I first became acquainted with New Testament textual scholarship while working toward a master’s degree at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The class I had enrolled in was a “textual criticism” class under the supervision of Dr. Bill Warren where we dealt with handwritten manuscripts of the New Testament written in Greek. Each student in the study was trained to compare every word with a modern Greek New Testament (used to make modern English versions), a process called “collation.” The class noted the differences between the modern Greek version and the ancient handwritten copies.
As I began the tedious process of learning to collate manuscripts, I became enamored with the skill and precision of these ancient scribes and the commitment that was necessary to copy a particular book. Furthermore, while the copy process was laborious, I frequently found marginal notes and endnotes by the scribes reflecting gratitude to God for enabling him or her to complete such a daunting task. I was learning that preserving the New Testament was both a scholastic and devotional practice.
For me, each of these manuscripts became a journey through history as I came to a progressively deeper appreciation for how the Bible traveled across time. In addition, I found modern scribes who, like me, had entered into this prolonged process also shared my fascination with these ancient writings. Although time consuming, the attention to detail required by this process fueled an interest for further study into paleography (the study of ancient writing) and eventually led to a doctoral dissertation.
Following graduation in 2009, I continued my work with ancient manuscripts but wanted to do more. I began to feel a sense of indebtedness for the experiences God had given me. Like the ancient scribes before me, God’s Word had impacted my life in a profound way that birthed a desire to express my gratitude to God. As a result, in 2011 my wife and I began making financial donations to the New Testament Textual Studies Foundation in an effort to provide funding for future students so they might come to share in the same experiences that only a scribe can appreciate.
David Brown