Yet Another Scribal Tendency: Swapping Syllables

Very short recap: I believe that a single act of copying goes wrong when the cumulative weight of distracting forces is bigger than that of the focussing forces. This means that often there may not be one single factor (or 'explanation') that accounts for the creation of a textual variant, but rather a number of factors working in tandem to tip the balance.

Here is another one of those scribal tendencies, misreading αυτου for τουθυ or τουχυ and vice verse. Visually there are two syllables involved (not of course in the full nomen sacrum του θεου, or του χριστου), and such metathesis when reading is not uncommon at all.

A few examples (all [sub]singular readings in order to demonstrate the phenomenon):

Alexandrinus in Eph 3:2, της χαριτος αυτου (for του θυ)



P46 in Eph 3:7, της δυναμεως του θυ (for αυτου)



Minuscule 33 in Eph 3:8, πλουτος αυτου (for του χυ)

In each of these examples there is the additional factor of harmonisation to the immediate context, but the combination of the two has of course more force.
(Other examples, 69 (and others?) Rev 14:10 θυμου αυτου (for του θυ); 1854 Rev 20:4 λογον αυτου (for λογον του θυ).

What is perhaps most instructive is that this phenomenon underlines that even though Greek is written without word breaks and that there is, therefore, a large phonetic component needed when reading a text, there is still a visual component too that also works on the level of 'syllables' or perceived syllables.

Free Baker Commentary on James by Robert H. Gundry

Bryan Dyer notified me last week that Baker Academic offers some free commentaries (9, 16, 23 January):

New E-book Shorts from Robert Gundry’s Commentary on the New Testament

Baker Academic is proud to announce new ebook shorts from Robert H. Gundry.

In these verse-by-verse commentaries taken from Commentary on the New Testament, Robert Gundry offers a fresh, literal translation and a reliable exposition of every book of the New Testament.

Students and scholars will welcome Gundry’s nontechnical explanations and clarifications, and readers at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations. Priced from $1.99 to $5.99 these affordable and convenient resources are available wherever ebooks are sold.

As we celebrate the release of this series, Baker Academic will be making selected entries from this commentary series free for one day only.

On Monday January 9th, Gundry’s commentary on Ephesians will be free to download for 24 hours on Amazon, CBD, and Barnes & Noble.

This will be followed by other selections made free to download on January 16th and 23rd.

Today's commentary is on the Letter of James (Amazon).

Resolving a mystery in NA26 & 27 at Gal 1.1

There is an unusual error in my New Testaments (NA26 & NA27).

At Gal 1.1 AUTON, towards the end of the verse, is marked in the text with the little right-angle mark which indicates that a different word occurs in the textual tradition, but there is nothing in the apparatus. I have occasionally wondered what happened there. I figured there probably was a variant and that the editors decided to leave it out but forgot, or were too late, to delete the marker in the text. If I had ever thought about it for long I could have checked Tischendorf or Swanson, but I never bothered. But today I was looking at Sinaiticus and found what I assume is the variant:











It is definitely an odd reading: 'from God the father who raised them from dead'. AUTWN if taken seriously would have to refer to the ANQRWPWN from whom Paul did not get his apostleship, but why think that God had raised THEM from the dead? It doesn't make any sense, it is a nonsense reading, it was quickly corrected (S1 acc Sin Proj). It is interesting in relation to the scribes of Sinaiticus (since blunders reveal more about a scribe than good copying), but it doesn't warrant a mention in the NA editions.

HMWN in Gal 1.3: the problem of arguments from Pauline style

So there is an interesting textual question in Galatians 1.3 about the position of HMWN. P46, as shown above has the HMWN following K[URIO]U. In ET: 'Grace and peace from God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ'. This reading is without doubt the best attested reading: P46, P51, B D F G H 075 1739 1881 Byz vg sy sa. It is also the reading which explains the other readings. But it is interesting that it is not the text of NA/UBS. As Metzger noted: they preferred the reading which accords with Pauline style. This proposed original text was then ‘altered by copyists who, apparently in the interest of Christian piety, transferred the possessive pronoun so it would be more closely associated with “Lord Jesus Christ”.’ TCGNT, p. 520.
Why pious scribes made this alteration to Galatians and left Rom, 1 & 2 Cor, Eph and Phil apparently untouched is not discussed. Nor is the tendency of scribes to harmonise towards a standard feature of Pauline style (as can in fact be seen in Col 1.2 [01 A C 075 Byz it etc. add supplement] and 1 Thess 1.1 [01 A (D) 33 Byz etc. add supplement).
A better solution is probably to follow the text of P46, the weight of the external evidence, and the Holmes/SBLGNT text (which I just checked).

SBL Amsterdam Call for Papers

This is a reminder to submit your proposal for the for the 2012 SBL International Meeting held in Amsterdam (Universiteit van Amsterdam), July 22-26.

The program unit "Working with Biblical Manuscripts," which I and Jan Krans (who lives in the town) chair, has already received some interesting proposals of papers.

Here is the call for papers:

Papers concentrating on any aspect of textual criticism are welcome, in particular the practical work with manuscripts. Examples of topics: papyrological insights, scribal habits, preservation techniques, technical developments, computer assisted tools, producing critical editions, evaluating the evidence of fathers or versions, discussion of particular passages, social historical studies, new projects, systematic-theological problems, teaching text-criticism in an academic setting, etc.

The call for papers closes 1 February. So go to the SBL site, log in, and make your submission!

There will be a slightly modified schedule this year:

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Morning sessions with coffee break from 10:15 – 10:45 AM
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Special, plenary sessions
3:00 PM – 6:00 PM Afternoon sessions with coffee break from 4:15 – 4:45 PM

Moreover, this meeting is held in conjunction with the 2012 annual conference of the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS) and the triennial joint meeting of the Oudtestamentish Werkgezelschap in Nederland en België (OTW) and the Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS), so there will surely be a lot of participants, and a good book exhibition.

New Year Quiz

So here are some images of places that important manuscripts come from. Identify the place and at least one manuscript from there. But only one answer each (give the others a go too!).

Number One:


















Number Two:


















Number Three:














Number Four:













Number Five:


















Number Six:

















Number Seven:
















Number Eight:


















Number Nine: