Without denying that one sequence may indeed have been "original," Martin proposes that
textual criticism might profit from treating the variants as peers and considering why ancient readers and scribes might have regarded these particular variations as equally valid.
Shillingsburg is right to emphasize the importance of distinguishing the impact of each script act within the meaning-making process, and thus script acts ought to be the focus of the interpretive practices of
textual criticism generally.
And as devoting attention to the Greek text would have played into the hands of Castellio and his supporters, he did not innovate in matters of
textual criticism. Moreover, it has been known for some time that Beza was a better theologian than he was a philologist and he was very happy to collaborate with philologists such as Pithou in his biblical and patristic editorial enterprises.
As with other works of popular culture in which notions of a purely material and stable text remain intrinsically uncertain, the Beatles' recordings remind us of the meaningful ways in which
textual criticism can assist us in clarifying the strictures of authorship and authority.
It seems to me that an editor familiar and comfortable with text-critical literature would send readers interested in learning more about social criticism not to a few paragraphs in a basic survey but rather to McGann's A Critique of Modern
Textual Criticism. If that editor wanted to refer readers to informative discussions of intentionalism and social criticism, he might mention the much more useful and extensive treatments in Greetham's Theories of the Text (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), passim, but esp.
Textual criticism, when applied with the evidence of the scrolls, reintroduces a premodern understanding of "Scripture" which holds that the authoritative status of a text (29) does not rely on its specific textual form, but on a different conception of why that text was authoritative.
Katz ranges over many fields, including intellectual history, the history of the book, reader-response theory,
textual criticism, anthropology, and the history of religion.
In a field (classics) that is still known for its allergy to all modes of theoretical reflection, and in a discipline (
textual criticism) that is still considered the most conservative redoubt in an otherwise conservative field, Sean Alexander Gurd has produced a work of astonishing audacity.
Holmes's article could be profitably read by those embarking on a study of
textual criticism, in order to develop a respect for the need to re-examine established views, within a continuing respect for the established "canon." The painstaking labour that has produced two sizeable volumes of a limited text (Luke and James) gives one an appreciation of how daunting the task of
textual criticism is, and how much a gift the handbook format of Nestle's "Testament" has been for students, preachers, and budding theologians.
Lachmann, Karl (Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm), founder of modern
textual criticism (Britannica)
The Word Biblical Commentary is an academic series that includes a fresh translation from the Hebrew text,
textual criticism, review of previous scholarship, and a verse-by-verse commentary.
We have a body of
textual criticism for Shakespeare, source studies for Shakespeare, dramaturgy for Shakespeare, versification for Shakespeare, reception theory for Shakespeare, not to mention Jonson, Marlowe, and Webster, but we do not have
textual criticism for the Chamberlain's Men, source studies for the Admiral's Men, dramaturgy for Strange's Men, versification for the King's Men, reception theory for Queen Anne's Men (a special case of which will be seen below).