Subject: (recent) mss and GNT/Nestle

From: Don Wilkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 17:16:10 +0000

Hi guys,

I've received a question that you can answer more easily than I. What
(if any) manuscripts found during the past 25 years have been
incorporated into the apparati of Nestle or GNT, and have any of these
led to changes in the text. I'm pretty sure the person asking the
question isn't concerned about changes (lectionary readings etc.) in the
Nestle 27 apparti that are the result of changes in editorial policy,
but rather Greek mss unknown before the last 25 years. I'm not sure how
to begin to research the question, because I don't know of any source
which would list discovery dates within that time range, if there were
such discoveries. Any help would be appreciated.

Don Wilkins
UC Riverside

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From: "Robert B. Waltz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 21:01:37 -0700

>such discoveries. Any help would be appreciated.

Since you didn't give an exact date, it's hard to answer this precisely.
But the last *major* papyrus, p75, was discovered well before this.
You're talking about papyri from about p80, uncials from perhaps 255,
and minuscules in the high 2600s and up.

It will be noted that, though NA27 cites these papyri and uncials,
none of these minuscules are cited in any of the major editions. Also,
the basic UBS text was determined in the mid-Sixties, and has not
changed since then. So recent discoveries have not changed it.

Chances are, though, that the recent discoveries would not have
had any effect. The papyri discovered since p75 have all been short.
There have been some substantial uncials (0278 springs to mind), but
they are late and not especially valuable. And who pays any attention
to minuscules? Among the versions, perhaps the best is the Budapest
Old Latin codex (cited as b in Paul).

The easy way to look things up is to compare the list of manuscripts
in the latest Nestle with those listed in the first edition of the
Kurzgefasste Liste (or in UBS3). Both those lists date from the
early sixties.

A quick check shows the Kurzgefasste Liste lists papyri to p75,
uncials to 0250, minuscules to 2646, and lectionaries to L1997
(plus a couple of oddballs).

Hope this helps.

Bob Waltz
[email-masked]