Editio Octava Critica Maior

Edition

The first volume was issued in 11 parts, beginning in 1864. They were published in two volumes in 1869 and 1872. The edition was accompanied by a rich critical apparatus in which he assembled all of the variant readings that he or his predecessors had found in manuscripts, versions, and fathers.

Tischendorf died before he could finish his edition, and the third volume, containing the Prolegomena, was prepared and edited by C. R. Gregory and issued in three parts (1884, 1890, 1894).

Tischendorf gave the evidence known in his time. He used 64 uncial manuscripts, a single papyrus manuscript, and a small number of minuscule manuscripts.{{Cite book | author-link = Kurt Aland |author2-link=Barbara Aland | url-access = limited

Tischendorf did not have a detailed textual theory. In practice he had a strong preference for the readings of the manuscript of his own discovery – Codex Sinaiticus. His text is eclectic but generally the Alexandrian. It has also something from the Western text-type, especially when it agrees with Codex Bezae.

At the beginning of his work Tischendorf had practically no access to Codex Vaticanus, and it was published too late to alter the basic structure of Tischendorf's edition.{{Cite book | author-link = Kurt Aland |author2-link=Barbara Aland | url-access = limited

Influence

Tischendorf's Editio Octava and The New Testament in the Original Greek of Westcott and Hort were sufficient to make the Textus Receptus obsolete for the scholarly world.{{Cite book | author-link = Kurt Aland |author2-link=Barbara Aland | url-access = limited

According to Eberhard Nestle the text of the eighth edition differs from the seventh edition in 3,572 places. Nestle used Editio octava in his Novum Testamentum Graece for its extensive representation of the manuscript tradition and Westcott-Hort's text for its development of the methodology of the textual criticism. Nestle called Tischendorf's edition "the most complete survey of what has been done on the Greek New Testament up to the present time".{{Cite book | author-link = Eberhard Nestle

The edition was reprinted in 1965. According to Kurt Aland even a century later it was still of value for scholarly research.{{Cite book | author-link = Kurt Aland |author2-link=Barbara Aland | url-access = limited

Tischendorf proposed his own critical apparatus – symbols and abbreviations – in this work. The critical apparatus used in Editio Octava is still used by some textual critics.

References

Editio Octava

• Gospels: Novum Testamentum Graece: ad antiquissimos testes denuo recensuit, apparatum criticum omni studio perfectum, vol. I (1869)
• Acts–Revelation: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. II (1872)
• Prolegomena I–VI: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. III, Part 1 (1884)
• Prolegomena VII–VIII: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. III, Part 2 (1890)
• Prolegomena IX–XIII: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. III, Part 3 (1890)

References

1. (2005). "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration". Oxford University Press.
2. Robert Waltz, [http://pericopedeadultera.com/RECON/Tisch-App.html ''Tischendorf's Apparatus'']{{Dead link. (July 2019)
3. (2005). "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration". Oxford University Press.
4. link. (2012-03-13 at the ''Bible Resource Center'')
5. [[Kirsopp Lake]], [https://archive.org/details/textnewtestamen01lakegoog ''The Text of the New Testament''] (London 1908), pp. 92-93.
6. Philip Comfort, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m-q8xpqveREC&dq=%22Editio+Octava+Critica+Maior%22&pg=PA99 ''Encountering the manuscripts: an introduction to New Testament paleography''], B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, 2005, p. 99.