Editio Critica Maior of Hebrews

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Karrer
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 542501607

The New Testament book "To the Hebrews" (Heb) has not been edited in a satisfactory manner. Byzantine manuscripts and the Textus Receptus of the 16-19th cent. Linked the work with the Corpus Paulinum. The indexing of manuscripts from the 19th century initially seemed to confirm this. Even so, a considerable number of papyri that have come to light more recently loosens this connection with Paul. Thus, the place of Heb in the New Testament must be investigated afresh, and the development of ist text must be ascertained based on the current state of our sources. The new edition constructs a new initial text as well as an apparatus fitting to the modern scholarly standards. This requires comprehensive transcription of the Greek manuscripts as well as collation of ancient citations and versional evidence for the variants. The great number of lectionaries is considered according to their value in the Byzantine tradition. The production of the apparatus and reconstruction of the initial text goes hand in hand with a consistent theory of the textual transmission. The Greek basis is comprised of the continuous-text manuscripts, commentary manuscripts and lectionaries. Since liturgical notes often appear also in continuous-text manuscripts and, for the purposes of the edition, are documented as paratexts, the distinction between biblical manuscripts and lectionaries becomes less pronounced. Significant innovations introduced in the Edition Critica Maior of Rev will also carry on in the edition of Heb: presentation of nomina sacra, transition from the modern punctuation that has been in use from the 16th cent. To the text-structuring features of the Greek manuscripts from the first millennium, consideration of supplementary texts in manuscripts (Euthalian apparatus, scholia etc.) and documentation of the history of printed editions of the New Testament (along with the conjectures occurring therein). Rhetorical aspects of the Greek witnesses (including sections marked for interpretations, the so-called keimena) deserve considerable attention, since Heb regards itself as a speech and the Greek text-segmentation/punctuation is structured rhetorically. The goal of the project is a comprehensive edition freely accessible as an Open Access publication that links a critically reconstructed text with readings in the apparatus and electronic transcriptions as well as a database for the conjectures and, insofar as the copyright allows, provides links to the digital photographs of manuscripts and paratexts. It will be published in parallel with a print version.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Hugh A.G. Houghton