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Document Details : Title: Focus on the 'Western' Text in Recent Studies Author(s): DELOBEL, J. Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 73 Issue: 4 Date: Dec. 1997 Pages: 401-410 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.73.4.504834 Abstract : None of the attempts in the first part of this century to present a comprehensive theory concerning the respective places of the Alexandrian and the “Western” texts in textual history has received widespread acceptance. As a result, most editors of critical editions and most commentators during the last sixty years have adopted a pragmatic approach, each variant being evaluated on its own merits without giving priority, at least in principle, to any text-form. This resulted most often in the adoption of the Alexandrian reading and, in fact, in a tacit preference for the Alexandrian text-type. After a long period of relative calm in this (battle)field of research since the end of the thirties, a new interest for the “Western” text became manifest in the sixties and seventies, especially with respect to the book of Acts. The epoch-making thesis of E.J. Epp in 1966 and the contributions of C.M. Martini and M. Wilcox at the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense en in 1977 were signs of a new interest and a new approach. The question of the possible particular tendency and the Lucan characteristics of the “Western” text of Acts became the centre of a larger debate. These studies on specific passages and particular aspects of the problem may have inspired new attempts to produce comprehensive theories, which were published during the last decennium. |
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