Although the doctrine of scripture is central to systematic theology, one aspect of Christian scripture is rarely engaged, namely, the ongoing presence of textual variants. And although the reconstruction of the earliest form of Christian scripture is the primary object of textual criticism, text critics have rarely given a theological rationale for their discipline. Across the disciplinary divide, this essay attempts a rapprochement. For systematic theology, the essay underscores the challenges of the variable, fluid text that is Christian scripture. For textual criticism, it calls attention to two useful theological concepts and retrieves the bivalent reading strategies of two premodern scholars, Origen and Augustine, who artfully blended theology and nascent textual criticism.

中文翻译：

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生活，活跃，难以捉摸

尽管圣经教义是系统神学的核心，但很少涉及基督教圣经的一个方面，即文本变体的持续存在。尽管重建最早形式的基督教经文是文本批评的主要对象，但文本批评者很少为他们的学科提供神学原理。跨越学科鸿沟，本文试图达成和解。对于系统神学，这篇文章强调了基督教圣经可变、流畅的文本所面临的挑战。对于文本批评，它提请注意两个有用的神学概念，并检索两位前现代学者奥利金和奥古斯丁的二元阅读策略，他们巧妙地将神学与新生的文本批评相结合。