Negative Particles

To: B-greek@virginia.edu
Subject: Negative Particles
From: "KENNETH D. LITWAK" <klitwak@vnet.ibm.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 94 13:28:46 PDT

  Speaking of negative particles, as was being discussed last week,
I came across an intriguing textual variation in 1 Cor 1:13, where
P46 and several minor witnesses read MH MEPE... as opposed to
A, B, etc which omit the MH.  Given that the next question uses
MH "Paul was not crucified for your sins, was he?", the MH expecting
a negative response to the question, I think a reasonable case
(though obviously not certain) could be made for the reading in
P46, arguing that seeing MHMEPE...   was just too much for copyists.
They had troulbe with a triple mu-vowel string and dropped of the
the MH.  I could also understand it being added, but as there are
relatively few witnesses which contain it, I think that seems
somewhat unlikely.  Of course, it is true that P46 does seem to
have some idiosyncratic readings, but I'd be interested in what
others on the list think of this possibility, which I'm not defending
really, but just thinking about the possibility, which seems
fairly plausible to me.


Ken Litwak