On February, 22 2016, an International Conference was successfully held at the central building of Athens University (“Al. Argyriadis” Amphitheater), on the general theme: New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Scholarship, Culture and Church. The conference was co-organized by the Dean’s office of Theological School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Department for the study of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, and attended by a vast number of academics and special researchers who are members and contributors to the Editorial Board of the critical editions of the New Testament “Novum Testamentum Graece” (known as Nestle-Aland) and “UBS Greek New Testament”, which internationally constitute the basis for the scholarly study and the translation of the text of the New Testament.
The Conference began with the greetings of the Dean of the Theological School of University of Athens Professor Dr. Apostolos Nikolaides, His Eminence Metropolitan of Demetrias, and Chairman of the B.D. of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies and of the Hellenic Bible Society Ignatius, the Director of the Hellenic Bible Society Mr. Michalis Hatzigiannis, and the Assistant Professor of Theological School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Co-Director of the Department for the study of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament of the Volos Theological Academy Dr. Aikaterini Tsalampouni.
The first speaker Dr. Florian Voss, Senior Editor of Scholarly Editions (New Testament) of the German Bible Society gave a speech with the title “The devotion of the German Bible Society to the service of scholarly editions of the Bible», presenting the long history, and the perspectives of the scholarly editions of the Old and New Testament published by the German Bible Society.
Then, Dr. Greg Paulson, Research Associate at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research of the University of Münster, developed the issue “The development of the ‘Nestle-Aland’ edition”, especially referring to the editions’ history of the particular critical text of the New Testament and its development until today.
The first part of the Conference was concluded with Dr. Klaus Wachtel, Senior Researcher at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research of the University of Münster, editorial board member of the critical editions “Novum Testamentum Graece”, “UBS Greek New Testament” and “Editio Critica Maior” who spoke on the “Editio Critica Maior Aperta: Towards an open digital edition of the Greek New Testament.” In his lecture he presented the program of digitization of the latter which upon its completion, will allow the free formation of the New Testament text by every individual researcher by virtue of his/her particular evaluation of the relevant evidence of the manuscript tradition.
After a short break, the first speaker of the second part of the Conference Dr. Holger Strutwolf, Professor at the University of Münster, Director of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research and editorial board member of the above three critical editions developed the issue of “The Lord’s Prayer according to Luke: An Example of a Growing Text” and presented the development of this particular text from the Gospel of Luke based on the manuscript tradition.
Then, Dr. David Trobisch, Director of the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. and editorial board member of the abbreviated critical editions “Novum Testamentum Graece” and “UBS Greek New Testament” spoke on “The Role of the Scribe in the Manuscripts of the Letters of Paul” highlighting the significance of the notes in the margins of the manuscripts for the eventual configuration of the text of the Pauline letters through the inclusion of these notes in the text.
The next speaker, Stephen Pisano, Professor at Pontificio Istituto Biblico of Rome and editorial board member of the above abbreviated critical editions developed the issue of “How Many Times Did the Cock Crow in Mark’s Gospel? The Textual Criticism of Mark 14:30.72” highlighting the significance of the lectio difficilior potior criterion for the selection of the possible original writing concerning an especially thorny problem of the manuscript tradition.
Dr. Simon Crisp, Coordinator for Scholarly Editions and Translation Standards of the United Bible Societies (Swindon), Inter-confessional Scholarship and Training Associate of Nida Institute in New York, developed the issue “The Byzantine Text between Church and Academy” in which he presented the history and methodology of the critical edition of the Byzantine text of the Gospel of John from the University of Birmingham, while he explained the reasons why the particular edition was used by the academic society but was neglected by the Orthodox Churches. He finally proposed an alternative approach in the future relevant efforts.
The Conference ended with Dr. Christos Karakolis, Associate Professor at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Co-Director of the Department for New Testament Textual Criticism of the Volos Theological Academy, and editorial board member of the above abbreviated critical editions of New Testament, who spoke on “The Critical Text of the New Testament from an Orthodox Perspective” pointing out the different perception and objectives between the academic and the ecclesiastical approach to the New Testament Textual Criticism, the usefulness and the feasibility of both approaches and finally the need of drawing up a critical edition of a Post Byzantine Text of the New Testament.
After the completion of each session, efficient time for discussion was given to the audience. The Conference was chaired by the Assistant Professor of the University of Thessaloniki and Co-Director of the Department for New Testament Textual Criticism of the Volos Theological Academy Dr. Aikaterini Tsalampouni.
It is worth noting that it is the first scholarly conference being held in Greece upon the subject of New Testament Textual Criticism, which draws the attention internationally not only of the experts in New Testament but of researchers of other Theological fields, and Humanities in general.
The Conference was attended among others by the Chairmen of the two Theological Departments of the Athens University, Professor Thomas Ioannidis, Chairman of the Theology Department and Professor Sotirios Despotis, Chairman of the Department of Pastoral and Social Theology, as well as members of the academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, many Theology students from Athens and Thessaloniki, instructors and students from the Hellenic Bible College of Athens, members of the Hellenic Bible Society, priests and many others interested in the topic of the Conference.
