The Living Text of the Gospels

This book represents an important departure in Gospel studies and textual criticism, providing an innovative introduction to the discipline.

D. C. Parker (Author)

9780521599511, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 August 1997

244 pages
21.6 x 13.9 x 1.4 cm, 0.285 kg

'… opens up excitingly fresh ways of understanding the Gospels, demolo=ishes many false views of the Bible, reveals what we actually possess in scripture, and relates a study of the text to modern ethical issues as well as to more specialized problems such as the relations between the Synoptic Gospels.' The Expository Times

This book represents an important departure in Gospel studies and textual criticism. David Parker offers a different way of reading the Gospels which treats seriously the fact that they first existed as manuscripts. Through an analysis of the different forms of a number of key passages, he demonstrates that the Gospels cannot be properly understood as texts without taking into consideration their physical existence as manuscripts, printed books and electronic text. In conclusion, he argues that the search for an original text of the Gospels overlooks the way in which the early church passed down its traditions. This book challenges many of the assumptions of New Testament scholarship. But, at the same time, it does not assume any prior knowledge of the discipline, and can therefore be used as a unique alternative to traditional primers of New Testament textual criticism.

Abbreviations
Preface
1. The theory
2. The materials
3. The practice
4. As our Saviour taught us ... the Lord's Prayer
5. The sayings on marriage and divorce
6. The story of the woman taken in adultery
7. Secrets and hypotheses
8. The endings of Mark's Gospel
9. The last chapters of Luke
10. The development and transmission of the Fourth Gospel
11. From codex to disk
12. The living text
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]