Subject: Text und Textwert series

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kloha)
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 95 21:27:57 EST

Members of the tc-list:

I am beginning work on a STM thesis on the text of James. Fresh
collations are being made of the papyri and available uncials.
However, I need a selection of representative minuscules to consult.
The first volumes of the _Text und Textwert_ series analyze the
Catholic Epistles. My question is: While the volumes present
exhaustive studies of relationships among manuscripts in the "test
passages", has any work been published using this data to determine
exactly which manuscripts fall into special groupings? Have the Alands
or their Institut produced any classifications of manuscripts, or have
they simply supplied the data and left individuals to use their own
theories to group manuscripts (e.g., Colwell's multiple readings or
the Profile Method)? 

The paper on "Categories and Text Types" by B. Aland published in the
second ed. of _Text of the New Testament_ simply explains their
classification of mss. into "categories" I, II, III, IV, and V. Is
that as precise as one can get using the "test passages", or can
actual "families" be determined using the _Text und Textwert_ data?

Thank you for your assistance.

Jeff Kloha
Lakewood, OH

[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Vincent Broman)
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 95 12:34:20 PST

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[email-masked] asked about:
> _Text und Textwert_...: While the volumes present
> exactly which manuscripts fall into special groupings?

I have only studied the Acts volumes of TuT, nothing on the epistles yet.
But, as far as I can see, Aland et al have not produced any
MS grouping results from their data beyond the categories I-V seen in TotNT,
and even that categorization is underwhelming.
In Acts, effort was expended to show that Bezae was not closely related to
any miniscule, but results beyond that were not really attempted.
I seem to remember there was a reference in the Acts volume to someone
else's MS classification work in the Catholic Epistles, based on the TuT data,
but I didn't save the reference before returning the book.

>                                                           Is

The way that MS differences were counted in TuT discarded a large
portion of the significant information that could be extracted from
the collations.  The massive printed tables of MS comparisons
ought to be redone (but not reprinted!) with attention to weighing
differences, instead of just counting them.
My own slogging attempts to better the situation, re Acts, are
slowed by the task of getting data into machine-readable form.

Vincent Broman,  code 786 Bayside                        Email: [email-masked]
Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, RDT&E Div.
San Diego, CA  92152-6147,  USA                          Phone: +1 619 553 1641
=== PGP protected mail preferred.  For public key finger [email-masked] ===

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From: Timothy John Finney <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 11:36:21 +0800 (WST)

> theories to group manuscripts (e.g., Colwell's multiple readings or

James happens to be the book which the Muenster Institut is using as a
test case for its proposed Major Critical Edition. Herr Minke has done a
lot of computer based work to isolate important MSS, such as those you
wish to see. He had a paper (written in German) published in New Testament
Studies in 1993 or 1994 which sets out the basics of his approach. 
Perhaps a letter to the Institut Director, Professorin Barbara Aland,
asking precisely these questions would be in order. 

> actual "families" be determined using the _Text und Textwert_ data?

No doubt the Texte und Textwort (did I spell that right?) data is the 
best we have so far to work out family relationships. It has been said that 
there is a risk of circular reasoning in the current I, II, III, ... 
classification system. All that can really be said from the data is that 
one MS is like another one. That is, high percentage agreement indicates 
relatedness of MSS. Whether one family is more significant than another 
is a question which must be answered by looking at archtypes of the 
various families once the family boundaries have been delineated.

There is a new technique for reconstructing MS relationships called
cladistic analysis. The new version of Peter Robinson's Collate program is
promised to incorporate a facility to carry out this analysis. Whether
cladistic analysis of NT MS relationships is meaningful remains to be 
seen. The problem is that we have only a small sample of the original
population in the extant MSS. Also, all of the MSS to be analysed must be
transcribed to use the Collate program (a most worthwhile exercise, in my
opinion). 

Tim Finney
Murdoch University
Western Australia

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From: Klaus Wachtel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 17:47:10 +0100 (MEZ)

> theories to group manuscripts (e.g., Colwell's multiple readings or

Barbara Aland showed how to use TuT for identifying a group of mss., which
carry the text of the Greek exemplar of the Syra Harclensis of the Catholic
Epistles in

B. Aland: Das Neue Testament in syrischer Ueberlieferung, I.
Die grossen Katholischen Briefe. (Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen
Textforschung 7) Berlin/NY 1986, p. 41-90.

On the basis of B. Aland's work I developped a method to find groups of mss.
at least as coherent as her group Hk utilizing TuT I:

Klaus Wachtel: Der Byzantinische Text der Katholischen Briefe: Eine
Untersuchung zur Entstehung der Koine des Neuen Testaments. (Arbeiten zur
neutestamentlichen Textforschung 24) Berlin/NY: de Gruyter 1995, p. 56-72.

For a general comparison of the possibilities offered by the TuT volumes
compared to the Claremont profile method see

B. Aland/K. Wachtel: The Greek Minuscule Manuscripts of the New Testament,
in: The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research (Festschrift
Metzger), ed. by B.D. Ehrman and M.W. Holmes. (SD 46) Grand Rapids: Eerdmans
1995.

For any questions concerning TuT or the text of James in general feel free
to contact me off list.

Klaus Wachtel, Muenster