Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Report on the International Conference for the NT Textual Criticism in Athens

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Over at the Volos Acadamy for Theological Studies website there is a report on a recent conference in Athens on NTTC.
On February, 22 2016, an International Conference was successfully held at the central building of Athens University (“Al. Argyriadis” Amphitheater), on the general theme: New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Scholarship, Culture and Church. The conference was co-organized by the Dean’s office of Theological School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Department for the study of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, and attended by a vast number of academics and special researchers who are members and contributors to the Editorial Board of the critical editions of the New Testament “Novum Testamentum Graece” (known as Nestle-Aland) and “UBS Greek New Testament”, which internationally constitute the basis for the scholarly study and the translation of the text of the New Testament.
Speakers included Klaus Wachtel, Holger Strutwolf, Florian Voss, David Trobisch, Greg Paulson, Stephen Pisano, Simon Crisp, Christos Karakolis.

Apparently this was in some way the first scholarly conference being held in Greece on the subject of New Testament Textual Criticism. I’m not sure exactly what that means. But it’s good to see more TC happening in Greece where so many GNT manuscripts are kept. It looks like there was a pretty good crowd too. Full report here.

Update

A blog reader has pointed out that this conference also saw the first a meeting of the new Editorial Committee of the NA/UBS. That is historic. I confess that I still don’t understand what the new committee’s role actually is. Also I thought David Parker was a member. Still, exciting stuff.

Left (from rear to front) David Trobisch, Klaus Wachtel, Holger Strutwolf, Stephen Pisano; right (from rear to front) Christos Karakolis, Simon Crisp, Florian Voss. (Photo: Greg Paulson)

3 comments

  1. I guess, David Parker was absent.
    More information on the New editorial committee can be found here: http://www.academic-bible.com/en/home/scholarly-editions/greek-new-testament/new-editorial-committee/

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  2. "Apparently this was in some way the first scholarly conference being held in Greece on the subject of New Testament Textual Criticism. I’m not sure exactly what that means."

    I sort of get the impression based on the interview you did with Karavidopoulos last year that the Greek community (including him) thinks the Byzantine text they use is pretty much like the original, so there is no pressing need for textual criticism.
    http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/search?q=KARAVIDOPOULos

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  3. There is more to the Greek Orthodox position than merely considering the Byzantine "pretty much like the original" -- something more is involved given the generally strong and even harsh opposition to the NA/UBS type of critical text in that community -- an opposition that appears to remain unabated despite the past and present NA/UBS Orthodox committee members such as Karavidopoulos or Karakolis.

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