Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword to the English translation by J. K. Elliott
- Translator's preface
- Foreword to the first French edition
- Preface to the second French edition
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 THE SOURCES OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
- 2 THE METHOD OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
- 3 THE HISTORY OF THE WRITTEN TEXT
- 4 THE HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF THE PRINTED TEXT
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index of modern authors and editors
- Index of ancient authors
- Index of individual manuscripts cited
- General index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword to the English translation by J. K. Elliott
- Translator's preface
- Foreword to the first French edition
- Preface to the second French edition
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 THE SOURCES OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
- 2 THE METHOD OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM
- 3 THE HISTORY OF THE WRITTEN TEXT
- 4 THE HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF THE PRINTED TEXT
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index of modern authors and editors
- Index of ancient authors
- Index of individual manuscripts cited
- General index
Summary
THE PURPOSE AND THE ARRANGEMENT OF THIS BOOK
By ‘textual criticism’ is meant any methodical and objective study which aims to retrieve the original form of a text or at least the form closest to the original. Even in a modern book there are nearly always printing errors despite careful checking by the author and proof-readers, so it is not surprising that early writings, copied as they were many times over the centuries, should have frequently undergone alteration. And indeed, from time to time in the old manuscripts of a work different forms of the text can be observed. These different forms are known as ‘variants’; they may also be referred to as divergent or erroneous readings.
The goal of textual criticism as applied to the New Testament is thus a very specific one, namely to select from among the many variants transmitted by the manuscript tradition the one which most likely represents the primitive reading. It is only when the contents of the whole text have been established that the other disciplines can operate: literary criticism, to decide the origin of each book and to locate the sources used by the author; historical criticism, to assess the value of the books as historical documents; exegesis, to define the exact meaning of the text.
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- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991