Abstract
Editing the Bible
This volume brings together a collection comprising an introduction and ten essays that discuss significant aspects of the task of editing biblical texts on the basis of ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. One of the unique aspects of this volume is that it brings together scholars who edit the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), and the Greek New Testament. This interdisciplinary range of perspectives greatly enriches the volume. It is interesting to observe the juxtaposition between problems that best editors of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint – with a relative paucity of manuscripts, and those that attend editors of the Greek New Testament – with a plethora of manuscripts.
In the opening essay John Van Seters provides a superb overview of the evolution of the discipline of producing printed original-language texts based on manuscript evidence (pp. 9-22). Next Ulrich looks at the composition of the Hebrew Bible (pp. 23-40) and Tigchelaar assesses some of the specific problems that attend editing the Hebrew Bible (pp. 41-66). Sarianna Metso brings the evidence of the Qumran texts to bear on the process of editing the Hebrew Bible (pp. 67-80). The sole essay of the Septuagint is provided by Kristin de Troyer (pp. 81-90). She makes an impassioned and careful reasoned defence of ‘the importance of restoring all literary editions of a given book’ (p. 90). Mike Holmes clearly highlights the need for editors to be explicit in their methods and approach in editing the Greek New Testament (pp. 91-122). Klaus Wachtel presents the approach of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) – which stands behind the recently published text of the Catholic Epistles included in the twenty-eighth edition of the Nestlé-Aland text (2012). Strutwolf discusses the CBGM in relation to providing clearer understanding of scribal practices and textual transmission (pp. 139-160). In the penultimate essay David Trobisch re-presents his theory of the New Testament being published as a complete first edition in codex format by the middle of the second century. While his theory may not ultimately persuade, his suggestions such as restoring the nomina sacra to modern critical editions is certainly intriguing (pp. 161-170). Lastly, Wettlaufer’s paper on conjectural emendation makes a good case that editors of the NT text need to be open to this as a valid part of the editorial process. Unfortunately, the example he chose to illustrate this, the theory that James was originally a Jewish text that had been lightly edited by a Christian scribe and that references to Jesus Christ (Jas. 1.1; 2.1) need to be expunged, is unlikely to win any to the cause of using conjectural emendation.
Overall, this is a first-rate collection of essays. Bringing together scholars of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), and the Greek New Testament has proved enriching – and the editors should be commended for this. This is an excellent collection of essays.