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by Maurice A. Robinson Concluding Observations Every variant unit can be evaluated favorably from a Byzantine-priority perspective, and all units should be carefully examined when attempting to restore the original text. While some examples of Byzantine-priority analysis appear in the present essay, it is impossible within a short study to present a complete or comprehensive discussion of variants. Although an analysis of significant … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson Inaccuracies and misleading claims The Byzantine Textform has been caricatured by adverse critics as "late" (by MS date), "secondary" (by readings), and "corrupt" (by a false assumption of scribal proclivities). These points readily can be discussed as a matter of opposing opinion. Yet some cases exist where inaccurate and misleading claims are made against the Byzantine Textform. These are stated as fact and remain in … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson Selected Objections to the Byzantine-Priority Hypothesis While modern eclectics demand that the Byzantine-priority hypothesis present a reasonable defense and explanation of its theory and conclusions, their own method is ahistorical, creating a text without a theory, thereby extricating themselves from complications more severe than those faced under Byzantine-priority. Were modern eclectics required to delineate and … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson A very strong presumption exists that the exemplars of the earliest genealogically-unrelated minuscule MSS were uncials dating from a much earlier time. These include the minuscules of the ninth and tenth centuries, and likely many within the eleventh century as well. Their exemplars were certainly not any contemporary uncials that only recently had been copied (the destruction of recent exemplars would be economically … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson Principles of External Evidence The Byzantine-priority method looks at external evidence as a primary consideration within a transmissional-historical framework. The key issue in any unit of variation is not mere number, but how each reading may have arisen and developed in the course of transmission to reflect whatever quantitative alignments and textual groupings might exist. To this end a careful consideration and … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson Principles of Internal Evidence The basic principles of internal and external evidence utilized by Byzantine-priority advocates are quite familiar to those who practice either rigorous or reasoned eclecticism. At least one popular principle (that of favoring the shorter reading) is omitted; other principles are cautiously applied within a transmissionally-based framework in which external evidence retains significant … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson Principles to be Applied toward Restoration of the Text The Byzantine-priority position (or especially the so-called "majority text" position) is often caricatured as only interested in the weight of numbers and simple "nose-counting" of MSS when attempting to restore the original form of the NT text. Aside from the fact that such a mechanical and simplistic method would offer no solution in the many places where the … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson The essence of a Byzantine-priority method Any method which would restore the original text of the NT must follow certain guidelines and procedures within normative NT text-critical scholarship. It will not suffice merely to declare one form of the text superior in the absence of evidence, nor to support any theory with only selected and partial evidence which favors the case in question. The lack of balance in such … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson A Problem of Modern Eclecticism: Sequential Variant Units and the Resultant "Original" Text Modern eclectic praxis operates on a variant unit basis without any apparent consideration of the consequences. The resultant situation is simple: the best modern eclectic texts simply have no proven existence within transmissional history, and their claim to represent the autograph or the closest approximation thereunto … [Read more...]
by Maurice A. Robinson During the month of July, Preachers Institute will be republishing an article in ten installments on Byzantine Textual Priority in New Testament Textual Criticism, from TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism. Now, I know that this is only peripherally related to preaching the Gospel, but I also know that many of you clergy have an intense interest in this topic - as in all Biblical Studies, and as a result, we offer … [Read more...]
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