Sunday, December 11, 2005

Christmas variants (2)

NA27 records that in Matthew 1:21 the Curetonian Syriac supports κοσμον 'world' as opposed to λαον 'people' plus the possessive. The Curetonian Syriac indeed reads ܥܠܡܐ 'world' rather than ܥܡܐ 'people'. However, since the two Syriac words look very similar (even more so in the script of many manuscripts) is it not far more likely that the Syriac reading 'world' arose as an inner-Syriac development? In this case there is no basis for the retroversion into Greek. Consequently, there is no support for a universalistic reading of this part of the Christmas narrative.

posted by P J Williams at 10:05 PM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How can you say that 23 is a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy (7:14)? and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is "God with us". I thought they named him Jesus which means God saves. Didn't Jesus have the same name as many men of earth. Joshua who took over for Moses had the same name and nobody thought he was God? I do not know of anybody in the Bible that was ever called Immanuel? A minor contradiction or Joseph made a mistake in naming the child, or maybe it was to protect the child from the Jewish authorities?

6:48 AM  

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