The Department for the study of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament was established in 2013. Its main purpose has been the creation of a critical edition of the Byzantine text, used by the Eastern Orthodox Church as its liturgical text. Among its objectives are the finding, collecting, photographing, transcription and study of manuscripts (continuous text or eklogadia) that preserve the Byzantine text type; the education and training of specialists in the analysis of the text; the organization of conferences and seminars; the critical editions of the New Testament text; and especially the re-publication of the Patriarchal edition of 1904 with improvements, corrections and the general application of modern scientific methodology; the study and promotion of any form of interpretative commentary of the text of the New Testament in Byzantine manuscripts (liturgical manuscripts, catenae etc.); the participation in international fora; the cooperation with related research institutions abroad; the publication of an electronic journal for the dissemination of the results of the research project; the construction and maintenance of a web page for the information of the international academic community; and cooperation with the Eastern Orthodox Churches for the re-publication and critical correction of the New Testament text in use (especially in modern eklogadia) by virtue of a research of the manuscript tradition.
This Department intends to a) fill a significant gap in research, since the related international research centres engage in other forms of textual tradition of the ancient Church (e.g. the Alexandrian text, scrolls, ancient Latin translations, etc.), having as its objective the closest approximation of the original text of the New Testament, and not the restoration of “living text” in the Byzantine tradition; b) investigate and highlight an important part of the tradition the ancient Church, which until now has never been sufficiently exploited; c) provide substantial services mainly to Greek-speaking Orthodox Churches by contributing to re-publication of the text of the New Testament used in their daily liturgical practice; and d) promote, at an international scholar level, the culturally invaluably important heritage of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.
The following members of the Volos Academy Board of Directors were appointed as the Department’s directors:
(1) Christos Karakolis, Professor of the New Testament, University of Athens, Member of the Editorial Committee of critical editions of the New Testament “Nestle-Aland” and “Greek New Testament,” member of the Committee of Scientific Publications of the German Bible Society, a member of the Steering Committee of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and vice President of the Committee for the development of the New Testament in Eastern Europe, member of the Advisory Board of the journal Early Christianity, of the Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum and Colloquium Ioanneum.
(2) Ekaterini Tsalampouni, Professor of New Testament at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, member of the Steering Committee of the European Association of Biblical Studies, member of the Board of Directors of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, member of the Society of Biblical Literature, of the Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum and of the General Assembly of the Greek Bible Society.