Journal: Reformed Baptist Theological Review
Volume: RBTR 02:2 (Jul 2005)
Article: Textual Criticism And The Ministry Of Preaching
Author: James R. White

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RBTR 2:2 (July 2005) p. 3

Textual Criticism And The Ministry Of Preaching

James R. White

James R. White, D.Min., Th.D., Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, Phoenix, AZ, Adjunct, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and Columbia Evangelical Seminary.

The ministry of the Word in any English speaking nation today will involve the serious minister in the subject of textual critical study, and that by simple necessity. The past few decades have seen an explosion in English Bible translations. Even if a particular translation is used for pew Bibles and in services, on any given Sunday a pastor may face a congregation with half a dozen or more different translations in their hands. And the confused look on the face of that visitor in the sixth row may well be due to the fact that his translation does not even contain the verse being preached on. More than once, due to my having written on the Bible translation issue, I have heard complaints from congregants, “The pastor preached an entire sermon on a passage that I could not even find in my Bible!” For many who have used a single translation throughout their ministry, taking the time to check and double-check a plethora of modern translations is one of the least pleasurable of their weekly sermon preparation tasks.

Apart from the practical implications brought on by the variety of English Bible translations, there is another aspect to the role of textual critical issues in the ministry of the Word. The fact is that though God has preserved His Word so that we can insist firmly and clearly that the extant manuscript tradition faithfully communicates to us the original readings inspired by the Holy Spirit, the methodology used by our Lord in the preservation of His Word has, as a “side effect,” the existence of textual variations. Those variations at times can influence directly the exegesis of the text itself, and if the pastor is unaware of how to utilize the tools available today to assist him in evaluating the text, the resultant exegesis can be problematic. At the very least, any person handling the inspired text will want to be aware of major textual variations, how they arose, how they might impact his interpretation, and how he might wish to explain them in the process of opening the text to the people.

Before engaging the important types of theological variants, a review of the most popular textual resources will be offered. These resources provide excellent and reliable textual data for use in exegetical study.

RBTR 2:2 (July 2005) p. 4

Then a selection of texts will be presented that illustrate broad categories of textual variation that impact exegesis and preaching. They will be broken down into categories illustrating:

• Important Theolog...
  
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