Second Peter 1:10 - Grace By Faith - Confidence By Works

             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.

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.)

          

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.

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.

Second Peter 3:10 - A Step Backwards in NA28

 

            Has the church lost the original text of Second Peter 3:10?

            “Doubtless” was Hort’s answer in 1881.    His note is a bit torpid but his verdict is clear:

“iii.10 (†) εὑρεθήσεται] οὐχ εὐρεθήσεται syr.bod[= an obscure Syriac version of the three Catholic Epistles not in the Syriac canon] theb :  κατακαήσεται (? Alexandrian and) Constantinopolitan (Gr. Lat. Syr. Eg. Æth.) ; incl. A L₂ lat. vg. codd Cyr.al Aug:  ἀφανισθήσονται C: , ni: , the whole clause (καὶ γῆ … κατακ.) lat. vg pp^scr pp^lat.scr.  Text ﬡBK₂P₂27 29 66** syr.hl.mg. arm :  cf. bod the.  The great difficulty of text has evidently given rise to all these variations (Introd. § 365).  It is doubtless itself a corruption of ῾ρυήσεται (῾ρεήσεται) or of one of its compounds.”

Second Peter 3:10 in Codex Alexandrinus

            The Byzantine text of II Peter 3:10 is:   Ἥξει δὲ ἡ ἡμέρα κυ ὡς κλέπτης ἐν νυκτί ἐν ᾗ οἱ οὐρανοὶ ҅ροιζηδον παρελεύσονται στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούμενα λυθήσονται καὶ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ ἔργα κατακήσεται – diverging from the text of NA27 at five points, two of which are detectable in translation:  the simple presence or absence of ἐν νυκτί and the final word of the sentence.     

            While the shorter reading is explainable as a loss due to parablepsis from the ἐν before νυκτί to the ἐν after it, and its longer rival is supported by C K L 049 104 629 1751 Byz, the Byzantine reading was assumed so readily by the editors of UBS4 to be a harmonization to First Thessalonians 5:2 that it didn’t even receive a listing in the apparatus.  The array of external against it is indeed very impressive – P72 ﬡ A B P Ψ 048^vid 0156 33 323 945 1739 Vulgate Coptic. 

      
      It is the textual contest at the end of the verse that has attracted the most attention recently, because the editors of Novum Testamentum Graece decided to print in the text a reading which is not found in any Greek manuscript of Second Peter.   The textual contest in the last word of Second Peter 3:10 has been an issue for a long time.   Not only Westcott & Hort but also (according to NA27’s apparatus) Naber, Olivier, Mayor, and Eberhard Nestle each proposed different conjectural emendations here – swept away, conflagrated, removed, and judged, respectively).  Normal people might imagine that an “embarrassment of riches,” would naturally preclude such guesses, but, no, the NET’s annotator candidly admits that this is “one of the most difficult textual problems in the NT.” 

            The NET’s annotator firmly endorsed εὑρεθήσται as the original reading, arguing that the opacity of the meaning of εὑρεθήσται provoked scribes to substitute a word that seemed easier to understand.  This is perfectly lucid.  In addition, the meaning of the text in the smattering of non-Greek witnesses enlisted to support ουχ is accounted for as a harmonization to the meaning of Revelation 20:11 (οὐχ εὐρέθη in the majority text).  The conjectural emendation that currently is printed in NA28 cannot be recommended as superior – but it does serve as an interesting and obvious admission that the editors do not believe that the original text of Second Peter 3:10 has survived in any extant Greek witness.  Some onlookers have assumed that the C.B.G.M. had something to do with the editors’ decision, but that seems impossible, inasmuch as there is no coherence to consider.

Second Peter 2:11 - Instability in the Critical Text

Second Peter 2:11 in P72

It’s easy to read Second Peter 2:11 in several English versions and never notice the startling difference in meaning – but we’re about to do exactly that.  Compare:

1.  EHV:  whereas angels, even though they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.

2.  KJV:  Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

3.  ESV:  whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

4.  LEB:  whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.

Second Peter 2:11 in GA 2412 (Harklean Group)

5.  NLT:  But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. 

Was the original text “before the Lord” (παρὰ κυρίῳ) or “from the Lord” (παρὰ κυρίου), or neither?  The textual difference impacts interpretation.  Did the original text mean that angels don’t bring reviling accusations against the ungodly in the Lord’s presence, or that angels don’t deliver to the ungodly reviling accusations that the Lord has made?    

Second Peter 2:11 in Vaticanus (03)

Adding the the trickiness of this context, an impressive array of witnesses (including A Ψ 1505 Vulgate Ethiopic Sahidic) support neither παρὰ κυρίῳ or παρὰ κυρίου – a short reading adopted by Michael Holmes in the SBL-GNT and in the Lexham English Bible (agreeing with the Rheims Version (1582) and the Confraternity Version (1941).  The late Bruce Manning Metzger made a note in Textual Commentary sympathetic with the shorter reading.

The difference between παρὰ κυρίῳ and παρὰ κυρίου in the early manuscripts is a one-letter-difference, for they all contract the sacred name involved:

παρὰ κῳ:  ﬡ B C 049 489 927 945 999 1243 1244 1315 1573 1646 1739 1874 Byz

παρὰ κυ:  P72 056 0142 1 35 69 330 1241 1251 1319 1751 2191 2197 2356 l593

One might think that a reading shared by the Alexandrian flagship manuscripts ﬡ B and the Byzantine Text would be readily adopted, but P72 and the witnesses that favor omission have complicated the equation.  Nestle-Aland 25, 26, and 27 had κυρίου; the 28th edition has  instead κυρίῳ.

Internal considerations decide the issue when the evidence is divided like this.  The parallel in Jude vv. 8-9 alludes to an angel (the archangel Michael) refraining from condemning the devil outright and instead leaving judgment up to the Lord.  The reading that has a corresponding sentiment is παρὰ κυρίῳ. 

Παρὰ κυρίῳ should be maintained in the text with confidence.