Studies on the Intersection of Text, Paratext, and Reception: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles E. Hill by Gregory R. Lanier and J. Nicholas Reid

Abstract

Reviewed by: Studies on the Intersection of Text, Paratext, and Reception: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles E. Hill by Gregory R. Lanier and J. Nicholas Reid Chris S. Stevens gregory r. lanier and j. nicholas reid, Studies on the Intersection of Text, Paratext, and Reception: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles E. Hill (Texts and Editions for New Testament Study 15; Leiden: Brill, 2021). Pp. xxvii + 414. €124. On the occasion of Charles E. Hill's turning sixty-five and retiring from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, thirteen contributors from around the globe have produced a great collection of articles. As Dr. Hill has contributed scholarly works on a breadth of topics, this volume seeks to interact with his interests in scribal culture, paratext, and canonicity. The chapters in the volume include: Peter M. Head, "Punctuation and Paragraphs in P66 (P.Bod. II): Insights into Scribal Behavior" (pp. 3–29); Gregory R. Lanier and Moses Han, "The Text and Paratext of Minuscule GA 1424: Initial Observations" (pp. 30–59); Peter Malik, "Marginal Paratexts in GA 2323: A Thirteenth-Century Witness to the Medieval Reception of Revelation" (pp. 60–96); J. Nicholas Reid, "Writing and Writers in Ancient Mesopotamia: A Brief Sketch for New Testament Scholars" (pp. 97–121); Peter J. Gurry, "On Not Preferring the Shorter Reading: Matthew as a Test Case" (pp. 122–41); Jennifer Knust and Tommy Wasserman, "Codex Bezae as Repository" (pp. 142–74); Stanley E. Porter, "What Is a Text? The Linguistic Turn and Its Implications for New Testament Studies" (pp. 175–98); Michael J. Kruger, "Second Peter 3:2, the Apostolate, and a Bi-covenantal Canon" (pp. 201–31); Peter J. Gentry, "MasPsa and the Early History of the Hebrew Psalter: Notes on Canon and Text" (pp. 232–58); Peter J. Williams, "Problems with the Explicit Marking of Quotations in Translations and Scholarly Editions of the New Testament" (pp. 259–78); Paul Foster, "Polycarp's Teaching: The Reception and Development of Theology" (pp. 279–313); Richard Bauckham, "A Neglected Reference to John the Elder as Bishop of Ephesus (Const. ap. 7.46.7)" (pp. 314–39); and James W. Barker, "The Acts of John within the Johannine Corpus" (pp. 340–80). A short review cannot address details in a volume of this size and breadth; therefore, attention is given to areas of particular note within Dr. Hill's area of major contribution. Reid looks at the paratextual features in Mesopotamian tablets. While not often incorporated into NT textual criticism, Reid demonstrates some intriguing facets of the sociohistorical literary world behind NT scribal culture. Gurry does something that Hill is quite good at, reexamining the evidence to question entrenched assumptions. Gurry evaluates the default preference for the originality of the shorter reading in NT textual criticism. He highlights the untenability of the assumption and concludes that the length of a variant should not be a controlling factor. Instead, attention should be given to explaining why a variant occurs. [End Page 373] Knust and Wasserman provide a fine model for how to work with paratextual annotations. Kruger continues canonicity research that Hill and he have co-authored. Moving beyond external reception history methodologies, Kruger asks if the NT speaks about canonicity. He proposes an intracorpus canon consciousness. Beginning with 2 Pet 3:2 and the phrase, "Prophets and Apostles," Kruger contends that this phrase serves to equate the NT apostolic authority with the OT prophets and, more importantly, reveals an acknowledged twofold canon. Kruger traces the prophet-apostle pattern through various NT passages and patristic writings. Williams addresses a small, overlooked matter—whether quotation marks are helpful or harmful to readers of modern print editions. After addressing the history of ancient and modern punctuation, Williams notes instances where modern quotation marks are inconsistent, errantly separate quotations, and are exegetically indefensible. Most notably, modern punctuation, barely more than a century old, does not cohere with ancient paratextual features and often contradicts them. Therefore, consistent with his argument but nonetheless quite provocatively, Williams concludes that the quotation marks in modern Bibles should be abandoned (p. 277). Foster builds and expands on previous work by Hill on Polycarp. Addressing modern scholarship that seeks to downplay Polycarp, Foster admirably...