From: l. j. swain (x99swain@wmich.edu)
Date: Sat Nov 18 2000 - 14:03:22 EST
-------- Original Message --------
Theodore H Mann wrote:
>
> Greetings:
>
> I will certainly understand if no one cares to go to the trouble of
> checking this out for me, but I'm working my way through a facsimile of
> p75 (John 1), and in what would be 1:4, if there were verse numbers, I
> notice that the H is missing from HN in EV AUTW ZWH HV... I also notice
> that an H has been superimposed over that word. Is there any way of
> knowing if this is a correction made by the scribe himself, or by the
> person in charge of correcting the scribe's work, or was it added much
> later? Whatever the answer, what is the criteria from making such a
> decision? Or is this a question for TC instead of B-Greek? Thanks.
>
Dr. Mann,
I hope I have the same facsimile you do, I don't own one so I checked
the image online. You are quite right in noting that the H of ZWH has
been skipped and a superscript H has been added to correct the error.
Obviously a minor case of eye-skip on the part of the copiest--seeing to
H side by side copied only the second, presumably. The superscript I
think is later, although how much later I couldn't tell from the
photograph. But if you note the shape of the H is different, with
shorter ascender/descender strokes and guessing from the picture, which
view may need to be corrected were I looking at the real mccoy, it seems
to me that the nib of the pen is cut a bit thicker maker for the
appearance of a "fatter" stroke. You'll also notice in the rest of the
line that the scribe is getting somewhat careless in the shape of his H
which are beginning to look a lot like his N; look at the middle of the
line with the ZWH HV TO PHWS where the two H are very close in form to
the N of HN; so close that unless I knew the language I would say they
are about the same, only the crossbar on the H is not as slanted as the
N, that's the only give away.
So to answer your question, looking at the photograph I would say that
the correction is later (although I have no clue from the photograph how
much later) and done by someone else. I also don't know what has been
published on this, so you may want to check and see if someone has done
a study or transcription of this papyrus from a paleographical point of
view. I would be interested in your results.
To determine the date of the correction one would look at shape of the
letter to determine not only a different hand but is it a different
script as well, ink (is it blacker, browner, bluer?), erasures, and so
on.
I hope that helps at least somewhat.
Larry Swain
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