Lectio difficilior potior
Lectio difficilior potior (
The principle was one among a number that became established in early 18th-century text criticism, as part of attempts by scholars of the Enlightenment to provide a neutral basis for discovering an urtext that was independent of the weight of traditional authority.
History
Erasmus expressed the idea in his Annotations to the New Testament in the early 1500s: "And whenever the Fathers report that there is a variant reading, that one always appears to me to be more esteemed (by them is the one) which at first glance seems the more absurd-since it is reasonable that a reader who is either not very learned or not very attentive was offended by the specter of absurdity and changed the text."[3]
According to Paolo Trovato, who cites as source
Usefulness
Many scholars considered the employment of lectio difficilior potior an objective criterion that would even override other evaluative considerations.[7] The poet and scholar A. E. Housman challenged such reactive applications in 1922, in the provocatively titled article "The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism".[8]
On the other hand, taken as an axiom, the principle lectio difficilior produces an eclectic text, rather than one based on a history of manuscript transmission. "Modern eclectic praxis operates on a variant unit basis without any apparent consideration of the consequences", Maurice A. Robinson warned. He suggested that to the principle "should be added a corollary, difficult readings created by individual scribes do not tend to perpetuate in any significant degree within transmissional history".[9]
A noted proponent of the superiority of the
Most textual-critical scholars would explain the corollary by the assumption that scribes tended to "correct" harder readings and so cut off the stream of transmission. Thus, only earlier manuscripts would have the harder readings. Later manuscripts would not see the corollary principle as being a very important one to get closer to the original form of the text.
However, lectio difficilior is not to be taken as an absolute rule either but as a general guideline. "In general the more difficult reading is to be preferred" is
However, for scholars like Kurt Aland, who follow a path of reasoned eclecticism based on evidence both internal and external to the manuscripts, "this principle must not be taken too mechanically, with the most difficult reading (lectio difficillima) adopted as original simply because of its degree of difficulty".[12] Also, Martin Litchfield West cautions: "When we choose the 'more difficult reading'... we must be sure that it is in itself a plausible reading. The principle should not be used in support of dubious syntax, or phrasing that it would not have been natural for the author to use. There is an important difference between a more difficult reading and a more unlikely reading".[13]
See also
References
- ^ Maurice A. Robinson, "New Testament Textual Criticism: The Case for Byzantine Priority", 2001.
- S2CID 165577319. Retrieved 2012-12-16.
- ISSN 0034-4338.
- ^ Page 117 in Trovato, P. (2014). Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lachmann's Method. libreriauniversitaria.it.
- W. L. Lorimer, "Lectio Difficilior", The Classical Review 48.5 (November 1934:171).
- ^ E.g. by H. J. Rose in The Classical Review 48 (126, note 2), corrected by Lorimer 1934.
- ^ Tov 1982:432.
- ^ A. E. Housman, "The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism", Proceedings of the Classical Association 18 (1922), pp. 67–84. DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8247611
- ^ Robinson 2001
- Bruce Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, II.i.1, p. 209.
- ^ Aland, The Text of the New Testament, pp. 275–276; the Alands' twelve basic principles of textual criticism are reported on-line.
- ^ Aland 1995, p. 276.
- ^ West 1973, p. 51.
Further reading
- Maurice A. Robinson, 2001. "New Testament Textual Criticism: The Case for Byzantine Priority"
- D. A. Carson, 1991. "Silent in the Churches" in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, Wayne Grudem and John Piper, eds. (Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood).
- Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, rev, ed. 1995. The Text of the New Testament an Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism
- Martin L. West, 1973. Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique applicable to Greek and Latin texts (Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner)