Subject: Re: MT 23.32-34 in four text-types

From: Michael Holmes <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 16:11:45 -0500 (CDT)

At 05:59 PM 4/23/97 +0200, Jean Valentin wrote:
>My dear friends of the TC-list,
[snip]
>At http://scholar.cc.emory.edu/scripts/TC/extras/Mt_23:32-34.gif you will
>find a synopsis of a few verses in Mt 23 (D-B-Theta-TR) about which I would
>like to have some comments.

Jean then raises some interesting questions about "supposed anti-judaic"
tendencies and harmonization in D in Matthew.  His comments prompt me to
share what little I know on these two points, in the hope of prompting
further discussion.

NOTA BENE: the variants in D present a very complex picture; they include at
least:
        (1) singular D readings;
        (2) D + "Western" and/or misc. support;
        (3) D + "Western" and/or + Byz support.
The readings in (3) likely ante-date the particular textual tradition
preserved in D, and the singular readings present problems of their own in
trying to determine their date and origin.  So, the following comments apply
only to readings in (2)--readings that are, apparently, both early and
generally "Western".  (For further amplification of this point, see first of
the bibliographic entries below, pp. 123-128.)

"Anti-Judaic" tendencies: in D in Matthew--in sharp contrast to
Acts--"anti-judaic" tendencies are notable by their almost complete absence.
There is a cluster of about 7 variants in Matt 27 (in vv. 22, 26, 60, 61,
and 66) that may be read as "anti-judaic" or tendentious variants, but that
is about all.

Harmonization: D in Matthew is as likely to harmonize to other passages in
Matthew (either the immediate context, or more distant passages; the
Matthean divorce passages offer a particular striking example) as it is to
harmonize to other Gospels (see also Parker, _Codex Bezae_, 252).  Also,
there are many places, as Jean has pointed out, where D does not harmonize
when one might have expected it to.  In short, the situation is *very*
complex and difficult to generalize about. (Jean's signature line seems
particularly appropriate in this case!)

[For those interested, some of the evidence underlying these conclusions can
be found in "Codex Bezae as a Recension of the Gospels," in Parker and
Amphoux, eds., _Codex Bezae_ (Brill, 1996) 123-160 (a summary of an
unpublished dissertation), and in "The Text of the Matthean Divorce
Passages: A Comment on the Appeal to Harmonization in Textual Decisions,"
_JBL_ 109 (1990) 651-664.]

Mike Holmes
Bethel College

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 1997 19:36:29 -7000

> In comparison with _New Testament Greek Manuscripts_ : Matthew, ed R.
> Swanson, pub Sheffield Ac Pr, 1995, I note a few variations:
> 
> 	(1) Swanson has	FUGETAI for FUGETE, D, v33
> 
> 	(2) 		OFIS for OFEIS, B,THETA, v33
> 
> 	(3)		APOKTEINEITE for APOKTENEITE, D, v34
> 
> 	(4)		MASTEIGWSETE for MASTIGWSETE, B, v34
> 
> Again, I ask these questions for the purpose of learning, since I am
> clearly no expert in either text criticism or orthography.  Is it the
> illegibility of the original texts from which such variations arise?  Is
> Swanson's NTGM to be regarded with caution as to its accuracy?  Are
> there errors in Jean Valentin's text?  What other factors are at work
> here?

They appear to be itacisms, a.k.a. alternate spellings.  A lot of 
mss, especially the uncials, frequently use I for EI and other 
similar vowel variations (cf. English "color" vs. "colour" - same 
idea).  It wasn't until some time after printing, as I recall, that 
Greek spelling got standardized the way we see it in printed editions 
and some transcriptions/collations.  An awful lot of the actual 
variations among the mss. are simple spelling errors/variations.  
Most printed editions and critical tools don't note these.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur/home.html
"You're so open-minded that your brain leaked out."
                                 -Steve Taylor

---

From: Jean VALENTIN <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 97 16:55:42 +0200

>	(4)		MASTEIGWSETE for MASTIGWSETE, B, v34

Indeed, I have "normalized" the orthography.

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