Subject: Re: New TR

From: Jim West <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 10:14:16 -0500 (EST)

Dr. Parker,
At 02:11 PM 5/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
>In reply to Jim West:
>
>2.  You've changed the subject.  Translators may use the UBS/NA27 
>text - though they may adopt readings in the apparatus.  But they are 
>not necessarily, and in that tole are not primarily, textual critics.

True.  But if TC is not aimed at the work of translators, what is its purpose?

>
>I did not write that there were textual critics 'who do not work with 
>NA27 as the base' (whatever 'base means' here), but that 'I know of no
textual critic who is 
>satisfied with a printed edition'.

Nor do I.  But by base text I mean that the NA26 or 27 is the base text for
TC work.  You admit that you use it for the basis of your work.  It is the
Received Text for TCers and translators.  It is the text we have at hand
which we use in our everyday work.  What else would a TR be?

>  Of course I use NA27 to look  up 
>readings and for teaching.  But I am in continuous critical debate 
>with its text, and so is every textual critic.

I would suggest that translators and preachers are in dialogue with its
readings as well.  This does not change the fact that it is the established
text for such work.

>  I use many other 
>printed texts and apparatus critici as well.  They all have their 
>strengths and weaknesses, and part of our discipline is to know and 
>understand them.  That is what I meant by 'I know of no textual 
>critic who is satisfied with a printed edition'.
>

I know of no TCer who is satisfied with any text or any set of ideas.

I thank you for your clarifications.
>
>
>
>
>DC PARKER
>DEPT OF THEOLOGY
>UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
>TEL. 0121-414 3613
>FAX  0121-414 6866
>E-MAIL [email-masked]

Jim

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

 "Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes!"

---

From: ANDREW SMITH <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 10:51:45 -0400 (EDT)

> True.  But if TC is not aimed at the work of translators, what is its purpose?

TC is a purely academic activity. Consider the question of which
sub-family of LXX text Wulfila used when making his Gothic translation of
the Tanakh. Given that Gothic now a completely dead language, and that
Wulfila's translation has been lost except for about five verses from the
book of Nehemiah, this question is hopelessly useless. Yet I work on it
passionately.

I personally practice a type of split-personality disorder: one considers
the text as the object of TC activity in one way, and in an entirely
different way when one is, e.g., teaching Bible class on Sunday morning.

By way of analogy, consider the activity of comparing the 1611 KJV to the
1769 KJV; this is
an exercise in English spelling, not an exercise of faith. On the other
hand, asking why the resurrected Jesus appeared at first like a gardener
to Mary is an exercise of faith, not TC.