I am crazy excited about being able to read a paper next week at the ETS regional meeting in DC. There is too much to share in a 30-minute window. In summary, I will try and show that both Reasoned Eclecticism and Byzantine Priority represent the extreme ends of the pendulum. It's easy to overvalue or undervalue the Alexandrian text, and it's just as easy to overvalue or undervalue the Majority text. I think Harry Sturz offers us a critical third way. In the words of Keith Elliott in his review of Sturz in
Novum Testamentum:
Sturz's book is a carefully documented and painstakingly argued thesis which demonstrates that Westcott and Hort (= WH) were wrong to dismiss the validity of the Byzantine text-type as a legitimate claimant alongside the other text-types to possess the original text.
Both Alexandrian Priority and Byzantine Exclusivism seem to miss this point.
If you're going to be at the meeting, let me know and we'll grab a meal together.
