Subject: Re: Roman's Doxology

From: Jim West <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 15:13:18 -0500 (EST)

P46 locates the doxology after 15:33.  This seems to make the most sense
(for the following reasons):

1- Rom 15:33 was originally followed by 16:25-27.  
2- when Chapter 16 was added by later scribes (as 16 is evidently not
original to Romans, but seems to be a completely different document- either
a cover letter to 1-2 Corinthians or a lost fragment, I do not know.) the
ending had to be moved to its current location.   Though the scribe of P46
retained the original order.
3- Likewise, the scribes of P61, Aleph, B, C, D, etc placed it at the end of
the 16th chapter because they too saw it as a concluding doxology.  They
simply thought that 16 was integral to the letter; so they put the doxology
where it would naturally belong- at the end, just like in a worship service.
(liturgy influences textual decisions).

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jim West, ThD
Adjunct Professor of Bible, Quartz Hill School of Theology
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 97 15:00:29 +0100

>1- Rom 15:33 was originally followed by 16:25-27.  

In my view this is no TC "reason", at least not in this form. 

>retained the original order.

Again, in my view no TC "reason", but a reasoning based on "Literarkritik" 
(integrity/disintergrity of a text).

>(liturgy influences textual decisions).

Given that the placing of the doxology after chapter 16 is not original, this 
reasoning is sound in my view.

However, the main difficulties have not been accounted for, yet:
1. If the location of the (concluding) doxology after chapter 15 was original, 
why would most of the MSS place the doxology after chapter 14 with chapters 
15+16 still to follow?
2. Within the latin textual tradition we have evidence that the doxology once 
was placed after chapter 14 with nothing left to follow.
3. The marcionite version of Romans ended after chapter 14 without the doxology. 
BTW-- the marcionite version is half a century older than P46.

Ulrich Schmid, Muenster