1. Textual criticism is comparing texts to find the original. Higher criticism deal with date, purpose, authorship, canon, and so forth. Lower criticism deals with the Greek. No two manuscripts are exactly alike because of human error. Lower critics have analyzed the kinds of mistakes that have been made. It is possible to get back to the original or at least very close to it.
2. Why is textual criticism needed? Two kinds of mistakes.
a. Unintentional - some Greek capital letters look very similar. All copies were all capital letters. It would be easy to copy the wrong letter. Many words will end with the same type of ending. This could cause copies to get mixed up and skip to a second occurrence and leave out work in between.
b. Intentional by heretics (Marcion and other Gnostic heretics) - Sometimes, people were trying to correct what they thought was an earlier error.
3. Most Scriptures were written on papyri. Some on pottery and animal skins. There were not any chapter divisions. Chapters were divided in the twelfth century. Verses were determined in the 1550s. There were not any spaces between words, no punctuation, nothing. It was like typing with all capitals and no punctuations or spaces.
4. Erasimus (sixteenth century when Martin Luther lived) - In 1517, he printed the New Testament in Greek. After that, not much was copied because multiple copies could be printed.
5. Kinds of manuscript copies
a. Papyri (large P and number) - P46 (Beatty manuscript, P72 (Bodmer manuscript).
b. Uncials - Greek copy all the way, meaning large capital letters and no punctuation. We have a little less than three hundred, and they date from fourth century to the ninth century.
c. Cursive - ninth century began Greek cursive (also miniscules) - a matter of speed and economics
d. Lectionary - over 2,200 of these - similar to readings in back of church hymnal, for public responsive reading (early as sixth century, written in cursive and uncials).
e. Versions - a number of different versions available (Old Latin => "it" (italic) "a" or "b" or "?" => manuscript "a" or "b" or "c" and so forth of the old Latin. On the Syriac, the little letters stood for different translational versions. For Coptic, "sa" (Sahidic dialect), "bo" (Bohairic dialect) => Egyptian language during Christ.
6. Textual criticism examines the six kinds of copying. There are three basic types of Greek texts.
a. Westcott and Hort - a minority type of manuscript - with footnotes about manuscript differences
b. Textus Receptus - a majority type of manuscript (Erasimus) - no footnotes (we believe from God and that is good enough)
c. New Testament according to the majority text. It has footnotes but is based on the majority of manuscripts
7. Different translations (KJV => Textus Receptus (Erasimus) have come from different Greek texts. None of them are always right or wrong.
8. Kinds of manuscripts - (a) Papyri (P and superscript number (125AD to sixth century) => less than one hundred), (b) uncials, (c) cursives (where many copies were done), and (d) lectionaries.
9. Variant - two different variants of the text
Tom of Bethany "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 13 - Theories of Textual Criticism
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