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Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence. Edited by Daniel B. Wallace. Text and Canon of the New Testament 1. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011, 284 pp., $29.99 paper.
Representing the initial volume of a series on the text and canon of the NT, Wallace presents a collection of essays dealing specifically with textual criticism and addresses, directly or indirectly, issues raised in Bart Ehrman's The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (2d ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Wallace includes the work of five of his former students from Dallas Theological Seminary. The collection is timely as it coincides with Ehrman's updated edition of Orthodox Corruption.
In chapter 1 "Lost in Transmission," Wallace begins the collection with a broad ranging essay. He starts by pointing out areas of agreement and disagreement with Ehrman over large-scale issues in NT textual criticism. His point of departure with Ehrman occurs with the interpretation of how variants arose and their significance. Warning against two extreme attitudes that are not helpful for the task-absolute certainty and total despair-Wallace frames the debate by asking three questions that drive the rest of his essay: What is the number of variants? What is the nature of variants? What theological issues are at stake? It is at this point that Wallace is at his strongest, as he indicates that text-critical scholars all deal with the same data but interpret that data in different ways. As to the number of variants, Wallace shows that the seemingly high number of variants is the result of the large number of extant manuscripts. As to the nature of variants, Wallace demonstrates that variants that are both meaningful and viable total less than 1 percent. Lastly, Wallace concludes that the theological issues at stake are often overblown by Ehrman, who turns mere possibility into stark certainty. Wallace concludes his chapter by arguing that the process of copying was prone to changes due more to scribal harmonization than to the control and conspiracy model proposed by Ehrman in his more popular works.
Points of very minor critique may be offered for this overall convincing essay. First, Wallace often appeals to Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005) in his...