Subject: Re: New TR

From: Jim West <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 10:08:23 -0500 (EST)

Andrew raises an important question.  He suggests that TC is not the same as
Bible translation.  This is of course true.  But if the purpose of TC is not
to provide a textual base that is as near to the original as possible, for
translators of the Bible and for the community of faith, then what is the
purpose of TC?  If TC is simply a task "incurvate in se" for the dwellers of
ivory towers, and has no practical application in the community of
believers, then why is it practiced at all?

In short, I have always believed that TC is one of the most important
aspects of Biblical Studies.  When one has a text that is relaible then, and
only then, can one procede to exegesis.  But if TCers, as Andrew seems to
suggest, are simply engaged in self congratulatory work (my phrase, not
his), then what validity does their work have?  They are merely examining
the "entrails of the gnat" (to steal a line from an old Greek play).

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
Pastor, Petros Baptist Church
[email-masked]

 "Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes!"

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From: ANDREW SMITH <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 10:40:21 -0400 (EDT)

To a certain extent, I agree. TC is primarily an academic project; it does
have some application to the real world community of believers, but it is
primarily the study of historical text transmission. Consider how an
English professor may compare the variant spellings in the first three
printed editions of a Shakespeare play, for example. As an academic
myself, I do not deride such work, and such work is not any more "self
congratulatory" than any other work. Being "self congratulatory" is
primarily a personal characteristic, and a good TCer, like any other human
being, should be humble. Although I love academia, I do admit that there
is a distinction between it and the real world. Trouble often arises when
that boundary is ignored.