Category Archives: Textual criticism
A Question About the “Initial Text” of New Testament Documents
This past semester, for the first time in a long while, I taught a few sessions on New Testament textual criticism. I tried to refresh myself on some of the changes in the field in the last couple decades. I’m … Continue reading
The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath: Synoptic Problems
The saying in Matthew 12:8 (and its parallels) presents a fun puzzle. Continue reading
Tertullian and the Ending of the Gospel According to John
In response to my recent article on the ending of John in P.Bodmer 2, Michael Lattke brought to my attention an article of his that is relevant to the question of the circulation of the Gospel According to John without … Continue reading
P.Bodmer II as Possible Evidence for the Circulation of John without Chapter 21
In the most recent issue of the journal Early Christianity (vol. 9, 2018), I have an article that bears on one of the classic “problems” of New Testament interpretation. I’ve given some background on the issues in previous posts here … Continue reading
The Corrections in P.Bodmer II
In an earlier post, I mentioned an article I just published on John 21 and provided a little background on the issues concerning the “endings” of the Gospel According to John. Before I can finally move on to a summary … Continue reading
John 21 in the Amsterdam Database of New Testament Conjectural Emendation
Just one more update on my discussion of the history of the proposal that the Gospel According to John circulated in a twenty-chapter version: Thanks to Jeff Cate for pointing out the Amsterdam Database of New Testament Conjectural Emendation has an … Continue reading
Matthew and Levi (and James)
A kind of random question via e-mail sent me down a rabbit hole yesterday. The question was this: Does Origen say that Matthew and Levi were not the same person? The answer turns out to be more complicated than I … Continue reading
Justin Martyr and the Gospel(s)
Over on his blog, Larry Hurtado has responded to my last post on textual transmission, and I fear we may be talking past each other. Just to try to clarify the actual points of our disagreement: Hurtado writes: “Nongbri seems … Continue reading
Guest post: Mike Holmes and Matthew Larsen on Finished and Unfinished Ancient Texts
My recent invocation of Matthew Larsen’s article has generated a good bit of discussion both on and off the blog. In one of these exchanges, Mike Holmes raised some good questions about the article and agreed to let me post … Continue reading
Early Christian Textual Transmission, Part 3
In my first posting prompted by Larry Hurtado’s reflections on textual transmission, I brought up a recent article by Matthew Larsen, “Accidental Publication, Unfinished Texts and the Traditional Goals of New Testament Textual Criticism.” In a response (here), Hurtado has … Continue reading
Variant Readings 