Working definition
Textual criticism evaluates variant readings among documentary witnesses and produces attributed judgments about their relationships and likely history. The edition must retain the evidence, selected reading, rejected alternatives, editorial rationale, and degree of confidence rather than publishing a silent composite.
Questions this method asks
- Which reading is attested where?
- What editorial principle selected the reading?
- How sensitive is interpretation to the variant?
Evidence inputs
- Transcriptions of identified witnesses
- Critical apparatus entries
- Editorial rationale and prior editions
Method
- Collate bounded passages.
- Record variants and witness support.
- Publish the chosen reading with alternatives and rationale.
What it can establish
- The attestation of variants
- A reproducible editorial decision
What it cannot establish
- Certain authorial wording where evidence is incomplete
- The theological priority of one variant
Interpretive risks
- Silent harmonization
- False precision in stemmata
Mathematical connection
Formal structure without validity transfer
Variant-sensitive interpretation
Propagate uncertain readings into downstream translations and claims that materially depend on them.
Inputs
- Variant readings
- Witness support
- Claim dependencies
Outputs
- Affected claims
- Sensitivity flags
- Editorial uncertainty
Limit: Numerical uncertainty is a bookkeeping aid; textual judgments and semantic consequences are not always reducible to probabilities.
Methodology sources
- [1]TEI P5 Chapter 13: Critical Apparatus · Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
Establishes: A formal vocabulary for recording textual witnesses, variant readings, apparatus entries, and the relationship between an edited text and its manuscript, print, translation, or quotation evidence.
Boundary: A critical apparatus documents variation and editorial judgment. It cannot recover unattested wording with certainty or convert a reconstructed reading into a theological or historical fact.
- [2]TEI P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange · Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
Establishes: A maintained scholarly standard for representing texts, manuscripts, witnesses, metadata, variants, editorial interventions, names, dates, and other features needed for inspectable digital editions.
Boundary: Encoding makes documentary structure and editorial decisions explicit; it does not decide which witness is original, which interpretation is correct, or whether the text’s theological claims are true.