Expert: Jim Miller - 10/25/2006

Question
I have recently begun looking at textual and literary criticism.  I am interested in studying the specifics on how canon was formulated and how historically recent discoveries of ancient manuscripts is effecting modern "orthodox" scholarship.  Feel perfectly free to include your personal perspective/opinion.  Thank you,  Daniel Silvestri

Answer
 On Canon formation I recommend you check out either The Cambridge History of the Bible, vol 1, eds. PR Ackroyd and CF Evans; or a book titled Mikra, Martin Jan Mulder, ed.  Most of the history of canon formation is hidden from our view.  It seems for both the Synagogue and the Church the Canon consists of the books they could not keep out.    
 Textual criticism is a lot of things.  It includes the minute details of textual transmission, often found in the notes at the bottom of critical editions of the Greek and Hebrew texts.  It also includes speculation on how the various books were produced -- most famously the Wellhausen hypothesis that the first five books of the Bible were edited out of four major sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Priestly source and the Deuteronomist.  In between these extremes is an important body of scholarship, especially based on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which find primitive versions the books currently in the Bible.  This scholarship focuses on such texts as 1-2 Samuel, which differ markedly in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Also when the Greek and Hebrew texts of Jeremiah and Esther are compared, significant differences are found which may indicate how these books developed.
   Textual criticism is different for the New Testament (and the Septuagint) on the one hand and the Hebrew Bible on the other.  It is more than a difference in languages.  Different scribal techniques were used for the two.  The Jewish scribes (the Masoretes) produced a standardized text with increasingly complex systems of cross-checking copies to ensure accurate transmission, including a detailed system of notes.  To get behind the standardized text scholars rely on the Septuagint, which often differs significantly from the Masoretic Hebrew text, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which sometimes parallel Septuagint readings, and sometimes give a third reading for a text.
   Greek manuscripts were carefully copied, but not with the elaborate system of the Masoretes, which produced various families and lineages of transmission.  The best Greek manuscripts are usually held to be the earliest, the Uncials (Alexandrinus, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus and others).  Two other important families are the "Western" Text (often with significant corruptions or insertions, but still important to textual critics) and the Byzantine or "Majority" Text, the medieval tradition which was carried to western Europe when Constantinople fell -- this is the source for the critical text of Erasmus, and thus the foundation text for the King James Bible New Testament.
   There are many critical editions available now, but these are the most important for a beginning scholar.
Hebrew Bible -- Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.  Other critical editions are currently in preparation and won't be available for many years.
Greek Old Testament (Septuagint / LXX) -- Septuaginta, edited by A Rahlfs, a one-volume edition.  More detailed, but very expensive and in many volumes is the Gottingen Septuagint.  Look for it in a research library or a seminary library.
New Testament -- Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, the standard text for most scholars and translators.  If you prefer the Byzantine / Majority text there is The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text, Hodges and Farstad.
The Stuttgartensia, Rahlf's Septuagint and the Nestle-Aland New Testament are available from the United Bible Society / American Bible Society.  The Majority Text is published by Thomas Nelson.
   I can't come up with a single good resource on New Testament textual criticism, but for the Old Testament I highly recommend Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible.  Also, for particular texts, you might want to check scholarly commentaries such as Hermeneia, New International Commentary on the Old / New Testament, International Critical Commentary, the Anchor Bible, etc.
   Good luck!
Jim Miller