Restitutio

Last time we covered two corrected corruptions (1 Timothy 3.16 and 1 John 5.7).  This time we’ll consider two uncorrected corruptions, including the long ending on Mark (16.9-20) and the passage about the adulterous woman that Jesus saves (John 7.53-8.11).  Although these two texts are not found in the earliest and best manuscripts and translators have known this for decades, they continue to include them in virtually all English translations.  What’s going on here?  In this episode you’ll learn the textual basis for both passages and the reasons why textual scholars don’t accept their authenticity. —— Books —— New Testament Text and Translation Commentary by Philip W. Comfort Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament by Bruce Metzger The NET Bible with 60,932 Translators’ Notes (online here) —— Links —— For background on textual criticism see part 10 New Testament Textual Criticism as well as 6 Greek New Testament Papyri, 7 Greek New Testament Uncials, and 8 Other New Testament Manuscripts Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today we move from learning about manuscripts and textual criticism to actually doing textual criticism.  I’ve chosen two well-known corruptions to illustrate the process of textual criticism: 1 Timothy 3.16 and 1 John 5.7.  In each of these cases scribes have altered the text of scripture and we have the manuscript evidence to show exactly what happened. —— Books —— New Testament Text and Translation Commentary by Philip W. Comfort Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament by Bruce Metzger The NET Bible with 60,932 Translators’ Notes (online here) The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by Bart Ehrman Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament by Daniel Wallace et al. The King James Only Controversy by James White —— Links —— Read my more thorough treatment of 1 John 5.7-8: “The Story behind the Comma Johanneum“ For background on textual criticism see part 10 New Testament Textual Criticism as well as 6 Greek New Testament Papyri, 7 Greek New Testament Uncials, and 8 Other New Testament Manuscripts Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Last time we surveyed five hundred years of New Testament textual criticism.  Today we address the process by which these scholars have done and continue to do their work.  We’ll see how they weigh internal and external evidence.  We’ll cover reasoned eclecticism, the refined documentary approach, and the computer-driven coherence based genealogical method.  (Don’t worry if these terms don’t mean much to you yet.)  Lastly, we’ll see what resources you can access to find out the inside scoop on what’s going on with a particular NT verse. —— Books —— New Testament Text and Translation Commentary by Philip W. Comfort An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts by D. C. Parker The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman NA28: Nestle-Aland 28th Edition, aka Novum Testamentum Graece UBS5: United Bible Society 5th Edition, aka The Greek New Testament THGNT: Tyndale House Greek New Testament, aka The Greek New Testament —— Links —— Editio Critica Maior Coherence Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) tool Read Peter Gurry’s article, “How Your Greek NT Is Changing: A Simple Introduction to the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM)” from the Journal of Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Before we can understand how textual scholars do their work today, it’s important to understand the history of how they have endeavored to reconstruct the Greek New Testament over the years.  In this episode you’ll learn about the rich and important history of how our understanding of the Greek New Testament changed over the last five hundred years.  This history is vital for you to understand why older translations are often based on younger manuscripts–a key paradox we’ll return to in future sessions. —— Books —— An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts by D. C. Parker The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts by Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett (2 volumes) The King James Only Controversy by James White NA28: Nestle-Aland 28th Edition, aka Novum Testamentum Graece UBS5: United Bible Society 5th Edition, aka The Greek New Testament THGNT: Tyndale House Greek New Testament, aka The Greek New Testament —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

We’ve been working our way through the various sources for our Greek New Testament.  We’ve looked at the papyri and the uncials, but there is so much more to consider.  In fact, the New Testament papyri and uncials combined make up less than 2% of our manuscripts.  Today, we’ll consider the other 98% of manuscripts including minuscules, lectionaries, quotations in the church fathers, and ancient translations. —— Books —— Constantine Tischendorf: The Life and Work of a 19th Century Bible Hunter by Stanley E. Porter An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts by D. C. Parker The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts by Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett (2 volumes) Encountering the Manuscripts by Philip Comfort —— Links —— See SBL’s publications of The New Testament in the Greek Fathers Visit The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts and look at high resolution pictures of many manuscripts. Visit the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF) to see the work they are doing to compare access and analyze New Testament manuscripts Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today we are moving into our second group of New Testament manuscripts–the uncials.  However, before describing them, we’ll need to focus on how Christian scribes went about their work.  As it turns out the situation is quite different than the Jewish scribes who preserved the Hebrew Bible.  Then we’ll follow the exciting career of Bible hunter Constantine Tischendorf as he brought to light two huge discoveries.  Lastly, we’ll take a brief survey of the five most famous uncial New Testament manuscripts: Codex Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus,  Vaticanus, Ephraemi Rescriptus, and Bezae. —— Books —— Constantine Tischendorf: The Life and Work of a 19th Century Bible Hunter by Stanley E. Porter An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts by D. C. Parker The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts by Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett (2 volumes) Encountering the Manuscripts by Philip Comfort —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today we are shifting gears from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from Hebrew manuscripts to Greek ones.  We’ll begin with the earliest evidence for the Greek New Testament, the papyri.  Made from the papyrus plant, approximately 130 of these manuscripts survive today in museums around the world.  In this lecture you’ll learn the important role collectors like Chester Beatty and Martin Bodmer played as well as the earth-shattering discovery made by archeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt at Oxyrhynchus Egypt. —— Books —— The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents, and Sources by Lincoln H. Blumell and Thomas A. Wayment The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts by Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett (2 volumes) Encountering the Manuscripts by Philip Comfort —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today we are going to take a brief break from manuscripts and dip our toes into the pool of Bible translations.  Specifically, we’ll take a look at six of the most prominent Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible, including: Jewish Publication Society (1917) Koren Jerusalem Bible (1961) New Jewish Publication Society (1985) Artscroll’s Stone Tanach (1996) Schocken Bible of Everett Fox (1995, 2014) Robert Alter’s translation (2018) For each of these versions we’ll get a brief sense of the translation style from the preface and then we’ll compare four texts from each: Genesis 1.1-3; Psalm 23.1-2; Isaiah 9.6; and Micah 7.20. —— Books —— Jewish Publication Society Bible (1917) New Jewish Publication Society Bible (1985) Koren Jerusalem Bible Artscroll Stone Tanach Everett Fox‘s Schocken Bible Robert Alter’s three volume Bible with commentary The Song of Songs by Ariel and Chana Bloch (translation and commentary) —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

For our Hebrew Bibles we have three main groups of manuscripts to compare: the Masoretic Text group, the Samaritan Pentateuch group, and the Septuagint group.  Each of these groups contain many manuscripts with the Masoretic Text group containing the most.  In this episode of How We Got the Bible, we’re going to look at the history of how textual scholars have and continue to pour over all of this information and determine the best reading when they encounter differences in the texts. —— Books —— Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia ed. by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph Biblia Hebraica Quinta series (available as individual volumes) Proverbs: An Eclectic Edition with Introduction and Textual Commentary by Michael V. Fox Old Testament Textual Criticism by Ellis Brotzman and Eric Tully Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible by Emmanuel Tov —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible visit The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition site See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

In How We Got the Bible, we’re continuing on in our quest to understand the sources for the Hebrew Bible.  We’ve already covered the Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls, but we have one last important Hebrew source to look at before surveying several significant ancient translations.  As it turns out the Samaritans have their own Hebrew version of the Torah, commonly called the Samaritan Pentateuch.  In this episode you’ll learn about the Samaritan Pentateuch and why scholars take it more seriously today than they did in previous centuries.  We’ll also consider very important ancient translations of the Tanakh, in Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, and Latin. —— Books —— The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah by Benyamin Tsedaka and Sharon Sullivan A New English Translation of the Septuagint by Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright The Septuagint with Apocrypha by Lancelot C. L. Brenton The Targums: A Critical Introduction by Paul V. M. Flesher and Bruce Chilton The Aramaic Bible Volume 1A: Targum Neofiti: Genesis by Martin McNamara The Aramaic Bible Volume 2: Targum Neofiti and Targum Psuedo-Jonathan: Exodus by Martin McNamara Old Testament Textual Criticism by Ellis Brotzman and Eric Tully —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library