Card
- Home
- Courses Catalogue
- Card
CT1204 INTRODUCTION TO TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS (A.Y. 2025/2026)
-
Accademic Unit
Biblical Faculty
Description
This course will treat the following topics: For the OT, 1. The Hebrew Masoretic text and its critical editions; 2. The Samaritan Pentateuch; 3. The Qumran biblical texts; 4. The Greek translations of the OT: The LXX and the history of the Greek text; 5. Principles and examples of application of textual criticism. For the NT, 1. The printed editions and the most important manuscripts of the Greek text; 2. The history of the text through its different shapes; 3. The ancient versions of the NT; 4. The current trends in NT textual criticism; 5. Principles and examples of application of textual criticism.
Objectives
The objectives of the course are: 1. Learning of the basic aspects of the transmission history of the biblical texts; 2. Training with methodologies needed to judge between variant readings where there are important variants for the tradition history of the biblical text.
Modality
The methodology consists in: classes about the history of transmission of the biblical texts; the personal work of the students for the preparation of cases reporting variant readings of the OT and NT texts. The classes will give the basic and most useful information on the transmission history of the biblical text. The students will be given passages of the OT and NT whose variant readings in the original languages or in the ancient versions they will examine and explain.
Evaluation
Students will be evaluated through a written exam (120 minutes). The student is expected to learn the elements of the discipline indicated in the puncta pro examine that will be distributed along the course, and to prepare passages of the OT and NT for the discussion of the variant readings shown in the critical apparatuses of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and Nestle-Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece (28th edition). The languages admitted in the exam are: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. The exam cannot be substituted by an essay.
Information
- Semester: 2° Semestre
- ECTS: 3
Teachers
Leonardo PESSOA DA SILVA PINTO
Lesson schedule/Room
Lessons schedule not available
Recommended Bibliography
Metzger , B. M., The Text of the New Testament (Oxford 31992) = Il testo del Nuovo Testamento (Introduzione allo studio della Bibbia, Supplementi 1; Brescia 1996).
Tov , E., Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Fourth Edition, Revised and Expanded) (Minneapolis 2023).
Wegner , P. D., Textual Criticism of the Bible . Its History, Methods & Results (Downers Grove 2006) = Guida alla critica testuale della Bibbia . Storia, metodi e risultati (Cinisello Balsamo 2009).
Anderson, A. – Widder , W., Textual Criticism of the Bible (Revised Edition) (Bellingham 2018).
Pessoa da Silva Pinto, L., Il mestiere celeste . Critica testuale dell’Antico e del Nuovo Testamento (Instrumenta 8; Cisinello Balsamo 2024).
Supplementary Bibliography
Old Testament
Brooke, G. J. – Hempel, C. (edd.) , T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls (T&T Clark Companions; London – New York 2019).
Fernández Marcos , N., Introducción a las versiones griegas de la Biblia (Madrid 1982) = La Bibbia dei LXX (Brescia 2000) = The Septuagint in Context . Introduction to the Greek Versions (Leiden 2000).
Lange, A. – Tov, E. (edd.), Textual History of the Bible (Leiden – Boston 2016-2020) I-III.
Salvesen, A. G. – Law , T. M. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint (Oxford 2021).
Würthwein , E., Der Text des A.T . Eine Einführung in die Biblia Hebraica (Stuttgart 19885) = The Text of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids 21995).
New Testament
Aland , B. & K., Der Text des Neuen Testaments (Stuttgart 1982) = Il testo del Nuovo Testamento (CSANT 2; Genova 1987) = The Text of the New Testament (Grand Rapids 1989).
Ehrman, B. D. – Holmes M. W. (edd.), The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research. Essays on the Status Quaestionis (New Testament tools, studies and documents 42; Leiden 22013).
Parker, D. C. , An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts (Cambridge – New York 2008).