In recent decades, the traditional definition of the original text of the New Testament (NT) has shifted from seeking one singular text to seeking a number of texts. Instead of one "authorial" text, now it is claimed that it could be one of several different texts based on their locations in the history of transmission: preauthorial, authorial, canonical, and postcanonical. These distinctions were first listed by Eldon Epp in his article "The Multivalence of the Term 'Original Text' in New Testament Textual Criticism" as "predecessor," "autographic," "canonical," and "interpretive" text-forms. It is apparent that with such changing definitions of the original text of the NT, text-critics are ambivalent regarding reaching the traditional goal of NT textual criticism. Instead, attention is now given towards hypothesizing regarding the emergence of the variant readings. Furthermore, any attempt towards utilizing text-critical principles to reach the original text is looked upon as being out of date and pointless. All such shifting definitions of the original text and the ensuing claims have far-reaching consequences for biblical faith and praxis. In this work, three different scholars will present their methodologies for retrieving the original text of the NT. No matter how each of the presenters evaluates the text-critical evidence, it is obvious that they all believe in the inerrancy and retrievability of the NT text.
David Alan Black (ThD, University of Basel) is Professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. His recent publications include
Perspectives on the Ending of Mark, Why Four Gospels?, and
The Jesus Paradigm. He and his wife live on a 123-acre working farm in southern Virginia and are self-supporting missionaries to Ethiopia.
Abidan Paul Shah (born October, 1973) has his Ph.D. in New Testament Textual Criticism (ancient biblical manuscripts) and teaches as an Adjunct Professor at Carolina University, Winston Salem. He holds a Masters of Divinity with languages and a Bachelors in Broadcast Journalism. He has been the Lead Pastor of Clearview Church, Henderson, NC for 24 years. He has read scholarly papers at the National Evangelical Theological Society and is a regular columnist with the local newspaper. Prior to committing to full-time ministry, Abidan served for four years as a Christian school administrator.
He lives in the community with his beautiful wife Nicole and their 4 kids (Rebecca - 27 yrs, Abigail - 24 yrs, Nicholas - 19 yrs, and Thomas - 16 yrs).
Dr. Shah has authored three books with a fourth book to be released.
Changing the Goalpost of New Testament Textual Criticism - Wipf & Stock
30 Days Through a Crisis - Self-Published
30 Days to a New Beginning - Self-Published
Can We Reach the Original Text of the New Testament?" - Wipf and Stock
Dr. Shah also has a daily radio show called "Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah" where he talks about a multitude of topics, specifically relating to the academic study of the Bible. As an adjunct professor of NT and Greek at Carolina University, his teaching videos are available on his YouTube page.
