Subject: Re:UBS 4

From: [email-masked] (Robert B. Waltz)
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 96 20:06 CDT

On Mon, 29 Apr 1996, [email-masked] (Don Wilkins) wrote:

>Maurice wrote:
>
>>To tell the truth, I totally ignore the "certainty grades", since in
>>reality they basically reflect the vote of the 5-member committee

[snip]

>
>Maurice's point is well-taken, given the likelihood that many Greek
>students (and perhaps not a few translators) take the grades seriously. On
>the other hand, I think Metzger's _Textual_Commentary_ is very interesting
>and helpful, especially since he includes (mostly his own) dissenting
>opinions. I only wish the commentary were complete.

I see two sides to this question. Since I often disagree with UBS, I
don't see much inherent value in the certainty grades. But they *do*
give insight into the minds of the editors. You can usually accept
their reasoning on "A" grades. Their "B" class is terrible; it ranges
from readings that are certain to readings that are flat-out wrong.
(IMHO, of course.) "C" and "D" a little bit better; these readings
generally DO require you to stop and think a while.

Bob Waltz
[email-masked]

---

From: Maurice Robinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 01:42:17 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 29 Apr 1996, Robert B. Waltz wrote:

> give insight into the minds of the editors. 

This much I agree with.  The remainder of Waltz' statement I will take 
issue with:

> You can usually accept

It all depends on whether you initially accept their text-critical premise
before you can automatically accept any of their reasoning.  For those of
us who hold to a different methodology of textual criticism, many readings
which the UBS committee rate "A" are easily rejected by us, while many
other readings with a "C" or "D" rating are those which we accept almost
without question.  So the problem with the ratings is that they intend to
commit the reader beforehand to a certain way of looking at the text.  It
may be helpful to know why there might be dissent among various eclectic
critic who comprise a single committee, but no one should automatically
accept their evaluations unless his of her own view of textual criticism
happens to concur with that of the UBS editors.  Just a fair warning.

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
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