ITSEE doctoral student Alan Taylor Farnes recently presented a poster on his research at the University Research Poster Conference and has been recommended for the award of a doctorate following his viva exam.
Alan moved to Birmingham from the United States in 2014 to research scribal habits in Greek New Testament manuscripts with Professor David Parker. He focussed particularly on Abschriften, manuscripts for which the exemplar known by the scribe has been identified among surviving witnesses. These include two manuscripts copied from Codex Claromontanus (GA 06), a bilingual Greek-Latin copy of the Pauline Epistles, as well as "parent" and "child" manuscripts of the Gospels (one of which was identified in the doctoral dissertation of ITSEE fellow Dr Bruce Morrill). Alan also analysed the copying practice in Papyrus 127, a recently-published manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles which differs from the previously-known recensions in a number of places. Among a number of important conclusions in his thesis, Alan demonstrated that copyists endeavoured to reproduce their exemplar with fidelity: he did not encounter any alterations which were introduced in the text for doctrinal reasons.
In addition to presenting his research at the University of Birmingham postgraduate Poster Conference, Alan has given a number of papers at international conferences as well as events hosted in Birmingham, including the SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio last November and the Birmingham Biblical Studies Day in May 2017. Alan also served as a teaching assistant on undergraduate courses in the Department of Theology and Religion and worked as a transcriber for the International Greek New Testament Project.
Alan is now returning to the United States to take up a teaching position in theology at Brigham Young University in Utah. His present and extensive participation in the life of ITSEE have been much appreciated over the last three years.