Help: Need a Source on Textual Criticism

Was just reading something that said that a few days ago, but I can't remember where (old age has set in ).

Kurt Aland will be one, I'm fairly certain. Will see what I can see.

 

This touches on it Epp, Eldon Jay. "The Eclectic Method in New Testament Textual Criticism: Solution or Symptom?" The Harvard Theological Review 69, no. 3/4 (1976): 211-57. Accessed January 28, 2021. The Eclectic Method in New Testament Textual Criticism: Solution or Symptom? on JSTOR.

 

Also
Critical Rules of Johann Albrecht Bengel. Bible-researcher.com.

 

OK, here are a couple.

Kurt & Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament, pp. 275–276 (in their 12 basic rules for textual criticism)
“There is truth in the maxim: lectio difficilior lectio potior (‘the more difficult reading is the more probable reading’).”

Bruce Metzger, in The Text of New Testament 4th Edition, pp. 302-303
“In general, the more difficult reading is to be preferred, particularly when the sense, on the surface, appears to be erroneous but, on more mature consideration, proves to be correct. (Here, ‘more difficult’ means ‘more difficult to the scribe,’ who would be tempted to make an emendation. The characteristic of most scribal emendations is their superficiality, often combining ‘the appearance of improvement with the absence of its reality.’ Obviously, the category ‘more difficult reading’ is relative, and a point is sometimes reached when a reading must be judged to be so difficult that it can have arisen only by accident in transcription.)”

 

Oops, those two were not what you asked, but on the "more difficult" rather than shorter. Glad you found something. I find Aland also has the other in his 12 basic rules

 

That's a problem with Google Book preview -- sort of hit or miss which pages they allow in the preview. I don't think the book is online, but another option might be the "Look Inside" preview on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Text-New-Testament-Introduction-Criticism/dp/0802840981
It is on page 281 in that book.