Subject: tc-list Long variant in Mk 11.26 and Arabic

From: Jean VALENTIN <[email-masked]>
Date: Dim, 25 Jan 98 13:27:06 +0100

I have a few questions about the text of Mk 11.26. This because my work 
on Arabic manuscripts led me to find the long variant, not attested in 
NA27.

There are three main texts for this verse:

(1) NA doesn't print this verse, but puts it in the apparatus. Mss 
supporting the omission are: Aleph, B, L, W, Delta, Psi, 565, 700, k, l, 
sys.s sa and (as I'm working on the Arabic versions) Sinai Arabic 71, 
which has one of the oldest Arabic versions. This ms usually is close to 
Theta, but this is a case where it doesn't follow it.

(2) The verse as it is printed in the apparatus of NA. Mss supporting it: 
A, D, Theta, f1, f13, the Byzantine text, most latin witnesses, syp.h. In 
Arabic, the "alexandrian vulgate", a version produced in Egypt in the 
XIIIth century that eliminated the earlier versions and became the common 
text of all Arabic-speaking churches.

(3) Legg mentions a third variant: it is the verse as printed in the 
apparatus of NA, with the addition of Lk 11.9-10. According to Legg, this 
longer text is supported by a handful of Byzantine mss (and he doesn't 
mention any versional evidence). These mss are: M 346. 11. 46. 52. 54. 
76. 80. 88. 108. 125. 219. 238. 247. 274mg. 579. lect24. lect31. 
lect32bis (what is this?). lect33. lect46. I add to this that this text 
is supported by the oldest mss of the (arabic) melkite version of the 
XIth century, the one I am working on for my doctoral thesis, and this is 
why it interests me so much.

Now I have a few questions about this last variant.

(1) Legg puts the minuscule mss in numerical order, except for one: ms 
346, which he puts at the beginning of the series. Can anybody tell me 
why this exception?

(2) Is there information available as to the geographical provenance of 
these mss? My Arabic version is probably the one made by Abdallah 
Ibn-al-Fadl of Antioch, I wonder if some of those Greek mss can be 
demonstrated to come from the same area (or from some area where the 
melkite church was dominant, such as Palestine, Sinai, Western Syria or 
Jordan). As to geographical provenance, I wonder if there are any 
informations at all about Greek mss that can help me on my work on Arabic 
mss, or if, on the contrary, the existence of this variant in a quite 
precisely (?) localized Arabic version can bring new insights to those 
working on the Greek mss. Generally speaking, what resources do we have 
in order to determine the geographical provenance of Greek mss?

(3) Is the group of mss mentioned above a recongnized group of the 
Byzantine text, or is their conjunction in support of this variant an 
isolated fact?

(4) This variant, though a harmonization, doesn't seem to take its roots 
is the Diatessaron. The grouping together of Mk 11.26 and Lk 11.9-10 
seems to come from the common theme of prayer. Would anybody on the list 
have remarks, other examples of such big, non-diatessaronic 
harmonizations?

Any information about this variant and the mss supporting it would be 
welcome. Thank you for your help.

Jean V.

_________________________________________________
Jean Valentin - Bruxelles - Belgique
e-mail: [email-masked]
_________________________________________________
"Als liefde het antwoord is, kunt U dan misschien de vraag nog een keer 
stellen?"
_________________________________________________

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From: [email-masked] (U. Schmid)
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 15:56:06 +0100

>on Arabic manuscripts led me to find the long variant, not attested in
[snip]
>346, which he puts at the beginning of the series. Can anybody tell me

Since I am away from my beloved sources at the Muenster Institut, I can
only offer some tentative speculations. One explanation might be that 346
is considered to belong to family 13.

>welcome. Thank you for your help.

More MS evidence on this variant reading is given in *Lake, Blake, and New,
The Caesarean text of the Gospel of Mark, Harward Theological Review
1923(or 1927?)* (I give the reference from memory, but you should be able
to check it from Metzger's Text of the New Testament). In this publication
a full collation of Mk 11 of more than 100 12th-14th(?) centuries MSS from
three different monasteries (Patmos, Jerusalem, Sinai) is given. As far as
I recall some 16 to 18 of those from all three monastary libraries give
this additional reading and the editors give no grouping of those MSS on
the basis of this addition.

Lake, Blake, and New deliberately sought to gather information from three
reasonably distant and distinct libraries in order to account in historical
perspective for the most widely disseminated Byzantine text(s) of the
Middle ages. I once had a closer look at their collations and found out
that even rarely attested readings (found in only 5-10% of the MSS
examined) are present in all three monasteries. In other words, no locally
determined textform could be established on the basis of their evidence.

When it comes to MS datings, M (= 021, IXth century) definitely is the
oldest testimony to the addition.

Ulrich Schmid

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