Is the Shorter Reading Better?
Lectio brevior is plausible because texts can grow through glosses, titles, parallels, and liturgy. Yet length becomes evidence only after a real mechanism of expansion has been shown.
Open record →Category: When the Canons Collide
8 published records in this controlled archive.
The CBGM and the Claim of the ‘Best Manuscripts’
The Coherence-Based Genealogical Method greatly strengthens the study of textual relationships, yet its local orientations remain editorial judgments and its output does not supply a theology of authority.
Open record →Manuscripts Give Readings, Not Rankings
A manuscript directly supplies a reading, but its age, independence, character, and weight are conclusions reached through further historical judgments.
Open record →The Canons Have No Umpire: Dabney Vindicated and Refined
Dabney’s 1881 criticism of the Revised Version sharpens the ecclesial issue, but his case must be retained without treating him as infallible or freezing nineteenth-century evidence.
Open record →R. L. Dabney’s 1871 Indictment of the Critical Canons
Dabney argued that nineteenth-century critics did not merely disagree over facts; they worked with rival codes whose rules could reverse one another and lacked a common umpire.
Open record →What Is a Textual Canon? From Maxim to Verdict
A textual canon is a bridge from an observed feature to a judgment of priority. This article classifies the main canons and shows why the hidden premises in…
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