Eldon Jay Epp

Setting: American Protestant university and seminary scholarship.

Eldon Jay Epp was an American New Testament textual critic whose work on Codex Bezae, textual clusters, race, and the concept of the original text broadened the discipline beyond selecting individual readings. His presidential addresses and collected essays helped move textual criticism toward the study of textual history and the social worlds of manuscripts.

Epp’s work is especially relevant where the discipline shifts from recovering one original wording to describing multiple meaningful forms. That conceptual development should be represented through exact primary citations in later revisions.

Bibliological positions

Textual criticism studies both earliest attainable readings and the plurality of textual forms; the phrase original text may conceal several different editorial goals.

Qualifications and disputes

Epp’s attention to theological and social tendencies can expose bias in scribal and modern scholarly practice. Critique should not dismiss that evidential contribution.

The principal debate concerns whether expanding the task beyond an original text clarifies manuscript history or abandons the theological object traditionally sought.

Sources

• Society of Biblical Literature search — Eldon Epp — Professional memorial and society context
• Case Western Reserve University search — Eldon Epp — Institutional references

Principal works

• The Theological Tendency of Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis in Acts (1966); legacy WRK-0207; WRK; Ready after permanent-ID allocation and duplicate scan