A variant
in Second Peter 1:10 – one that is undetectable in the SBL-GNT – shows that some
scribes were not immune to contributing to the role of human effort in
maintaining salvation. During the
Protestant Reformation, the Byzantine Greek text of this chapter was used to
show that Peter, like Paul, affirmed that the salvation comes as a gift of God
(1:2), and that nothing we do can ever add to what Christ has done, as the
Spirit impels each faithful individual to diligently pursue virtue, knowledge,
self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. But long before Martin Luther was born, a
form of verse 10 existed which emphasized that good works contribute to the
confidence of this soul.
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| Papyrus 72 |
The Byzantine text of Second Peter and the
modern text of NA/UBS read precisely the same.
In the Harklean Group – a small cluster of medieval manuscripts – there
is a longer reading.
Before telling you
what it is, the significance of the Harklean Group should be understood.
Why are these relative few, relatively late,
manuscripts important?
Because they
echo, in the General Epistles, a form of text that is virtually as early as our
earliest surviving manuscripts of that category of books.
That is, although the manuscripts in the
Harklean Group (GA 429 614
1505 1611
2138 2412 and
2495, with core
members listed in boldprint) are medieval, they echo an ancient ancestor.
(The term “Harklean” is due to the close
agreement between their text and a text used as an exemplar by Thomas of Harkle when he revised the Syriac Peshitta around the year 616 using Greek
copies at the Enaton monastery that was near
Alexandria, Egypt.)
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| Jude v. 3 in Sinaiticus |
How
ancient?
Consider the text of Codex
Sinaiticus (ﬡ, 01) in the third verse of the Epistle of Jude:
after the normal mention of the salvation
common among believers, it adds “και ζωης” (“and life”).
The inclusion of σωτηρίας is established via
its inclusion in P72, 02 (Alexandrinus), 03 (Vaticanus), 018 020 049 056 0142 and
the overwhelming majority of minuscules including 1 6 18 69 81 323 630 1739 and
the family 35 and
Textus Receptus
forms of the text.
However the Harklean
Group members 1611 2138 1505 2495 uniquely do not include σωτηρίας and have
(after κοινης ημων in 1611 2138, and after κοινης υμων in 1505 2495) ζωης.
This evidence implies that prior to the
production of Sinaiticus in the mid-300s, a scribe had an exemplar with σωτηρίας
and an exemplar with ζωης and, rather than choose between the two, embraced
them both and created the longer reading, a conflation, displayed in
Sinaiticus.
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| Second Peter 1:10 in Sinaiticus |
In Second
Peter 1:10 the Harklean Group also supports, after σπουδάσατε, the words ἵνα
διὰ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων βεβαίαν ὑμῶν τὴν
κλῆσιν καὶ ἐκλογὴν ποιεῖσθε.
The words
in bold print mean “through good works.”
The form of Second Peter 1:10 is supported by the Vulgate – Codex
Amiatinus reads “Quapropter fratres magis agite ut
per bona opera certam vestram vocationem et electionem
faciatis:
haec enim facientes non
peccabitis aliquando.”
Διὰ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων is also read by
Sinaiticus and is supported by Lectionary 60 and the Sahidic, Armenian, and the
Harklean Syriac versions.
Considering
the diversity of witnesses for both readings this contest is much closer than
the UBS Committee’s “A” rating would suggest. I
regard the shorter reading as original, and the early expansion as an example
of the Western tendency to over-emphasize the meaning of the adequately clear
original. But if one were to prefer the
longer reading as original – which, as far as I know, only Lachmann and diehard champions
of the Vulgate have done – then we are looking at a reading which scribes in
more than one transmission-line excised due to a desire to discourage the
interpretation the idea that good works are necessary for assurance of
salvation.
