Peter Kirby

It could be said that some English Bibles already do this, but only in a very limited and selective way.

Hearing the feedback of some people on my previous posts, I am considering to shelve my project for a "little Swanson" horizontal line edition of the Greek of the Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, Bezae, Alexandrinus. Instead, I think it would be of service to have something in the form of an English translation of the manuscript variations, comparable in scope to the UBS critical apparatus.

I have some questions about how best to go about this.

First, what should it be called? "The New Testament in English with Note of Manuscript Evidence" is perhaps not optimal.

Second, what should it follow as the main text? Perhaps Vaticanus or Sinaiticus exclusively? Perhaps the Westcott-Hort or the NA-26?

Third, should I adapt the wording of some existing translation (in the tradition of the RSV perhaps), or should the translation be new?

Fourth, what kind of problems arise when noting manuscript variations by English translation, and how might they best be contained, if not eliminated?

Fifth, what reference to the underlying Greek should be made, if any?

Thanks for your help.

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Peter Kirby

Peter Kirby

Just thought I'd give you a sample of what I'm considering producing...here is a first draft of the part on the first chapter of Matthew.

Matthew 1:1
The book of the origin of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. 2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brothers; 3 And Judas begat Perez and Zerah from Thamar; and Perez begat Hezrom; and Hezrom begat Aram; 4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; 5 And Salmon begat Boez from Rachab; and Boez begat Jobed from Ruth; and Jobed begat Jesse; 6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David begat Solomon from her that had been of Urias; 7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asaph; 8 And Asaph[1] begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amos; and Amos[2] begat Josias; 11 And Josias begat[3] Jechonias and his brothers, this being upon the Babylonian migration: 12 And after that Babylonian migration, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; 13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; 14 And Azor begat Sadok; and Sadok begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; 15 And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; 16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.[4] 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the Babylonian migration are fourteen generations; and from the Babylonian migration to Christ are fourteen generations.
18 Now the origin[5] of Jesus Christ[6] was thus: When as his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be holding the belly from the Holy Spirit. 19 But Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wishing to expose her, decided to divorce her privately. 20 But while he pondered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to receive Mary as your wife: for that which is born by her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23 "Behold, a virgin will hold the belly, and will bring forth a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel," which is, to translate, "God is among us." 24 Then Joseph, woken from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and received Mary as his wife: 25 And did not become intimate with her until she had brought forth a son[7]: and he called his name Jesus.

7-8 [1] Asaph, and Asaph p1vid Aleph B C (DLuke) f1 f13 700 1071 ...... // Asa, and Asa K L W Delta Pi 28 33 565 892 ......

10 [2] Amos, and Amos Aleph B C DLuke Delta Theta Pi* f1 ...... // Amon, and Amon K L W Pi2 f13 28 565 .....

11 [3] begat Aleph B C K L W ..... // begat Joakeim, and Joakeim begat Theta f1 33 1216 1230 .....

16 [4] the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ p1 Aleph B C K L P W ..... // to whom was betrothed the virgin Mary who bore Jesus who is called Christ Theta f13 ..... // to whom was betrothed Mary the virgin, she who bare Jesus the Christ syrc // the husband of Mary, who bare Jesus Jesus who is called Christ cop bo // the husband of Mary, to whom was betrothed Mary the virgin, from whom was born Jesus who was called Christ arm

18 [5] origin p1 Aleph B C P W Delta Theta ..... // birth K L Pi f13 28 33 565 .....

18 [6] Jesus Christ p1 Aleph C K L P Delta Theta ..... // Christ Jesus B Origen Jerome // Jesus W Maximus-Confessor // Christ it vg syr Theophilus Irenaeus Theodore Augustine Ps-Athanasius

25 [7] a son Aleph B ..... // her son syr s // her firstborn son C D* K W .....

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Peter Kirby

gstafleu

1) Who is the intended audience, the scholarly world? If so, why in English, wouldn't they expect Greek?

2) According to Bart Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus) there are more variations in the text than there are words in the bible. So this could be a largish project.

3) If the audience is not the scholarly world, how about taking a reasonably well respected Greek NT version and then comment on the variations in translations, with examples from the various translations of course, optionally accompanied by snarky comments. Just a suggestion, of course.

Gerard Stafleu

Peter Kirby

Most scholars who are very proficient in Greek (it's a question how many are) would prefer to work with the UBS, though I imagine I could get some scholars who would appreciate the 'easy reading' aspect and look to it first before consulting the Greek mss. evidence. (Even those who read Greek, usually read it more slowly than English.) This would especially be the case if I did anything different from UBS: e.g., included more versional evidence, or perhaps giving space in the apparatus for more variations and less annotation of where those variations come from (always including the principal witnesses, but the lists of medieval mss. may only be of interest to the dedicated scholar who is already working exclusively in the original languages, whereas more types of variation may both be of interest to a scholar and to a layman).

However, it is pitched primarily to the casual student and lay Bible study group.

I would anticipate starting with something much like the UBS apparatus and expanding from there.

This is a reasonable option. Perhaps I could have two kinds of notes: differences in manuscripts, and differences in translation? The former supported by manuscript reading, and the latter by 'snarky comments'.

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Peter Kirby

gstafleu

I don't know all that much about bible study groups, after all I'm not on the staff of the current White House administration. But I wonder if they would find anything like your example useful. A bit dry, perhaps?

However:
That I'd say would be more appealing, so if you are after a best seller... The combo of the two kinds of variations might indeed be a good approach, provided you stuck to "meaningful" variations. That would leave out things like mispelings and innocuous changes in word order. In other words, what would be interesting is variations in meaning.

BTW, you may discern a theme here in common with some of my previous remarks in other threads .

Gerard Stafleu

Julian

These links may prove useful:

http://www.bible-researcher.com/title.html
http://www.bible-researcher.com/text.html

There is a website out there that has the entire new testament in English and it shows a huge amount of manuscript variations, in English translation, but I can't remember the link and google turns up nothing. If I find it I will let you know.

Julian