Silenced Women of Corinth: The Text Critical Solution

Here is my discussion of the Silenced Women of Corinth passage. As with most of my blog posts, I do not mean to imply that it is a scholarly masterpiece; most blog posts are written off the top of my head. In this case, the article was written for a church community, although it attempts to update the reader on the latest academic discussion--which is on-going.

If I were to re-write it, I would bring into the discussion a paper presented by Jeffrey Kloha at Society of Biblical Literature (Washington D.C., Nov, 2006), arguing that his examples of Western displacements--fragmentary as they are and hardly comparable to redactionary displacement of whole texts--do not make his case. But also, I would soften my own conclusions; perhaps I come across as too certain.

Information about recent developments in the debate is taken from Eldon Epp's Junia: The First Woman Apostle.

http://jmleonardfamily.googlepages.com/silencedwomenofcorinth

Free and Strict Transmission of the New Testament Text

The Alands express in the following paragraph their view that early scribes felt free to improve or paraphrase their texts, and that we have extant manuscripts to prove it:

"Until the beginning of the fourth century the text of the New Testament developed freely. It was a " living text," unlike the text of the Hebrew Old Testament, which was subject to strict controls because (in the oriental tradition) the consonantal text was holy. And the New Testament text continued to be a 'living text' as long as it remained a manuscript tradition.... They also felt themselves free to make corrections in the text, improving it by their own standards of correctness, whether grammatically, stylistically, or more substantively. This was all the more true of the early period, when the text had not yet attained canonical status, especially in the earliest period when Christians considered themselves filled with the Spirit. As a consequence the "Early text" was many-faceted, and each manuscript had its own peculiar character. This can be observed in such early papyri as p45, p46, p66, and so forth. The fact that this was not the normative practice has been proved by p75, which represents a strict text just as p52 of the period around A.D. 125 represents a normal text. It preserves the text of the original exemplar in a relatively faithful form... (69).

The bulk of the paragraph suggests a sceptical view of the transmission of the New Testament text in the early period--that we should be rather glum about the reliability of the New Testament text. However, it might be easy to overlook the penultimate sentence in which the Alands profess that not all manuscripts were so free in their transmission. Quite the contrary, there was a very careful, strict approach to the transmission of the biblical text in the earliest period and that this was "the normative practice."

Some would contest this assertion that strict transmission was the normative practice in the second and third centuries. This is the location of one of the great fronts in current textual criticism.

Text and Canon Papers at Evangelical Theological Society Meeting

This year's theme for the ETS annual meeting is Text and Canon. There are many papers being presented on the issue. I've listed some of them here which I plan to attend.

The ETS annual meeting will be held in Providence RI Wed Nov 19-21, just prior to the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Boston.

Wednesday

9:20 AM-10:00 AM

David Hutchison (Southwestern Baptist

Theological Seminary)

The Next Great Step in New Testament

Textual Criticism

10:10 AM-10:50 AM

John Wei-Ho Wu (Logos Evangelical

Seminary)

Authenticity of the Distinctively Byzantine

Shorter Reading

11:00 AM-11:40 AM

Andrew W. Pitts (McMaster Divinity

College)

A Re-assessment of the Use of Variant-

Units in New Testament Textual Criticism:

Definitions and Boundaries

4:30 PM-5:10 PM

Michael Bird (Highland Theological

College)

The Role of “Canon” in New Testament

Rhode Island Convention Center

Room 556 B

TEXT & CANON

Panel Discussion of Three Views on

the New Testament Use of the Old

Testament

Moderator: Kenneth Berding (Talbot School

of Theology)

2:55 PM-3:15 PM

Jonathan Lunde (Talbot School of

Theology)

Taxonomical Framework

3:15 PM-3:35 PM

Walter Kaiser Jr. (Gordon-Conwell

Theological Seminary)

Single Meaning, Unified Referents

3:35 PM-3:55 PM

Darrell L. Bock (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Single Meaning, Multiple Contexts, and

Referents

3:55 PM-4:15 PM

Peter Enns (Westminster Theological

Seminary)

Fuller Meaning, Single Goal

4:15 PM-4:30 PM

INTERMISSION

4:30 PM-5:30 PM

Q&A Discussion

Westin Narragansett Ballroom A,

Ground Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: New Testament Canon

2:50 PM-3:30 PM

Edward Stevens (International Preterist

Association)

The New Testament Canon Formed by

AD 70

Westin Narragansett Ballroom B,

Ground Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: New Testament Text

3:40 PM-4:20 PM

Michael Pahl

Scripture and Tradition, Orality and Gospel:

A New Look at an Old Controversy

4:30 PM-5:10 PM

Mike Arcieri (Faculté de théologie

évangélique, Montreal, Quebec)

Complete Listing of All Variant Readings

between the Robinson-Pierpont 2nd ed.

and the Nestle-Aland 27th ed.

5:20 PM-6:00 PM

Richard Taylor (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

On the Use (and Abuse) of a Critical

Apparatus

Thursday

Rhode Island Convention Center

Room 553 A/B

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

8:30 AM-9:10 AM

Dean Deppe (Calvin Theological Seminary)

Textual Alterations in the Gospels of the

TNIV

9:20 AM-10:00 AM

Darrell L. Bock (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Response

Thursday

Westin Waterplace Ballroom II,

2nd Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: New Testament Text

8:30 AM-9:10 AM

Douglas Huffman (Northwestern College)

A Survey of Text—Critical Issues in the

Book of Acts

10:10 AM-10:50 AM

James Sweeney (Immanuel Church)

Did the Gospel of Matthew Use an Early

Form of the Didache as a Source?

Westin Providence Ballroom IV,

3rd Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: New Testament Text

8:30 AM-9:10 AM

Abidan Paul Shah (Southeastern Baptist

Theological Seminary)

Rewriting History: An Analysis and Evaluation

of Current Revisionist Approaches to

New Testament Textual Criticism and Their

Impact on New Testament Studies

9:20 AM-10:00 AM

Douglas Estes (Western Seminary—San

Jose)

John versus the Canon: A Counterfactual

View of the Fourth Gospel

10:10 AM-10:50 AM

Jeff Cate (California Baptist University)

The Angry Jesus in Mark 1:41

Westin Waterplace Ballroom III,

2nd Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: New Testament Text

8:30 AM-9:10 AM

Adam Messer (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Unveiling Patristic Impressions: Theology

and Textual Corruption in Matthew 24:36

9:20 AM-10:00 AM

Timothy Ricchuiti (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Tracking Thomas: A Text-Critical Look at

the Transmission of the Gospel of Thomas

10:10 AM-10:50 AM

Vern Poythress (Westminster Theological

Seminary)

The Interaction of General Knowledge and

Canon in Appreciating Biblical Narratives,

Illustrated with Luke 5:12-16

11:00 AM-11:40 AM

William Warren Jr. (New Orleans Baptist

Theological Seminary)

Canons, Copies, Communities, and Conflicts:

The Text of the New Testament in the

Second and Third Centuries

Westin Narragansett Ballroom C,

Ground Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: Text & Canon

9:20 AM-10:00 AM

Jason Sexton (The University of St.

Andrews)

How Far Beyond Chicago?

Rhode Island Convention Center

Ballroom

12:50 PM-1:40 PM

PLENARY SESSION 3: TEXT &

CANON

Daniel B. Wallace (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

New Testament Text

Rhode Island Convention Center

Ballroom

1:40 PM-2:30 PM

PLENARY SESSION 3: TEXT &

CANON

Charles E. Hill (Reformed Theological

Seminary)

New Testament Canon

Thursday

Westin Providence Ballroom II,

Third Floor

NEW TESTAMENT CANON,

TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND

APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE

Moderator: Mike Kruger (Reformed

Theological Seminary)

2:50 PM-3:30 PM

Darrell L. Bock (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Why Apocryphal Literature Matters for NT

Study: Relevance, Models, and Prospects

—A Look at the Influence of the New

School of Koester-Robinson

3:40 PM-4:20 PM

Charles E. Hill (Reformed Theological

Seminary)

From Codex to Loose-leaf Binder: Some

Recent Trends in Canon Criticism

4:30 PM-5:10 PM

Daniel B. Wallace (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Recent Developments in NT Textual Criticism

and Why They Matter to Evangelicals

5:20 PM-6:00 PM

Stanley E. Porter (McMaster Divinity

College)

Summary and Evaluation: Toward an Evangelical

Understanding of NT Canon, Textual

Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature

Friday

Westin Waterplace Ballroom III,

2nd Floor

NEW TESTAMENT CANON, TEXTUAL

CRITICISM, AND APOCRYPHAL

LITERATURE

9:10 AM-9:50 AM

Jang Ryul Lee (Edinburgh University,

Scotland)

The “Goodness” and “One-ness” of God: A

Study of the Saying in Mark 10:18, “No one

is Good except One, God”

10:00 AM-10:40 AM

Maurice Robinson (Southeastern Baptist

Theological Seminary)

Eclectic Observations regarding the Current

Critical Text

Friday

Hilton Providence Hotel

Rosemoor Ballroom North

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

THEME: Recent Evangelical Works on

Jesus

Moderator: Leslie Robert Keylock (Evangelical

University and Seminary)

Part I: Recent Popular Works on the

Historical Jesus

9:10 AM-9:25 AM

Grant Osborne (Trinity Evangelical Divinity

School)

Craig Evans’s Fabricating Jesus

9:25 AM-9:40 AM

Daniel B. Wallace (Dallas Theological

Seminary)

Ben Witherington’s What Have They Done

with Jesus?

9:40 AM-9:55 AM

David Turner (Grand Rapids Theological

Seminary)

Darrell Bock and Daniel Wallace’s Dethroning

Jesus

9:55 AM-10:45 AM

Craig Evans, Ben Witherington III, and

Darrell L. Bock

Responses, Panel Discussion, Questions

Part II: Recent Works on the Life and

Teaching of Jesus

10:45 AM-11:00 AM

Eckhard Schnabel (Trinity Evangelical

Divinity)

Mark Strauss’s Four Portraits, One Jesus:

School

11:00 AM-11:15 AM

Mark Strauss (Bethel Theological Seminary,

San Diego)

Paul Eddy and Gregory Boyd’s The Jesus

Legend

11:15 AM-11:30 AM

Graham Twelftree (Regent University)

Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld’s Recovering

Jesus

11:30 AM-12:20 PM

Mark Strauss, Paul Eddy, and Thomas R.

Yoder Neufeld

Responses, Panel Discussion, Questions

Friday

Westin Washington Room, 3rd Floor

TEXT & CANON

THEME: New Testament Canon

9:10 AM-9:50 AM

Alan Kam-Yau Chan (Chinese Christian

Union Church—North)

Canonical Effect of the Hebrew Bible upon

the Literary Formation of the Prologue in

the Gospel of Mark

Friday

10:50 AM-11:30 AM

Philip Miller (Dallas Theological Seminary)

The Least Orthodox Reading Is to Be

Preferred: A New Canon for New Testament

Textual Criticism?

11:40 AM-12:20 PM

Samuel Lamerson (Knox Seminary)

Mark 16, Again? Are the Vocabulary and

Syntax Really “Un-Markan”?