Textual criticism

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Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts.
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Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts. Ancient [[scribes]] made errors or alterations when copying manuscripts by hand.<sup>[1]</sup>
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Given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic seeks to reconstruct the original text (the [[archetype]] or autograph) as closely as possible. The same processes can be used to attempt to reconstruct intermediate editions, or [[recension]]s, of a document's transcription history.<sup>[2]</sup> The ultimate objective of the textual critic's work is the production of a "critical edition" containing a text most closely approximating the original.
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There are three fundamental approaches to textual criticism: [[#Eclecticism|eclecticism]], [[#Stemmatics|stemmatics]], and [[#Copy-text editing|copy-text editing]]. Techniques from the biological discipline of [[cladistics]] are currently also being used to determine the relationships between manuscripts.
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The phrase ''lower criticism'' is used to describe the contrast between textual criticism and ''[[higher criticism|"higher" criticism]]'', which is the endeavor to establish the authorship, date, and place of composition of the original text.
== See also ==
== See also ==

Revision as of 02:48, 15 January 2011

Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts. Ancient scribes made errors or alterations when copying manuscripts by hand.[1] Given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic seeks to reconstruct the original text (the archetype or autograph) as closely as possible. The same processes can be used to attempt to reconstruct intermediate editions, or recensions, of a document's transcription history.[2] The ultimate objective of the textual critic's work is the production of a "critical edition" containing a text most closely approximating the original.

There are three fundamental approaches to textual criticism: eclecticism, stemmatics, and copy-text editing. Techniques from the biological discipline of cladistics are currently also being used to determine the relationships between manuscripts.

The phrase lower criticism is used to describe the contrast between textual criticism and "higher" criticism, which is the endeavor to establish the authorship, date, and place of composition of the original text.

Contents

See also

Topics

Critical editions

Hebrew Bible
New Testament
Critical Translations
  • The Comprehensive New Testament - standardardized Nestle-Aland 27 edition[76]
  • The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible -- with textual mapping to Masoretic, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Septuagint variants

Lists

External Links

Wikipedia Article on Textual criticism

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