Textual criticism of TBOTSS

Adam Stephanides · 15 Jun 2001, 23:12 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Textual criticism of TBOTSS
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 23:12:49
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0846 at digest.urth.net>
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on 6/15/01 2:52 PM, Betty, Brian at BBetty at foleyhoag.com wrote:

> Adam Stephanides wrote: "If my account is correct, then the "textual
> problems" raised by TBOTSS are a less difficult than any of the Gospels
> (though if you believe John is written by an eyewitness--a minority view,=
 as
> far as I can gather--you may disagree), and certainly much less difficult
> than the Gospels taken collectively, or the Bible as a whole."
>=20
> I definitely think it's easier than those, mostly because we have a single
> author at the bottom, that being Wolfe.

I don't think the crucial difference is that TBOTSS has a single author.
While Wolfe is the sole real author, there are several fictional authors,
whose goals in writing differ to some extent (whatever Narr's motives for
writing his manuscript are, they're not the same as the Editors' motives for
writing the third-person sections, or for writing their individual
first-person sections).  Theoretically Wolfe could have written a book whose
fictional authors and sources were as various and entangled as the real
authors and sources of the Bible; but he didn't.

--Adam

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