Tue Nov 5 10:40:36 1996

From owner-tc-list  Tue Nov  5 10:40:36 1996
Return-Path: 
Received: by scholar.cc.emory.edu (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
	id KAA12047; Tue, 5 Nov 1996 10:39:11 -0500
X-Sender: waltzmn@popmail.skypoint.com
Message-Id: 
In-Reply-To: <199611051439.PAA53618@mail.uni-muenster.de>
References: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 10:35:17 -0700
To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
From: "Robert B. Waltz" 
Subject: Re: Versional variants
Sender: owner-tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
content-length: 2526

On Tue, 05 Nov 96, schmiul@uni-muenster.de (Ulrich Schmid) wrote, in part:

[ ... ]

>For even more perplexing examples of misguided scholarly work by means of
>"anecdotal lists" I may draw your attention to Bill Petersens magnificent
>monograph on *Tatian's Diatessaron* (Brill: 1994). In reviewing the
>history of
>Diatessaronic scholarship we find, for example in the work of H.J. Vogels
>and A.
>Baumstark, extremely biased and demonstrably flawed lists of agreements
>between
>various versions. Both underwent severe critique (cf. A.S. Lewis and J.
>Rathofer, presented in Petersen, pp. 301-306.360) for _producing_
>Diatessaronic
>readings out of textual trivia, and partly out of printing errors in modern
>editions (Baumstark). It is precisely this type of scholarship, presenting
>anecdotal lists without carefully *weighing* the evidence, that discredited
>Diatessaronic research.
>Personally, I am willing to give versional evidence a prominent role in
>examining the textual transmission of the Greek NT text. However, in order to
>*establish* secure connections between versions and versions, and between
>versions and Greek texts we have to exclude all other possible
>explanations for
>an alleged variant reading. The more restrictive we procede, the more we can
>impress (not to say convert) sceptics.

I'm just going to add one comment on Diatessaronic readings. That is that
we must always be alert to the influence of oral tradition in creating such
readings. Many (admittedly not all) of the readings of the Diatessaron are
the sorts of readings that would automatically arise when one harmonizes
the gospels.

But gospel harmonization is what preachers, scribes, scholars would
automatically do. What's more, it is the *harmonized* accounts that tend
to go into oral tradition. So, in assessing such variants, one *must*
try to assess the source. The diatessaron? Oral tradition? Translational
style? Coincidence?

BTW -- if anyone wants to examine the effects of oral tradition, it's
one of the encyclopedia items I wrote. Arguably the closest thing to
an authoritative one I was able to compile, since it's easier to be a
freelance folklorist than a freelance textual critic. :-) Again, the URL
is

http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn

Robert B. Waltz  - - - - - - - - Ballad Index Editor
2095 Delaware Avenue
Mendota Heights, MN 55118-4801
612-454-8994 - - - - - - - - - - e-mail: waltzmn@skypoint.com

The Ballad Index Web Site:
http://www.csufresno.edu/forlang/folklore/bdindxengl/BalladIndexTOC.html

Back