what exactly is Critical Apparatus?

John Kaess
John Kaess Member Posts: 773 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

I am now the proud owner of NA28 since upgrading to Logos 5 Platinum.  The questions now is, should I get the addon Critical Apparatus while it is on pre-pub for $50?

https://www.logos.com/buy/29981

What is Critical Apparatus and what will it do for me?  I suspect that the fact that I am asking this question means that I probably don't need it, but I am nevertheless curious.

Comments

  • David Thomas
    David Thomas Member Posts: 3,272 ✭✭✭

    It is a set of comments on the individual sources of the text. Since our current Greek text is a combination of MANY fragments. Textual Criticism studies what particular spellings are in the individual sources in an attempt to figure out what was originally intended.

    In common terms some Greek manuscripts have a particular spelling of particular texts and other manuscripts contain different spelling and words of different texts, but there is a lot of overlap between text families. So the critical apparatus identifies what variants are in particular sources.

    Personally, I don't have time to "establish the text" in a detailed way for each text I study so I rely upon the work of other scholars who have gone before me. I consult the notes for the NET Bible (the TC notes are particularly about Textual Criticism) to alert me of any big issues that I might want to consider further.

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  • Paul Golder
    Paul Golder Member Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭

    From a technical point of view:

    The critical apparatus (or Latin: apparatus criticus) is the critical and primary source material that accompanies an edition of a text. A critical apparatus is often a by-product of textual criticism.

    The format of the apparatus has several parts:

    • The location of the variant in the text
    • The lemma, which is the portion of the text to which the note applies
    • The source from which the edition took its reading
    • A list of variants, in each case followed by the source in which the variant is found

    John Kaess said:The questions now is, should I get the addon Critical Apparatus

    It depends on how "critically" (characterized by careful, exact evaluation and judgment) you wish to look at the text.

    "As any translator will attest, a literal translation is no translation at all."

  • Matthew C Jones
    Matthew C Jones Member Posts: 10,295 ✭✭✭

    The questions now is, should I get the addon Critical Apparatus while it is on pre-pub for $50?

    If we look at the product description here: 

    https://www.logos.com/product/29980/nestle-aland-greek-new-testament-28th-edition-with-critical-apparatus

    We read:

    The existing NA28 in base packages will be updated to include apparatus markers. Already have the text and want the apparatus? The NA28 apparatus is available on Pre-Pub!

    My question is What is the difference between "apparatus markers" & the apparatus itself? In other words, must one buy the Pre-Pub to have the apparatus or will it be updated for free into the base packages?

    Logos 7 Collectors Edition

  • Matthew C Jones
    Matthew C Jones Member Posts: 10,295 ✭✭✭

    My question is What is the difference between "apparatus markers" & the apparatus itself? In other words, must one buy the Pre-Pub to have the apparatus or will it be updated for free into the base packages?

    I just got my answers on another thread. Thank you, fgh for making sense of it all.

    Logos 7 Collectors Edition

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,611 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I can't imagine buying the NA28 apparatus by itself, unless I was SERIOUSLY into NA-ish antics.  The German Bible Society has the NA27 (not much different), along with the OT apparatus, LXX apparatus, etc. Much better choice to provide a more complete set.  I have an order in for the combo NA28/apparatus, but mainly for new papyri mentions.

    BY THE BUY:

    For anyone interested in the 'good' one (German Bible Society student-ish version), there's a sale until Sept 13. I couldn't tell how much off but I didn't look very hard: http://www.logos.com/product/21066/german-bible-society-bundle-student-edition   You don't have to be a student (though you are one).

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • Lee
    Lee Member Posts: 2,714 ✭✭✭

    From another source:

    In the rest of the New Testament the [NA28] apparatus has been revised in various ways, which generally increase accuracy, readability, and transparency:

    • References have been checked and different witnesses appear in the apparatus. Thus in 2 Timothy 1:10 manuscript 81 was cited by NA27 in support of txt’s Χριστοῦ ’Ιησοῦ and is now cited in support of the opposite variant ’Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ; the disgraced manuscript 2427 has been removed from the apparatus of Mark; the latest papyri (numbers 117-127) are cited; some manuscripts previously subsumed under the Majority text symbol unless they disagreed with the Majority text, are now consistently cited separately.
    • The distinction – found confusing by some – between consistently cited witnesses of the first and second order has been dropped.
    • Conjectures have been dropped from the apparatus.
    • The references to versional readings have been considerably reduced, especially in light of criticisms that NA27 was overly certain of the readings behind versions.
    • References to correctors, especially of Codex Sinaiticus, are significantly more precise than previously.
    • The apparatus now contains much more information on variants of accentuation which affect the sense. Sometimes this newly gathered information stands rather strongly against the printed text, e.g., 1 Corinthians 3:14, where only mss 81 and 1505 and allegedly the Latin support NA28’s future μενεῖ and an impressive range of witnesses support the present μένει. In Hebrews 5:12 only mss Ψ and 81 (again!) support NA28’s τινά against the well attested reading τίνα.

     

    In some ways, the changes in the apparatus of NA28 are more interesting than the textual updates.

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,611 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • Lee
    Lee Member Posts: 2,714 ✭✭✭

    Having said that, to bring it back on topic, the apparatus is not going to be of any relevance to 99% of Logos users / Bible students.

  • What is Critical Apparatus and what will it do for me?

    NA27 Critical Apparatus is included in a bundle that is on sale (through 13 Sep 2013)  => http://www.logos.com/product/21066/german-bible-society-bundle-student-edition

    Keep Smiling [:)]

  • John Kaess
    John Kaess Member Posts: 773 ✭✭✭

    Thank you.  This exmple is enough to show me that i don't think the critical apparatus is something i would use.

  • Ken McGuire
    Ken McGuire Member Posts: 2,075 ✭✭✭

    Lee said:

    Having said that, to bring it back on topic, the apparatus is not going to be of any relevance to 99% of Logos users / Bible students.

    What a sad statement!

    The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann

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  • Lee
    Lee Member Posts: 2,714 ✭✭✭

    Sad? Wherefore art thou sad, Master McGuire? [:)]

    Look on the bright side...

    • We have so much manuscript evidence that we are very very certain of what the original texts say.
    • We are so sure of the original languages and original cultural information that most well-executed translated texts today take us to within a hair's breadth of the original intent, even if we are not quite there.
    • God, who clearly is able to put the original manuscripts and languages at the forefront of faith, has wisely decided that his glory and salvation is pinned to a Person, and the Practice of a Relationship with that Person, and that his power is manifest by the diverse gifts of his Special Agent (=Counselor), many of which have absolutely nothing to do with the original manuscripts and languages.

    I am the last to say that original language work is irrelevant to Christendom. But is it something that needs to be inquired into by the entire body of believers today? I'd say that it is relevant only to those who have been entrusted with a special focus.

    I'm happy. Now, back to the regular scheduled broadcast ... [:D]

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,611 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, maybe certainty concerning 4th century manuscripts.

    Unfortunately, the earlier the manuscript, the higher the varient instability. Much to evil Bart's glee.

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • JT (alabama24)
    JT (alabama24) MVP Posts: 36,523

    Lee said:

    I am the last to say that original language work is irrelevant to Christendom. But is it something that needs to be inquired into by the entire body of believers today? I'd say that it is relevant only to those who have been entrusted with a special focus.

    [Y]

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