nt critical autographs replicant study of the copies autographs and synotic problem of the biblical...
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Replicant
Lewis Beeler [email protected] 2014 ©
A Study of the Transmission of the NT with Focus on the Autographs, Copies, and its Recovery
September 10th, 2014Piedmont International University
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Truth vs. Fact
• “Archeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.”
• Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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Law of Correspondence
● “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
● Gen. 1.1
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Detective Questions
● Whodunit?● What is the scene and what are we investigating?
● Did an autograph exist?● Is that autograph recoverable?● How can a we then argue a Divine author?
● What is the evidence?
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Mystery at “Tudor Mansion”
● From the standpoint of an independent investigator, an incident is reported, and the investigator is called to the scene of the crime.
● The basic premise of investigation, in all areas of inquiry, is asking the right basic questions, then gathering evidence, then making conclusions.
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The Noodle Incident
● What is the Scene and what is investigated?
● Scene – Occurrence of the Bible. If its here, it had to come from somewhere!
● Preliminary evidence suggests an ancient work has been handed down to recent times, and purports to be of Divine origin with human authorship.
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Decision Points
● From our vantage point, the best questions are:
● Did an autograph exist?● Is that autograph recoverable?● How can a we then argue a Divine
author?
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The Evidence
● Specifically the NT, 5,800 + Manuscripts are currently extant
● Divided among papyri, Uncials, Minuscules, and Lectionaries.
● As well, extant are versions, and quotations from Church fathers
● Still discovering and cataloging new manuscripts!● Comprised of various media
● Papyri (Job 8:11), Parchment/Vellum (2 Tim. 4.13), Scroll (Rev. 4-6), Codex, Ink (2 John 12), & Quill
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Papyri
● Used from roughly 3000 BC. in Egypt
● Extremely fragile● 120 NT papyri extant
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Vellum
● Animal skins● Laborious process to produce, but better material
● Term Vellum used for higher quality over Parchment
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Uncials
● 2nd – 8th Centuries● Only 100 extant● Difficultly in determining text due to lack of breaks
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Minuscules
● First occurs in 835 AD.
● “Written more rapidly and compactly” Wegner, 1999, 212.
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Byzantine Lectionaries
● Liturgical device used by the church in worship
● Non-chronological arrangement
● Useful
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Ancient Versions
● Work done by Missionaries
● Into Coptic, Syriac, Latin, Gothic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian, Slavonic, Arabic
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● The provenance of the materials:● Geographically distributed among the
Mediterranean region of southwestern Europe, southeastern Asia, and northern Africa
● Time frame from late 1st century until the 17th century
● Conditions range from remarkably well preserved and extremely ornate with gold leaf and designs to tattered fragments, with many of the earliest being extremely fragile
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Geography
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Geography
Rating of Region:
1. Alexandrian
2. Caesarean
3. Western
4. Byzantine
Text Families were formed by the 4th Century
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Parental Guidance Suggested
● Ratings of Text Familes are due to several factors:
● Date● Earliest is preferred
● Accuracy● Amount of errors in a Text Family
● Independence of Witness● If a source is related to another source, then
they are probably sharing an earlier source, and their numerical value should be viewed as one
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● Methods used in writing:● Directly written from Author ● Transcribing by Amanuenses (a scribe)
(Rom. 16.2; 2 Thess. 3.17)● Methods used in Early Copying:
● Paying a professional Scribe (extremely expensive!) see Wegner, 1999, 208
● Scriptorium (also expensive)● Personally copied
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● A Recension is a critically edited copy of a text. Some NT Manuscripts show signs of being critically appraised and edited. More on that later!
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● New methods such as MRI technology are being used on the extant texts to further enhance our knowledge of the NT corpus
● Discoveries continue!
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The Practice of NT Criticism
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● What archeology has unearthed, textual critics throughout the centuries have cataloged and rated.
● Before Wescott and Hort, the criticism of the NT was ad-hoc, but did happen
● From Wescott and Hort, we have Text Families, critical apparatuses, an Eclectic text, and a methodology to do the work.
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● Place readings according to their Text Family and age
● Determine the “weight” of the witness, not the volume
● Decide which reading would have influenced the others
● Speculative Rules:● The more unique reading is preferred● The shorter reading is preferred● The contextually appropriate is preferred
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Internal vs. External
● Internal – what is going on in the Text?
● Literary, Grammatical● External – what is going on out of the Text?
● The actual physical evidence (see above)
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● Did an autograph exist? ● The Evidence suggests that there WAS an original
● Early copies – p52 from 125 AD. of John 18:31-33● Early work of canonicity started in early 2nd Century with Justin
Martyr ending with councils in 367 and 397 AD. ● If it had been a multivalent original, then the dispersion of
variants would have been greater and far more dramatic● “... only about 1% of the textual variants are both meaningful
and viable.” Wallace, The Gospel According to Bart● What we have is a fairly consistent text that has
understandable scribal errors after 2,000 years of copying!
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● “...we [Dallas Theological Seminary] have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 43% of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts.” [Emphasis Added]
● Daniel Wallace, Earliest Manuscript of the New Testament Discovered?, http://www.dts.edu/read/wallace-new-testament-manscript-first-century
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● The Council of Athenasius (A.D. 367) and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) recognized the 27 books in our New Testament today as inspired.
● Sid Lidke, Canonicity, https://bible.org/seriespage/canonicity
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● Is that autograph recoverable?● The Evidence suggests that the majority
of variants can be understood as scribal errors, however there is sufficient question to a large number of variants that 100% accuracy is elusive.
● What can be said after textual criticism is that 93-96% (my number!) of the text in a critical text is what was penned by the author!
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● How can a we then argue a Divine author?● Objection to Divine authorship is that errors
exist therefore a perfect Divine author is untenable.
● On the contrary, the errors suggest things were added!
● The Evidence suggests that NOTHING was lost!
● This is in accordance with what was promised in Matt. 8!
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Would you like to play a game?
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Short Bibliography– Paul Wegner, The Journey from Texts
to Translations– Bruce Metzger & Bart Ehrman, The
Text of the New Testament– Kurt & Barbara Aland, The Text of the
New Testament– David Alan Black, New Testament
Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide
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Fin