Theological Term of the Week: Text Criticism

text criticism
“[T]he careful study of the ancient texts in an effort to establish what the original manuscripts of the Bible said”;1 also called textual criticism.

• From 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer:

We have historical records of extensive text criticism from at least as far back as Origen (A.D. 185-254), but the modern flowering of the discipline followed the introduction of the printing press in Europe (1454) and the revival of scholars’ knowledge of Greek and Hebrew at the time of the Reformation. Text criticism has flourished especially in the last two hundred years, with the many discoveries of ancient manuscripts and a growing scholarly consensus on methods.1

• From The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy:

  Since God has nowhere promised an inerrant transmission of Scripture, it is necessary to affirm that only the autographic text of the original documents was inspired and to maintain the need of textual criticism as a means of detecting any slips that may have crept into the text in the course of its transmission. The verdict of this science, however, is that the Hebrew and Greek text appear to be amazingly well preserved, so that we are amply justified in affirming, with the Westminster Confession, a singular providence of God in this matter and in declaring that the authority of Scripture is in no way jeopardized by the fact that the copies we possess are not entirely error-free.

• From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham:

The originals were immediately inspired by God, and the text thereafter has been kept pure by special providential care… . God’s “singular care and providence”1 has never gone into remission. With the discovery of large numbers of new manuscripts in later years, it was not as if God had gone to sleep; the same “singular care and providence” was evident in the discovery and analysis of them. The distinction between the original documents and later copies is connected with the inevitability of errors in transmission through hand-copying. God’s “singular care and providence” does not exclude errors from all copies; it refers to the text as a whole… . Textual criticism has yielded a text that gets us as close to the original as it may be possible to come, a text more complete than possessed by anyone in the first century. 

Learn more:

1. Michael Kruger: The Difference Between Original Autographs and Original Texts
2. Daniel Wallace: Inspiration, Preservation, and New Textament Textual Criticism
3. Michael Marlowe: Textual Criticism Is Nothing New
4. Jeff Spry: Textual Criticism 101 (pdf)

Related terms: 

• autographs
• Comma Johanneum
• longer ending of Mark
• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• manuscript
• Pericope Adulterae
• redaction criticism

140 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert L. Plummer, page 299.
2Westminster Confession of Faith, 1.8.

Filed under Scripture

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Sunday's Hymn: Praise the Lord, Ye Heavens Adore Him

Praise the Lord: ye heavens adore him;
Praise him, angels, in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before him;
Praise him, all ye stars and light.
Praise the Lord, for he hath spoken;
Worlds his mighty voice obeyed:
Laws which never shall be broken
For their guidance hath he made.

Praise the Lord, for he is glorious;
Never shall his promise fail:
God hath made his saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation;
Hosts on high, his pow’r proclaim;
Heaven and earth and all creation,
Laud and magnify his name.

Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto thee;
Young and old, thy praise expressing,
In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heaven adore thee;
We would bow before thy throne:
As thine angels serve before thee,
So on earth thy will be done.

—Tho­mas Co­ram (stan­zas 1 & 2) & Ed­ward Os­ler

Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• The Church’s One Foundation at The Happy Wonderer
• I Couldn’t Have Paid Anything at The Outspoken Tulip

Selected Reading, September 12, 2020

 

A few suggestions for your weekend reading.

The Church

When Speaking About Jesus’s Bride
“The church (in every form in which it is manifested on earth) is certainly subject to criticism and correction; but, those things must always be done out of love and a desire to treat her for what she is in truth—the very bride of Christ. To speak of the church with disrespect, harshness, malice and judgmentalism is to speak of Christ’s bride in those ways.” —Nicholas Batzig

Christian History

Joshua Janavel and the Plight of the Waldensians
I have a good enough grasp of the big picture of the history of Christianity, but I don’t know the smaller stories—like this one.

Christian Living

Love What’s Near
I suspect Trevin Wax is on to something: “[W]hat if it is in loving what is nearest to us … where we are most likely to find happiness and bring about lasting change in the world? What if it’s in the cultivation of culture at home, with our neighbors, with our church, where the most significant change takes place?”

Bible Study

Context Matters: The Cattle on a Thousand Hills
In the song by John W. Peterson, this bit of scripture is used to assure us that God will care for us. God does take care of us, of course, but this is not how the psalmist applies this truth.