3 Approaches to Textual Criticism

Summing up some of the writing of John Owen (Puritan theologian, 1616-1683), William Einwechter asserts that there are three approaches to textual criticism:

1. The approach that “presupposes the authority of Scripture to delimit the true text by means of divine inspiration and preservation.”

2. The approach that “presupposes the authority of the Papacy to define the text of Scripture by means of the pronouncement of the Pope or Councils.” [Note: Owen’s opposition was primarily from Roman Catholicism. I assume Greek Orthodoxy would have this same general approach.]

3. The approach that “presupposes the authority of man’s reason to determine the text according to scientific method.”

“John Owen’s Defense of the Received Text” by William O. Einwechter in Why I Preach from the Received Text, p. 88