Re: Text critical question in Matt 11:9 (longish)

To: "Sterling G. Bjorndahl" <bjorndahl@augustana.ab.ca>
Subject: Re: Text critical question in Matt 11:9 (longish)
From: "Larry W. Hurtado" <hurtado@cc.umanitoba.ca>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 19:49:06 -0600 (CST)
Cc: nt-greek@virginia.edu
In-Reply-To: <00976A82D6EDA3E0.000008B8@Augustana.AB.CA>

Unfortunately, I'm at home (where I now do my e-mail till my ethernet
campus connection is made), away from my books, so I will try to check out
the passages in my tools and get back to the list on this question.  But
for now, two brief observations from a Markan text critic.
1) I don't see that one reading or the other is more "ambiguous".  Both
readings seem in their contexts to be stylistic variations reflective
ofthe varying stylistic tastes of scribes that are so well known to text
critics.  That is, both variants express the idea (respectively), "Why did
you go out?  To see a prophet?" and "What did you go out to see?  A prophet?"
2) On the principle of which reading better explains the appearance of the
other, I opt slightly for "propheten idein".  It is the reading that is
unparalleled in the context or in Luke, and so the other could more easily
have arisen by a scribe trying for some stylistic consistency. 
Larry Hurtado, Religion, U. Manitoba

References:

Re: Text critical question in Matt 11:9 (longish)

From: "Sterling G. Bjorndahl" <bjorndahl@augustana.ab.ca>