Mitchell

ANCIENT GREEK IN ACTION

Want to learn Ancient Greek? Well, guess what there is now a free video lesson series on Youtube using what appears to be the Audiolingual Approach and a more modern-sounding Greek pronunciation. Start Learning Greek today.

Text Criticism: Here is the easiest Introduction video on the subject you’ll ever find.

Our Motto, then, is…

Sunday, March 13th, 2022

Our motto, then, is “back to the Hebrew text”.
It is not enough to browse through various magazine articles, and retail at second or even at third hand the facts or fancies of others. We must get back to the ordinary Hebrew sources and verify the results for ourselves.
If need be, we must copy the devotion of the old Rabbis who did not scruple to burn the midnight oil in the prosecution of their studies. “Hananiah ben Hezekiah,” says the Babylonian Talmud, “is of blessed memory, for but for him Ezekiel would have been declared apocryphal, because his words contradicted the words of the Law: three hundred jars of lamp oil were brought to him, and he sat in his garret and solved the contradictions.” That is his example to Hebrew students to-day. Let them toil as he did at their Old Testament tasks. And they shall yet know something of the beauty of the language and the loftiness of the thought, when they have learned.
Adams, John. Sermons in Accents: Or, Studies in the Hebrew Text. London; New York: T&T Clark, 1906.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Quote of the Week for Sunday, March 13th, 2022

How is the modern preacher to make sure that he is retailing week by week the fully verified results of Biblical exegesis?
Only in one way:
he must get back to the ordinary Hebrew sources and verify the results for himself. If the cause of truth is to be safeguarded from the extravagance of ἀγνωσία, the preacher of the future must sit down and grapple with the minutiæ of the text.
Adams, John. Sermons in Accents: Or, Studies in the Hebrew Text. London; New York: T&T Clark, 1906.

Acts 8:37?

NT Textual Criticism can seem esoteric and maybe some of it is. However, you may run into text-critical issues and decisions far more than you think you do. If you are using a translation of the scriptures (or of any other text) a number of different decisions and interpretations have already been made for you. Sometimes the editor and translators will call alert you to their decision in the footnotes and or margin notes of your chosen translation.

Disclaimer: The following summary is an oversimplification of how textual critical decisions are made. In general, I would say that text-critical decisions are made by those that follow into the following three main camps of reasoning:

(a) Those that go with the reading found in earlist available text or texts
(b) Those that go with the reading vast majority of textual witnesses
(c) Those that go with the reading they think reflects the text that their faith community has historical used and or that the church fathers used.

Now, If you own an English translation of the New Testament turn to Acts chapter 8. Now, check do you have verse 37 in the main body of your text or in a footnote? Are, you provided with any information about the manuscript evidence and different points of view? Which of the three camps mentioned above do you think the translators and or editors of your translation fall into at Acts 8:37?

Just for fun here are a few other opinions:

CASES FOR