Herm Terms Textual Criticism

Alexandrian Manuscripts

The Greek manuscripts that come from the dessert parts of Egypt; there are few of these manuscripts; they are the oldest manuscripts; they are shorter manuscripts.

Byzantine Manuscripts

The Greek manuscripts that come from the eastern Roman Empire; there are many of these manuscripts; they are newer manuscripts; they are longer manuscripts

Canonical

A canonical book is a book that is included in the biblical canon; a canonical book has a canonical form or shape to it when it became a part of the canon

Canonization

The process of a biblical book becoming a part of the biblical canon 

Composition (phase in making a biblical book)

the making of a whole coherent and cohesive book with a particular beginning, middle, and ending by how an author selects, adapts, and arranges his material to provide his perspective and messag

Dead sea scrolls

The oldest ancient Hebrew manuscripts of the OT discovered in 1947 in caves; it preseves a consonantal text that affirms the Masoretic texts and the Hebrew behind the Septuagint

External text critical information

Data about a biblical manuscripts location, condition, scribe, scribal habits, and family of manuscripts

Internal text critical information

Data about the actual words and letters of a biblical mauscripts

Lower criticism

another name for textual criticism, which seeks to determine the original, canonical, or earliest possible form of a biblical text

Manuscript

an ancient handwritten text of a biblical book or part of a biblical book

Masoretic text

the OT manuscript family preserved by the Masoretes (Jewish scribes) that provide a vowel system to preserve the readings they received; it is most reliable witness to the canonical OT 

Miniscule Manuscript

These are Greek manuscripts that include lower case letters and were copied later than the orginal manuscripts 

Reading of a text

the way a particular manuscript family preserves a specific section of a text that in some way differs from other manuscripts

Textual criticism

seeks to determine the original, canonical, or earliest possible form of a biblical text 

Textual family

a grouping and historically connected manuscripts that share traits and reflect similar readings between them

The Aramaic targums

ancient Jewish commentaries on the OT written in Aramaic that preserve readings of the OT older than the NT

The canon

the books included in the bible, OT and NT

The Septuagint

The ancient Greek translation of the OT that is one of the main witnesses to the original, canonical, or earliest possible form of the OT

The syriac peshitta

an ancient syriac, which is a form of aramaic, translation of the OT and NT for use in ancient Syriac Churches

The Vulgate

an ancient Latin translation of the NT by Jerome that become the main Bible in the western church; it preserves OT readings from the MT and LXX 

Transmission history

the history of how a biblical book was transmitted over time from one manuscript to another, being divided into composition, canonization, and consolidation 

Uncial manuscript

the oldest Greek manuscripts written in all capital letters with no spacing between words and without any punctuation

Variant readings 

different readings of a biblical text during the texts consolidation that textual criticism evaluates

Consolidation 

these communities are shaped by their reading of the text, but
they also shape the text that they pass on to the next generation