Replicant

Lewis Beeler Jr.lhbeeler@gmail.comCopyright 2014 ©

A Study of the Transmission of the NT with Focus on the Autographs, Copies, and its Recovery

September 10th, 2014Piedmont International University

Truth vs. Fact

• “Archeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.”

• Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Law of Correspondence

● “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

● Gen. 1.1

Detective Questions

● Whodunit?● What is the scene and what are we investigating?

● Did an autograph exist?● Is that autograph recoverable?● How can a we then argue a Divine author?

● What is the evidence?

Mystery at “Tudor Mansion”

● From the standpoint of an independent investigator, an incident is reported, and the investigator is called to the scene of the crime.

● The basic premise of investigation, in all areas of inquiry, is asking the right basic questions, then gathering evidence, then making conclusions.

The Noodle Incident

● What is the Scene and what is investigated?

● Scene – Occurrence of the Bible. If its here, it had to come from somewhere!

● Preliminary evidence suggests an ancient work has been handed down to recent times, and purports to be of Divine origin with human authorship.

Decision Points

● From our vantage point, the best questions are:

● Did an autograph exist?● Is that autograph recoverable?● How can a we then argue a Divine

author?

The Evidence

● Specifically the NT, 5,800 + Manuscripts are currently extant

● Divided among papyri, Uncials, Minuscules, and Lectionaries.

● As well, extant are versions, and quotations from Church fathers

● Still discovering and cataloging new manuscripts!● Comprised of various media

● Papyri (Job 8:11), Parchment/Vellum (2 Tim. 4.13), Scroll (Rev. 4-6), Codex, Ink (2 John 12), & Quill

Papyri

● Used from roughly 3000 BC. in Egypt

● Extremely fragile● 120 NT papyri extant

Vellum

● Animal skins● Laborious process to produce, but better material

● Term Vellum used for higher quality over Parchment

Uncials

● 2nd – 8th Centuries● Only 100 extant● Difficultly in determining text due to lack of breaks

Minuscules

● First occurs in 835 AD.

● “Written more rapidly and compactly” Wegner, 1999, 212.

Byzantine Lectionaries

● Liturgical device used by the church in worship

● Non-chronological arrangement

● Useful

Ancient Versions

● Work done by Missionaries

● Into Coptic, Syriac, Latin, Gothic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian, Slavonic, Arabic

● The provenance of the materials:● Geographically distributed among the

Mediterranean region of southwestern Europe, southeastern Asia, and northern Africa

● Time frame from late 1st century until the 17th century

● Conditions range from remarkably well preserved and extremely ornate with gold leaf and designs to tattered fragments, with many of the earliest being extremely fragile

Geography

Geography

Rating of Region:

1. Alexandrian

2. Caesarean

3. Western

4. Byzantine

Text Families were formed by the 4th Century

Parental Guidance Suggested

● Ratings of Text Familes are due to several factors:

● Date● Earliest is preferred

● Accuracy● Amount of errors in a Text Family

● Independence of Witness● If a source is related to another source, then

they are probably sharing an earlier source, and their numerical value should be viewed as one

● Methods used in writing:● Directly written from Author ● Transcribing by Amanuenses (a scribe)

(Rom. 16.2; 2 Thess. 3.17)● Methods used in Early Copying:

● Paying a professional Scribe (extremely expensive!) see Wegner, 1999, 208

● Scriptorium (also expensive)● Personally copied

● A Recension is a critically edited copy of a text. Some NT Manuscripts show signs of being critically appraised and edited. More on that later!

● New methods such as MRI technology are being used on the extant texts to further enhance our knowledge of the NT corpus

● Discoveries continue!

The Practice of NT Criticism

● What archeology has unearthed, textual critics throughout the centuries have cataloged and rated.

● Before Wescott and Hort, the criticism of the NT was ad-hoc, but did happen

● From Wescott and Hort, we have Text Families, critical apparatuses, an Eclectic text, and a methodology to do the work.

● Place readings according to their Text Family and age

● Determine the “weight” of the witness, not the volume

● Decide which reading would have influenced the others

● Speculative Rules:● The more unique reading is preferred● The shorter reading is preferred● The contextually appropriate is preferred

Internal vs. External

● Internal – what is going on in the Text?

● Literary, Grammatical● External – what is going on out of the Text?

● The actual physical evidence (see above)

● Did an autograph exist? ● The Evidence suggests that there WAS an original

● Early copies – p52 from 125 AD. of John 18:31-33● Early work of canonicity started in early 2nd Century with Justin

Martyr ending with councils in 367 and 397 AD. ● If it had been a multivalent original, then the dispersion of

variants would have been greater and far more dramatic● “... only about 1% of the textual variants are both meaningful

and viable.” Wallace, The Gospel According to Bart● What we have is a fairly consistent text that has

understandable scribal errors after 2,000 years of copying!

● “...we [Dallas Theological Seminary] have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 43% of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts.” [Emphasis Added]

● Daniel Wallace, Earliest Manuscript of the New Testament Discovered?, http://www.dts.edu/read/wallace-new-testament-manscript-first-century

● The Council of Athenasius (A.D. 367) and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) recognized the 27 books in our New Testament today as inspired.

● Sid Lidke, Canonicity, https://bible.org/seriespage/canonicity

● Is that autograph recoverable?● The Evidence suggests that the majority

of variants can be understood as scribal errors, however there is sufficient question to a large number of variants that 100% accuracy is elusive.

● What can be said after textual criticism is that 93-96% (my number!) of the text in a critical text is what was penned by the author!

● How can a we then argue a Divine author?● Objection to Divine authorship is that errors

exist therefore a perfect Divine author is untenable.

● On the contrary, the errors suggest things were added!

● The Evidence suggests that NOTHING was lost!

● This is in accordance with what was promised in Matt. 8!

Would you like to play a game?

Short Bibliography– Paul Wegner, The Journey from Texts

to Translations– Bruce Metzger & Bart Ehrman, The

Text of the New Testament– Kurt & Barbara Aland, The Text of the

New Testament– David Alan Black, New Testament

Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide

Fin