Secondary Witnesses?

Rodney J. Decker rdecker at bbc.edu
Tue Sep 12 16:04:59 EDT 2000



>>The minuscules that include this interpolation are 424, 614, 630, 
>>1505,1912, 2200, 2464. A half dozen out of about 5,000 would, I 
>>think, >be considered secondary regardless of one's textual 
>>position--except for the fact that it shows up in the TR!
>
>It seems to me that you have switched meanings in your answer from the 
>original question. But I could very well be mistaken, hence this clarification.

"Secondary" refers to the *value* of a reading. Support which comes from 
other than a Greek MS are inherently secondary (e.g., the versions, 
patristics). It can also be used to refer to a minority reading from MSS 
considered inherently less reliable. (That, of course, is based on one's 
approach to txt. crit.!) Thus I judge that a reading which occurs in only a 
very few of the most recent MSS is secondary *relative* to those which are 
either among the oldest, most reliable witnesses to the text (i.e., the 
critical text--by whatever name you choose to call it) *or* which are part 
of the majority of the MS evidence (i.e., the Byzantine/majority text).

>You seem to reject DIA TOU hAIMATOS AUTOU on the basis that only 6 
>minuscules attest to it. Can you think of any word or phrase with LESS 
>ATTESTATION that you personally consider ORIGINAL?

Offhand, no. (And I don't have time to hunt up some examples for you 
today.) But this only raises the question of "value" again. Some MSS are of 
much greater value than others, and thus a few of some may carry a far 
greater weight than a few of others. (That, of course, is once again based 
on one's approach to txt. crit.! But this isn't the right forum to resolve 
that one! [or prob. even to discuss it--we're pressing the "list limits" 
when we get into much txt. crit. stuff].



****************************************************
Rodney J. Decker, Th.D.       Baptist Bible Seminary
Assoc. Prof./NT  PO Box 800, Clarks Summit, PA 18411
rdecker at bbc.edu      http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/
The *Resources for NT Study* site is accessible at:
http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/rd_rsrc.htm
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