Text Critical Notes

by peacefulpete 6 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  Check this out: THE ORIGINALITY OF TEXT-CRITICAL SYMBOLS IN CODEX VATICANUS

  I found very interesting the mark in John 7 possibly suggesting the presence of the adultrous woman story in some early copy available to the composer of the Codex Vat.
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  drew sagan

  Thanks for the referance, it was a good read. I still haven't made up my mind as to if the story in John 7 was in the book originally, or if it was added. What do you think?
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  Narkissos

  Thanks PP, interesting article.

  ds,

  I still haven't made up my mind as to if the story in John 7 was in the book originally, or if it was added. What do you think?

  It was definitely not original to GJohn as the overwhelming evidence from early manuscripts, versions, style and vocabulary shows. The Vaticanus umlaut, otoh, would be the earliest (albeit indirect) evidence of its insertion at this spot in the text in some manuscript(s) known to the 4th-century scribe. That is, at least about one century earlier than the older extant direct evidence from the Western Codex Bezae (5th century).
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  peacefulpete

  Of all the stories in the NT I find the sentiment here the most healthful. The writer has Jesus thwarting mob thinking by giving each person moment for introspection. The victory of humanity over conformity.

  Narkissos, I did a quick search for possible early allusions to the story and found 2.

  John 8:11 - NIV, NAB - in Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book II

  And when the elders had set another woman which had sinned before Him, and had left the sentence to Him, and were gone out, our Lord, the Searcher of the hearts, inquiring of her whether the elders had condemned her, and being answered No, He said unto her: "Go thy way therefore, for neither do I condemn thee."[128]

  John 8:11 - NIV, NAB - in The Second Epistle of Pope Callistus

  Let him see to it that he sin no more, that the sentence of the Gospel may abide in him: "Go, and sin no more."[24]

  Dating these works is another matter but at least purportedly they date from 2nd/3rd centuries.
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  peacefulpete

  The detail about Jesus' katagraphen in the ground/dirt certainly is intriguing. I wonder whether the tradition about Archimedes being killed by the barbarous Romans while he doing the same might be relevant. Some say the tradition was suppposed to emphasize the different charcters of the military minded Romans and intellectual Greeks. Might the author be trying to adapt that to Jesus???? I know its a stretch.
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  Leolaia

  There are some suggestions that this pericope has some relationship with a story related by Papias in his lost work, and may have originated in it.
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  peacefulpete

  Eusebius about Papias:

  And he himself used testimonies from the first epistle of John and similarly from that of Peter, and set out also another record about a woman who was charged for many sins before the Lord, which the gospel according to the Hebrews has. And let these things also be necessarily observed by us on top of the things that have been set out.

  Agapius of Heirapolis:

  At this time there lived in Heirapolis a prominent teacher and author of many treatises; he wrote five treatises about the gospel. In one of these treatises, which he wrote concerning the gospel of John, he relates that in the book of John the evangelist there is a report about a woman who was an adulteress. When the people led her before Christ our Lord, he spoke to the Jews who had brought her to him: Whoever among you is himself certain that he is innocent of that of which she is accused, let him now bear witness against her. After he had said this, they gave him no answer and went away.