Studies On The Paratextual Features Of Early New Testament Manuscripts

A collection of cutting-edge studies on the features of New Testament manuscripts that may not receive the most attention, paratext. This book advances study of the textual and paratextual features of New Testament manuscripts and explores how textual criticism goes beyond individual readings to include studying the history of texts and their perceivable features

Most studies of ancient New Testament manuscripts focus on individual readings and textual variants. This book, however, draws attention to, and attempts to advance, study of the textual and paratextual features of New Testament manuscripts. After defining paratext, the contributors discuss key manuscript characteristics, including headings, introductions, marginal comments, colophons, layout features such as margins, columns, spacing, and reading aids such as segmentation, paragraphos, ekthesis, coronis, and rubrication. The goal of this book is to explore how textual criticism goes beyond individual readings and includes studying the history of texts and their perceivable features.

This book comprises twelve essays dealing with manuscripts of the New Testament and/or what we can learn from them today. Starting from different angles the contributors — distinguished scholars of international reputation — focus on the fascinating and thrilling stories manuscripts tell, for instance about the times they were produced in or the people who handled them.

Despite the profound influence of the New Testament, a variety of questions related to its background and history remain common. Contemporary readers often find the subject of the canon’s origin and formation to be complicated and confusing, while scholars continue to struggle to find agreement about basic elements of the canon’s development. In this engaging study, Benjamin P. Laird explores several misunderstood, disputed, and overlooked topics in order to provide fresh insight and clarity about the canon’s creation and modern relevance. The volume addresses questions such as: Was there a single “original autograph” of each New Testament writing? Who exactly were the “original readers” of the New Testament writings? Did theological controversies play a decisive role in prompting the canon’s formation? How did such a diverse body of writings come together to form a single canonical collection? Is there a basis for the canon’s ongoing authority? Wide-ranging yet accessible, Creating the Canon offers an illuminating treatment of the composition, formation, and authority of the New Testament and serves as a valuable guide to those with limited prior study.

This book is a collection of cutting-edge essays on the Dead Sea Scrolls as part of ancient Mediterranean media culture, featuring interdisciplinary feedback from scholars in New Testament studies and Classics.

The present volume provides a comparative look at the contents and layout features of secondary annotations in biblical manuscripts across linguistic traditions. Due to the privileged focus on the text in the columns, these annotations and the practices that produced them have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. The vast richness of extant verbal and figurative notes accompanying the biblical texts in the intercolumns and margins of the manuscript pages have thus been largely overlooked. The case studies gathered in this volume explore Jewish and Christian biblical manuscripts through the lens of their annotations, addressing the various relationships between the primary layer of text and the secondary notes, and exploring the roles and functions of annotated manuscripts as cultural artifacts. By approaching biblical manuscripts as potential "notepads", the volume offers theoretical reflection and empirical analyses of the ways in which secondary notes may shed new light on the development and transmission of text traditions, the shifting engagement with biblical manuscripts over time, as well as the change of use and interpretation that may result from the addition of the notes themselves.

The manuscripts that form the Greek New Testament are scattered throughout the world and are usually only accessible to scholars and professionals. These were the manuscripts read by the earliest Christians, which comprised their "New Testament." In his volumes, Philip Wesley Comfort bridges the gap between these extant copies and today's critical text by providing accurate transcriptions of the earliest New Testament manuscripts, with photographs on the facing pages so readers can see the works for themselves. Comfort also provides an introduction to each manuscript that summarizes the contents, date, current location, provenance, and other essential information, including the latest findings. This allows students and scholars to make well-informed decisions about the translation and interpretation of the New Testament. Volume 1 includes manuscripts from Papyrus 1-72. Volume 2 includes manuscripts from Papyrus 75-139 as well as from the uncials. In addition, it features a special section on determining the date of a manuscript. This two-volume set replaces the previously published single volume Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, as it contains many new manuscripts, updated research, and higher quality images of all manuscripts previously covered.

In Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts, Zachary J. Cole examines the distinctively Christian method of number-writing shared by early scribes and illustrates its relevance for textual criticism, Christian material and visual culture, codicology, and theology.