Fri Oct 25 17:49:48 1996

From owner-tc-list  Fri Oct 25 17:49:48 1996
Return-Path: 
Received: by scholar.cc.emory.edu (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
	id RAA08718; Fri, 25 Oct 1996 17:48:42 -0400
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 17:44:31 -0400 (EDT)
Date-warning: Date header was inserted by InfoAve.Net
From: Jim West 
Subject: Re: E. C. Colwell--A Maverick?
X-Sender: jwest@mail.sunbelt.net
To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Message-id: <1.5.4.16.19961025174442.1f379a92@mail.sunbelt.net>
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (16)
Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Sender: owner-tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
content-length: 1649

At 04:28 PM 10/25/96 -0700, you wrote:

>>
>>I am reading a collection of essays by E.C. Colwell.  In many ways he
>>seems to have been a maverick; for instance he sharply critized Aland
>>and the UBS text (>>Studies in methodology . . .<<, Brill, 1969, p.
>>153):
>>
>>	"The egregious example of the misleading nature of . . . narrowly
>>	restricted editions is the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament.
>>	Yet this is the edition that Aland refers to as a 'model'!"
>>
>>I would like your comments on the strengths and weaknesses of his
>>propositions, and I would also like your ideas as to what factors may
>>have influenced his thinking.


Since no one has so far come to the side of Aland I feel it incumbent upon
myself to do so.  When all is said and done, and the fad theories of textual
transmission have passed into the dust of antiquity, it is Aland's work that
will remain.

What Aland and his very learned colleagues did in their versions of the NT
was to offer "significant" variants based on their many years of research.
It is therefore highly suspect when a scholar comes along and simply makes a
reputation for himself by denigrating the work of his predecessors.  One is
welcome to make a name- but one should do so with a positive contribution to
the field and not hypotheses which have yet to be verified (e.g. Colwell).

To call the work of Kurt Aland egregious is horribly unfair and quite
untrue.  Thus, in spite of comments to the contrary, Aland's work will in
the long run prove to be far more valuable than Colwell's.


Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jim West, ThD
Professor of Biblical Languages
Petros TN

Back