Subject: RE: COLLATION

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 96 15:31:00 -0500

Dave Washburn wrote (quoting me, responding to Jim West):

 > > Third, P75 (and the other papyrii, for that matter) shows some 
 > > strange variations in spelling (check the plate of P75 in Metzger's 
 > > *Text*--you'll see John's name spelled two different ways, IWANNHS and 
 > > IWANHS, on a single leaf!)

 > > The papyrii largely come from places and times where spelling was 
 > > not standardized, as we think of it.  The variations you describe are 
 > > "normal" for the papyrii, and text critics usually note these itacisms 
 > > and then disregard them.
 
 > Yes.  The printed texts we use generally have been standardized wrt 
 > spelling, regardless of variations in the mss themselves.  This is 
 > largely for the sake of our convenience.  Sinaiticus, for example, 
 > abounds in itacisms that substitute I for EI, U for OU and so on.  
 > Recording each of these in an apparatus would make a work roughly 
 > the size of my house.  Makes it hard to carry it to class :-)

But even more to the point (to *my* point, at least): we shouldn't think of
these itacisms as spelling errors or solecisms.  In an era when spelling is not
standardized, "spelling error" is a meaningless concept.  For the author of the
itacisms in P75, there weren't a thread of difference between IWANNHS and
IWANHS--at least until someone slapped him/her upside the head and said, "at
least be CONSISTENT!"

Grace and peace, 

Perry L. Stepp, Baylor University

---

From: "Robert B. Waltz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 15:37:03 -0700

>IWANHS--at least until someone slapped him/her upside the head and said, "at

As I recall, in the case of p75, the scribe consistently wrote IWANHS in
Luke, got started on John and then -- apparently -- noticed that the "official"
spelling was IWANNHS. From that point on, he used IWANNHS almost consistently;
presumably IWANHS was his native spelling, but he was trying very hard to
get it right.

Even today, most of us have a few words we just can't seem to get right.
It took me about ten years to learn to write "government" for "govronment,"
and I *still* hesitate over "necessarily."

Bob Waltz
[email-masked]