It seems that the Green Collection, in addition to the manuscript of Hebrews noted previously on this blog, is also in possession of a fragment of 1 Corinthians. According to a report on the Bethel web-site (found by a friendly sleuth), this is 'a small fragment (ca. 1-3/4" w. x 2-3/4" h.) ... (which) preserves portions of 1 Corinthians 8.10-9.3 & 9.27-10.6' [PMH: this would make it a small portion of quite a big page]. Apparently a second-century date is being proposed, as it was for the Hebrews manuscript. [PMH: hmmm. I think I'll wait for the photos.]
The bare bones of the story are confirmed on another web-page which also confirms the rumour that the Green collection has also purchased the Bodmer Psalms Codex (see here).
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tov's 3rd edition
There is an announcement here of a Third 'Revised and Expanded' edition of Emanuel Tov's Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. This is really the standard text in this area. The second edition hardly differed from the first, and was not particularly worth purchasing if you already possessed the first. To judge from the change in page numbers and the publicity about the book there will be rather more difference this time. [Notified by Jack Sasson]
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Greek Particles, Linguistics, and TC
Over the weekend I read Margaret Sim's excellent study on the particle ἵνα (and honestly, it sounds more boring than it actually is). Not only does it have a foreword by Larry Hurtado himself, it is quite convincing in its basic thesis on what sort of thing ἵνα actually is. I had to overcome some initial resistance because of the word 'linguistics' in the title. I have a love / hate relationship with 'linguistics', but in this case I have to admit defeat and acknowledge that linguistics indeed helps to shed new light. That ἵνα is a function word comes as no surprise, but the sort of function it has, should have come as no surprise - yet it did (here you have to read the book itself, but basically ἵνα introduces a thought, attitude, utterance connected to something before in a subjective way). To add to my overall sense of surprise, it is a concept from Relevance Theory ([meta-]representation) that proved so effective in this study. Just to make sure, I have nothing against RT, but 1) so often it simply states the obvious, and 2) every study using RT devotes 25% of the space to explaining what RT is (only 10% in Margaret Sim's book).
Since there was nothing on Textual Criticism in this book, I took a bit of time to look at the text-critical issues surrounding ἵνα. I had expected to find quite some confusion in the textual tradition surrounding ἵνα, ὅπως, and εἰς τὸ + infinitive constructions, and indeed there is quite a bit going on. Both in the gospels and Paul the Greek-Latin bilinguals have a couple of instances where they prefer ἵνα over ὅπως (Mt 6:18 D; Phlm 6 F G) or over ὥστε (Mt 27:1 D), or over the infinitive (Eph 1:18 F G; 1 Thess 3:3 F G) though the reverse happens in Acts 17:15 and 18:27 (both D).
Big splits within the tradition are rare though. After some quick searching I found Mt 12:17 and Mk 5:23 (earlier manuscripts have ἵνα; later ὅπως). As for the first one, only Matthew uses both ἵνα and ὅπως to introduce the fulfilment formula, and elsewhere in this gospel there is no dispute which of the two is original. I can see good reasons for either choice here.
The one in Mark 5:23 is equally tricky. ὅπως is not a favourite of Mark (only one - undisputed - occurrence) but this makes it transcriptionally so much more likely that it is dropped in favour of the widely occurring ἵνα.
Sim's book addresses the relative occurrence of ἵνα and ὅπως diachronically and notes the increase of the former and the decrease of the latter. If ὅπως would be the reading favoured because of its 'classical feel' then it might well be that the later tradition picked it up partly under influence of the literary culture of its day. However, for this it would be necessary to compare the frequency of ὅπως in Atticist writers over against their Koine colleagues. Anyway, with only two instances (there may be more though), we can hardly speak of 'an Atticistic tendency towards ὅπως' in parts of the manuscript tradition.
Margaret G. Sim, Marking Thought and Talk in New Testament Greek: New Light from Linguistics on the Particles INA and OTI (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick, 2010).
Since there was nothing on Textual Criticism in this book, I took a bit of time to look at the text-critical issues surrounding ἵνα. I had expected to find quite some confusion in the textual tradition surrounding ἵνα, ὅπως, and εἰς τὸ + infinitive constructions, and indeed there is quite a bit going on. Both in the gospels and Paul the Greek-Latin bilinguals have a couple of instances where they prefer ἵνα over ὅπως (Mt 6:18 D; Phlm 6 F G) or over ὥστε (Mt 27:1 D), or over the infinitive (Eph 1:18 F G; 1 Thess 3:3 F G) though the reverse happens in Acts 17:15 and 18:27 (both D).
Big splits within the tradition are rare though. After some quick searching I found Mt 12:17 and Mk 5:23 (earlier manuscripts have ἵνα; later ὅπως). As for the first one, only Matthew uses both ἵνα and ὅπως to introduce the fulfilment formula, and elsewhere in this gospel there is no dispute which of the two is original. I can see good reasons for either choice here.
The one in Mark 5:23 is equally tricky. ὅπως is not a favourite of Mark (only one - undisputed - occurrence) but this makes it transcriptionally so much more likely that it is dropped in favour of the widely occurring ἵνα.
Sim's book addresses the relative occurrence of ἵνα and ὅπως diachronically and notes the increase of the former and the decrease of the latter. If ὅπως would be the reading favoured because of its 'classical feel' then it might well be that the later tradition picked it up partly under influence of the literary culture of its day. However, for this it would be necessary to compare the frequency of ὅπως in Atticist writers over against their Koine colleagues. Anyway, with only two instances (there may be more though), we can hardly speak of 'an Atticistic tendency towards ὅπως' in parts of the manuscript tradition.
Margaret G. Sim, Marking Thought and Talk in New Testament Greek: New Light from Linguistics on the Particles INA and OTI (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick, 2010).
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Eugene Nida (1914-2011) R.I.P.
Eugene Nida has passed away today at the age of 96. There is an obituary by Dr Philip C. Stine on the United Bible Societies website here.
As Stine writes "Nida recognised the need for translators to have the very best base texts to work from, and led major projects on both the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament." In this connection I would like to remind us that in 1955, Nida, as Translation Secretary of the American Bible Society, took the initiative to establish an international committee to prepare the first edition of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament (UBSGNT). The first editorial committee was composed of Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Bruce M. Metzger, Allen Wikgren and Arthur Vööbus.
I am very grateful for his scholarship and dedication to text and translation. May he rest in peace!
IGNTP Papyrus Transcriptions Available
ITSEE News:
Find the links to twenty-seven papyrus witnesses available from the repository here.
IGNT Papyrus transcriptions made available through Institutional Repository
Following the release of the Vetus Latina Iohannes transcriptions, the International Greek New Testament Project (www.igntp.org) has made available its transcriptions of papyri which contain the Gospel according to John on the University of Birmingham Institutional Research Archive.
Find the links to twenty-seven papyrus witnesses available from the repository here.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Again the Jordanian Lead Codices
In the most recent Palestine Exploration Quarterly (July 2011) Philip Davies discusses the lead codices from Jordan that have caused such a stir earlier this year (we mentioned the story on this blog here). It is an (overtly?) cautious evaluation of where the discussion is at the moment and has some good pictures too.
Davies rejects the authenticity of the few copper plates included in the collection (among which the only one with possible Christian imagery), but does not wholly exclude the possibility that the lead codices may go back to antiquity. Likewise, Davies is clearly not enamoured by the Elkingtons's theory that these codices go back to early Christians fleeing besieged Jerusalem, yet refrains from pouring dirt on their personal behaviour.
Two quotes:
"Thonemann, for one, is in no doubt that the entire collection is a modern forgery and that scholars should not be wasting their time on them. I disagree: they may well turn out all to be quite modern or fairly modern. I think the balance of evidence is falling in this direction. But it is not wise for anyone to draw such definitive conclusions about things one has not seen. Moreover, in any case much about the artifacts themselves is intrinsically curious, as is the story of their ‘finding’ and of the subsequent publicity. If this all turns out to be a ‘story about a story’ (in my view quite likely), it will nevertheless be a story worth unravelling."
"It seems to me worthwhile trying to secure them for scholarly and scientific examination, not least because if they are evidence of a dubious Jordanian industry it is worth knowing as much as one can about its methods (much useful research has been done on Israeli forging techniques)."
Davies rejects the authenticity of the few copper plates included in the collection (among which the only one with possible Christian imagery), but does not wholly exclude the possibility that the lead codices may go back to antiquity. Likewise, Davies is clearly not enamoured by the Elkingtons's theory that these codices go back to early Christians fleeing besieged Jerusalem, yet refrains from pouring dirt on their personal behaviour.
Two quotes:
"Thonemann, for one, is in no doubt that the entire collection is a modern forgery and that scholars should not be wasting their time on them. I disagree: they may well turn out all to be quite modern or fairly modern. I think the balance of evidence is falling in this direction. But it is not wise for anyone to draw such definitive conclusions about things one has not seen. Moreover, in any case much about the artifacts themselves is intrinsically curious, as is the story of their ‘finding’ and of the subsequent publicity. If this all turns out to be a ‘story about a story’ (in my view quite likely), it will nevertheless be a story worth unravelling."
"It seems to me worthwhile trying to secure them for scholarly and scientific examination, not least because if they are evidence of a dubious Jordanian industry it is worth knowing as much as one can about its methods (much useful research has been done on Israeli forging techniques)."
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