Greer-Heard: Michael Holmes Session

Well, unfortunately, I slept in. I finally got to the session about 10 minutes before it ended, so I at least got to hear Holmes's conclusion and the Q&A. I'm trying to get a more complete set of notes on the session, but until then, here's what I was there for.

Holmes concluded by observing that if we were to read the copying practices of later centuries into the earlier centuries, if we were to assume that they didn't change dramatically, that would serve as evidence that the text we observe in the early centuries is likely a pretty good representative of the original text.

At that point, Ehrman and Wallace came up for a response.

Ehrman objected that if it would be improper to read the practices of the 4th century into the 2nd century, it would also be improper to read the 2nd into the 1st. Holmes responded that, essentially, it's what we need to do (attempt to deal with the evidence that's there rather than conjecture about the blank spaces) with the evidence we've got.

Wallace pointed out the p75 and B example again, asking the question of causality. Where does the idea that Jesus is divine come from? Thin air? In other words, if the early church didn't have manuscripts, where did this idea come from? Another area to look at is what Matthew and Luke do with Mark. It appears that they don't change Mark too much, which would confirm Holmes hypothesis.

The three of them also discussed whether or not the earliest copies would have berm copied by professional scribes, scribes employed in the houses of the more wealthy families, or just guys on the street.