Mon Jan 20 16:57:08 1997

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:52:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Re: Probabilistic view of original
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On Mon, 20 Jan 1997, Timothy John Finney wrote:

> Here it is: 1) If there is no variation of a word in any ms, then that is
> original. 2) If there is variation, then the certainty of any particular
> reading is inversely proportional to the extent to which it can be
> demonstrated to give rise to the others. 

Here Timothy and I concur.  These are two very significant points which
need to be taken into account at any point of textual restoration. I
suspect however that most people simply do not try to calculate out the
various inverse proportions in relation to the probabilities in point #2.

> Given the capabilities of hypertext, we should begin to consider 
> producing a New Testament text of this kind. Perhaps words could be 
> colour coded. Black = no variation, grey = very certain, outline = 
> uncertain. The grey and outline words could be clicked on to see which 
> other readings exist and their support.


Interestingly, Kenneth W. Clark proposed to me long ago the idea of
publishing a Greek NT with all the unquestioned words in black and only
those with serious sensible difference among editors' preferences in red
in order that everyone could see at a glance how minute the problems of NT
textual criticism really were.


_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Professor of Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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