[B-Greek] Remark on textual critics
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 19 12:59:34 EST 2003
At 7:17 PM +0300 3/19/03, Iver Larsen wrote:
>Translators tend to translate in such a way that the translation makes
>sense, because they assume the original text made sense. Textual critics are
>not bound but such a principle. They tend to prefer the readings that make
>the least sense. This principle is called "the harder reading principle".
I don't know whether this comment was offered, as we say, "tongue in
cheek," but I do think it misrepresents what the textual critics are up to.
While this is really NOT a forum for discussion of textual criticism, I do
feel it only fair to point out that the "lectio difficilior" principle has
more to do with a sense that a difficult reading is more likely to have
been emended to be more readily intelligible than vice versa. It's hardly
the case, I think, that textual critics are out to produce a text where the
least intelligible variants are the only ones that are acceptable or that
they "tend" to be so.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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