Talk:Interpolation (manuscripts)

Natural Tendencies

Quote: "As there are often several generations of copies between an extant copy of an ancient text and the original, each handwritten by different scribes,there is a natural tendency for extraneous material to be inserted into such documents over time."

This requires me to believe that the natural tendency is to alter documents instead of the opposite. If this is the case, then we would have few matching manuscripts because this "natural tendency" would have compelled us to change them. I propose rather the opposite, and say it is self evident by the fact that we have the documents.

This natural tendency proposition has a use, as a method of reasoning during investigation. That is to say, "I won't trust the validity or wholeness of a certain manuscript as a premise, and I will follow the evidence to see where this leads." But as a whole, if method of reasoning equals the outcome, the asker should look for a form of the observer-expectancy effect. Phrenomics (talk) 21:28, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Assumed interpolations in religious scriptures.

I'm a bit surprised, not to find any mention of the controversies in many instances of suspected interpolations. Self-evidently, controverses should be treated carefully and as NPOV as possibly; but I do not think complete silence is the best option. After all, the most common instance of the term seems to be in relation to the authenticity of various passages in the Bible. (This is at least my personal experience.) Thus, a reader looking for an explanation of interpolation quite possibly has seen it in a biblical context, where it may or may not have been treated as controversial.

I think that the explanation about the ability of modern scolars to discern interpolations should be modified a little, by adding that sometimes the proposed interpolation is disputed, either for pure scolarly reasons, or for e.g. religious ones (or with a mixture). There should also be a short section about interpolation in biblical texts. (If someone knows more than I do about similar discussions for other religious texts, then that would be of interest, too.)

An exampe could be Mark 16:9-20 (Jesus appearing resurrected). Would it be controversial to mention that many bible scolars consider this as an interpolation? In both the present general Swedish bible (Bibel 2000) and the previous official Swedish bible edition, these verses are included, but put within parentheses, in order to mark them as a probable interpolation. I've just checked the on line English Standard Version and New American Standard Bible, and note, that they treat the passage similarly (but with even more eloquent accompanying foot notes). JoergenB (talk) 16:38, 2 July 2011 (UTC)