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The Freedom to Change the Text of the New Testament? Wettstein’S Treatment of Mark

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The Freedom to Change the Text of the New Testament? Wettstein’S Treatment of Mark Chapter 7 The Freedom to Change the Text of the New Testament? Wettstein’s Treatment of Mark Jan Krans and Silvia Castelli * 1 Introduction In order to understand the nature of Wettstein’s edition,1 it is important to locate it within the larger history of New Testament Textual Criticism.2 Periods for the history of the printed text of the Greek New Testament can roughly be discerned as follows. (1) The beginnings, with Erasmus’s 1516 edition and the 1520 Complutensian Polyglot, up to the firm establishment of the Textus Receptus (TR), including its name, with the Elzevier editions of 1624 and 1633. (2) The collection of variant readings, and various efforts of revision of the TR, up to Lachmann. (3) The overthrow of the TR and the establishment of a mod- ern critical text, from Lachmann’s 1830 edition to Nestle’s first edition in 1898. (4) The confirmation, extension and refinement of the modern critical text, and the historical turn in Textual Criticism. Perhaps we are now on the brink of a completely new era, marked by the digital revolution. These periods also correspond to development of text-critical rules and theory. In the first period text-critical reasoning was there, sometimes even in sophisticated ways, but not systematically and without a good grasp of the relative value of manuscripts. In the second period canons of text-critical rules * A first draft of this article was first presented at the SBL international meeting in Amsterdam, July 2012, and in a modified form at the Wettstein conference organised by NOSTER in Amsterdam, November 2012. The text is written by the first author; the underlying data have been amassed by the second author, and the authors together repeatedly discussed the analysis and the interpretation of the data in the course of 2012. Further input came from the working sessions of the project group “New Testament Conjectural Emendation: A Comprehensive Enquiry”, located at VU University Amsterdam and financed by NWO. 1 Johann Jakob Wettstein, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη. Novum Testamentum Graecum editionis receptae cum lectionibus variantibus Codicum MSS., Editionum aliarum, Versionum et Patrum nec non commentario pleniore ex Scriptoribus veteribus Hebraeis, Graecis et Latinis historiam et vim verborum illustrante 1–2 (Amsterdam: Dommeriana, 1751–1752). 2 For a similar effort at periodization see Eldon Jay Epp, “Decision Points in Past, Present, and Future New Testament Textual Criticism,” in Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism: Collected Essays, 1962–2004 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 227–283. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/9789004376090_008 138 Krans and Castelli were formulated,3 and the first efforts were made to group manuscripts, but a conclusive history of the New Testament text became possible only in the third period. In the fourth period, the theory was both challenged and refined; the papyri came fully to the fore, as well as all aspects of manuscript studies that are not directly related to the establishment of the oldest text. It remains to be seen whether the recent ‘Coherence Method,’ used in the production of the Editio Critica Maior,4 is a further refinement of previous research or a radical departure from it and a fresh start. Wettstein’s edition is part of the second period, which had already lasted more than a century. He could consult Fell’s edition,5 and more importantly, Mill’s.6 He knew about Bengel’s work,7 and saw with Mace’s edition8 the first efforts to radically depart from the TR. Through the vast body of editions and text-critical literature, he had access to both a large amount of information on manuscript readings—though not always reliable—and a growing mass of text-critical commentary, including text-critical rules such as the ones formu- lated by von Mastricht. 3 See for instance von Mastrichts’s 1711 edition: Gerhard von Mastricht, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη. Novum Testamentum, post priores Steph. Curcellaei, tum et DD. Oxoniensium labores … (Amsterdam: Wettstein, 1711). Von Mastricht presents no fewer than 43 “canones” (11–16), which however are not purely general text-critical rules, but serve another purpose. As he wanted to include an evaluation of the variant readings mentioned in the apparatus, he simply tagged them with references to the “canon” or “canones” that apply in every specific case. 4 See for instance Klaus Wachtel, “The Coherence-Based Genealogical Method: A New Way to Reconstruct the Text of the Greek New Testament”, in Editing the Bible. Assessing the Task Past and Present (eds. John S. Kloppenborg and Judith H. Newman; Atlanta: SBL, 2012), 123–138. 5 John Fell, Της καινης διαθηκης απαντα. Novi Testamenti libri omnes. Accesserunt parallela Scripturae loca, nec non variantes lectiones ex plus 100 MSS. codicibus, et antiquis versionibus collectae (Oxford: Theatrum Sheldonianum, 1675). 6 John Mill, Novum Testamentum. Cum lectionibus variantibus MSS. exemplarium, versionum, editionum, SS. Patrum et Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum; … (Oxford: Theatrum Sheldonianum, 1707). 7 Johann Albrecht Bengel, “Prodromus Novi Testamenti Graeci recte cauteque adornandi” in Johannis Chrysostomi de Sacerdotio libri sex … (Stuttgart: Mezler and Erhard, 1725), I–XXIII; Novum Testamentum Graecum, ita adornatum ut textus probatarum editionum medullam margo variantium lectionum in suas classes distributarum locorumque parallelorum delectum, apparatus subiunctus criseos sacrae Millianae praesertim compendium, limam, supplementum ac fructum exhibeat, … (Tübingen: Cotta, 1734). 8 Daniel Mace, The New Testament in Greek and English. Containing the Original Text Corrected from the Authority of the Most Authentic Manuscripts: And a New Version Form’d agreeably to the Illustrations of the Most Learned Commentators and Critics: With Notes and Various Readings, and a Copious Alphabetical Index. In Two Volumes (London: Roberts, 1729)..
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