WM 303: The 900,000 Manuscripts of Mount Athos & the Failure of Textual Reconstruction

Watch the 60 Minutes episode on Mount Athos here: • From the archives: Bob...
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[@wesandell]

It always frustrates me when modern textual scholars (and laymen) speak about how all the "early" manuscripts support the modern critical text. No, that's not true. First, they mean the early "extant" manuscripts that we currently have in our possession and have collated and examined. There are a bunch of NT manuscripts that we have now that have never really been examined in detail. Let alone the potential manuscripts at places like Mt Athos. And that's of course as Dr. Riddle mentioned not even factoring in all the manuscripts that have been destroyed throughout history. In short, the claim that "all" the "early" manuscripts is just wrong because we don't have enough evidence to make that sort of claim. And yet, they make it sound like they are so sure and since they have a degree and work in a university that they are making an indisputable truth claim. And then popularists spread that faulty message to laypeople. To say it's frustrating is putting it mildly.

[@user-zl6dy3fo5h]

I am grateful for the depth and breadth of your meaningful research, which potentially opens up witnesses to controversial passages. Thank you! My interest mainly hinges on obedience to the text of Scripture, and confidence in its veracity, given us in the variety of documents tucked away in places like Mt. Athos.

[@stevenhayes1611]

I find it odd that there is no clamor from modern text critics for access to these manuscripts. There are potentially more manuscripts of the Greek NT there than are currently accessible to scholars today. According to the empirical methods that have produced them, both the eclectic and majority texts of the Greek NT could be dramatically changed by knowing what the contents of Mount Athos are. Thankfully, my Bible isn’t up for grabs!

[@hefinjones9051]

Actually hundreds of these manuscripts are viewable online at the Munster INTF (the body largely responsible for the NA text). They have also spot checked hundreds of these manuscripts at hundreds of points throughout their text. Some have been fully transcribed. The fact that the Library of Congress has also hundreds of these available online is because of the work of the IGNTP in the 1950's. So in point of fact scholars have not merely been clamoring... they have already put in a lot of work into cataloging, collating, transcribing these taects and making them freely available t those who would look.

[@alexmoore7755]

Amen

[@pastorpitman]

Fascinating!

[@cognoscenticycles4351]

Sounds like there is an untapped treasure trove of ancient greek manuscripts of the New Testament. It would be fascinating to see how they compared with what we have presently.

[@hefinjones9051]

Is it possible to find out where M Simkovitch gets her 900,000 number? Did she reference this? I have found it in one very popular source but more more authoritative sources (including the Greek authorities doing the digitising) give quite different numbers. Any chance of a bit more info? Thanks.

[@wordmagazine]

She cites an online article from 2014: archaeonewsnet.com/byzantine-treasures-of-mount-athos-to/ and references "officials" involved in the digitization project for the 900,000 figure (see p. 34, f.n. 31). The article indicates that these figures came from Menelaos Daskalis, general-secretary of the Telecommunications and Hellenic Post Office which was overseeing the digitization project. Yes, some of the online info is conflicting. The LOC says there are 11,000 Athonite Greek mss. of which it has only published c. 200. The Mount Athos project website says there are 15,000 Greek mss. of which it has digitized only c. 3,000. I think the point is that no one really knows how many mss. there are at Mount Athos (in Greek and other languages) and how many have not yet been digitized and studied. The project seems to have run from 2014-2000 but was not exhaustive. And this is only Mount Athos. There are hundreds of other libraries, churches, and monasteries from Russia to Ethiopia that hold manuscripts yet uncovered, studied, or published. As I point out, this would seem to be a pretty major problem for those who hold to the reconstruction position (whether modern eclectic or "Majority" text). If you think Simkovich is in error, please enlighten us with a more reliable report as to exactly how many mss. there are at Mount Athos and how many are yet to be digitized and studied. Given the isolation and complexities of the twenty Athonite monastic communities my guess is such information will be very difficult, if not impossible, definitively to determine.

[@TonyThomas10000]

I believe that Dr. Daniel Wallace has digitized some of the manuscripts at Mt. Athos for CSNTM.

[@Beleeuer]

They are always trying to find ways to change God's word and intellectually convince people it is a good thing that God keeps changing his word. Their chasing after words that God didn't say.