You don’t see a lot of posts here because neither Jim nor I is paid enough to be constantly at work on this material, but lucky for you Jim still continues to pay for the web hosting. Lucky for you that also means even if we’re not always adding new material, the old stuff is still here and quite functional. But that brings me to two questions that are constantly being asked.

1. People have said when they try to open zip files they are corrupted. I have no logical explanation for why this is. The files are not corrupted, they are quite functional. There are only two solutions I have to this problem. Either try re-downloading the files or else use a different program to unzip them. Windows has a built in zipping function now, but sometimes that doesn’t work. You can try downloading 7-zip or Winzip and see if you can work it out that way. Beyond that there’s not much I can do to help. The files work fine for us, so we can’t troubleshoot a problem we don’t have.

2. People have problems using the modules because when they open they appear as though they do not work. These files need to be unblocked usually in order to use them. Instructions for doing this are clearly stated at the top of the modules page.

I’ve added links to two New Testament textual criticism modules that have previously been available on LaParola’s website. They are entitled New Testament Manuscript Variant Readings and an alt. version with variants sorted by text type and they are both compiled by  Pasquale Amicarelli.

Finally, I also added a link to a timeline of the publication of English Bibles made by Mark Hoffman. This file can be saved in the BibleWorks 8\timeline\ folder and must be opened in BibleWorks Timeline. You can read more about it here.

Another new version has been added to the Vetus Latina series (See also here and here). This time Pasquale has finished compiling the Codex Bobbiensis (also known as manuscript k in textual criticism circles). For more on other Vetus Latina manuscripts, you can start at the table in this Wikipedia entry. Codex Bobbiensis is from around the fifth century AD and is a partial manuscript. It contains Mark 8:8-end and Matthew 1:1-15:36 in that order (i.e. not the Matthew, then Mark order many are used to). Although the manuscript comes from North Africa, it was later brought to a monastery in a city called Bobbio, hence the name of the manuscript. For more information, check out Wikipedia, Bible Research or Bing away.

DOWNLOAD (Unzip files directly into \databases\ subfolder. Upon restarting BibleWorks the new version, VLK, will be available.)

A little over two weeks ago, on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog Dirk Jongkind announced the release of a digital edition of the Tregelles Greek New Testament. Thanks to his contributions, as well as the other people who worked on this project, the team was able to produce a digital edition of Tregelles’ text as well as a secondary text which consists of corrections to Tregelles’ text.

Because they produced the text under the attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license,  I was able to re-compile their texts for use in BibleWorks. If you want to know more about the Tregelles text itself or the Tregelles project, check out the official website and the Introductory PDF. The PDF is especially valuable because it documents the 469 changes they made to the original Tregelles text.

As far as the BibleWorks implementation, I only have a few things to say.

1. Whereas the Tregelles project noted section and paragraph breaks, I have simply dumbed those breaks down into paragraph breaks which are marked by the ¶ in the text.
2. The Pericope of Adultery (John 7:53-8:11) is not part of the main text of Tregelles, but he does include in the note readings according to the D codex and Stephanus. There wasn’t a great way to include these, but both are given one after another (first D and then Stephanus) in the BibleWorks text under the same verse. Example John 8:1 reads [[ Ιησους δε επορευθη εις το ορος των ελαιων.]] [[Ἰησοῦς δὲ ἐπορεύθη εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν ]]. Both readings are in double brackets to show that they are not part of the main text. The first set of double brackets is the D text, it does not have accents and smooth breathing marks. The second text is from the Stephanus reading.
3. There are two versions (TNT1 and TNT2) available for download here. TNT1 represents the original Tregelles reading and TNT2 represents the corrected version. You will most likely want to use TNT2, but TNT1 was provided for the sake of comparison.
4. These files are also being released with verse mapping files thanks to the kind and efficient work of Mark Eddy.
5. The re-use of these files still remains under the Creative Commons License of Dirk Jongkind and the Tregelles project.

DOWNLOAD TNT1 (Uncorrected Tregelles Greek NT) (unzip all files to your \databases\ subfolder)

DOWNLOAD TNT2 (Corrected Tregelles Greek NT) (unzip all files to your \databases\ subfolder)

Along the same lines as a previous post about Codex Vercellensis, Pasquale has finished another Old Latin manuscript transcription. This transcription comes from the Codex Veronensis, another beautiful purple manuscript as seen below:

If you want to learn more about the manuscript itself and its history, you’d best consult a book on textual criticism, but there is a small amount of information about this manuscript on Wikipedia.

Notes on dowloading:

1. These files will need to be unzipped into your \databases\ subdirectory in BibleWorks. The version (VLB) will then be available the next time you start BibleWorks.

2. Anytime you add a new version by simply copying files into the \databases\ folder to BibleWorks, it can mess with your saved version display order, if you want to avoid these problems, see a few of the user suggestions to work around that here (Mark Eddy’s post and Adelphos’ specifically).

DOWNLOAD!

For those interested in textual criticism issues, Pasquale has just released a new version for BibleWorks which contains the text from Codex Vercellensis, the earliest Old Latin manuscript of the Bible extant, dating to about AD 350. (In other words, this is a Latin text version, not English, Greek or anything else.)

This is what the real manuscript looks like. Sorry the text won't be this pretty color in BibleWorks.

If you want to learn more about the significance or history of Codex Vercellensis, check out the Wikipedia article.

Within BibleWorks, where gaps in the manuscript exist, Pasquale wrote the word “lacuna.” It’s not quite the same visual experience as reading a manuscript yourself, but if you do textual criticism, you will find this resource quite valuable.

DOWNLOAD! (Unzip the files in the folder \BibleWorks 8\databases\ (note these files work in older versions of BibleWorks as well)

Another module by Pasquale, this work includes Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments by Hermann Freiherr von Soden, images of the pages of the real book arranged in order of the New Testament.

• The electronic edition of von Soden’s Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments pages 102-289 used by permission of Clint Yale
• Table 1 - it came from L.Vaganay - An introduction to New Testament textual criticism - pag 156 - Cambridge University Press 1991
• Von Soden images used by permission of www.csntm.org - Center For The Study Of New Testament Manuscripts

It can be used in tandem with the Tischendorf Critical Appartatus that is already in BibleWorks 7.

DOWNLOAD! 170 MB file!

NOTE: FILE UPDATED BELOW ON 9/11/2007

For those who are interested in textual criticism, it is hard to imagine not being unaware of the various controversies over the ending of the Gospel of Mark. John Burgon wrote a book on that very controversy way back in 1871 and it has remained a very influential book on that topic. Burgon sets out to show that the ending of Mark can be shown to be reliable based on extant manuscripts of the Bible. If you’re interested in how text critics do their work, sit down with Burgon and you get a feel for some of the issues involved in the process.

BibleWorks user Scott Jones gracious provided this text which he manufactured digitally. He holds copyright on the digital text as such and so any other uses of this text outside of its present form will require his permission. You can contact him via the email address provided in the Burgon BibleWorks module. Scott graciously thanks Ewan MacLeod and Willem Swanepoel for their help in converting the e-text into BibleWorks friendly format.

DOWNLOAD!

While your hosts have been busy with the requirements of the academy (one Greek comprehensive done, one to go!!), Pasquale has been finishing up work on the wonderful project A Critical Textual Commentary on the Gospels. He has been adding to it as he was able, but now he’s completed the final pre-release. Look for the final release to come soon.

Updated files again on 3/28:
DOWNLOAD! (4.8 MB)