Quoting another text critic

In the past I have presented quotes that reveal the thinking of modern textual critics. Today’s quote if from Jan Krans (or, Jan Krans-Plaisier). Krans is a text critic and Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Previously we have noticed Krans’s statement “In practice New Testament textual critics today tend to be Christians themselves, but not always. It does not matter, for the quality of their work does not depend on their faith but on their adherence to academic standards.” This longer quote is an excerpt from the same source of writing, “Why the Textus Receptus Cannot Be Accepted.”

The second position regards the establishment of the correct text of the Greek New Testament—the text closest to what the authors wrote and published—as a purely scholarly endeavour. Textual criticism of the New Testament does not fundamentally differ from that of any other text from Antiquity. The basic task is always clear-cut: charting the entire transmission—everything preserved as manuscripts and other sources—and finding out by means of the best text-critical method available what is oldest and most original. Needless to say the transmission of each text may have had special characteristics which scholars will have to take into account.

An immediate consequence of this position is that in principle the text-critical task is never finished. Methods can be refined and fresh manuscript finds can be made. Readers of the New Testament—just as for instance readers of Plato’s works—will have to live with a degree of uncertainty, even more so since there are cases that the available evidence does not allow for firm conclusions. Regrettably Bible translations and even source text editions more often than not hide even this relatively small degree of doubt from their readers.

Krans here is clear on what some text critics and critical texts defenders hem-haw about. He is adamant that textual criticism is “a purely scholarly endeavour,” and that “the text-critical task is never finished.” He tries to make readers feel good that “a degree of uncertainty” in inherent their process. If you are satisfied with a purely scholarly endeavour that is ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the text, you go for it. It’s not for me. 

Farewell, farewell to all who doubt;
My Savior calls us to come out;
The truth, the truth, shall set me free —
Their scheme is not the thing for me.
(Adapted from words in the song Arkansas by S. P. Barnett)

“neither be ye of doubtful mind.”  Luke 12:29