I have heard you use the term “textual criticism” before. What is this?
Textual criticism, also known as lower criticism,
“is the restoration of the wording of a document when alterations have been introduced (deliberately or inadvertently) in the course of copying and recopying. Before the invention of printing, when each copy of a document had to be written out separately by hand, scribal errors were especially apt to occur” (F.F. Bruce, ISBE).[1]
Textual criticism is employed to determine what the original reading of a Biblical text was, taking into account the oldest available texts and textual fragments of Scriptures, ancient translations of Scriptures available, and quotations of Scripture in ancient literature—among various factors. The ISBE entry by F.F. Bruce goes on to state,
“If the autograph or original document survives, scribal errors can be corrected by reference to it. But if it has long since disappeared (as has happened with all the original emplars of biblical books), and the surviving copies differ from one another here and there, the original wording can be determined only by comparative study of these copies. The scribal habits of individual copyists, and the remoteness of proximity to individual MSS to the original…must be investigated” (Bruce, ISBE).[2]
As a conservative ministry, we do believe that the Holy Scriptures are inspired of God and that they are not myths, borrowed or copied from pagan stories or the contemporary religions around Ancient Israel. However, textual errors have occurred in the copying and transmission of the Scriptures over the centuries, be they in the Hebrew Tanach (OT) or Greek Apostolic Writings (NT). The significant majority of these errors were unintentional human mistakes, although a few may have been intentional for doctrinal reasons. These sorts of issues can only be resolved on a case-by-case basis.
The two most commonly employed Biblical texts today which cannot be considered “critical texts,” because they have not been compared against textual discoveries, are the Masoretic Hebrew text (MT) for the Tanach and the Textus Receptus for the Greek Apostolic Writings. Biblical scholars largely use critical texts such as the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia[3] and the Greek New Testament, 4th Revised Edition[4] (widely the same as the Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th ed.[5]), both produced by United Bible Societies. These editions have the variant manuscript readings in their footnotes.[6] Committees on large Bible translation projects, tend to jointly decide which reading is best, when controversies might arise.
NOTES
[1] F.F. Bruce, “Criticism,” in Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, abridged (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 1:818.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, et. al., eds., Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutche Bibelgesellschaft, 1977).
[4] Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, eds., The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition (Stuttgart: Deutche Bibelgesellschaft/United Bible Societies, 1998).
[5] Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, eds., Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition (New York: American Bible Society, 1993).
[6] Additional resources to consider, include Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1998); Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2008).
