Something curious in the descriptions of some Greek texts modules

[robertnp08]

Hello,

 

I have been looking at text comparisons from various angles and I noticed the following statement in the descriptions of some of the Greek texts (click on (I) to the right of the book in the Library):

 

GNT-Byzantine 2005:  Compiled and arranged by Robinson ...    - this is what I was expecting - he is one of the authors.  But:

 

• GNT-WH: Text revised by W & H .... published 1881.  Derived in part by comparison to the digital version of Maurice Robinson, ... .     - I was not expectiing the "Derived in part" comment.
• GNT-TR: Stephanus' 1550 edition ....  .  Based upon the text compiled by ... Robinson.    - I was not expecting the "Based upon" comment.
• GNT-TIS: ...  Derived in part by comparison to the digital version of ... Robinson ...  .   - I was not expecting the "Derived in part" comment.

 

So my dumb question is: What do the "Derived in part" / "Based upon" statements mean with respect to what I thought would be the text of the person named in the title or code for the book, please?

 

I do understand someting of the other functions performed on the books.  Just curious about whether the texts in the books above, for example, are as they were published by the authors.

 

Thank you.

Rob.

 

[Fabian]

I guess it is the same as the Hermeneia or Wuppertaler Studienbibel. Both has its own translation from the OL before the commentary begins. To make a full Bible without the commentary they have simply taken only the Bible part and put it together. 

[jlm]

This is my guess as to what “derived in part” means: these texts predate computers, so someone has to digitize them. In the process of entering thousands of words of polytonic  Greek, some errors will certainly be made. If you have two attempts to digitize one of these texts, you can compare them to find differences, and check the words which differ against the original printed text to see which digitized text is right in each case. This way you get a more accurate transcription of the printed text, which is derived in part from the second digitized text.

[robertnp08]

Hi jlm,

 

That makes good sense. 

 

It might also suggest the expressions derived from and based on are meaning something like quality checked against.  

 

Following your suggestion, perhaps they ran the first digital copy against the (proven/assured accurate) Robinson digitized text to find all the proable typos, skipped lines and other mechanical processing errors.  That would certainly save considerable time.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Kind regards,

Rob.