TC Girl

I just read Aland’s old paper “The Twentieth-Century Interlude in New Testament Criticism” (from Text and Translation: Studies in the New Testament Presented to Matthew Black, Cambridge, 1979. 1-14.). Apparently (in 1973) Epp said that textual criticism had made little advances in recent years and was therefore in an “interlude” of some sort. It seems as though Epp was speaking primarily about American scholars – but never quite acknowledged this difference in the paper (and thus ignored the amazing advances made in Europe). Interesting. I wonder if Epp ever responded to Aland?

I’m also still working on Parker’s new book “New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts.” Initial thoughts:
It is going to be a very helpful resource for many students (and scholars). I’ve already marked books and articles that I need to buy/read. He usually lists these resources in his footnotes. Well, they aren’t footnotes – and actually, I don’t know what I think about his decision not to use footnotes. Instead, he puts his notes (with a very small font size) between paragraphs. It’s unusual.

He also seems to ignore CSNTM when listing resources for NT MS images online. Strange. Speaking of images online: that’s exactly how one has to access the images he references in his book. He has no illustrations in the actual book. They are all online. I don’t like this. It would be nice to have either option. I tend to read when I’m away from my computer – otherwise I’m distracted. However, in order to read this book I literally need to have my computer right next to me. Plus, what are the chances that his website will be available in 200 years? (This was my very first thought – silly, maybe, but data rot is an important issue.)

Anyway, as always, it’s easier to be critical than to praise. It’s obviously a great book. I am enjoying it immensely.