Texts and Artefacts: Selected Essays on Textual Criticism and Early Christian Manuscripts by Larry W. Hurtado

Abstract

Reviewed by: Texts and Artefacts: Selected Essays on Textual Criticism and Early Christian Manuscripts by Larry W. Hurtado Izaak Connoway Hurtado, Larry W. 2018. Texts and Artefacts: Selected Essays on Textual Criticism and Early Christian Manuscripts. The Library of New Testament Studies 584. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0567677716. Pp. 231. £73.44. As could be expected from "one of the pre-eminent scholars of the field" (back cover), this volume is masterly written and extremely insightful. It is a collection of twelve essays written over twenty years (xvi). Except for one essay, they are all reproductions, although they have been updated to reflect the latest information (ix). In these essays, Hurtado analyses some second and third-century Christian manuscripts as artefacts. He believes that studying these manuscripts should be central to early Christian studies (xv). Although each essay makes an individual contribution, there is some repetition due to overlapping interests (xvi), but not to the point of detracting from the experience. This volume has two sections. Part one is on "Textual-Critical and Text-Historical Studies" (chs. 1–4) and part two is on "Manuscripts as Artefacts" (chs. 5–12). (1) "The New Testament in the Second Century: Text, Collections and Canon" (3–27). In this chapter, Hurtado looks at how NT writings were transmitted, especially in the second century (xvi). Factors that would promote text stability are highlighted (xvii), and he also inspects the phenomenon of early collections of writings, as well as how certain writings gained status and authority (3). He discusses recently-published, late-second and early-third-century papyri that include P.Oxy. 64–66 (6–14). Hurtado presents arguments that date the four canonical Gospels to 125–135 CE (19) and a collection of Paul's letters to 140 CE (20–21). (2) "The Early New Testament Papyri: A Survey of Their Significance" (28–47). In this chapter, Hurtado reviews fifty NT papyri from the second and third centuries (xvii). The Chester Beatty library and the Bodmer collection are indicated as significant findings (30, 32). A case is made that the Rylands fragment (𝔓52), often dated 125 CE, is more likely from the late second century (33). Hurtado acknowledges the validity of asking whether the Oxyrhynchus papyri are really representative of wider Christianity, considering that they were all found in the same place. He does, however, present a positive case for why he thinks that they are indeed representative (35–36). (3) "New Testament Scholarship and the Dating of New Testament Papyri" (48–63). In this chapter, Hurtado assesses the accusation some level against NT scholars that they date texts too early (xvii). Good NT [End Page 513] scholarship is based on the critical texts, which in turn are based on the earliest papyri, so the dating of papyri is quite important (54). Hurtado admits that some NT scholars are too precise and overconfident in their early dating of texts (59), but he provides reasons why he opposes lowering the amount of papyri included in the period between the late second and early third centuries (58). He discusses an important essay that claims scholars do not really agree with the dating of, for example, the Nestle-Aland text, but he criticises this study for conflating the data (60–62). (4) "God or Jesus? Textual Ambiguity and Textual Variants in Acts of the Apostles" (64–82). In this chapter, Hurtado inspects instances where the manuscripts of Acts vary over whether the reading should be κύριος, θέος or Ἰησοῦς (xvii). At times, it is clear whether κύριος refers to Jesus or God (67). Generally, Jesus is the referent for an artherous singular κύριος, while God is the referent for an anartherous singular κύριος. But there are cases of genuine ambiguity (65–66). Hurtado analyses the textual data for all the ambiguous texts and proposes that the scribes were merely making honest attempts at trying to disambiguate the texts as best they knew how. (5) "The 'Meta-Data' of Early Christian Manuscripts" (83–98). In this chapter, Hurtado points out that early Christian manuscripts are more than just texts (xvii), and should be studied as artefacts (83). His criteria for considering a text as part of this study are that...