Editing the Bible: Assessing the Task Past and Present

240 Pages·2012·2.78 MB·English

by  John S. Kloppenborg

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THE BIBLE is likely the most-edited book in history, yet the task of editing the
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible is fraught with diffi culties. Th e I John S. Kloppenborg
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dearth of Hebrew manuscripts of the Jewish Scriptures and the substantial Judith H. Newman
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diff erences among those witnesses create diffi culties in determining
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which text ought to be printed as the text of the Jewish Scriptures. For the
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New Testament, it is not the dearth of manuscripts but the overwhelming
number of manuscripts—almost six thousand Greek manuscripts and many
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more in other languages—that presents challenges for sorting and analyzing
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such a large, multivariant data set. Th is volume, representing experts in the
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editing of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, discusses both current

achievements and future challenges in creating modern editions of the
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biblical texts in their original languages.
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Th e contributors are Kristin De Troyer, Michael W. Holmes, John S. Kloppenborg, B
Sarianna Metso, Judith H. Newman, Holger Strutwolf, Eibert Tigchelaar, David L
Trobisch, Eugene Ulrich, John Van Seters, Klaus Wachtel, and Ryan Wettlaufer. E
JOHN S. KLOPPENBORG is Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion at
the University of Toronto. He is the author most recently of Q: Th e Earliest Gospel
(Westminster John Knox), Th e Tenants in the Vineyard: Ideology, Economics, and
Agrarian Confl ict in Jewish Palestine (Mohr Siebeck), and the co-editor of Reading EDITING
James with New Eyes (T&T Clark). JUDITH H. NEWMAN is Associate Professor of Old
Testament/Hebrew Bible at Emmanuel College and holds joint appointments with
THE BIBLE
the Department for the Study of Religion and the Department of Near and Middle
Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Praying by the
Book: Th e Scripturalization of Prayer in Second Temple Judaism (Scholars Press), the
K Assessing the Task
co-author of Early Jewish Prayers in Greek (de Gruyter), and the co-editor of Th e Idea l
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of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel (Brill). She has served as ep Past and Present
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the editor of the SBL series Early Judaism and Its Literature. e
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Cover art: Left, Th e Great Isaiah Scroll, col. 44, Ch. 53, Qumran Cave I, ca. 100 BCE. Shrine of Th e no
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Book. Photo © Th e Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Ardon Bar Hama. Center: DNA, iStockphoto. g
Right, Matthew XXVI, 19–52. P. Mich. inv. 1570; Recto (1469). Image digitally reproduced with the
permission of the Papyrology Collection, Graduate Library, University of Michigan.
Cover design by Kathie Klein.
Society of Biblical Literature
EDITING THE BIBLE
Resources for Biblical Study
Susan Ackerman, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Editor
Tom Th atcher, New Testament Editor
Number 69
EDITING THE BIBLE
Assessing the Task Past and Present
EDITING THE BIBLE
ASSESSING THE TASK PAST AND PRESENT
Edited by
John S. Kloppenborg
and
Judith H. Newman
Society of Biblical Literature
Atlanta
EDITING THE BIBLE
Assessing the Task Past and Present

Copyright © 2012 by the Society of Biblical Literature
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permit-
ted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission
should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Offi ce, Society of Biblical
Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Editing the Bible : assessing the task past and present / edited by John S. Kloppenborg
and Judith H. Newman.
p. cm. — (Society of Biblical Literature resources for biblical study ; no. 69)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58983-648-8 (paper binding : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-58983-649-5
(electronic format)
1. Bible—Criticism, Redaction—History. 2. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—
History. I. Kloppenborg, John S., 1951–. II. Newman, Judith H. (Judith Hood), 1961–.
III. Title.
BS500.E35 2012
220.6'6—dc23 2012006318
Printed on acid-free, recycled paper conforming to
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994
standards for paper permanence.
Contents
Acknowledgements .........................................................................................vii
Abbreviations ....................................................................................................ix
Editing the Bible: Assessing the Task Past and Present
John S. Kloppenborg and Judith H. Newman ...........................................1
Th e Genealogy of the Biblical Editor
John Van Seters ............................................................................................9
Th e Evolutionary Composition of the Hebrew Bible
Eugene Ulrich ............................................................................................23
Editing the Hebrew Bible: An Overview of Some Problems
Eibert Tigchelaar .......................................................................................41
Evidence from the Qumran Scrolls for the Scribal Transmission
of Leviticus
Sarianna Metso .........................................................................................67
Greek Papyri and the Texts of the Hebrew Bible
Kristin De Troyer.......................................................................................81
What Text Is Being Edited? Th e Editing of the New Testament
Michael W. Holmes ...................................................................................91
Th e Coherence-Based Genealogical Method: A New Way to
Reconstruct the Text of the Greek New Testament
Klaus Wachtel ..........................................................................................123
vi EDITING THE BIBLE
Scribal Practices and the Transmission of Biblical Texts: New
Insights from the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method
Holger Strutwolf ......................................................................................139
Th e New Testament in the Light of Book Publishing in Antiquity
David Trobisch ........................................................................................161
Unseen Variants: Conjectural Emendation and the New Testament
Ryan Wettlaufer.......................................................................................171
Bibliography ...................................................................................................195
Contributors ...................................................................................................213
Index of Primary Sources .............................................................................215
Index of Modern Authors.............................................................................221
Acknowledgements

Most of the essays in this volume had their start in Toronto at the forty-
third Conference on Editorial Problems, a longstanding colloquium held
yearly at the University of Toronto to discuss problems associated with
the editing of numerous corpora of literature, ancient and modern. Per-
haps surprisingly, the 2007 conference, organized and convened by John
Kloppenborg, was the fi rst to focus on the Bible, which may be the most
edited of any set of books. Moreover, the conference off ered what to our
knowledge was a rare opportunity for text-critical scholars addressing
both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to discuss jointly issues
in their respective corpora. Th e confl uence allows scholars to assess both
the similarities and the marked diff erences involved in these two parts of
the Bible. Th e volume thus gathers together a unique collection of essays
that illuminate issues related to critical editions of the Hebrew Bible, Sep-
tuagint, and New Testament. We are grateful to Fred Unwalla, Director
of CEP, for his initial invitation to organize the conference and for his
gracious support throughout. We thank the University of St. Michael’s
College for hosting the conference, the Department for the Study of Reli-
gion for fi nancial and logistical support, and many graduate students from
the Department and Emmanuel College for assisting in various ways. Th e
editors would also like to express special gratitude to the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which provided generous
fi nancial support both for the conference and for the editorial and pro-
duction work connected with this volume. Th ree of the papers off ered at
the conference, by Peter Head, Robert Kraft , and Hindy Najman, are not
included here. Robert Kraft ’s illustrated presentation can be found online
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak//temp/toronto3/report-frame.html.
We are honored that the volume is included in the SBL’s Resources
for Biblical Study series. We are grateful to its editors, Susan Ackerman
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viii EDITING THE BIBLE
and Tom Th atcher, for accepting the volume in the series and for their
valuable suggestions for improving its contents. Th anks are due as well
to the excellent SBL professionals responsible for overseeing the produc-
tion and marketing of this volume: Leigh Andersen, Bob Buller, Billie Jean
Collins, and Kathie Klein. Last but not least, we would like to thank our
dedicated graduate students who ably assisted in crucial tasks of format-
ting, proofreading, and indexing: Sherry Coman, Lelia Fry, Gabriel Holt,
David Kaden, Nathalie LaCoste, Carmen Palmer, and Ryan Stoner.
Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman.
6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
ANTF Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung
ASOR American Schools of Oriental Research
ATD Das Alte Testament Deutsch
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BHK Biblia Hebraica. Edited by Rudolf Kittel.
BHQ Biblia Hebraica Quinta
BHS Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Edited by Karl Elliger and
Wilhelm Rudolph.
BHT Beträge zur historichen Th eologie
Bib Biblica
BIOSCS Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint
and Cognate Studies
BWANT Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten (und Neuen) Testa-
ment
CBET Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Th eology
CBGM Coherence-Based Genealogical Method
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CJA Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
CSCO Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium
DJD Discoveries in the Judaean Desert
DSD Dead Sea Discoveries
ECM Editio Critica Maior
ExpTim Expository Times
GRM Graeco-Roman Memoirs
HB Hebrew Bible
HG Harclensis Group
HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs
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