Volume 5 (2000)

Articles

Bart D. Ehrman, "Text and Tradition: The Role of New Testament Manuscripts in Early Christian Studies. Lecture One: Text and Interpretation: The Exegetical Significance of the 'Original' Text" The Kenneth W. Clark Lectures, Duke Divinity School, 1997

Abstract: The resolution of text-critical problems is important not only for textual critics but for interpreters of the biblical text as well. Ehrman examines three well-known textual problems (Mk 1:41; Lk 22:43-44; Heb 2:9) and asks how the variant readings affect the portrait of Jesus painted by the respective authors. Establishing what the authors actually wrote, he concludes, can have a profound impact on the meaning of entire books and their portrayal of Jesus.

Bart D. Ehrman, "Text and Tradition: The Role of New Testament Manuscripts in Early Christian Studies. Lecture Two: Text and Transmission: The Historical Significance of the 'Altered' Text" The Kenneth W. Clark Lectures, Duke Divinity School, 1997

Abstract: The obsession that New Testament textual critics have had with reconstructing the original text has blinded many to the importance of readings that were introduced at some point in the transmission history. An investigation of many variants yields evidence that scribes modified the text before them in order to promote their own (or their communities') views on theological points. Other modifications reveal apologetic or polemic concerns, and still others point to arguments over church order (e.g., the role of women).

Johan Lust, "A Lexicon of Symmachus' Special Vocabulary in His Translation of the Psalms"

Abstract: Symmachus' version of the Old Testament, one of the three Greek translations Origen used in his Hexapla alongside the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint, is preserved only in manuscript fragments, most of which are from the Psalms. Lust, author of the recent two-volume A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, offers a comprehensive lexicon of Symmachus in the Psalms. Each entry displays the word under review in context in Symmachus' translation of the Psalms, along with the reading of the Septuagint for comparison. Other occurrences of the word in Symmachus, Aquila, or Theodotion are listed in the footnotes.

Reviews

Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, and Klaus Wachtel, eds., in collaboration with Klaus Witte, Text und Textwert der Griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments, vol. 4: Die Synoptischen Evangelien, no. 2: Das Matthäusevangelium, and no. 3: Das Lukasevangelium (D. C. Parker, reviewer)

Jan de Waard, A Handbook on Isaiah (Johan Lust, reviewer)

John L. Sharpe and Kimberly Van Kampen, eds., The Bible as Book: The Manuscript Tradition (Claude Cox, reviewer)