Can someone reccomend a good book for a begginer interested in researching Bible ancient manuscripts

I'm looking to buy a book for Logos 4 on how we got our Bible manuscripts and how to come to a personal belief on what Bible versions to put our faith in. I don't want a book about how we got our Bible, but the latest research in comparisons on the ancient manuscripts.

I have never looked into the Bible this deep before and wanted to be educated on the subject.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Rosie Perera

Any introduction to researching ancient Bible manuscripts is going to bring you in contact with the field known as "textual criticism." Don't let that phrase scare you off. It's not about "criticizing" the Bible. It's a way of evaluating and assessing the different manuscripts based on similarities and differences to other extant manuscripts, and figuring out what the original books said when all we have are multiple copies which differ from each other in various places. Most of the differences are minor, mind you, but significant enough that we need to do some figuring.

With that in mind, I would suggest one or more of these. The first three focus on New Testament (Greek) manuscripts only. The third covers both OT (Hebrew) and NT (Greek). The first is probably the most academic/scholarly (difficult) of the bunch, but they're all meaty books. They are listed in decreasing order of price, if that matters to you.

Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers, by Keith Elliott and Ian Moir (T&T Clark, 2003)

Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism, by Philip Comfort (Broadman & Holman, 2005)

Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism, by Jack Finnegan (Eerdmans, 1974)

A Student's Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods and Results, by Paul D. Wegner (IVP Academic, 2006)

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

Searching Logos.com for textual criticism => http://www.logos.com/products/search?q=textual+criticism&start=0&sort=rel&pageSize=15 finds 356 results, including => Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism , => Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism , and => Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers

Looking at Logos base package comparison => http://www.logos.com/comparison noticed The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts is included in Original Languages plus Scholar's Silver and above.

Thread => Greek Text and the Early Greek Text has a screen shot showing Logos 4 Text Comparison that includes Greek Manuscripts. One more thread => How to find which Greek Manuscripts have a particular verse?

Keep Smiling [:)]

Ronald Quick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/354505#Comment_354505

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for but...

The Dead Sea Scroll and Modern Translations of the Old Testament has a section that discusses how different translations handle various Dead Sea Scroll passages.

http://www.logos.com/product/554/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-modern-translations-of-old-testament

The Book discusses these versions:

Revised Standard Version

New Revised Standard Version

New English Bible

Revised English Bible

New American Bible

New International Version

Good News Bible

New Kings James Version

New Jerusalem Bible

Here is are a couple passages to give you an idea:

1 Samuel 10:27–11:1

Chapter 11 in the MT
tells the story of how Nahash the Ammonite troubled the men of Jabesh.
Nahash was willing to leave them alone if they submitted to having
everyone’s right eye gouged out. The MT offers no background information on the reason for Nahash’s cruel requirement. However, 4QSam a
offers an extended explanation: Nahash had already done this to the
Gadites and the Reubenites. The historian, Josephus, also knew about
Nahash’s cruel practice, as described in his Antiquities` 6.5.1 (6.68–71 in the Loeb edition of Josephus). The NRSV and NAB
include this additional information in their translations. Although
Nahash’s pattern of cruelty was known from the works of Josephus, before
the Qumran discovery, there was no evidence that this information was
ever included in the actual biblical text. Now that 4QSam a contains this addition, some translators were persuaded that it could rightly find its place in the Bible.

A text that contains the long addition begins 11:1
with a narrative sequence statement, “About a month later.” Naturally,
versions that include the previous addition will also include this
reading. Both REB and NEB follow the same variant, the latter only on the basis of the Old Greek evidence.

Psalm 145:13

In the MT of this acrostic Psalm there is no line beginning with the letter nun. The nun line is found in 11QPs a. The RSV supplied the nun
line on the basis of a late Medieval manuscript (Kennicott 145) and the
existence of a corresponding line in several ancient versions,
including the Old Greek. The NRSV now cites the Qumran evidence. The NEB also included the passage (numbering it a part of 145:14), citing only the Greek evidence. Surprisingly, the REB retains the passage and changes the evidence to Qumran alone. The NIV also includes the lines, also citing Qumran. It should be noted, however, that 11QPs a reads “God,” instead of “Lord,” as in the late Medieval manuscript and the ancient versions.

David Carter

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/354644#Comment_354644

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for but...

The Dead Sea Scroll and Modern Translations of the Old Testament has a section that discusses how different translations handle various Dead Sea Scroll passages.

http://www.logos.com/product/554/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-modern-translations-of-old-testament

I was going to say that, on the basis of your post, I thought this was an interesting book that I should add to my wish list. I then discovered I already own it as it is in the base package that I have! [:$]

So I will say thank you for bringing this title to my attention - clearly I should actually read it and not just own it.

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/354656#Comment_354656

So I will say thank you for bringing this title to my attention - clearly I should actually read it and not just own it.

That is always a good idea; however, like most members of the forum, I buy them faster than I can read them. [:S]

Ronald Quick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/354661#Comment_354661

So I will say thank you for bringing this title to my attention - clearly I should actually read it and not just own it.

That is always a good idea; however, like most members of the forum, I buy them faster than I can read them.

It's good to know that I am not alone.

David Wilson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/354661#Comment_354661

I buy them faster than I can read them.

Hopefully we are just going through a stage of them being published by Logos faster than they are being written.... [*-)]