Fri Jan 17 14:40:00 1997

From owner-tc-list  Fri Jan 17 14:40:00 1997
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Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 14:39:09 -0500 (EST)
From: "James R. Adair" 
To: tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Subject: Re: Original Text
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On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Robert B. Waltz wrote:

> On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Jack Kilmon  wrote:
> 
> 
> >Speculating the
> >probability of an original "proto-John" narrative by Johnny Zebedee
> >and subsequent embellishments over the course of the 1st and early 2nd
> >century by Greek Christians in Ephesus, which "stratum" would be the
> >goal for recovery by textual criticism?
> 
> ...
>
> Given that there was clearly a final edition of John (including
> chapter 21) which circulated to the church, that and only that is
> a legitimate object of textual criticism. The rest is for
> literary critics. (Assuming the matter needs to be studied at
> all, which I consider questionable.)

I agree with Bob on this point.  Text critics are only interested in the 
form of the text that circulated, not earlier forms that did not (or of 
which we have no extant evidence of circulation).  When two (or 
more) distinct forms circulated (e.g., Acts, Samuel), then both are 
legitimate object of text-critical study.  If we can ever arrive at an 
acceptable outline of the entire textual history of a particular book, 
most of these issues will be solved.  Then people will be able to choose 
which text to call "original" (if they are so inclined), either the 
earliest form of the text (Jim West et al.), or the most developed form of 
the text (Gene Ulrich, Bob Waltz, etc.), or that form of the text that lies 
behind the dominant textual tradition (i.e., the MT, either HB/OT 
or NT) (Emanuel Tov).  In addition, the process of transmission itself 
will have been mapped (Jean Valentin).

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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