Papal spelling error

This is how the new papal medal looked like:

Clearly Jesus is spelled as Lesus. According to the source of this story (in Dutch), the medals have been withdrawn. And it has now also made the BBC.

R.I.P. Rodolphe Kasser (1927-2013)

On Thursday 8 October, world-renowned Coptologist  Rodolphe Kasser passed away.

Kasser was involved in the editing and publication of numerous important manuscripts, including Coptic gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi, Bodmer payri (with Biblical texts), and, more recently, the Codex Tchacos, containing the Gospel of Judas and three other Coptic gnostic texts.

Paul Schubert's announcement on the PAPY-List:

Chers collègues,
J’ai le triste devoir de vous annoncer le décès du Professeur Rodolphe Kasser. Coptologue de renom, Rodolphe Kasser s’est signalé notamment par ses travaux sur les Papyrus Bodmer et, à date plus récente, par la publication du célèbre Évangile de Judas.
Une cérémonie aura lieu à Yverdon, où habitait Rodolphe Kasser, le vendredi 11 octobre. Pour ceux qui souhaiteraient écrire à Anna Di Bitonto Kasser, son épouse :
Mme Anna Kasser, Rue Pestalozzi 4bis, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Suisse.
Avec mes salutations à tous,
Paul Schubert

Don't Tell Your Greek Class

I learned something fascinating about the Greek of Revelation that I had not expected, and certainly was never told. What everyone knows is that certain prepositions (such as δια, εις, υπο) take certain cases, with a number of prepositions being able to take two or three different cases, often with a semantic difference between these. The case of the substantive that follows the preposition is determined by the preposition.

But not (always) so in Revelation …

I was looking at Revelation 4:9 where the text reads τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπὶ τῷ θρόνῳ with the variant ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνοῦ. The preposition ἐπί can take of course the genitive, dative, and accusative. But why the textual variant here? Is there part of the tradition that doesn't like the dative anymore (which is probably true)? When I started to look a little further I found something that has probably been known since John wrote Revelation (at least it is in Bousset's and Charles's commentaries on Revelation according to Josef Schmid, and they go a long way back), and that is this:

In the construction 'he who sits on the throne' the case of the prepositional phrase 'on the throne' (ἐπί + article + θρόνος) that follows the participle 'he who sits' is normally identical to the case of the participle.

So we have ἐπὶ τοὺς θρόνους ... καθημένους (4:4); τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπὶ τῷ θρόνῳ (4:9); τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου (4:10).

There are a number of exceptions. With the nominative (ὁ) καθήμενος we find both ἐπὶ τῷ θρόνῳ (21:5) and ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον (4:2) and with other combinations of κάθημαι ἐπί (e.g. with αὐτός) it doesn't apply as much. It would be nice if someone could give a good linguistic explanation of this phenomenon.

Revelation does not contain the cleanest possible Greek grammar, but it is nice to discover that there is at least some reason behind the confusion. But how to teach this to an undergraduate class I don't know.

Tov on Electronic Tools

Emanuel Tov writes on Electronic Tools for the Study of the Hebrew Bible here.

Marginalia

Seems that there is a bit of interest in marginalia at the moment.

Life on the Edge: Marginalia
A nice post on the John Rylands Library blog by John Hodgson with helpful images illustrating various cadels, drolleries, grotesques, and such things in mostly medieval manuscripts.

Marginalia - Scribes say the darndest things
 Chris Brady picks out some nice photos from M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (2004).

In other news I noticed this interesting discussion of the British Library's conservation of the fourth volume of Codex Alexandrinus (i.e. the NT) prior to digital photography (note the interesting photograph). 

NT Manuscripts in Paris: online/update

The Bibliotheque Nationale is doing a great job in putting images of manuscripts on-line. So I have up-dated this list (originally from July 1st 2013) to include all the NT manuscripts (of the 18 NT manuscripts most recently added, the most important of the recent additions is 10 folios of H 015, see below Suppl. Gr. 1074). Here is a list with sample page (or something of interest):

Grec 9 (GA: 04; Codex Ephraimi Rescriptus): index page:

Grec 49 (GA: 8, Gospels, eleventh century)

Grec 63 (GA: 017 or K, IX, Gospels)

Grec 81 (GA: 276; AD 1092; Gospels)

Grec 83 (GA: 9, AD 1167: Gospels)

Grec 102 (GA 2298; Acts & Paul, twelfth century)

Grec 107 (GA: 06; Claromontanus)

Grec 122 (GA 11, XII, Gospels of Luke & John [Grec 121 contains Matthew & Mark])

Grec. 216 (GA 605; Acts and Paul with commentary, tenth century)

Grec 223 (GA 1933; AD 1045, Paul & Comm.)

 

Grec. 277 (GA lect. 63, a majuscule lectionary text from the ninth century)

Grec. 289 (GA: lect. 71; dated lectionary text: AD 1066)

Grec 375 (GA: lect. 60; dated lectionary text: AD 1021)

Suppl. Grec 686 (GA: lect 357: tenth century majuscule lectionary [only two leaves here])

Suppl. Grec. 687 (GA: lect 499; XIII; 2 leaves of Paul: fol. 11, 15)

Suppl. Grec. 1074 (GA 015 H; VI; 10 folios)

Suppl. Grec. 1155 (this contains portions or fragments of 11 separately identified manuscripts: 0102, 063, lect. 352, lect. 353, lect. 354, 0303, lect. 356, lect. 357, lect. 358, lect. 359, lect. 360)

Suppl. Grec. 1232 (GA: lect. 1837: eighth century majuscule palimpsest - but have I got the right page?)

Suppl. Grec. 1248 (GA 2111, XIII, fols. 12-23; Luke & comm)

Coislin Grec 202 (GA: 015; 12 folios; sixth century)

Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal
8409 (GA: 43, NT in 2 vols [not inc. Rev.], eleventh century)