Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Matt 4:9 ταυτα παντα σοι

Most manuscripts read ταυτα παντα σοι (including C2 D E K L M P S U Δ Θ Ω f13 lat sy co; Ir-lat), yet an early scribe or editor, motivated by a revival of the Attic dialect, sought to enhance the perfectly good Koine by changing it into the classical ταυτα σοι παντα as reflected in some manuscripts (ℵ B C* W Z Σ f1 33 al; Or). Marks of atticistic revision in the text of the New Testament are always highly suspect, especially when evidenced by only a few manuscripts primarily of Alexandria, a place esteemed for its critical revision of texts. Cf. also the notes on Matt 2:22 and Matt 3:4. Another possible cause for the minority reading is that one or another scribe accidentally skipped παντα due to homoeoteleuton error (τα...τα), then after writing σοι he repaired his text without loss of meaning by adding the skipped word. Even Lachmann (1:15) supports the reading of most manuscripts, which is corroborated by the oldest witness of any kind, namely, Irenaeus' Old Latin translation, which is significant because it differs from the later Vulgate, which follows the Alexandrian word order.

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