12/24/2023 0 Comments Textual criticism of the old testament![]() ![]() Although this division seems natural enough, it is by no means a necessity. The most obvious example, of course, is the fact that OT textual critics study the OT (which itself varies, depending on whether one includes the apocryphal/deuterocanonical books, and which ones), and NT textual critics study the NT. Above all, it is hoped that scholars on both sides of the canonical aisle will be sensitized to what those on the other side are doing, and so strengthen the exercise of their own discipline.Ĥ.ğirst of all, OT and NT textual critics deal with different data. This study aims to point out some of the differences, stress the significant similarities, and suggest some fruitful prospects for cooperation between practitioners of OT and NT textual criticism. In other words, OT textual criticism and NT textual criticism have different starting points (data), different endpoints (goal), different ways of getting from one to the other (methodology), and different ways of describing their work (terminology). OT and NT textual critics deal with different data, they strive for different goals, they approach their task with different methodologies, and they use different terminology. After all, very real differences exist between the texts of the Old and New Testaments, and they are also evident between OT and NT textual critics themselves. Didactic, religious, theological, and historical arguments can all be made to support the current state of affairs. ![]() Reasons to justify the split in the discipline are not difficult to find. In and of itself, the variety is not detrimental, but the lack of cross-pollination among textual critics is. This separation of the two from each other (and from other areas of textual criticism, such as of the classics) has resulted in profoundly varying approaches to the task of textual analysis. One casualty of the persistent tendency within biblical scholarship toward ever greater specialization is the discipline of textual criticism, which is almost universally divided into the camps of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Unfortunately, as biblical scholars increasingly focus on smaller and smaller areas of study, fewer cross-discipline investigations occur, and the gap between the testaments grows.Ģ. The reading of the OT informs NT interpretation, but so does the reading of the NT inform OT interpretation. The OT and the NT themselves are collages of overlapping ideas and structures, and the relationship of OT thought to that of the NT is both varied and complex. ![]() Barr criticizes the facile differentiation of ideas into the categories of "Hebrew" and "Greek" as a caricature ( Barr 1966:35), but he also decries the simplistic identification of OT and NT terms and concepts as "highly artificial" ( ibid.:154). In his 1966 book Old and New in Interpretation, James Barr calls for a reexamination of thinking about the two testaments, focusing especially on the areas of history, revelation, and exegesis, and their influence on Christian theology. Old and New in Textual Criticism: Similarities, Differences, and Prospects for Cooperation James R. The importance of biblical textual criticism has thus traditionally been to reconstruct those initial texts.This article is also available in transliteration and text-only formats. We do not have the “original” autographic manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments errors and alterations to the biblical texts took place throughout the history of copying these works. Why is biblical textual criticism important? The traditional goal of textual criticism applied to any literary work (including the Bible) has been to reconstruct the text of the author(s) based on surviving copies of these works. Because it requires knowledge of a broad number of disciplines, it is one of the more challenging fields of biblical study. What is biblical textual criticism? Biblical textual criticism is the science of studying the texts of ancient manuscripts of the Bible to understand the Bible’s transmission history. Located at Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary, North Carolina, the Center for Research of Biblical Manuscripts and Inscriptions provides advanced teaching and research in biblical textual criticism and manuscript studies.
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