Review by Choice Review
Ehrman examines the interface between the social history of early Christianity and the textual tradition of the New Testament literature, focusing on how tension between various Christian heresies and orthodoxy affected the textual transmission of the documents. His thesis is that scribes at times changed words in the sacred texts to render them more patently orthodox and to thus preclude their misuse by those Christians viewed as aberrant. In the course of setting out this thesis, the author surveys numerous textual problems of significance to all New Testament scholars. He categorizes the scribal variants from the anti-adoptionistic, anti-separationist, anti-docetic, and anti-patripassianist perspectives. Throughout the discussion Ehrman is also concerned to point out what can be known about the individual scribes and their social world, a group whom he views as powerful since debates over doctrine are, in no small measure, debates over who wields power. This detailed, carefully argued, and thoroughly documented study should be purchased for collections serving faculty and graduate students in New Testament studies and church history. F. M. Gillman; University of San Diego
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
