Living Completion Statement

Living Completion Statement

On the never-finished nature of the work

This project gathers the widest responsible range of ancient witnesses surrounding the Scriptures into one connected framework. Yet it does not, and cannot, claim to be finished. It is a living work, open at every point to correction and to growth.

Texts once thought lost are still being recovered from sand and cave and library; readings once thought settled are still being weighed afresh; and the understanding of the languages and the world of the witnesses still advances. What is restored here is restored as faithfully as the present evidence allows, and no more.

Therefore this statement is set down: that the completion of the work is a living completion. Where a witness is added, let it be added in its place. Where a restoration is bettered by new evidence, let it be bettered. Where something has been placed wrongly, let it be set right. The aim is not a monument that cannot be touched, but a faithful and growing gathering of the ancient witness, held with honesty and with reverence, and handed on to be continued.