Family Π in the Gospel of Mark

Profile-based classification — in which manuscripts are related by common profiles of distinctive readings — supplies a practical approach to grouping manuscripts that avoids the most obvious pitfalls of classification by text types. Classification based on shared profiles is particularly suitable in cases, such as Families 1 and 13, where core members consistently attest the same readings. But how do we classify a manuscript such as Codex Bezae, in which we find in Mark (according to the Hauptliste, TuT 4.1.2, 438-41), one group of readings that agrees distinctively with 03 and relatives and, at the same time, another that agrees distinctively with 038 and 565, yet considered as a whole the manuscript appears as isolated within the tradition, with no closely-related witnesses (according to the Gruppierung table, TuT 4.1.1, §2.6)? It is clear that, in such cases, a profiling approach that only considers the whole text as a unit is inadequate to identify potential relationships. In this paper, I suggest a granular approach to profile-based classification that allows us to address composite profiles by splitting the total profile into smaller sub-profiles, each with a specific alignment within the tradition and hence different relationships. When considered individually, these sub-profiles reveal relationships that are not captured when all readings are considered simultaneously in a single profile. Pointing to the example of Codex Bezae’s composite text form, I argue that such an approach can reveal much about its development and place in the larger tradition that is not possible by examining the total profile as a monolithic whole.

Novum Testamentum, 2018

The Syriac translation of the New Testament produced by Thomas of Harkel in AD 616 provides a rich source for studying the transmission of the Greek New Testament. In this case, its relationship to the Byzantine text in the Catholic Epistles is used to test the results of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM), a new computerized tool being used to edit the standard editions of the Greek New Testament (NA28/UBS5). Against claims that the CBGM is not useful for understanding textual history, this study shows that, when used carefully, it can provide valuable clarity to our understanding. The results of this test have implications for the CBGM, for the textual worth of the Byzantine text, and for how all “texts” are related and evaluated.

Novum Testamentum, 2024

Greek New Testament manuscripts frequently format the genealogy of Jesus in Luke in multiple columns. This format has led copyists to introduce errors in the sequence of names by reading the text in the wrong direction. This article presents five manuscripts of the Gospels with catenae which transmit a disordered genealogy of Jesus. The analysis of the disruptions to the sequence of Jesus's ancestors allows the reconstruction of their exemplar. The article further identifies two codices without commentaries attesting the same pattern of disorder. The other codices with this form of Luke 3:23-38 and the contents of the five catena manuscripts substantiate that they have a common archetype and form a new family of Greek New Testament manuscripts.

Journal of Data Mining and Digital Humanities, Episciences.org, 2017, Special Issue on Computer-Aided Processing of Intertextuality in Ancient Languages, p. 1-48 <halshs-01557447>, 2017

A new method for grouping manuscripts in clusters is presented with the calculation of distances between readings, then between witnesses. A classification algorithm (“Hierarchical Ascendant Clustering”), achieved through computer-aided processing, enables the construction of trees illustrating the textual taxonomy obtained. This method is applied to the Old Latin witnesses of the Gospel of John, and, in order to provide a study of a reasonable size, to a chapter as a whole (chapter 14). The result basically confirms the text-types identified by Bonatius Fischer, founder of the Vetus Latina Institute, while it invalidates the classification adopted by the current edition of the Vetus Latina of the Gospel of John.

A Critique of the Teststellen Method of Manuscript Classification in the Light of Evidence from the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method: The Epistle of Jude as a Test-case, 2023

As the number of extant manuscripts of the Greek New Testament has grown over the last century and a half, methods have been developed for classifying them and selecting the best representatives to include in critical editions. These methods involve collating manuscripts against sampled text to ascertain their textual character. To expedite this process, Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland developed a network of test passages (Teststellen) for identifying Byzantine manuscripts to eliminate them from further consideration for use in critical editions. This study uses the tools available in the CoherenceBased Genealogical Method, particularly the global stemma, to put the sufficiency of these Teststellen to the test. When a global stemma of Jude based on Tommy Wasserman’s transcriptions of 560 extant manuscripts is compared to one based on the ECM, we discover both important individual witnesses as well as witness relationships that are omitted from the ECM because of the Teststellen. We conclude that while the test passages used for manuscript selection for the ECM are suited to selecting a sufficient number of manuscripts for the task of establishing the original text of the New Testament, they risk leaving out important witnesses to its history and development.

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, 2019