John 8:44 - An Anti-Marcionite Deletion in Family 13

 Family 13 is a small cluster of manuscripts notable (or notorious) for having unusual liturgically influenced readings such as the addition of Luke 22:43-44 within the text of Matthew after 26:39 and the pericope adulterae following Luke 21:38.  The archetype of manuscripts 13, 69, 124,174, 230, 346, 543, 788, 826, 828, 983, 1689 and (in John) 1709 was brought to the attention of scholars in 1877 in a posthumous study by William Hugh Ferrar edited by T. K. Abbott assisted by George Salmon - A Collation of Four Important Manuscripts of the Gospels.  Within the family there are three grouping:  a (13, 346, 543, 826, and 828), b (69, 124, and 788) and c (983).  

Ferrar assigned to family 13 a weight "second only to that of the three or four most ancient uncials."  This acknowledgment of the importance of 69 may be significant to those who advocate the Textus Receptus, for 69 was known to Erasmus.  Ferrar also asserted that many of the unusual readings in 69 "have arisen from Evangelistaria and Lectionaries."   There were at least three factors in play when the archetype of family 13 was made:  (1) the influence of an early lection-cycle (2) an early liturgy very similar to the Byzantine liturgy, and (3) a doctrinal agenda.

It is one specific reading illustrating this third factor- doctrinal motivations of a scribe - that I examine today.  In John 8:44, GA 13 is missing the words του πατρος.   The words are present in 01 03 and the Byzantine Text.  The non-inclusion is supported by K, the Sinaitic Syriac, and one Bohairic manuscript.  What would motivate an early scribe to skip these words?

A simple parableptic error cannot be ruled out entirely - the scribe's line of sight could have jumped from του to του.  But as J. Porter observed in 1848, a far stronger case can be argued that the omission was doctrinally driven and that the scribe(s) responsible wished to allow one fewer arrows to fill the quivers of the supporters of Marcion, who could argue from the presence of του πατρος that Jesus' words in John 8:44 vindicate the idea that Satan (or the Demiurge) was responsible for the existence of Jesus' religious opponents in Jerusalem.  This illustrates the great antiquity of readings in in relatively late manuscripts.