STUDIES AND DOCUMENTS Founded by Kirsopp and Silva Lake EDITED BY IRVING ALAN SPARKS in collaboration with J. NEVILLE BIRDSALL ELDON JAY EPP SEBASTIAN P. BROCK GORDON D. FEE VOLUME 45 STUDIES AND DOCUMENTS, founded by Kirsopp and Silva Lake, is a monograph series devoted to basic research in the manuscript tradition of the New Testament. It promotes the publication of primary sources and critical studies that advance the understanding of the history and transmission of the text of the New Testament. Although chiefly concerned with palaeography, codicology, and textual criticism, the series seeks to illumine the way in which Western culture has preserved and appropriated a major element of its literary legacy. While the series concentrates on the investigation of the direct and indirect traditions of the text, this primary focus is interpreted broadly to embrace certain cognate subjects, such as the textual criti­ cism of the Septuagint and the pseudepigrapha, as well as the history of linguistic and theological reflection upon biblical materials. STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND METHOD OF NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM BY ELDON JAY EPP and GORDON D. FEE WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Copyright © 1993 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49503 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Reprinted 2000 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PuUication Data Epp, Eldon Jay. Studies in the theory and method of New Testament textual criticism / by Eldon Jay Epp and Gordon D. Fee. p. cm. — (Studies and documents ; v. 45) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-8028-2773-X 1. Bible. N.T. — Criticism, Textual. I. Fee, Gordon D. II. Title. III. Series: Studies and documents (London, England) ; 45. BS2325.E66 1992 225.4'8 —dc20 93-1224 CIP To our younger colleagues in the Society of Biblical Literature New Testament Textual Criticism Section, who must represent North America in carrying the discipline into the twenty-first century. CONTENTS Preface ix Abbreviations xii I. GENERAL AND HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 1 1. Textual Criticism of the New Testament (Fee) 3 2. Decision Points in Past, Present, and Future New Testament Textual Criticism (Epp) 17 II. DEFINITIONS 45 3. Toward the Clarification of the Term "Textual Variant" (Epp) 47 4. On the Types, Classification, and Presentation of Textual Variation (Fee) 62 III. CRITIQUE OF CURRENT THEORY AND METHOD 81 5. The Twentieth-Century Interlude in New Testament Textual Criticism (Epp) 83 6. A Continuing Interlude in New Testament Textual Criticism? (Epp) 109 7. Rigorous or Reasoned Eclecticism — Which? (Fee) 124 8. The Eclectic Method in New Testament Textual Criticism: Solution or Symptom? (Epp) 141 9. Modern Textual Criticism and the Synoptic Problem: On the Problem of Harmonization in the Gospels (Fee) 174 10. The Majority Text and the Original Text of the New Testament (Fee) 183 IV. ESTABLISHING TEXTUAL RELATIONSHIPS 209 11. The Claremont Profile Method for Grouping New Testament Minuscule Manuscripts (Epp) 211 12. Codex Sinaiticus in the Gospel of John: A Contribution to Methodology in Establishing Textual Relationships (Fee) 221 vii THE THEORY AND METHOD OF NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM V. PAPYRI AND TEXT-CRITICAL METHOD 245 13. Ρ75, Ρ66, and Origen: The Myth of Early Textual Recension in Alexandria (Fee) 247 14. The Significance of the Papyri for Determining the Nature of the New Testament Text in the Second Century: A Dynamic View of Textual Transmission (Epp) 2ΊΛ VI. METHOD AND USE OF PATRISTIC EVIDENCE 299 15. The Text of John in Origen and Cyril of Alexandria: A Contribution to Methodology in the Recovery and Analysis of Patristic Citations (Fee) 301 16. The Text of John in The Jerusalem Bible: A Critique of the Use of Patristic Citations in New Testament Textual Criticism (Fee). 335 17. The Use of Greek Patristic Citations in New Testament Textual Criticism: The State of the Question (Fee) 344 Bibliography 360 Index of Manuscripts, Versions, Editions, and Modern Translations 400 Index of Biblical Passages 402 Index of Ancient Authors 407 Index of Modern Authors 408 Index of Subjects 412 viii PREFACE The present volume brings together a variety of studies on the textual criticism of the NT published or read before learned societies over the past twenty-five years, which reflect the authors' several areas of special interest, especially theory and method, the significance of the papyri, and the use of patristic citations. Since these studies for the most part have continuity with one another, and since some of them originally appeared in publications not immediately accessible to all scholars, it is hoped that their appearance in a single volume might be useful to the larger scholarly community. It is also hoped that the collection might serve a somewhat broader audience, for example, as a supplementary text in courses in NT textual criticism, both as reading additional and complementary to the standard manuals and at the same time as a kind of hands-on experience with some of the more fundamental issues currently facing this discipline. Hence, some of the studies are more introductory in nature, while others trace the history of special aspects of the discipline. These, we hope, will be of interest to specialist and generalist alike. Although we agree on much — indeed, these various essays tend to com­ plement one another — the perceptive reader will also recognize that there are several areas in which there is some measure of disagreement. At the least, some of our emphases tend to go in slightly different directions. That too, we trust, will serve as good pedagogy for those who are being introduced to this field of study. We need to say just a few introductory words about the authors and these various articles. Our common interest in NT textual criticism began at the University of Southern California in the Spring of 1964, where Professor Fee was at that time enrolled as a student in a seminar on this subject taught by Professor Epp. A seminar paper on the corrections of P66 resulted in two publications and eventually evolved into a Ph.D. dissertation. Shortly after graduation in 1966, the same year in which Professor Epp's revised dissertation on the theological tendencies in Codex Bezae in Acts appeared as volume 3 in the SNTS Monograph Series, Professor Fee was invited to join the "work force" of the IGNTP for the "mopping up" of some of the patristic materials for the Luke volume. That began a long association as junior members on that project which continues to this day, now as senior members (Pro­ fessor Fee currently serves as chair of the North American Committee of the IGNTP, looking toward the publication of John). There have been other associations in this field as well: as members of the steering committee of the NT Textual Criticism ix