Steven Avery
Administrator
New Testament Textual Critcism
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Matthew 27:49 spear thrust in the minority mss, including Vat-Sin
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John 19:33-34 (AV)
But when they came to Jesus,
and saw that he was dead already,
they brake not his legs:
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side,
and forthwith came there out blood and water.
Matthew 27:49 (AV)
The rest said, Let be,
let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
Vaticanus / Alexandrian minority addition:
alloV de labwn logchn enuxen autou thn pleuran, kai exhlqen udwr kai aima
"And another took a spear and pierced his side, and out came water and blood" (translation from James Snapp)
"And another [soldier] took a spear and pierced him in the side, and water and blood flowed out.” - NETBible note
.Matthew 27:50-53 (KJV) Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Mark 15:44-45 (KJV) And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
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One of the most salient variant discussions, involving Hortian theory, the confusion, uncertainty and double-mindedness of the Critical Text application, inclusion-omission, Vaticanus reliability. And infallibility and inerrancy.
e.g. James Snapp has properly used this variant to challenge the Daniel Wallace approach to inerrancy. (Even from the milquetoast James Snapp "inerrancy" postioning.)
[TC-Alternate-list] Textual Variants and a Caution-Light for Inerrantists
James Snapp - March 1, 2010
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TC-Alternate-list/conversations/topics/3073
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Why the KJV New Testament Is Among the Best English Translations (Part Two)
8. Do Variants in the Revised Text Affect Doctrine?
James Snapp -
https://onyxkylix.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-kjv-new-testament-is-among-best_18.html
"Dr. Wallace wrote, “In fact, it has been repeatedly affirmed that no doctrine of Scripture has been affected by these textual differences.” Elsewhere he has adjusted this claim by referring to “cardinal” doctrine and “plausible” variants. I wonder if Dr. Wallace included the doctrine of inerrancy among the doctrines to which he refers. In the same manuscripts that he considers the most reliable (Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus), the text of Matthew 27:49 says that Jesus was speared before He died. This textual variant introduces a contradiction with the timing presented in John 19:33-34, where Jesus is speared after His death. I welcome Dr. Wallace to explain how this variant in the “best” manuscripts – a variant which Hort (the most influential compiler of the Revised Text in the 1800’s) regarded as plausibly original – can be embraced without abandoning the doctrine of inerrancy."
Also we could note the humorous certainty of the NETBible, we can see how Wallace dances around the problem:
"undoubtedly lifted from the Fourth Gospel by early, well-meaning scribes ... even though the support for the shorter reading ... is not nearly as impressive, internal considerations on its behalf are compelling."
If UBS-NA had included the verse, Wallace could simply claim "internal considerations" the other way, since he is drawn like a moth to the lectio difficilior fire.
Thus, in modern thinking and tinkering, some of the normal Westcott-Hort factors are simply run over and land upside-down.
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APOLOGETIC - infallability and inerrancy
We can note that the apologetic contradiction is pretty blatant, on the level of the daughter of Herod. Which actually was maintained by W-H and by the NETBible. The difference seems to be one of apologetic visibility, which has given the Herod's daughter blunder something of a free pass. Notice that the blatant contradiction in the Herod's daughter text it is not one of the minority readings mentioned by Wallace when he tries to defend CT inerrancy by strained analogies.
And, with the highly visible spear thrust, this has been a major influence on those who would otherwise embrace the Vat-Sin text. To try to find a reason to just say no ... to this one corruption.
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To be fair to Hort, he was so enamored with short texts, often as western non-interpolations, that he was not totally inconsistent, for his time and place. Hort actually calls this one of his western non-interps, as we see here:
Hort's Theory of 'Western Non-Interpolations' and its Influence on English Versions of the New Testament
Michael Marlowe
http://www.bible-researcher.com/noninterp.html
Making this the one western non-interp still standing in the current wave of modern versions from the textus corruptus. Yet another unusual distinction for the Vat-Sin text.
Thus, the problem arises more with those who claim to be following Critical Text theory today, than for Hort.
Marlowe also gives us the Metzger dance, which can be compared to the Wallace shuffle.
Matt. 27:49.
Although attested by א B C L al the words ἄλλος δὲ λαβὼν λόγχην ἔνυξεν αὐτοῦ τὴν πλευράν, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ὕδωρ καὶ αἷμα must be regarded as an early intrusion derived from a similar account in Jn 19.34. It might be thought that the words were omitted because they represent the piercing as preceding Jesus' death, whereas John makes it follow; but that difference would have only been a reason for moving the passage to a later position (perhaps at the close of ver. 50 or 54 or 56), or else there would have been some tampering with the passage in John, which is not the case. It is probable that the Johannine passage was written by some reader in the margin of Matthew from memory (there are several minor differences, such as the sequence of "water and blood"), and a later copyist awkwardly introduced it into the text.
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Now this has come up for some interesting discussion on the sister forum, started by an Italian NT Professor:
Guilio Mbatkol
https://www.facebook.com/groups/11404207692/permalink/10152255475312693/
Mbatkol gives some of the reasons for accepting the ultra-minority Vaticanus variant (from the various hortian influenced CT and pseudo-eclectic positions). Specifically mentioned are Stephen Pennells, Philip W. Comfort, William David Davies and Dale C. Allison (Mathew, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary).
And in 2010 I went over some of the issues and history here:
[TC-Alternate-list] Matthew 27:49 - when a text is too absurd, deep-six the theory .. bracket the phrase out !
Steven Avery - March 2, 2010
https://groups.yahoo.com/…/TC-Alt…/conversations/topics/3078
What was missing then, and is unmentioned on the establishment TC forum, was the incredible ECW and textual discussion coming from Severus, which is given in fine detail here (be sure to go to the full text, which could use it own full line-by-line analysis.)
Devreesse on quotations from Eusebius in catenas in John
Roger Pearse blog
https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog...a7bqqybY97AnYyhozhyNQqKqpaajUGFxHdwgp_EZ79IA8
Severus text
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/severus_coll_3_letters.htm
Note that this was referenced briefly in Scrivener:
Plain Introduction (1881)
Scrivener
http://books.google.com/books?id=iBcXAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA543
And this is building on the fine discussion from Burgon. Notice that this answers the question of cause of inclusion.
The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark (1871)
John William Burgon
http://books.google.com/books?id=RgYQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA315
Burgon's makes some strong arguments that this was due to the influence of Tatian's Diatessaron, arguments that could use careful review. Burgon, as his his style, is also, less convincingly, involving the Eastern lectionary practice. (Note also that Burgon says that he could not find the Cyril of Alexandria inclusion reference extant.) As often happens, the modern writers overlook Burgon to their own scholarly detriment. His related discussion in Revision Revised is given in my TC-Alternate post above.
However all this is not in the excellent Amy Donaldson papers (I am sending her a note) on references to textual issues among the ECW. Even though it is one of the strongest examples of a direct textual claim. Talking about seeing a specific early ms. for checking! And referencing the positions of Origen, Didymus, Eusebius and Chrysostom. (Scrivener and Burgon discuss Cyril of Alexandria, and the Diatessaron is an important consideration, a few others are in our LaParola secton.)
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ECW
Note that the LaParola apparatus gives for the ECW non-inclusion:
Diatessaron Origen-lat Origen Eusebius Apostolic Canons Hilary Jerome Augustine Hesychius
Matthew 27:49
http://www.laparola.net/greco/index.php?rif1=47&rif2=27:49
A bit of this is in the ACCS (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.)
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Matthew-Ancient-Christia…/…/0830814698
has the pages better than Google
http://books.google.com/books?id=iVh9AIkZN2QC&pg=PA296
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In fact, it would be a fine paper to coalesce the scholarship, recent and historical, and then try to lay it all out for study. Bibliography, history, analysis, theories, significance.
This may even be in a Top 10 of all New Testament variants (even higher on the apologetics sub-class) due to its highly unusual nature, and the contra-intuitive aspects of the textual support and argumentation that we see from some CT supporters. Also the western non-interp and Alexandrian inclusion aspects contra the Byzantine majority are unusual. And we have the highly charged and doctrinally vital infallibility/inerrancy aspects, interplaying with the textual theories.
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Steven Avery
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