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Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism

https://www.amazon.com/Myths-Mistakes-Testament-Textual-Criticism/dp/0830852573

3 comments:

  1. I recently attended a conference on the text and canon of Scripture by a few men who are critical of a method of textual criticism which attempts to "recover the original text." These are the same Reformed Baptists James White has been going back and forth with for a while now. It provided some interesting food for thought, at least:

    https://bit.ly/2JB1KgV

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    Replies
    1. I haven't watched White's DL's on that controversy. Can you summarize the argument? Do they deny that there's an Ur-text to recover? Or do they just object to the methods and assumptions of someone like Metzger?

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    2. They definitely object to the methodology of Metzger, but they can't possibly deny the potential of a recovering an "original text." However, I believe they would question our ability to identify it as such through purely scientific or contemporary text-critical methods.

      Their arguments briefly summarized: It is possible that we may either discover earlier manuscript copies, more variant readings, and/or discover that the provenance of copies we have is questionable. As such, so-called "earliest," "majority," or "best" manuscript evidence we currently have carry less defensible weight than eventual ecclesiastical reception of the canon and text of Scripture in history - i.e evidence for the the "confessional" view of the divine preservation and inspiration of His word (e.g. WCF and LBC 1.8) - although any arguments must be admittedly be ultimately subordinated to the "epistemic foundation of Protestantism," the self-authentication of Scripture to believers by the Holy Spirit (WCF and LBC 1.5).

      I have my own questions regarding the position they presented, but I do have to say that I am not much in favor of the idea that we must somehow "reconstruct" God's word through a process of reasoning based on available empirical evidence.

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