Francis Karl Alter SJ ( German: Franz Karl Alter) (1749–1804), a Jesuit, born in Silesia, and professor of Greek at Vienna, was an editor of the Greek text of the New Testament. [1] His edition was different from those of Mill, Wettstein, and Griesbach, because he used only the manuscripts housed at the Imperial Library at Vienna. [2] It was the first edition of the Greek New Testament that contained evidence from Slavic manuscripts themselves, as opposed to Christian Frederick Matthaei's editions (1803-7), also claimed (by Bruce Metzger) to be the first to contain evidence from the Slavic version of the New Testament. [1]
Alter used twelve manuscripts of the Gospels ( U, 3, 76, 77, 108, 123, 124, 125, 219, 220, 224, 225), six of the Acts (3, 43a, 63a, 64a, 66a, 67a), seven of the Pauline epistles (3, 49p, 67p, 68p, 69p, 70p, 71p), three of the Apocalypse ( 34r, 35r, 36r), and two Evangelistaria ( ℓ 45, ℓ 46). He also used readings from the Coptic Bohairic version (edited by David Wilkins in 1716), four Slavonic codices and one Old Latin codex ( i). Most of these Vienna codices were also examined by Andrew Birch. [3]
Marsh gave this opinion:
- "The text of this edition is neither the common text nor a revision of it, but a mere copy from a single manuscript, and that not a very ancient one". [4]
It was not the Textus Receptus, and it was not an important edition for textual criticism, but Alter's comparison of Slavic and Greek texts did provide material for future textual criticism. [2]
Alter also edited Homer's Iliad (1789) and Odyssey (1794) and wrote an essay on Georgian literature (1798).
Selected works
- Alter, Francis K. (1786–1787). Novum Testamentum Graecum, ad Codicem Vindobonensem Graece expressum: Varietam Lectionis addidit Franciscus Carolus Alter (2 vols). Wien (Vienna): De Trattnern. OCLC 1015492164.
- ——— (1786). Marcus Tulli Ciceronis Quaestiones Academicae, Tusculanae, De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum Et De Fato. Wien (Vienna): De Trattnern. OCLC 630194983.
- ——— (1798). Ueber Georgianische Litteratur. Wien (Vienna): De Trattnern. OCLC 159904335.
- ——— (1799). Philologisch-kritische Miscellaneen. Wien (Vienna): De Trattnern. OCLC 444709116.
- ——— (1801). Beitrag zur praktischen Diplomatik für Slaven. Wien (Vienna): C. Schaumburg. OCLC 236100412.
References
- ^ a b Bruce M. Metzger, Bart D. Ehrman, "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration", Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 168.
- ^ a b S. P. Tregelles, The Printed Text of the Greek New Testament, London 1854, p. 692.
- ^ Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (2005) [1894]. A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. 2. London: George Bell & Sons. p. 220.
- ^ Marsh, Lectures, part II, 1848, p. 148.
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