Utilizing Mark and Luke-Acts as case studies, Norman Petersen moves beyond redaction criticism to show both the necessity and the possibility for literary criticism to be an integral part of the historical-critical study of biblical writings.

Before the 1960s, the goal of New Testament Textual Criticism was singular: to retrieve the "original text" of the New Testament. Since then, the goalpost has incrementally shifted away from the "original text" to retrieving "any text" or "many texts" of the NT. Some scholars have even concluded that the "original text" is hopelessly lost and cannot be retrieved with any confidence or accuracy. Other scholars have gone a step further to claim that the idea of an "original text" itself is a misconception that needs to be abandoned. If this new approach in NTTC is correct, then the authority of Scripture is weakened or no longer valid. It will be shown in this book that such is not the case. Furthermore, emphasis will be placed on the need to return to the traditional goalpost of NTTC, i.e., to retrieve the original text. Without a generally definitive text, the door will be left wide open to recreate any desired text of the NT. An unsettled original text will result in an unsettled biblical theology due to a lack of any authoritative and standard text. Consequently, it will lead to an unsettled Christian faith and practice.

One unfortunate consequence of the bitter fundamentalist-modernist controversy which raged in the early twenties has been the strongly negative attitude toward Biblical criticism assumed by some of the successors to the fundamentalists of the 1920s. Such people, according to the author, insist that the critical method is basically hostile to the evangelical faith, and they have continued to oppose any use of it. Others, however, claiming the same heritage, believe that the orthodox interpretation of the Gospel can be defended positively and constructively only with the aid of a sound critical method and the results of critical scholarship. The author believes that an evangelical Biblical criticism is not only possible but necessary. The central thesis of his book is that "the Bible is the Word of God given in the words of men in history", and as such its historical origins must be reconstructed as far as possible. In this way a richer understanding of the Scriptures can be achieved.

The study of Old Testament criticism requires the bridges of an important cultural gap because the home of the method and the place of its most creative use is still Germany. In this authoritative work, British scholar John Rogerson discusses two specific questions: how did the critical method arise in Germany in the nineteenth century, and how was its reception into England affected by the theological and philosophical climate? This is the first book which attempts to trace in such detail the impact of German critical method upon scholarship in England. As such it is a valuable contribution to the history of Old Testament scholarship and to the history of ideas. Part I examines German scholarship from 1800-60, from the founder of modern criticism, W. M. L. de Wette, through to the submergence of this early radicalism by the so-called positive criticism, and the confessional orthodoxy led by Hengstenberg. Part II investigates the use of Old Testament criticism in England with particular attention to contacts between Germany and England and to a comparison of the respective intellectual climates. Part III focuses again on German scholarship, particularly on the rebirth of de Wettian ideas, as expressed by Julius Wellhausen. It explains how the reception of Wellhausen in England involved a modification of his position in the light of neo-Hegelian philosophy.

For many years, Professor Joel Delobel has served as a member of the Department of Biblical Studies of the Faculty of Theology, K.U. Leuven (1969-2001). His research has tended to focus on Luke-Acts, Pauline Literature and especially Textual Criticism (he is a member of Das Institut fur Neutestamentliche Textforschung, Munster). His friends and colleagues in the Department of Biblical Studies of the Faculty of Theology and elsewhere have honoured him with a Festschrift on the occasion of his retirement. The congratulatory volume deals with an issue that is dear to him: the mutual link between textual criticism and exegesis, which he himself once referred to as the 'Siamese twins'. A number of international scholars in the field of textual criticism have treated different aspects of this relationship. Some contributions are of a more general nature: B. Aland deals with the criteria used to judge the value of smaller New Testament Papyrus fragments, J. Lust compares the textual critical investigation of the Old Testament to that of the New, W.L. Petersen studies the earliest form of the text of the Gospel. Other contributions are related to a specific text: Mt 21,28-32 (J.K. Elliott); Mk 16,8 (C. Focant); Lk 7,42b (T. Baarda); Lk 22, 43-44 (C.M. Tuckett); Lk 24,12 (F. Neirynck); Jn 4,1 (G. Van Belle); Jn 12,31 (M.-E. Boismard); Jn 16,13 (R. Bieringer); Acts 15,20.29; 21,25 (C.-B. Amphoux); Rom 16,7 (E.J. Epp); Rom 16,25-27 (R.F. Collins); 1 Cor 2,1 (V. Koperski); The Epistle of James (D.C. Parker); Rev 13,9-10 (J. Lambrecht) and Rev 13,18 (J.N. Birdsall); J. Verheyden deals with the New Testament text in the 2nd Century, more specifically in the writings of Justin.

For the first time in one volume this book presents contributions to the textual criticism of the New Testament made over the past twenty years by Bart Ehrman, one of the premier textual scholars in North America. The collection includes fifteen previously published articles and six lectures (delivered at Duke University and Yale University) on a range of topics of central importance to the field. Following a general essay that gives an introduction to the field for beginners are several essays dealing with text-critical method, especially pertaining to the classification of the Greek manuscript witnesses. There then follow two articles on the history of the text, several articles on important specific textual problems, and three articles on the importance and use of patristic evidence for establishing the text and writing the history of its transmission. The volume concludes with six lectures designed to show the importance not only of reconstructing an allegedly “original” text but also of recognizing how that text was changed by scribes of the early Christian centuries. This book will be of vital interest to any scholar or advanced student of the New Testament and early Christianity. It will make an ideal companion volume for Bart Ehrman’s ground-breaking study, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effects of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament (Oxford, 1993) and the volume he co-edited with Michael Holmes, The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis (Eerdmans, 1995).