number of introductory 
texts (but not all).

I heartily agree with Paul Lorenzen's e-mail about the hands on lesson in
textual variation. There is nothing like giving a group of university
students three verses of an English Bible and getting them to copy it. I
have now settled on what you might call a geometric progression -- there
is no rule about who copies from whom, only a requirement that everyone
makes a copy if possible as the lesson proceeds. This provides a nice
distracting atmosphere. I also take a bucket of sand, a lighter and a
bucket of water. Someone's copy is buried, someone else's is drowned and
another person's is burnt.  Fortunately no one has cried yet. The copying
spreads out like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond rather than in a
straight line. 

The mistakes that are made are wonderful! I remember this one in 
particular:

AFTERMAKINGSACRIFICEFORSINSHESATDOWN

became

AFTER MAKING SACRIFICE FOR SIN SHE SAT DOWN

Not only is this a useful exercise for students, it is very instructive 
for those considering the relative probablities of various kinds of scribal 
errors.

On a different matter, can anyone give me an authoritative reference that 
says when people first began to read silently? I heard or read somewhere 
that some ancient was astounded to see someone (I think the someone might 
have been Clement or Jerome) sitting in a room full of books but not 
making any sound as he read. If early copyists always read aloud as they 
copied, perhaps certain implications would follow for New Testament 
textual research?

Best regards,

Tim Finney

finney@central.murdoch.edu.au
Baptist Theological College
and Murdoch University
Perth, W. Australia

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