Recension

Practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis

For liturgical recensions, see Use (liturgy).

Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis.[1] When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from the Latin recensio ("review, analysis").

In textual criticism (as is the case with Biblical scholarship), the count noun recension is a family of manuscripts sharing similar traits;[2] for example, the Alexandrian text-type may be referred to as the "Alexandrian recension". The term recension may also refer to the process of collecting and analyzing source texts in order to establish a tree structure leading backward to a hypothetical original text.

"An adequate method of recension has only been rendered possible by the growth of Palaeography, i.e. the scientific study of ancient documents – the hands in which they are written, the age to which they belong and generally speaking the purposes, methods and circumstances of the men who produced them."[3]

## See also

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Look up recension in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

* Biblical manuscript
* Categories of New Testament manuscripts
* Critical apparatus

## References

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1. ^ Definition of "recension", yourdictionary.com
2. ^ "Synoptic Gospels Primer: Recension"
3. ^ F. W. Hall (1913) A Companion to Classical Texts, chapter 6, via Internet Archive

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