Re: NA27 or UBS 4?

From: Frank W. Hughes (fwhughes@sunbeach.net)
Date: Mon Jun 05 2000 - 06:19:58 EDT

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>From Kurt &amp; Barbara Aland's <i>The Text of the New Testament</i> (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, and Leiden: Brill, 1987) 219:
<p>". . . the <u>GNT</u> is intended for translators, while the Nestle-Aland
edition is for students, professors, and expositors of the New Testament,
and a wide variety of other specialists.&nbsp; But then, this distinction
is by no means precise.&nbsp; the <u>GNT</u> edition is appropriate for
the use of students and others who are content to read the 'Standard text'
without taking an interest in the details of its transmission and its textual
history as found in the apparatus of Nestle-Aland.&nbsp; <u>GNT</u> is
frequently considered the more convenient edition for those who find the
sytem in Nestle-Aland somewhat complicated -- not just its apparatus, but
the parallel references in its outer margin as well.&nbsp; The decision
must depend on the interests of the individual."
<p>Personally it is precisely the references in the outer margin of the
Nestle-Aland edition that I wouldn't want to do without, and that I want
my students to use.&nbsp; I think if you use the above book by Aland &amp;
Aland you will understand why Nestle-Aland 27 is a superior edition.&nbsp;
I find <u>The Greek New Testament</u> much too restrictive in its choice
of variant readings.
<p>I will say that the Greek font used in <u>GNT</u> in its first three
editions was a beautiful font.&nbsp; The font used in the fourth edition
of <u>GNT</u> is so bad it is beneath polite discussion.&nbsp; When I saw
it at the ABS booth at an SBL meeting I complained about the font and wouldn't
buy that edition.
<p>The only Greek text I use now is the large-print edition of NA 27 or
the Latin-Greek edition of NA27.&nbsp; I do follow the NT lessons in our
chapel every day during the school year with the NA26.&nbsp; For that purpose
any edition with a clear text will do.&nbsp; The student who is lector
reads the lesson from the RSV or NRSV, and I follow the lesson in the NA
edition.&nbsp; I either follow the OT lesson in Rahlfs's LXX or in <u>Biblia
Hebraica</u>.&nbsp; I highly recommend this practice.
<p>Frank W. Hughes
<br>Codrington College
<br>Barbados</html>

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