[B-Greek] Remark on textual critics

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Wed Mar 19 13:42:14 EST 2003


In a message dated 3/19/2003 1:02:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu writes:

> 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.
> 

Absolutely.  "Lectio difficilior" does not mean "lectio absurdum".

gfsomsel


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