What I really want for Christmas 2033

The most reliable Bible ever?

I recently listened to Rev Stecker’s interview of Dr. John Bombaro regarding the Shroud of Turin. I am an unabashed Shroud enthusiast and have been since I was a child. I fully believe it’s the real deal and that it’s a result of a chemical reaction, a radiated negative image caught on linen from the nanosecond our Lord Jesus took up His life again. Our Christ Jesus is the Image of the Invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation. But I digress..

Dr. Bombaro spoke about the Center for New Testament Restoration (CNTR) and the work of Alan Bunning. Bunning focuses on applying computational methods to the textual criticism of the Greek New Testament. Bunning is a former computer science lecturer at Purdue University with advanced training in New Testament textual criticism.

A folio from Papyrus 46, one of the oldest extant New Testament manuscripts.

CNTR’s core project is a comprehensive digital collation of all known extant Greek New Testament manuscripts from roughly the first four centuries of Christianity (to c. AD 400). The database includes electronic transcriptions of these manuscripts, many produced or refined by Bunning, made publicly available in a searchable online format at greekcntr.org. Users can compare manuscript readings verse by verse, view alignments with major critical editions (e.g., Nestle-Aland and Textus Receptus), and access links to manuscript images where available.

CNTR’s distinction is its use of algorithmic and statistical analysis to assess textual variants. This work culminated in the Statistical Restoration (SR) Greek New Testament, released in 2022, which applies a computational model to weigh external and internal evidence in determining the most probable original readings. The project aims to formalize and make transparent a “reasoned eclectic approach to textual decisions”¹.

The Lutheran Missal app now includes the SRGNT Greek

CNTR seeks to make early New Testament manuscript evidence more accessible and to apply reproducible, data-driven methods to longstanding questions in textual criticism.

The dream

So here is my long-term vision: a Lutheran Study Bible that draws unapologetically on the best witnesses to the biblical text: the Septuagint (the Scriptures most often quoted by our Lord and the apostles), the Masoretic Text, and the final fruit of Alan Bunning’s work in restoring the Greek New Testament.

Supporting resources compiled by faithful Lutheran exegetes would illuminate how the Church has read, preached, and confessed these Scriptures. We can dream of a Bible that is rigorously faithful to the best evidence, and usable in the life of the Church and home.

And yes, one can even imagine a fitting horizon for such a work: publication in AD 2033, marking two thousand years since our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection.

If someone is inclined to finance a project of this enormous scale, we would welcome the conversation. The Church should not be shy about thinking boldly. The laborers and resources are there; the vineyard is vast; and the inheritance is worth the work.

1. “Reasoned eclecticism [is] the view that is followed by a majority of New Testament scholars is reasoned eclecticism. It gives both external and internal evidence an equal hearing, without absolute preference for either type of evidence or for any text-type or group of manuscripts—though the Alexandrian witnesses are usually favored. Reasoned eclectics recognize that even though all internal evidence is subjective, it is not all equally subjective, and although all manuscripts are corrupt, they are not all equally corrupt. Also, reasoned eclectics try to address the cultural and theological backgrounds in which variants arose. Although there are problems with this view, no theory has yet replaced it. As we examine the practice of New Testament textual criticism, we will do so from the perspective of reasoned eclecticism.” Source: https://sharperiron.org/article/theology-thursday-reasoned-eclecticism-new-testament-text