Subject: Re: Re; Rom 15:19

From: Jean VALENTIN <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 97 22:23:05 +0200

Jim, as I see you are an unconditional Alexandrian!

>Because of antiquity, scribal practice (which was far more developed in
>Egypt than anywhere else), and reliability (internally and externally).

So, to you and all the list participants, a few questions (that probably 
will betray my bias in favor of the versions, but...)

First a question about antiquity : some "western" witnesses seem to be as 
old as the "alexandrian" ones.  Sometimes both agree against the other 
text-types, but when the B-type and the D-type disagree what will you do?

And, corollary to that question, what would you answer to those people 
who say that in the IInd century, the Alexandrian text-type was a local 
text-type found only in Egypt, while the D-type was found everywhere in 
the world, and that this shows it is probably closer to the original ? 
(just like when you throw stones in water, the wider circle comes from a 
stone that was thrown in the water long ago...).

Generally speaking, what do you make of geographical dispersion of the 
readings? How would you consider readings that are attested, for example, 
in an Arabic manuscript of the Xth century, and in the georgian version 
and some western versions (whether it be old latin or middle dutch for 
example) with or without a few isolated greek manuscripts?

Personnally, I have the impression that geographical criteria are not 
enough considered when discussing variants - whether it be in the IInd 
century context (D against B) or later (versions).  Do you think there is 
something correct in my impression and why? And if you answer yes, why is 
it so?

To a certain extend, the same remarks would apply to the Byzantine 
readings. Maurice, what would you do of variants of Byz as against more 
geographically spread variants? Do you accept that older variants may 
survive far from the geographical "centers" of text-production?

I see that some of you seem to have time these days: it's Easter vacation 
for the people working in teaching institutions, not for me! But I profit 
of the occasion in the hope to have some well-thought feedback. Sorry if 
those questions seem repetitive compared to earlier postings from me, but 
my work on the versions makes me sensitive to this problem. :-)

________________________________________________________________
Jean Valentin - 58/7 rue Van Kalck - 1080 Bruxelles - BELGIQUE
________________________________________________________________
email : [email-masked]   ***   netmail : 2:291/780.103
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Ce qui est trop simple est faux, ce qui est trop complique est 
inutilisable.
What's too simple is wrong, what's too complicated is unusable.
Wat te eenvoudig is, is verkeerd; wat te ingewikkeld is, is onbruikbaar.

---

From: Maurice Robinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 01:44:12 -0500 (EST)

> survive far from the geographical "centers" of text-production?

Your own textual bias of course does show, Jean, as you admit.  Certainly
a geographically-spread variant (if not likely to have arisen by
coincidence or identical accident) does betray a certain degree of
antiquity and diversity, both of which are important factors in evaluating
variant readings.  What I find as a major defect in looking _only_ to such
diversity is that those readings present in versional and localized text
regions outside of the primary Greek-speaking area (S.Italy through modern
Turkey) likely reflect more aberrant forms of text if unsupported
by Byzantine witnesses.  When the Byzantine is supported by such
additional diversity, it certainly gains some degree of support thereby,
but outside diversity without a shared Byzantine presence would be
suspect in my opinion.

> my work on the versions makes me sensitive to this problem. :-)

My week off will soon be over; I suspect I already have more than enough
to reply to, and have already started to feel overwhelmed.  Maybe it will
be good to see the Theology of Freizeit wane away beginning next week...

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