From: Iver Larsen (iver_larsen@sil.org)
Date: Tue Jul 03 2001 - 04:35:59 EDT
> At 09:37 AM 7/1/01 +0200, Iver Larsen wrote:
> >Several commentators prefer the OIDA MEN option. Douglass Moo gives the
> >traditional, "modern" view when he says:
> >"While the first singular reading would bring this verb into
> conformity with the
> >others in vv. 14-25 and is therefore preferred by some (e.g. Zahn,
> Wilckens), it
> >is suspect, as the "easier" reading, for that same reason."
>
> I think that reliance on the concept of an "easier" reading is
> misplaced here. Normally, text criticism prefers the harder
> reading because it more likely for scribes to remove problems
> than introduce them into the text. However, OIDAMENGAR has
> exactly the same reading in the continuous script because
> spaces are not used. There is simply no scribal change at
> issue here, and the concept of the "easier" reading does not
> therefore apply.
If no Greek manuscript used word spacing and if our modern Greek text of the NT
did not use word spacing, I would agree that no scribal change is at issue and
therefore this would not be a textual problem at all.
I am not an expert on text transmission, but it is my understanding that the
early, uncial manuscripts did not use word spacing, but many later manuscripts
did. I don't know if all the minuscules used word spacing, but Nestle-Aland 27th
edition cites manuscript 33 among others as having OIDA MEN, whereas the
majority of minuscules apparently read OIDAMEN. NA27 consider 33 as among the
"first order" of witnesses where "first order" is a group of witnesses that
"include a small number of minuscules which preserve an early form of the text."
(NA27, p. 51,58).
At some point in time the scribal copyists introduced word spacing and then it
would be a matter of interpretation whether to put a space or not. It is at this
point that I expect the "easier" reading to come into play, and I assume this is
what Moo was referring to.
Iver Larsen
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