Variants in Comparative Approaches to Biblical Texts
Both Clines and Young have conducted recent studies on the transmission of biblical
texts in various periods.^59 Clines analyses texts that are transmitted in parallel in the re-
ceived biblical text, in particular the doubly transmitted poem recorded in Psalm 18 and
II Samuel 22. Clines differentiates between pluses, the interchange of synonyms, variant
word or phrase order, changes in syntax, as well as grammatical and orthographic vari-
ants.^60
Young examines the biblical evidence from Qumran against the evidence from elsewhere
in the Judean Desert, delineating between orthographic and non-orthographic variants.^61
We could say that Young’s category of content variants encapsulates all of those defined
by Clines, with the exception of orthographic variants.
While there may be differences in the way variants are categorised, the similarities be-
tween the methodologies of Clines and Young lie in their straight forward statistical ap-
proach to the data. After collating the variant readings, both scholars represent their data
in easily readable tables that indicate the frequency of variants by way of simple ratios.
(^59) See the studies in D.J.A. Clines, "What Remains," 76-95, I. Young, "The Biblical Scrolls from Qumran,"
81-139, and I. Young, "Textual Stability," 1-12. 60
For these categories applied to the texts of Psalm 18 and II Samuel 22, see D.J.A. Clines, "What Remains
of the Old Testament? Its Text and Language in a Post Modern Age: Appendix A: Textual Variants Be-
tween 2Samuel 22 and Psalm 18," from:
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/bibs/DJACcurrres/WhatRemainsA.pdf, (2001) [accessed 3-10-2006]. 61
See I. Young, "The Biblical Scrolls from Qumran," 128-29, and Goshen-Gottstein’s classification of ‘real
variants’ (M.H. Goshen-Gottstein, "Hebrew Biblical Manuscripts," 247-48, and 274-75). This is taken up in
I. Young, "Textual Stability," 2, n. 3, and 6, where the distinction is made between orthographic variants,
linguistic variants, and content variants.