I'm frustrated.

A few years back I noticed that Eerdmans was going to publish James Royse's monumental dissertation, Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri — consistentely and frequently cited in footnotes in just about every NT text-critical tome I've read or looked at in the past three years. "Woo Hoo!", I thought. It would be available and might even be less that $100, which means I could buy it at SBL at a reasonable price!

Yesterday, I read the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog post on Brill's NTTSD series, which notes:

For those of you who have waited on James R. Royse's study of Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri finally to be published (the orginal dissertation on which it is based dates from 1981) will be pleased to hear that it is due this autumn (according to Brill's representative whom I met in Vienna). According to the gossip at the SBL in Vienna the delay of Royse's book on the part of the former publisher Eerdman's caused frustration for both the author Royse and the SD editor Epp and led the latter to turn to Brill which has now resulted in this permanent solution.

Well, I'm glad the book is getting published. But Brill wants $369.00 for it! (amazon.com) That means it is destined to only be purchased by university libraries; that it will suck hard-to-come-by money from other book purchases at said libraries, and it will be destined to sit in the office of some NT prof (or a departmental library) away from the main stacks where folks could actually use the durn thing.

What to do?

Don't buy the book. Go to the UMI dissertation express. Search for "Royse, James". It looks like you can get a copy of the dissertation for under 50 bucks, at least in the US. The 751 page dissertation was submitted in 1981, and the text has surely been sharpened in the past 26 years ... but hey, you'll actually be able to read and refer to it on your terms.

Even if Brill releases a paperback, who knows what the price will be. If you've considered the book before because, like me, you've seen it cited in footnotes and have drooled over it, then consider getting the dissertation via UMI instead of spending upwards of $400 with Brill.

Update (2007-08-09): Responding to the comments, particularly to Mike. I know the book would be expensive, but $370 is crazy. Are libraries really going to drop $370 on one title, and that not a substantive reference title? I am very glad Brill is publishing the title. My hope is that a few years down the road, after the libraries pay off the book's cost, it'll be put out in paperback, perhaps even by the SBL, and it will be do-able price-wise. I understand the economics of publishing and know there are costs for publishers to account for -- they don't grow money on trees. My post was a bit of a rant (hence the "rant" category), but also to point out that the primary substance of Royse's book, his dissertation, is available at a much more reasonable price for those who are really interested in the work but don't have a good library close (or who, like me, might be able to get it at a library but are such zealous bibliophiles they don't like to let go of books they've read, particularly if they could be useful in future studies). Anyway, c'est la vie, Scribal Habits. If I deem my text-critical reading needs to require Royse before a paperback is available, I'll head to UMI to get the dissertation.

Rob Bradshaw of the ever-helpful biblicalstudies.org.uk posts the following that may be of interest:

F.P. Cotterell, "The Gospel of Barnabas," Vox Evangelica 10 (1977): 43-47.

Here's the first paragraph:

The Gospel of Barnabas is one of three, or more precisely four, writings associated with the name of Paul’s companion in the first part of his mission to the gentiles. The earliest of these writings is the Epistle of Barnabas, dating from the first half of the second century. The Acts of Barnabas, a more convenient appellation than the formal Greek title, The journeys and the testimony of St. Barnabas the apostle, dates from the fifth century. Then there is the Gospel of Barnabas, a title which is confusingly applied to two works. The first of these is known to us only by name. It is referred to in the Latin Decretum Gelasianum, associated with pope Gelasius (492-496). Of the text of this Gospel we have no knowledge whatever. The second Gospel of Barnabas made its appearance in the sixteenth century and has re-surfaced at intervals ever since, most recently through a series of publications originating in Karachi, edited by Begum Aisha Bawany Wakf. This brief note is intended simply to draw attention to the character of the ‘Gospel’, to record what is known of its antecedents and the claims made for it by some Muslim apologists.

So if you have interest in such things, read the whole article.

After a few years, ricoblog's original orange scheme is tired — and besides, it clashed with my new profile pic. So I changed the color scheme to blues.

There may be the associated item here and there that still needs to have its color properties changed (see some of the titles on the sidebar ... ). Maybe someday I'll even get to 'em.

Just received from Hendrickson Publishers:

Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik, Editors: The Early Centuries: Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com).

Here's the blurb from Amazon:

Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (amazon.com) examines the formative first five centuries of Christian history as experienced by individuals who were ethnically Jewish, but who professed faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Offering the work of an impressive international team of scholars, this unique study examines the first five centuries of texts thought to have been authored or edited by Jewish Christians, including the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament Apocrypha, and some patristic works. Also considered are statements within patristic literature about Jewish believers and uses of oral traditions from Jewish Christians. Furthermore, the evidence in Jewish, mainly rabbinic, literature is examined, and room is made for a judicious sifting of the archaeological evidence. The final two chapters are devoted to an enlightening synthesis of the material with subsequent conclusions regarding Jewish believers in antiquity.

As I get into the book, I'll surely blog more about it.

Update (2007-08-06): Oh, yes — I was also told that there will be a session at the SBL meeting in San Diego on this very book (amazon.com). So if the topic (Jewish Believers in Jesus in the early centuries of Christianity) interests you, then you might want to check out the book and consider attending the session in November.

Update II (2007-08-16): Mentioned a bit more about the book in response to a post by Michael Bird. Check it out.

Update III (2007-08-22): Blogged the TOC of the book, which is extensive and gives a much better picture of the book's coverage.

Update IV (2007-09-16): Danny Zacharias of Deinde blogs about Jewish Believers as well. Danny's reaction? Pretty straightforward: "Earlier this year I made an authoritative declaration that every NT scholar ought to read Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (amazon.com). This is now my second binding authoritative declaration: Every NT scholar needs to have this book on his or her shelf." I agree. So heed Danny and get your copy now (amazon.com).

But it is a very good reason, I'm sure all would agree.

I blogged the other day on Hendrickson Publisher's upcoming book, A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com). It sounds very good, but it isn't published yet (the date is sometime in September 2007, as I recall).

In lieu of that, I thought I'd blog about some other readers that are on my shelf. I haven't actually made it through these, though I have slogged through some portions of them.

1. Hellenistic Greek Texts (amazon.com) by Allen Wikgren. This was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1947, but still appears to be in print. The copy I have (purchased used and given to me as a Christmas gift by my mother- and father-in-law) is in good shape. The manuscript is typewritten. It is 290 pages; the back 65 pages are a glossary with very brief definitions. Selections from LXX, NT, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Apostolic Fathers, other early Fathers, some Papyri and some other pagan Hellenistic literature. Recommended particularly if you'd like to broaden your horizons but only buy one book. Also, you can (without too much trouble) find English translations of most of these works, though the text itself has no translations.

2. A Greek Papyrus Reader with Vocabulary by Edgar J. Goodspeed and Ernest Cadman Colwell. This as well was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1935 with a second printing in 1936. But it doesn't appear to still be in print. As the title says, the focus is on papyrus. There are 82 papyri within the 108 pages of the book. Each papyrus has a brief intro and some notes at the foot. At the back are 20+ pages of vocabulary (a gloss list, essentially). The primary issue with this slim volume is that there are no translations, and it is difficult to find translations to check your work, so you're left wondering if you've got the gist of everything correctly.

3. While not technically "readers", I can recommend two diglot editions of the Apostolic Fathers: Michael Holmes' third edition (amazon.com), to be published in November -- though my primary experience is with the second edition; and Bart Ehrman's two-volume Loeb edition (Vol I (amazon.com), Vol II (amazon.com)). In my experience, Ehrman is more idiomatic and Holmes is more literal, so you take your pick. These have translations but no glossary/vocabulary sections.

Any other readers out there anyone would like to add to the list?

I've had reason to consult the printed edition of SBL Seminar Papers in the past, though I wasn't aware that the printing of the papers had been discontinued.

The SBL web site does make available seminar papers from 2002-2006. I was unaware of this until I stumbled across the page while looking to see if any version of the program guide for San Diego had been released yet. Here's the description paragraph from the page:

In years past, a print edition of the SBL Seminar Papers was made available in advance of the Annual Meeting each year in order to stimulate discussion of these works in progress during the meeting itself. Beginning in 2004, however, the print edition was discontinued, with a selection of papers presented at the meeting being made available online. In addition, a number of papers from previous years have been archived on the SBL Web site. Because these papers represent works in progress, they should not be quoted or otherwise cited without permission from the author.

(No, there is no release of a program guide yet. But console yourself with some of last year's seminar papers if you'd like.)

(NB: Actually, the archive goes back to 2002, though I have not changed the post title as it would change the link, and I don't want to do that.)

Randall Tan presented a paper in the Hellenistic Greek Language and Linguistics section at the recent International SBL meeting in Vienna called "Reversing the Roles of Lexis and Grammar?". I blogged about this back in January, where you can read a little background and the original paper proposal.

Randall was kind enough to list me as co-presenter, though my role was largely that of munger-of-data and sounding board. While I agree with what Randall presented, the ideas and approach are largely his.

Anyway, I figured it would be a good thing to post the paper here. So here it is:

• Reversing the Roles of Lexis and Grammar.pdf (103.97 KB)

We'd be interested in any feedback you may have on the paper; feel free to either comment here or zap email my way to the address listed in the sidebar.