Text Criticism Ehrman Ch. 30

You've also been assigned Ehrman Ch. 30 for Friday, but we will probably not have time to talk about textual criticism until next Wednesday. Meanwhile, I am including a few discussion points to accompany the reading. Note that Ch. 30 is indeed different between the 4th and 3rd editions.

Discussion Points for Ehrman Ch. 30

1.What’s the difference between textual (lower) criticism and source (higher) criticism?

2.Why is a dumb scribe better for faithful textual transmission than a smart scribe?

3. What are the two main categories of textual errors? give a few examples of the types of errors that fall under each category?

4.List and describe some of the criteria that are applied by textual critics in attempting to arrive at the version of the text that is closest to the original?

5. What is meant by a critical apparatus?