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05-01-2002, 01:53 PM | #1 |
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Help with Greek Texts
Which Greek Texts are most widely accepted today?
I know the Codex Vatanicus and Codex Sinaiticus are usually discredited as not representing the majority of early texts even though they represent the earliest of texts. So what is accepted in place of these? Also, where can I find a timeline of early texts and their translation into modern documents? |
05-01-2002, 02:37 PM | #2 | |||
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Those who like the King James will fall back on the Textus Receptus or the Majority Text. If you mean ancient manuscripts, then there are tons and tons of them. Quote:
<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/CriticalEds.html" target="_blank">Critical Editions of the Greek New Testament</a> Quote:
<a href="http://rosetta.atla-certr.org/TC/extras/Robinson-list.html" target="_blank">NT Greek MSS ordered by century</a> That's about the best I can find at the moment. If I stuble across anything better, I'll post it. Haran |
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05-01-2002, 07:48 PM | #3 |
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Thanx Haran.
That gave me a great start in the right direction. |
05-01-2002, 11:45 PM | #4 | |
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05-02-2002, 08:41 AM | #5 | |
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Hmmm. I think that list is awfully optimistic. Only 3 MSS, according to the Alands, date solidly in the 2nd century. P52, P90 and possibly P98. The remainder in that list are either listed as "ca. 200" or II/III. It seems somewhat misleading to count these as second century manuscripts. It is more reasonable to say early third century to be on the conservative side. Plus the vagaries of paleography being what they are many of these could end up in the middle of the third century, though of course the argument is reversable so the most reasonable is probably early third. |
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05-02-2002, 09:56 AM | #6 | ||
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The webpage was compiled by Maurice Robinson. He has his doctorate and frequents the TC-List (as a matter of fact, his MS list is hosted on the TC Website). However, I'm not sure what his biases are. Quote:
Too often, I worry that scholars date late rather than early because of feelings like this. If we ever do find very early MSS (or if we already have), we may never know because so many want to date them late (or "conservatively")... I'm not sure of a way around this dilemma. Haran [ May 02, 2002: Message edited by: Haran ]</p> |
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05-02-2002, 10:11 AM | #7 | |
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05-02-2002, 09:04 PM | #8 | |
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The problem with this is that the KJV doesn't seem to match very well with the Textus Receptus in that several words and phrases were added that don't appear in the Greek text. I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of early texts is very limited so feel free to correct me where I'm wrong. In my original post I was really looking for something that explains when certain texts were written. For example Codex Vatanicus - date written? Codex Sinaiticus - mid 4th century Codex Alexandrinus - date written? Codex Zacynthius - date written? Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus - date written? Latin Vulgate - date written? Septuagint - you know the rest |
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05-02-2002, 09:49 PM | #9 | |||
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They usually like to "count" manuscripts rather than "weigh" them. And 90% of the texts that we have are Byzantine. So (their reasoning goes) the Byzantine text is the one we should trust. The Byzantine Text Type has a tendency to harmonize and to smooth out rough readings so it's marginally more amenable to inerrantists (like the KJV-onlyers). Quote:
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YOu really ought to take a look at a copy of The Text of the New Testament; Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce Metzger. I just returned a copy to the library that I checked out a month ago. It's very good. Here are some links that you might find interesting. <a href="http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/TC.html" target="_blank">TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism</a> It has a few very good articles by Bart Ehrman in issue 5. <a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/TextTypes.html" target="_blank">Text Types And Textual Kinship</a> <a href="http://www.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/text_crit.html" target="_blank">Textual Criticism</a> <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09627a.htm" target="_blank">Manuscripts of the Bible</a> This one is from NewAdvent but is still extremely good. It's quite dated (1910) but most of the dates for the major manuscripts are the same as given in my UBS Greek NT from 1990. This might be what you're looking for. Also have a look at Haran's very nice links above. |
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05-03-2002, 12:01 AM | #10 | |
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