Subject: Re: versions

From: DC PARKER <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 13:42:18 GMT

Maurice Robinson wrote

> In the case mentioned, there certainly seems to be evidence to that 
point.> I would not suggest in the absence of conflicting Greek 
testimony,> however, that two variant readings in the same unit 
among OL MSS would> imply a "lost" Greek variant no longer extant 
among the Greek MS> tradition, but that such likely reflects intra-OL 
variation instead.
Here I seek clarification.

Are you saying that you would only consider the versional evidence 
as testimony to an already attested variation among Greek MSS, or 
just that you would not consider it _here_ as evidence of a Greek 
variant, were there not already a variation among Greek MSS?

That is, would you reject on principle the possibility that a variant 
cognomino/voco attested a lost Greek variant epikaleo/kaleo?  Or do 
you just think that it could not be established here?

David Parker
DC PARKER
DEPT OF THEOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
TEL. 0121-414 3613
FAX  0121-414 6866
E-MAIL [email-masked]

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From: Maurice Robinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 23:50:24 -0500 (EST)

> variant, were there not already a variation among Greek MSS?

The latter.  Certainly in the former instance there are cases where the
versional testimony may be traceable to a lost variant not found among the
Greek MSS (which can sometimes be deduced from the nature of the versional
variants when the only cause for such seems to be Greek variation, even if
none is any longer extant).  However, I would be quite suspicious of
conflicting versional testimony in the absence of a known Greek variant
_if_ there were no indications of such from reconstruction of the
presumed Greek archetype of each variant in the version at the given unit.

> you just think that it could not be established here?

In that particular case, the difference seems more likely to reflect a
Greek variant, even if no Greek testimony exists.  Other cases, however,
might not be as strong in this regard.

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Professor of Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
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From: Maurice Robinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 00:48:33 -0500 (EST)

On Wed, 6 Nov 1996, Maurice Robinson wrote:

> > variant, were there not already a variation among Greek MSS?

[Robinson]
 
> The latter.  

Sorry about that -- I too quickly misread the latter statement,
disregarding the "not" words and commented on that basis.  Parablepsis by
the scribe. *;-)   The variation existing among Greek MSS in the example
cited gives strong support to the Greek basis for the OL readings in this
case, but even were such _not_ found among Greek MSS, the most likely
explanation of the OL variants would still be a postulated Greek variation
which caused the different readings.  I hope this is now clear.