Léon Vaganay

At least it's different.

Books on New Testament Textual Criticism -- the reconstruction of the original text of the Greek Bible based on the comparison of the late, corrupt copies -- tend to follow certain patterns. They talk about the loss of the original copies of the New Testament books. They mention some manuscripts. They talk about the work of Westcott and Hort, and say it's out of date -- and then produce a text much like Westcott and Hort anyway.

This book starts with the loss of the originals, and talks a bit about the methods of textual criticism, but it has a very un-Hortian view of the manuscript materials. This is mostly due to Vaganay, the original author; Amphoux, who revised the book, has added significant material about manuscript classification, all of which is good.

The result is useful, readable (a notable feat in a translation of a rather technical work), and thought-provoking. Whether it is actually a good introduction to textual criticism is another matter. I would be inclined to label it too idiosyncratic. Still, if you are interested in the discipline, this could give you some useful new ideas.… (més)