Fri Jan 17 14:05:13 1997

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Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 12:23:07 -0700
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From: "Robert B. Waltz" 
Subject: Re: Original Text
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On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, "James R. Adair"  wrote:

>> Even if an author published multiple editions, should
>> not the *final* one be considered the authoritative text and followed?
>
>Of course, it depends on what is meant by "authoritative" here.  When
>dealing with the New Testament, one's view of the authority of scripture
>will certainly affect his or her text-critical goals.  However, if, as I
>suspect, Bob is referring to the text which is officially promulgated by
>the author, and so is _author_itative in that sense, if a second, 
>substantially different, version is also circulated and copied, I would 
>think that either would be valid targets of text-critical effort.  The 
>relationship between the two "original" texts would be the provenance of 
>the literary critic, not the text critic.

This is a good point; there can be multiple "official" versions of a
text. Jerome's work in the Psalms is an example, with three versions
eventually in circulation. These three versions all need separate
textual investigation.

But I still think that, out of respect for the author, we owe it
to him/her to treat the final version as "the last word." The others
should be studied more from the standpoint of development of the
aiuthor's viewpoint.

IMHO.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

                            Robert B. Waltz
                         waltzmn@skypoint.com

Want more loudmouthed opinions about textual criticism?
Try my web page: http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn
(A very rough draft of part of the Encyclopedia of NT Textual Criticism)

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