TiNT, Titles of the New Testament: A New Approach to Manuscripts and the History of Interpretation, is a project led by Garrick Allen that will address the operative modes for interpreting the Greek New Testament (NT). Currently interpretations rely upon critical editions, not manuscripts and NT editions are scholarly abstractions that focus on reconstructing an “original” text which fail to account for a rich manuscript tradition that preserves evidence for key disciplinary questions. Instead of asking how manuscripts help reconstruct a text, this project examines what manuscripts say about the ways the NT was interpreted by the communities that produced them.
This is accomplished by comprehensively analysing the forms and wordings of the title preserved in all non-lectionary NT manuscripts (c. 3500). Titles are malleable paratexts that provide a substantive vector to rethink approaches to the NT by seriously considering contexts of production and interpretation ranging from 2rd century Egypt to modern Mt. Athos, moving beyond the 1st century Roman world. Titles demonstrate that material and paratextual variance in form and design are constitutive aspects of the NT. The NT is best understood as an omnibus of manuscripts that constitute specific reading events, reflecting the interpretations of the communities that used them. Despite the value inherent in the manuscripts, scholarship has focused almost exclusively on the NT’s original context of composition. Resisting this trend, the project argues that titles are a rich resource for mapping the interpretation of the NT in contexts overlooked by critical scholarship: its own manuscript matrix. This project, beginning 1 Dec 2020 aims to complete by 30 Nov 2025 with an overall budget of € 1,498,451
