The Relevance of Textual Theories for the Praxis of Textual Criticism

rules. For that reason, we often find such rules mentioned and exemplified in introductions. If these rules are of little help in textual praxis, textual theories are even less beneficial.32 In the textual comparison of readings, our main guides are common sense, experience, and knowledge. Or, in the words of McCarter,33 the textual critic needs training, experience, and a good master. This leaves the assumption of the original text as the only theory relevant to textual praxis, not so much as an aid in the decision-making process, but as a theory on which we need to take a stand. 32 On the other hand, handbooks usually give an optimistic view of what can be achieved with the aid of the mentioned guidelines. For example, the influential book of Würthwein (The Text of the Old Testament, 76) notes: “There is no precisely defined method for Old Testament textual criticism. Further, it is indeed questionable whether one is possible, because the tradition is so varied, that an effective procedure for one problem would not be appropriate for another. But there are certain fundamental principles which are widely recognized, at least in theory if not in practice, and which are designed to keep textual criticism on a sound basis, avoiding the excesses of arbitrariness and subjectivity” (my italics). The same optimistic tone is heard in Steck, Old Testament Exegesis, 40–47 = Barth and Steck, Exegese, 37–44. This optimism is perpetuated in the influential introduction by Eissfeldt, who, when speaking about “the evaluation of the evidence for textual criticism,” simply refers to BH and Würthwein rather than discussing the issues himself: O. Eissfeldt , The Old Testament, An Introduction, Including the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and also the Works of Similar Type from Qumran: The History of the Formation of the Old Testament (trans. P. R. Ackroyd ; Oxford: Blackwell, 1965), 721. O. Kaiser and W. G. Kümmel (Exegetical Method: A Student’s Handbook [rev. ed.; New York: Seabury Press, 1981], 5–11) describe the procedure of textual criticism and textual evaluation as if the student and scholar can practice this discipline well with the guidance of a handbook. 33 See n. 4 above.