Chris Coldwell (NaphtaliPress) has published Presbyterian & Reformed books since 1987. He is the editor of The Confessional Presbyterian journal, an annual publication containing scholarly articles from a Confessional Presbyterian perspective by men from the many conservative Presbyterian & Reformed denominations today. He has a particular interest in the text of the Westminster Standards, and a critical text of the Larger Catechism is running serially in the journal beginning with the 2007 issue.
A Critical Text of the Westminster Larger Catechism 3: Critical Remarks
Posted 09-11-2007 at 09:52 AM by NaphtaliPress
A Critical Text of the Westminster Larger Catechism: Q. 1–50
Critical Remarks
Bower’s work on the early authoritative editions presents a critical text following current practices in the discipline of textual studies, giving the text of the first edition followed by a critical apparatus noting every variation. The goal in the collation presented here, is to present an accurate text, noting mainly variants in wording and punctuation, without descending to the detail of tracing all changes in spelling or capitalization.[7] Also, while some original punctuation will be noticed in the variants, unhelpful punctuation has been dropped or changed from the final text itself. Most of these have been dropped over time already, and are largely the unnecessary commas which Carruthers similarly dropped in his text of the Confession of Faith. In some instances, some punctuation may be changed in the text if helpful to the modern reader, but this will always be noted and a reason given. The author is indebted to Drs. Frank J. Smith and David C. Lachman for their review and assessment in these cases.
The vast majority of the variants in the text concern punctuation. Those in the first fifty questions of the catechism which involve actual changes in the text, occur at: Q. 2 (11); Q. 4 (33); Q. 6 (44); Q. 9 (66); Q. 10 (75); Q. 16 (127); Q. 17 (138, 147); Q. 19 (174); Q. 20 (193, 194); Q. 21 (201); Q. 25 (222); Q. 29 (253); Q. 30 (257); Q. 32 (286); Q. 34 (299); Q. 35 (306); Q. 37 (325); Q. 38 (341, 344). These notes are set in semi-bold type.
The following notations are used. An “em dash” (—) is used to indicate that a variant occurs in all the editions between the two noted (e.g., an occurrence in all editions from Maxey’s to Mair’s would be noted as MAX—Mair), or in all editions since the first noted (e.g., all editions since Maxey’s would be note as MAX—). Variants occurring within multiple editions in the same “family” will use lower case letters, such as L&Rabc for the three editions of Lumisden & Robertson, or PCUSAa–UP, for all the PCUSA editions up through those of the UPCUSA. A superscript dagger or similar figure († ‡ §) following an edition or series of editions denotes a variation from the series and that variant or a note about a variant will be marked with the same figure (e.g., “sufficiently, and”: MAX—DNLP; L&Rab;† RPCNA. †The added comma was dropped by L&Rc forward in the traditional text.). When a variant has persisted over a large number of editions or even until today, the introduction point or first found occurrence may be noted as follows: “end, is, to” (MAX): MAX—Cox; RPa. Abbreviations used to identify editions are in all capital letters unless the edition is simply named for the printer or editor (e.g., Cox, Aitken, etc).
A draft transcription of the catechism manuscripts prepared for The Westminster Assembly project was primarily used in the collation. If any doubts were raised regarding the transcription, photocopies of the originals owned by the Bodleian library were consulted. As a final check, the work with the manuscripts was compared with John Bower’s text, and remarks given where there is a disagreement or some doubt on the reading. In notes regarding the MSS any reference to “the copy” if not explicitly clear, means the photocopy obtained from the Bodleian.
Continued: Scripture Proofs
Notes.
7. The original overuse of capitalization and some use of the italic face added in later editions were uniformly stripped out in the E. Robertson edition of 1756, which was followed in all the subsequent editions of the traditional text.
Additional Notes: 1. There are 455 critical notes on Q&As 1-50 presented in The Confessional Presbyterian 3 (2007).
2. Since sending the above off for publication, I have updated my transcription of the WLC MSS to a publishable form and hope to publish it in some manner in the near future, D.V. There are considerable notations (nearly 750 notes) noting my opinion where different from Bower, or actual errors in Bower’s transcription presented in this thesis or other notes on variation from published texts. My understanding is Mr. Bower is refining his work for publication as well.
Critical Remarks
Bower’s work on the early authoritative editions presents a critical text following current practices in the discipline of textual studies, giving the text of the first edition followed by a critical apparatus noting every variation. The goal in the collation presented here, is to present an accurate text, noting mainly variants in wording and punctuation, without descending to the detail of tracing all changes in spelling or capitalization.[7] Also, while some original punctuation will be noticed in the variants, unhelpful punctuation has been dropped or changed from the final text itself. Most of these have been dropped over time already, and are largely the unnecessary commas which Carruthers similarly dropped in his text of the Confession of Faith. In some instances, some punctuation may be changed in the text if helpful to the modern reader, but this will always be noted and a reason given. The author is indebted to Drs. Frank J. Smith and David C. Lachman for their review and assessment in these cases.
The vast majority of the variants in the text concern punctuation. Those in the first fifty questions of the catechism which involve actual changes in the text, occur at: Q. 2 (11); Q. 4 (33); Q. 6 (44); Q. 9 (66); Q. 10 (75); Q. 16 (127); Q. 17 (138, 147); Q. 19 (174); Q. 20 (193, 194); Q. 21 (201); Q. 25 (222); Q. 29 (253); Q. 30 (257); Q. 32 (286); Q. 34 (299); Q. 35 (306); Q. 37 (325); Q. 38 (341, 344). These notes are set in semi-bold type.
The following notations are used. An “em dash” (—) is used to indicate that a variant occurs in all the editions between the two noted (e.g., an occurrence in all editions from Maxey’s to Mair’s would be noted as MAX—Mair), or in all editions since the first noted (e.g., all editions since Maxey’s would be note as MAX—). Variants occurring within multiple editions in the same “family” will use lower case letters, such as L&Rabc for the three editions of Lumisden & Robertson, or PCUSAa–UP, for all the PCUSA editions up through those of the UPCUSA. A superscript dagger or similar figure († ‡ §) following an edition or series of editions denotes a variation from the series and that variant or a note about a variant will be marked with the same figure (e.g., “sufficiently, and”: MAX—DNLP; L&Rab;† RPCNA. †The added comma was dropped by L&Rc forward in the traditional text.). When a variant has persisted over a large number of editions or even until today, the introduction point or first found occurrence may be noted as follows: “end, is, to” (MAX): MAX—Cox; RPa. Abbreviations used to identify editions are in all capital letters unless the edition is simply named for the printer or editor (e.g., Cox, Aitken, etc).
A draft transcription of the catechism manuscripts prepared for The Westminster Assembly project was primarily used in the collation. If any doubts were raised regarding the transcription, photocopies of the originals owned by the Bodleian library were consulted. As a final check, the work with the manuscripts was compared with John Bower’s text, and remarks given where there is a disagreement or some doubt on the reading. In notes regarding the MSS any reference to “the copy” if not explicitly clear, means the photocopy obtained from the Bodleian.
Continued: Scripture Proofs
Notes.
7. The original overuse of capitalization and some use of the italic face added in later editions were uniformly stripped out in the E. Robertson edition of 1756, which was followed in all the subsequent editions of the traditional text.
Additional Notes: 1. There are 455 critical notes on Q&As 1-50 presented in The Confessional Presbyterian 3 (2007).
2. Since sending the above off for publication, I have updated my transcription of the WLC MSS to a publishable form and hope to publish it in some manner in the near future, D.V. There are considerable notations (nearly 750 notes) noting my opinion where different from Bower, or actual errors in Bower’s transcription presented in this thesis or other notes on variation from published texts. My understanding is Mr. Bower is refining his work for publication as well.
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