A slightly more complex apologetic rationale for scribal excision also may have existed: in parts of the early church represented by the tradition expressed in Apostolic Constitutions, regular fasts were to be observed on Wednesdays and Fridays, and fasting was to be avoided on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays. The fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays were said to commemorate Christ’s betrayal and His sufferings. But this may have provoked a question: what regular fasts did Jesus observe, before His betrayal and sufferings? Without the words και νηστεια in Mark
A copyist driven by a similar
apologetic motive could remove the words in order to lower the risk that an
unbelieving critic might pose a question such as the following: Jesus affirmed in Matthew 11:19 that he came
eating and drinking. How, therefore, did
he cast out a demon which can only be exorcised with prayer and fasting?
A much simpler explanation is also at hand: και νηστεια could be lost via a parableptic error elicited by homoeoteleuton. That is, an early copyist who was not familiar with the text accidentally skipped from the και in Mark 9:29 before νηστεια to the και at the beginning of Mark 9:30, thus carelessly losing the two words in between. The possibility of this kind of mistake might not naturally occur to readers of printed texts in which Mark 9:30 begins with κακειθεν, but when reading Codex W (from Egypt), in which Mark 9:30 begins with the non-contracted και εκειθεν, the possibility must be acknowledged.
The very same kind of careless
mistake has caused the loss of και ανεσθη at the end of Mark 9:27 in Codex W,
in Old Latin k (which, besides being
the only Latin witness for the non-inclusion of και νηστεια in 9:29, is
probably the most unreliable extant manuscript of the Gospel of Mark in any
language), and in the Peshitta; according to the NA-27 apparatus this is also
the likely reading of P45, which suggests that at this point Codex W and P45
echo an ancestor.
In a contest between the early
church’s Christology, and the early church’s customs regarding fasting, the
former had a much heavier impact on scribal habits. Copyists were far more likely to remove a
short phrase which (they reasoned) risked giving the impression that Jesus was
unable to exorcise certain demons without fasting previously, than they were to
insert a short phrase which would risk giving readers exactly that
impression.
If και νηστεια was not accidentally
lost (or, if it was, and subsequent copyists in Egypt faced exemplars with
rival readings in Mark 9:29), the perceived scandal at the thought that the
King of angels needed to fast in order to exorcise a certain kind of demon, was
enough to convince an early copyist in Egypt that the responsible thing to do
was to protect readers from misinterpreting the text by removing the
problematic words (or, if the words had already been accidentally lost, and a
copyist faced rival readings in his exemplars, this line of reasoning would be a
major basis for the adoption of the shorter reading).
I would also draw attention to the
reading of Codex B in the subsequent verse, 9:30 . Instead of παρεπορευοντο, B* reads
επορευοντο. (So does D.) B*’s reading was adopted by Hort and Tregelles,
but their judgment has been rejected by subsequent textual critics. Figuring that παρεπορευοντο is indeed the
original text in 9:30 , the reading in
Codex B may be considered evidence that the text of B in this passage has undergone
editing, which may have included theologically motivated editing.
3 comments:
You, sir, are a beautiful man! Thank you so much for this careful and comprehensive work. I was healed nearly three years ago of a debilitating spinal disease only after submitting to the unction of the Holy Spirit to pray "and fast". Since that time, I have been in turmoil trying to resolve my actual experience with the latest "improved" Bible translations of Mark 9:29 and Matthew 17:21. While nothing can refute the miracle God graciously gave me, I wished to help others better understand the truth that many diseases and afflictions may require us to fast in order to find freedom.
No, just pray with Faith :
http://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/nt-conjectures/?indexContent=Mark%209:29
Sebastien, methinks I need a bit more than that.
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