Gospel Traditions in the Second Century

Petersen, William L. ed. Gospel Traditions in the Second Century Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989.

Reviewed by: Henry E. Neufeld

Purchase this book from Amazon.com

This book is a collection of papers presented at a conference of the same name held at the University of Notre Dame. All of the scholars represented are well-known experts in their fields, and it is clear from reading the papers and the conclusion that the thinking of the conference participants was stimulated.

Contributors to the conference were Barbara Aland, Professor of New Testament and Ecclesiastical History, and Director of the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (Münster, Germany), Tjitze Baarda, Professor of New Testament and Judaica at the Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht (the Netherlands), J. Neville Birdsall, University Professor emeritus of New Testament Textual Criticism at the University of Birmingham (England), Sebastian P. Brock, University Lecturer in Aramaic and Syriac at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford (England), Joël Delobel, Professor of New Testament at the Katholiek Universiteit van Leuven (Belgium), Eldon Jay Epp, Harkness Professor of Biblical Literature and Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University (USA), Helmut Koester, John H Morison Professor of New Testament Studies and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Divinity School at Harvard University (USA), and Frederik Wisse, Professor of New Testament at McGill University (Canada).

The paper titles are:

• The Western Text in the Second Century
  J. Neville Birdsall
• The Text of the Synoptic Gospels in the Second Century
  Helmut Koester
• The Nature and Purpose of Redactional Changes in Early Christian Texts: The Canonical Gospels
  Frederik Wisse
• Die Münsteraner Arbeit am Text des Neuen Testaments und ihr Beitrag für die frühe Überlieferung des 2. Jahrhunderts: Eine methodologische Betrachtung
  Barbara Aland
• The Significance of the Papyri for Determining the Nature of the New Testament Text in the Second Century: A Dynamic View of Textual Transmission
  Eldon Jay Epp
• Extra-Canonical Sayings of Jesus: Marcion and Some "Non-received" Logia
  Joel Delobel
• The Lost Old Syriac at Luke 1:35 and the Earliest Syriac Terms for the Incarnation
  Sebastian P. Brock
• DIAPHONIA - SYMPHONIA: Factors in the Harmonization of the Gospels, Especially in the Diatessaron of Tatian
  Tjitze Baarda

Essays by Helmut Koester (The Text of the Synoptic Gospels in the Second Century) and Frederik Wisse (The Nature and purpose of Redactional Changes in Early Christian Texts: The Canonical Gospels) should be of particular interest to the more general student of the New Testament text and of critical methodology in general. Most of these essays are intended for the advanced student. Barbara Aland's essay is included in German.

I would recommend this work for the serious student with at least some knowledge of the Greek language and of textual criticism and Biblical criticism in general.

Purchase this book from Amazon.com