Thu Oct 24 15:47:20 1996

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Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 15:45:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: "James R. Adair" 
To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Subject: Goal of Textual Criticism
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On Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Jim West wrote:

> The simplest explanation as to why these minor translations have no
> influence on TC is simply because they are minor.  They do not, in reality,
> help us to reconstruct the Greek text of the NT or the Hebrew text of the OT
> (unless someone is going to argue that the NT was originally written in KJ
> english!).
> 
> .....
> 
> Thus it does not behhove us to waste years of study on "medieval dutch" and
> its contribution to NT TC when we ought to spend our time with the greek mss.

Paul Maas (and many others) argued that the goal of textual criticism was 
to reconstruct the original text.  However, it seems to me that 
reconstructing the original text (a problematic concept in many cases) is 
only one of several goals that textual critics can have.  Tracing the 
history of the development of the text is another possible goal, one in 
which the "minor" versions can take on major importance.  Another 
possible goal would be to document the text used in a particular region 
or by a particular group of people.  Yet another goal would study the 
interplay between theological disputes and the biblical text.  It would 
even be interesting to study one particular manuscript to see if it could 
shed any light on the practices or beliefs of the community that used it. 
I'm sure there are other possibilities as well.  Maybe it's time to 
broaden the scope of the text-critical task.

Jimmy Adair
Manager of Information Technology Services, Scholars Press
    and
Managing Editor of TELA, the Scholars Press World Wide Web Site
---------------> http://scholar.cc.emory.edu <-----------------

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