I get questions about whether the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic. Some really aren't questions; they are (I presume) well-meaning people trying to inform me of the "fact" of Aramaic primacy. In light of those sorts of emails, it was nice to come...
Text Criticism & Canon
Recent Article Response to Bart Ehrman’s Views on Ancient Pseudepigraphy
The Society of Biblical Literature just released the latest issue of its Journal of Biblical Literature. One of the articles caught my attention: "Content and Form: Authorship Attribution and Pseudonymity in Ancient Speeches, Letters, Lectures, and Translations —A...
How Do Scholars Know the Occasion and Audience of a Gospel?
I recently came across this short but interesting piece by NT scholar Ben Witherington entitled, "Latinisms, Western Diction, and the Provenance of Mark's Gospel." Despite the jargon-loaded title, certainly not designed to attract any lay people's interest, it's worth...
More on the Reliability of the New Testament
Transcripts and papers from the debate between Dan Wallace and Bart Ehrman, and other papers associated with the conference that featured that debate, are now available.
On the Presumed Corruption of the Greek New Testament
Many of you know that Bart Ehrman has made something of a small fortune on arguing that early scribes "corrupted" the transmission of the Greek New Testament by making "orthodox corrections" [read: changes that reflected orthodox predilections about Jesus] during the...
Mark Goodacre on How John Differs from the Synoptic Gospels
Check out this recent podcast by Mark on that topic. A nice intro.
How Can You Be a Textual Critic and Not Lose Your Faith?
This is something I never struggled with, primarily (I guess) because I never bought into seeing inspiration as an event vs. a process ruled by providence. But some people do, so here's a link to an interview with a real life textual critic. (Point: Many scholars in...
Does Higher Criticism Attempt to Destroy the Bible?
This link will lead you to what is actually Part IV of a series of posts over on Scotteriology. I think the discussions are worthwhile, though I may not agree in all respects with the way things are articulated. Granted, I think certain critical approaches lack...
Constantine and the Canon: The Law of Unintended Consequences
I had an interesting discussion a few days ago at work. I've been trying to get one of my co-workers (Vince Setterholm) to guest blog for me on the canon matter since he's done a lot of thinking about that. I think he'll end up contributing. In the meantime, one...
Excerpts from Part 2 of John Hobbins’ Thoughts on the Canon
In John's second post, he talks about a "dual dynamic" when it comes to the canon. Here's a portion of what he says: On the one hand, the existence of an agreed upon nucleus of authoritative literature in various times and places is undeniable; on the other, the...
Some “Acceptable” New Testament PaleoBabble
One of the most accepted dogmas of New Testament (hereafter, NT) scholarship is that behind the "synoptic problem" of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke - that their material overlaps between one or the other two) is that the material NOT shared by them represents a...
Peter Williams (New Testament Textual Critic) Debates Bart Ehrman On British Radio
In case you thought otherwise, Bart Ehrman's idea have not gone un-protested in the field of textual criticism. You just never hear that in the popular media. Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina and Peter J. Williams of Tyndale House, Cambridge...
New Book: The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity
This book looks like an excellent reference for anyone interested in the study of the biblical canon: The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis. A brief discussion of the book by one of its authors can be found here. The book will ship in...
For Those Interested in New Testament Textual Criticism and the Byzantine-Majority Text
I recently received this announcement from my Danish friend, Ulrik Sandborg-Peterson, who developed the very useful Paradigms Master Pro Greek and Hebrew parsing practice tool. Ulrik has been instrumental in bringing resources for the study of the Byzantine-Majority...
New Book on the Text-Critical Authenticity (or Not) of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11)
The Evangelical Textual Criticism blog just posted news of a new book on this well-known and textually controversial passage (the woman taken in adultery): David Alan Black and Jacob Cerone (eds.), The Pericope of the Adulteress in Contemporary Research. The...