Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence

by Daniel B. Wallace (Editor), Philip Miller (Contribution by), Matthew Morgan (Contribution by), Adam Messer (Contribution by), Tim Ricchuiti (Contribution by)

Overview

Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament is the inaugural volume of The Text and Canon of the New Testament series, edited by Daniel B. Wallace. This first volume focuses on issues in textual criticism; in particular, to what degree did the scribes, who copied their exemplars by hand, corrupt the autographs? All but one of the chapters deals specifically with New Testament textual criticism. The other addresses textual issues related to an early apocryphal work, the Gospel of Thomas. The book begins with the full transcription of Wallace's presentation at the Fourth Annual Greer-Heard Forum, in which he and Bart Ehrman debated over the reliability of the New Testament manuscripts. Adam Messer looks at the patristic evidence of "nor the Son" in Matthew 24:36 in a quest to determine whether the excision of these words was influenced by orthodox Fathers. Philip Miller wrestles with whether the least orthodox reading should be a valid principle for determining the autographic text. Matthew Morgan focuses attention on the only two Greek manuscripts that have a potentially Sabellian reading in John 1:1c. Timothy Ricchuiti tackles the textual history of the Gospel of Thomas, examining the Coptic text and the three Greek fragments, using internal evidence in order to determine the earliest stratum of Thomas. Brian Wright thoroughly examines the textual reliability of the passages in which Jesus appears to be called God, concluding that the textual proof of the designation theos as applied to Jesus in the NT merely confirms what other grounds have already established. Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament will be a valuable resource for those working in textual criticism, early Christianity, New Testament apocrypha, and patristics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780825433382
Publisher:	Kregel Publications
Publication date:	09/23/2011
Series:	Text and Canon of the New Testament Series
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Daniel B. Wallace (PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary) is professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, and senior New Testament editor of the NET
Bible. He has written Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This collection of stimulating essays, edited by Dan Wallace, renowned scholar of New Testament manuscripts, interacts with Bart Ehrman's own groundbreaking book The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. These essays deal mainly with issues of New Testament textual criticism, and each responds to a specific aspect of Ehrman's work. The studies attempt to 'push back' against some of Ehrman's stimulating theories. Their value lies in clarifying arguments, re-examining primary evidence, and advancing debates concerning fundamental issues surrounding the text of the New Testament. With the recent reissue of Ehrman's book, this collection forms a stimulating dialogue partner to be read alongside that work. It is essential reading for anybody interested in the text of the New Testament and in the way that text was brought together."
Paul Foster, Senior Lecturer in New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

"Dan Wallace has clearly become evangelical Christianity's premier active textual critic today. With painstaking detail and persuasive clarity, he and his former Dallas Seminary students demolish the contradictory and unconvincing portions of Bart Ehrman's theories about the orthodox corruption of Scripture. This book is a must read for anyone interested in this issue!"

Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary

"Today virtually all scholars agree that there are readings in the transmission history of the Greek New Testament that more likely reflect the theology, not of the New Testament authors, but of scribes who changed the text. As Wallace points out in his introduction, this is not the issue at stake. The problem that this volume of essays seeks to address is when 'orthodox corruption' is made the default explanation whenever there is a grain of suspicion that a passage may have been tampered with for doctrinal reasons, or when it is used as a heuristic device to harvest the entire textual tradition in search for suitable variants to label as 'anti-adoptionistic,' 'anti-separationist,' 'anti-docetic' or 'anti-patripassianist.' As A. E. Housman remarked, 'every problem which presents itself to the textual critic must be regarded as possibly unique.' Such a sound view of textual criticism excludes every mechanical application of any principle to account for textual variation."
Tommy Wasserman, Academic Dean and Lecturer in New Testament, Orebro School of Theology, Orebro, Sweden