An
important component of the search for the original manuscripts of the books of
the Bible – or later copies that are the
most accurate – is called “Textual
Criticism.”
(1) Textual criticism deals with the origin and
nature of all forms of a text, in our case the biblical text.
(2) This involves a discussion of its supposed original
form(s) and an analysis of the various representatives of the changing biblical
text.
(3) The analysis includes a discussion of the
relation between these texts, and attempts are made to describe the external conditions
of the copying and the procedure of textual transmission.
Scholars
involved in textual criticism not only collect data on differences between the
textual witnesses (manuscripts) -- they
also try to evaluate them. Textual criticism deals only with data deriving
from the textual transmission (copying and recopying) — in other words,
readings included in textual witnesses which have been created at an earlier
stage.
The
biblical text has been transmitted in many ancient and medieval sources which
are known to us from modern editions in different languages. The primary texts of the Jewish Scriptures we now
have include are manuscripts (MSS) in Hebrew and other languages from the Middle
Ages and ancient times as well as fragments of leather and papyrus scrolls two
thousand years old or more.
These
sources shed light on and witness to the biblical text, hence their name: “textual witnesses.” All of these
textual witnesses differ from each other to a greater or lesser extent.
Since no textual source contains what
could be called “the” biblical text, a
serious involvement in biblical studies clearly necessitates the study of all
sources, including the differences between them. The comparison and
analysis of these textual differences hold a central place within textual
criticism.
SHALOM
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