Subject: Re: Versional variants

From: "Professor L.W. Hurtado" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 10:09:24 +000

Thanks to Jean Valentin for his list of variants which seem to be 
supported by two or more versional traditions.  As he notes, however, 
at least a number from his list could be considered coincidental 
"agreements", which scribes or translators independently producing 
the same/similar variation either deliberately or by accident.
We must, therefore, *weigh* the variants, as to whether they can more 
easily be accounted for as coincidental or may require some "genetic" 
connection to explain them.  Agreements in individual variants are not very 
meaningful *unless the variants are significant [i.e., suggest a 
historical/genetic connection] or are so plentiful as to suggest a 
common textual history*.
We must, thus, ask for a complete list of the places where these same 
versional traditions *agree and disagree*, and not merely an 
anecdotal list of variants such as Valentin provided us.  The history 
of textual criticism in this century has been plagued with such 
anecdotal lists, perhaps esp. in connection with the so-called 
"Caesarean" text-type, as I hope to have shown in my 1981 study of 
Codex W.
Larry Hurtado
L. W. Hurtado
University of Edinburgh,
New College
Mound Place 
Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LX
Phone: 0131-650-8920
Fax: 0131-650-6579
E-mail:  [email-masked]