Papyrus 72 is one of the participants in today’s
hand-to-hand contest. It is possibly the
oldest substantial manuscript of the book of Jude, being usually assigned a
production-date in the late 200’s or early 300’s. (Papyrus 78 may be slightly older but it is a
fragment, containing less than half of Jude’s 25 verses.) Papyrus 72 contains much more than the
Epistle of Jude; it also contains First Peter and Second Peter and some other
compositions – but today we will focus on its text of Jude, and not the entire
book, but just the first 10 verses. You
can access
page-views of P72 at the website of the Vatican Library.
In the opposite corner, we have minuscule 6, from the
1200’s. Minuscule 6 is one of the
manuscripts known to European researchers in the 1500’s; it was cited by
Stephanus as witness #5, that is, εʹ, in his
1550 edition of the Greek New Testament. Microfilm-images of the pages
of minuscule 6 can be viewed at the website of the National Library of France; it
is catalogued as MS Grec. 112.
The text of Jude begins on page-view 137.
Minuscule 6 is not your typical manuscript; it sometimes shares unusual readings with the important minuscules 1739
and 1881.
It is not uncommon to read claims to the effect that the
manuscripts used by researchers in the 1500’s were “late and inferior.” So you might expect that an Alexandrian manuscript
made around 300 will prove to be far more accurate than such a medieval manuscript. Will that be what we observe when P72 and
minuscule 6 square off in the ring?
Let’s find out. Today’s
battleground consists of the first 10 verses of the Epistle of Jude. The rules used for the previous contests
apply here: the Nestle-Aland compilation
will be the standard of comparison. Nomina sacra and other decipherable contractions
are not considered variants as such.
Transpositions are mentioned but are not included in the totals. Words in brackets in the NA compilation will
be treated as part of the text. In
addition, I have defined P72’s text as the text that left the copyist’s hand;
that is, the text of P72 that is evaluated here includes corrections made by
the copyist as he wrote.
Papyrus 72, compared to NA27:
1 – no differences
2 – P72 reads πληθυνθιη instead of πληθυνθειη (-1)
3 – P72 reads ποιησαμενος
instead of ποιουμενος (+3, -2)
3 – P72 reads του
before γραφειν (+3)
3 – P72 reads γραφιν
instead of γραφειν (-1)
3 – P72 reads περει
instead of περι (+1)
3 – P72 reads επαγωνιζεσθε instead of επαγωνιζεσθαι (+1,
-2)
3 – P72 reads πειστει
instead of πιστει (+1)
4 – P72 reads παλε
instead of παλαι (+1, -2)
4 – P72 reads προγεγραμενοι instead of προγεγραμμενοι (-1)
4 – P72 reads χαρειτα
instead of χαριτα (+1)
4 – P72 does not read νομον; the copyist wrote this word but
then crossed it out. (-5)
4 – P72 reads κν ιην χρν ημων instead
of κν ημων ιην χρν (transposition)
5 – P72 reads Υπομνησε
instead of Υπομνησαι (+2, -1)
5 – P72 does not have υμας
after ειδοτας (-4)
5 – P72 reads απαξ παντα οτι θς χρς instead of
παντα οτι ο κς απαξ (transposition) (+4, -2)
5 – P72 reads εγ
instead of εκ (+1, -1)
5 – P72 reads Εγυπτου
instead of Αιγυπτου (+1, -2)
5 – P72 reads πειστευσαντας
instead of πιστευσαντας (+1)
6 – P72 reads απολειποντας
instead of απολιποντας (+1)
6 – P72 reads αειδειοις instead of αιδιοις (+2)
7 – P72 reads Γομορα instead of Γομορρα (-1)
7 – P72 reads ε instead of αι (+1, -2)
7 – P72 reads περει
instead of περι (+1)
7 – P72 reads απελθουσε
instead of απελθουσαι (+1, -2)
7 – P72 reads τερας instead of ετερας (-1)
7 – P72 reads προσκειντε instead of προκεινται (+2, -2)
7 – P72 reads διγμα
instead of δειγμα (-1)
7 – P72 reads εωνιου
instead of αιωνιου (+1, -2)
8 – P72 does not have μεν after σαρκα (-3)
8 – P72 reads μειενουσιν
instead of μιαινουσιν (+3, -3)
8 – P72 reads αθετουσι instead of αθετουσιν (-1)
8 – P72 reads βασφημουσιν instead of βλασφημουσιν (-1)
9 – P72 reads Μιχαης
instead of Μιχαηλ (+1, -1)
9 – P72 reads Μουσεως
instead of Μωυσεως (+1, -1)
9 – P72 reads επειτειμησαι instead of επιτιμησαι (+2)
10 – P72 reads υδασιν
instead of οιδασιν (+1, -2)
10 – P72 reads επειστανται
instead of επιστανται (+1)
10 – P72 reads φθιρονται
instead of φθειρονται (-1)
Thus when we examine the contents of verses 1-10 of the
Epistle of Jude in Papyrus 72, using NA27 as the standard of comparison, we
find that 38 non-original letters are present, and 50 original
letters are absent, for a total of 88 letters’ worth of corruption, most of
which are spelling-related.
Now let’s compare the text of minuscule 6 to NA27:
1 – 6 reads χυ ιυ (transposition)
1 – 6 reads ε
θνεσι
instead of ε
ν Θεω (+5, -4) [Regarding this variant, which is not mentioned in Metzger’s
Textual Commentary, or in the
NET, or in
the NKJV’s footnotes,
see Robert Waltz’s comments.]
1 – 6 reads ηγιασμενοις
instead of ηγαπημενοις (+3, -3)
2 – no differences
3 – 6 reads υμων
instead of ημων (+1, -1)
3 – 6 reads εχων
instead of εσχον (+1, -2)
4 – 6 reads χαριν
instead of χαριτα (+1, -2)
5 – 6 reads ουν instead of δε (+3, -2)
5 – 6 does not have υμας
after ειδοτας (-4)
5 – 6 reads Ις instead of ο Κς (+1, -2)
6 – no differences.
7 – 6 reads τουτοις τροπον instead of τροπον τουτοις
(transposition)
8 – 6 reads μιαινουσι instead of μιαινουσιν (-1)
8 – 6 reads αθετουσι instead of αθετουσιν (-1)
9 – 6 reads Μωσεως instead of Μωυσεως (-1)
9 – 6 reads ετολμησε instead of ετολμησεν (-1)
9 – 6 reads αλλ instead of αλλα (-1)
10 – 6 reads οιδασι instead of οιδασιν (-1)
Thus in minuscule 6 in the first 10 verses of Jude, 15
non-original letters are present, and 26 original letters are absent, yielding
a total of 41 letters’ worth of corruption.
The score of minuscule 6 improves when the text of NA28 is
the standard of comparison. One of the
newly adopted readings in NA28 is in verse 5; instead of “πάντα ὅτι [ο] κύριος
απαξ,” the text of NA28 reads απαξ παντα
οτι Ιησους. This implies a transposition in the text of minuscule 6, but it also brings minuscule 6’s total amount of corruption down
to 14 non-original letters present and 24 original letters absent, yielding a
total of 38 letters’ worth of corruption.
When P72’s score is compared to NA28, its score also improves, by a
single letter, to 87.
Thus, in Jude verses 1-10, when NA28 is used as the standard
of comparison, minuscule 6 has only 44% as much corruption as P72 does. Papyrus 72, our earliest complete manuscript
of Jude, had a transmission-stream only 230 years long (positing its production
in 300 and the composition of the Epistle of Jude around the year 70). Minuscule 6, one of those “late and inferior”
manuscripts known to Reformation-era scholars in the mid-1500’s, had a
transmission-stream that was about 1,050 years long. In the first 10 verses of Jude, the copyists
in P72’s transmission-line in Egypt
introduced twice as much corruption in one-fourth as much time.
(Readers are invited to check the data and math in this post.)
