Teaching Koine Greek in a Classics Department Author(s): Steve Reece Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Apr. - May, 1998), pp. 417-429 Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3298165 Accessed: 28-12-2016 05:08 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Journal This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE FORUM TEACHING KOINE GREEK IN A CLASSICS DEPARTMENT The Classics Department at Saint Olaf College offers an enti traditional curriculum but for the fact that it has for the past twent years positioned Koine Greek as the regular fourth-semester cou the Greek language sequence. There has been a strong interest in Testament Greek since the inception of the college in 1889, an today a third to a half of the beginning Greek students say that the taking the three semesters of Classical Greek specifically in ord satisfy the prerequisites for the Koine Greek course. In other words unabashedly use the Koine Greek course to draw students into semesters of Classical Greek, and in many cases several more sem beyond that. In a typical fourth-semester Koine Greek course there are re sented many different interests and goals. About a third of the stud are very enthusiastic about reading the New Testament, as they prep for seminary or graduate programs in religion, about a third rather be reading a Classical author, and about a third have no s feelings either way. This might be a recipe for disaster, but in f have found ways to make it a recipe for success. In my version course I have made several deliberate choices in assignment projects in order to accommodate the students' varied interest goals. I. I have found that the Acts of the Apostles provides an excellent compromise between the two groups for several reasons: it is written in a fairly polished style, coming as close as any New Testament writing to the literary Classical Greek with which the students are familiar; it is a narrative about the spread of Christianity into the Greco-Roman world, so we are taken on a tour of Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Crete, Malta, Puteoli, and Rome, all sites with which Classics majors are familiar; we regularly meet in the narrative Roman centurions, proconsuls, and procurators, we are confronted with issues of Roman law and citizenship rights, and we even dabble a bit, along with the apostle Paul, in the current issues of the Greek philosophical schools; while journeying through Asia Minor we are reminded of the many delightful theoxenies in Classical literature, from Homer to Ovid, The Classical Journal 93.4 (1998) 417-29 This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 418 STEVE REECE when the apostles Paul and Barn Hermes and Zeus; and, finally, we a and exhaustive accounts of a sea world. The abrupt end of the Ac imprisoned in Rome during the discussion of early Roman view opportune moment for an introd Pliny (Letters 10.96-97), Tacitus ( Caesars 5.25 & 6.16) about the rise o the East. II. I use this course as a training ground for students in textual criticism. The New Testament has a far richer manuscript tradition than any Classical text-over 5000 manuscripts from between the 2nd and 15th centuries-and excellent facsimiles of these manuscripts from every period are readily available: papyrus fragments, complete papyrus rolls, parchment codices, uncials, minuscules, etc. The history of the text of the New Testament, then, provides a paradigm of the history of any text, whether Homer or Euripides or Aristotle. Students in this course learn how to manufacture sheets of papyrus, how to join them into a roll, how to construct a codex from quires of parchment, how to recognize the various types of manuscripts in an apparatus criticus, how to identify and categorize scribal errors, and how to differentiate between worse and better readings-all skills that will benefit them in whatever ancient texts they later attempt to study. III. I use this course to train students in the history of the Greek language. From the first day I ask them to keep a list of spellings, forms, and grammatical and syntactical usages that strike them as peculiar given their background in Classical Greek. After three or four weeks I collect their lists, compile and systematize them, and produce from this collection a working grammar of Koine Greek that is historical as well as descriptive, and that perfectly fits their needs. Not only do students take away from this exercise a better appreciation of tense, voice, and mood, and a sharper distinction between the various ways of expressing indirect discourse, but also a new realization of Ancient Greek as a living, changing language. In sum, I have found that this course is a dynamic and successful one because the interests of the two groups, New Testament students and Classics majors, complement each other. The New Testament students generally pass straight into the upper division exegetical courses in seminary and graduate school, with a broad appreciation of the history of the New Testament language and text that will be matched by very few of their classmates. The Classics majors go away This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TEACHING KOINE GREEK 419 from this course with a new appreciation o language, a sound rudimentary training i familiarity with one of the most import INTRODUCTION TO KOINE GREEK FROM A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The goal of using this course to train students in the history of the Greek language might be accomplished at a higher level by systematically studying a descriptive New Testament grammar along the lines of Blass-Debrunner-Funk, A. T. Robertson, or J. H. Moulton, but not very effectively, and certainly not very efficiently, at a second-year level.' Nor is the plethora of introductory Koine Greek text books much help in this endeavor, since most of the ones published in the last hundred years present Koine idiom without any reference to its Classical ancestor,2 and since, in any case, the technical vocabulary used to describe the language is substantially different from that typically used in a Classical Greek course. In short, there is no resource available that is designed to bridge the gap between Classical and Koine Greek at the second-year level in an effective and efficient fashion. My solution has been to devote a class period or two to a summary of the history and development of the Greek dialects, after which I ask the students to create their own short historical grammars by posing the following assignment: As you translate the first several chapters of the Acts of the Apostles over the next three weeks, keep a list of spellings, forms, and grammatical and syntactical constructions that you find remarkable given your training in Classical Greek (e.g. the Attic E, t, p rule is not observed; weak aorist endings are attached to strong aorist verb stems; the optative mood has nearly disappeared, its functions taken over by other syntactical constructions). For each remarkable feature cite at least one example from the text. Over the past several years my classes of mostly Classics majors with three semesters of Classical Greek as a background identified and categorized the following peculiarly Koine forms and constructions in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. The worksheet they created F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago 1961); A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (New York 1914); J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh 1906-63). BlassDebrunner-Funk is 325 double-columned pages of small print; Robertson and Moulton both run well over a thousand pages. 2 For an apologia of this practice, see J. G. Machen, New Testament Greek for Beginners (New York 1923) vii-viii. This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 420 STEVE REECE remained useful for them througho concise Koine grammar, and they they proceeded in their reading o SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF KOINE GREEK VIS-A-VIS CLASSICAL GREEK IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES Prose Style: A paratactic style, with simple clauses linked by the conjunction Kai, has replaced the hypotactic style of Classical Greek, with its many types of subordinate clauses, conditional sentences, and levels of discourse. This is partly due to the decay of the Classical modals: the optative mood has neared extinction, and the subjunctive mood has suffered considerable decay, making the expression of many types of complex sentences impossible (e.g. 13:17-22). Related to the decay of the modals is the absence in the prose of the New Testament of many of the ubiquitous particles of Classical Greek. Since the function of many of these particles was to color the modal character of a clause or sentence, the particles as a group have concomi- tantly been reduced in number and variety. As to word order, whereas in the periodic style of Classical Greek the indicative verb tended to be positioned toward the middle or end of a clause or sentence, in the New Testament the verb is more frequently positioned at the beginning, followed by the subject and then the object, with various expansions thereon. There is general indifference in the New Testament text-at least in the form in which it has been transmitted-to many of the niceties of euphonic Classical Greek prose: e.g. the elision and crasis of vowels are less frequent; consequently there occurs much more hiatus; assimilation of consonants is less frequent; movable-nu and movable-sigma are employed even before consonants. Direct and Indirect Discourse: 6nt may introduce direct as well as indirect discourse. It functions as nothing more than a quotation mark in its introduction of direct discourse (5:23, 25; 6:11; 11:3; 14:22; 16:36; 17:3; 19:21; 23:20, 22). Its increased frequency in introducing indirect dis- course comes at the expense of the accusative plus infinitive and accusative plus participle constructions (e.g. 2:13, 36; 3:10,17). Occasionally there occurs a conflation of the 6rt construction and the accusative plus infinitive construction (e.g. 27:10). El may introduce a direct as well as an indirect question (1:6; 7:1; 19:2; 21:37; 22:25). Periphrastic Verb Forms: Many periphrastic verbal constructions have developed, especially the combination of a present or perfect This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TEACHING KOINE GREEK 421 participle with a form of Eijti or, much less or a dPXO) (1:10: drEvirovtES joav; 1:13: i 2tpocxaptEpo vqTe; 2:2: o1aav KaOC~giEvo PE3anrstotvot txfipxov; 10:24: 7~v xpoo6o~&o 1v K1otlO)iEvog; 12:12: 11oav owvl0potoCE i1oav sreaypvot; 14:7: EiayyElt6iE napa6S6o~ivot; 16:12: j'ev ... tarpilpovr 19:32: fv ... ovywEX1cs~ Wvl; 19:36: &6ov ort 20:13: 6tatrtaypiFvo; 71v; 21:3: fv &dx npoe0pa6ztsr; 22:5: 6 vra; 6EEtEVOvo; 22:19: i 22:29: 8v 6s888 )&;; 25:10: atzrd; Eijt; 26:26: Compound Verb Forms: New compound many including more than one prepositio accompanied by a regular preposition as well aoytcarpiroRat . . . igEr&; 3:18: xpoKa xpooanertXFoat; 7:12, etc.: aaxoa?,tXXo; 9:40: avaKaOi~w(; 12:25, etc.: ougnapaXaowpivo; 13:31: covavapaivo)... &an6; 13:41, etc.: E9817nyogyat; 15:5: 9avioa1trt; 16:22: aoveiozrYt ... KaTo ; 18:28: 6taXcatK(EXXogtat; 20:10: oa- giptXaCp i&vo0; 24:9: ouventrirttisat; 25:5: oaTycaapaiveo; 25:24: v-L&ndpsEtLt; 26:30: aYovyxOcBi at). A similar fondness for compounds may be found in the substantives. Tense: The future tense has survived almost exclusively in the indicative mood: the future infinitive is attested only in the verb UaaaEoat (11:28; 23:30; 24:15; 27:10); the future participle is rare (only at 8:27; 20:22; 22:5; 24:11, 17); the future optative has disappeared altogether. The future perfect tense is not to be found, even in the indicative mood. In some instances verbs that were formerly second (strong) aorists have evolved into first (weak) aorists (6:2: KaTaiavraq); in other instances precisely the reverse evolution has taken place (12:10: 7voiyr; 17:13: KaTo1ryyE'1X). More remarkably, first (weak) aorist endings are often attached to second (strong) aorist stems, primarily in the third person plural forms of the indicative-(ouv)()() (9)JXOav; elinav; Sav; i~paXav; a&vsXav (1:11, 24; 4:23,24; 5:29; 6:2; 9:35; 10:22, 39,45; 12:10,11,15,16; 13:46; 14:19; 16:20, 31, 37, 40; 17:32; 19:3; 21:20; 23:4, 14; 28:15, 21)-but sometimes in other forms as well: first person singular (23:27: 9tX&liplv; 26:15: seina); third person singular (7:10, etc.: Es"iXato; 7:21: A&veiXao); first person plural (28:14: 7h(jajvEv; 4:20: ei&a1Ev); second person plural (2:23: A&viXaFr); participles (7:37, etc.: Eixna;); and imperatives (24:20: ein(Xrooav). The third person plural ending of the perfect has been leveled out under the influence of the aorist forms (16:36: d&no7ralav for This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 422 STEVE REECE &irsat&XIcaatv). The pluperfect indicative frequen 14:23: nExntozEsYr Etov; 20:16: KEKp Voice: The middle voice has begun corresponding active or passive for &neKpi0rl for 6&neFptv&ro; 8:29 rovavzriovza for rovavtnlo6iEva; Mood: The optative mood has al the future tense). The optative in f found. The optative of wish is ra The potential optative is rare (8:31 tense of the indicative. The optat the indicative or subjunctive in s 27; 20:16; 21:33; 24:19; 25:16, 20; 27:1 the New Testament as a whole y-votto (15 times). The subjunctive mood retains m than the optative: hortatory (7 deliberative (2:37; 4:16, 21); purpo in Acts); fear (5:39; 13:40; 23:10; 2 35; 24:22); future more vivid con 13:41; 15:1; 26:5; 27:31). But the sub than in Classical Greek, largely structures in the paratactic prose to the encroachment of the future sometimes replaces 9&v + subjun sometimes replaces'iva + subjuncti purpose, both with the article r without it (10:9, 33; 11:25; 12:1, 1 Number: The dual forms have Mi-Verbs: Some -gt verbs have d (3:2, etc.: tid0ouv for ~i0eo(xv; 4:3 6tE6iEZro for &teS6i6oo; 14:17: A cKaotoravovr; for Kactorr6vre; 2 The -K- forms of the singular sometimes been extended to the p 6:6: n9(icixyv; 7:25: ouvi'cav; 9:25 9n80i)Kcav; cf. the perfects Yoziat [7:40]). There is some attempt to regularize EiCti as a deponent verb by substituting ijt uv for iv (10:30; 11:5, 17; 22:19, 20) and ijjea0 for tjev (27:37). This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TEACHING KOINE GREEK 423 Nominal Forms: Other than some quite u of forms, for example in some third decle [but 11:23; 25:9: Xdptv]), the declensional sy from its Classical form. The most striking change is the deterioration of the dative case, especially as the object of prepositions (with the exception of Ev plus dative, which is increasingly common). Pronouns: Personal pronouns appear frequently and are expressed explicitly, especially in the oblique cases, rather than, as in Classical Greek, simply understood from the context. The third person pronoun carz6; is particularly common in the oblique cases. The ubiquity of these personal pronouns compensates for the infrequency of reflexive pronouns and possessive adjectives, both of which have lost ground in Koine Greek. (e.g. 1:9,14; 2:8,17, 27-28, 38; 7:21, 58; 16:15,19; 22:17-18). The indefinite relative pronouns aozrt and itrt; are usually indistin- guishable in meaning from the simple relative pronouns 6; and ij (5:16; 8:15; 9:35; 11:20, 28; 12:10; 13:31, 43; 16:12, 16, 17; 17:10; 21:4; 23:14, 21, 33; 24:1; 28:18). The first and second person reflexive pronouns are taken over by the third person forms: a(aZ)Zoir, for example, is replaced by auTlroU; (e.g. 13:46; 15:29; cf. 23:14). The number "one" (E1;, 't(ia, 'v) has come to be used in place of the indefinite pronoun (tzt, zt) (4:32; 11:28; 12:10; 23:17; 28:25), as in English (ane > an > a) and other languages. Prepositions: The deterioration of the dative case has had a widespread effect on prepositions: the dative no longer appears with teraz&, nEpi, in6, or &v&; its use has waned with all other prepositions except Av; -v itself has gained multifarious meanings, encroaching on the use of o-v, Ei;, and other prepositions, as well as on the dative proper; the distinction between Ei; and Ev has become particularly blurred (e.g. 8:40: liitnno; E Ei6p70 ei; "Aoyrov (cf. 13:42; 19:22; 20:16); 4:5: ouveNflvCat... Av 'IEpo0UaX(Clt). Negation: The complex distinction between o'ics and Lil in Classical Greek has given way to a general pattern whereby o~uiK negates indica- tive verbs while gdL negates subjunctive and optative verbs, along with imperatives, participles, and infinitives, even when no conditionality is evident (5:7; 9:9, 26; 13:11; 15:38; 17:6; 20:22, 29; 21:14, 34; 23:8; 25:27; 27:7, 15). Dialect: Panhellenic forms are preferred to Attic forms: the E, t, p rule is not observed (5:1: Xlanpip1; 5:2: aovet6uiig; 10:1: onaEip'lp; 12:2: axXcaPn; 27:30: hx6-,06ppo;; etc. instead of Attic 6poalv, 0&poo;, etc. inp,'pl'); instead of va6-, Attic ipplv, Kahio, zE~ao0, etc. ve-Iq, -e-;; This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 424 STEVE REECE instead of Attic icaXi, rEb; Pqnl& qcux&nawo, 0&X xat; ytvoiow, yivo tucpp6q, etc. instead of Attic auptK Latinisms: Latinisms are introduced: some actual Latin words transcribed into Greek (6:9: Atgsprtivot; 13:1: Ni{yp; 16:12: KoXQ)vi 19:12: atjitKdvtov, aoouptov; 20:4: LEKoFiobvS; 21:38: atKuptog; 23:35 I pattcoptov; 25:8: Kaitoup; 27:12: Xfppo;; 27:14: Ei pa u'Xowv); some calqu of Latin words (5:37: &dnoypawpij = census; 10:1: catzovrtpXlq = centurio onEpa = cohors; 13:7: &vei'naroo = proconsul; 16:35: or parrlyoi = duov coloniae, = 4aposoxo; = lictor; 21:31: XtXiapxo; = tribunus militum; 23:24: ihyEFg)v = procurator; 23:26: Kpaktcro = egregius; 23:34: knEapxsia = provincia; 25:12: oCtpooitov = consilium; 25:21: b6 eepaoro6 = Augustus; 25:26: icupto; = dominus); a few translations of idiomatic phrases (7:6 nt9tvat th y6vacr= genua ponere; 17:9: XapFi-v itb iav6v = satis caper 19:38: dyopaiot &yovroat = conventus aguntur); and an occasional suff (27:6: -tvo; ['AXeav8pivo;]; 11:26: -tavo; [Xpt(rtav6q]). Semitisms: Semitisms are introduced, not simply in the common geographical and personal names, but also in the underlying synta iorazt and yvvErzo occur with a nominative noun and indicative ver (2:17, 21; 3:23; perhaps 5:7); FyFvero also takes accusative or dative wi infinitive constructions (4:5; 9:3, 32, 37, 43; 10:25; 11:26; 14:1; 16:16; 19:1; 21:1, 5; 22:6, 17; 27:44; 28:8, 17); Av r(t plus infinitive is used temporally (2:1; 3:26; 4:30; 8:6; 9:3; 11:15; 19:1); periphrastic constructions a created using 'tiuir t and Ttifit (e.g. 8:26-27: &vdor0t ... ..opEIo &vaoz&q ELop% E A' [cf. 5:6, 17; 9:6, 11, 18, 34, 39; 10:13, 20, 23; 11:7, 28; 13:16; 14:20; 15:7; 22:10,16; 23:9]); tautological expressions are commo such as 0paWv E'6ov, especially in introducing discourse [X6Xi~hoe hXywv, d'o pt'oit ... EiiFev (e.g. 4:19; 8:24, 34; 19:15; 25:9]); a periphrastic construction with np6a'(nov becomes common (3:13, 20; 5:41; 7:4 13:24; 17:26). INTRODUCTION TO THE DISCIPLINE OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM In order to accomplish the second goal mentioned above--that of using this course as a training ground for students in textual criticism, not just for the New Testament, but for ancient texts as a whole-I have designed the following course of study for my students, the results of which may be observed below: 3 B. M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. Third, Enlarged Edition (Oxford 1992). This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TEACHING KOINE GREEK 425 Read the following chapters of Bruce Metz Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Res Chapter I. Read all of this chapter. I will pro of lectures on the history of textual transmis bottlenecks that a text must squeeze through (from papyrus roll to parchment codex, from u manuscript to print, etc.). After you have rea attempt to identify a passage from a papyrus significance of the material remains.' I will als a codex from quires of "parchment," without a on a non-flesh side. Chapter II. In this chapter, read 36-51; skim 52-67; read 67-68; skim 68-71; read 72-79; skim 79-92. Familiarize yourself with the introduction and sigla to your United Bible Societies' The Greek New Testament.5 Decipher a simple entry in the apparatus of the UBS text. Read Constantin von Tischendorf's account of his discovery of the codex Sinaiticus at the monastery of Saint Catherine.6 Chapter III. In this chapter, read 95-106; skim 106-118. Chapter IV. In this chapter, skip 119-24; read 124-46, 280-84 (appendix). Decipher another entry in the apparatus of the UBS text, but this time make a personal evaluation of the reading and decide which variant(s) you would place in the text, which you would relegate to the apparatus, if you were an editor of the UBS text. Chapters V-VI. In these chapters, read 149-59; skip 159-85. Chapter VII. Read all of this chapter. Chapter VIII. In this chapter, read 207-30; skip 230-46. Now that you have been thoroughly immersed in the discipline of textual criticism, examine the text and apparatus of the following New Testament 4 I use for this exercise a facsimile of the earliest manuscript of the New Testament, John Rylands n52, from whose very slight physical remains an astonishing amount of information may be elicited. s In order to accomplish these projects on textual criticism cooperatively and efficiently, it is important that all students have the same text and apparatus of the New Testament. I use the 4th revised edition (with dictionary) of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (Stuttgart 1994). Its text has now been adopted in the 26th and 27th editions of Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece, but the apparatus of the two texts differ markedly. An advantage of using the UBS apparatus is the availability of a very informative companion volume-B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London and New York 1971; corrected edition, 1975)-which sets forth the reasons that led the editors to relegate certain readings to the apparatus. I consult this volume frequently but do not require students to purchase it. 6 Tischendorf's scintillating account was first published in a pamphlet titled Wann wurden unsere Evangelien verfasst? It was first translated into English in 1866 by the Religious Tract Society in a small volume printed in New York City called When Were our Gospels Written? (13-42). An abbreviated version of Tischendorf's account may be found in many modern treatments of the New Testament manuscript tradition. This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 426 STEVE passages. REECE Decipher the apparatus. Ev that you are the editor of a new editio reading will you place in the text, wh give a defense of each decision. T difficulty, so you will probably do bes Acts 13:18; 2 Peter 2:13; Matthew 12:4 22:35; Luke 11:2-4; Matthew 6:9-13; Matthew 24:36; Luke 2:33; John 7:53 EXERCISES IN TEXTUAL CRITICISM Unintentional Variants. These are changes that arise from faulty hearing, faulty seeing, or some other faulty mental process of a scribe. Such changes tend to follow predictable patterns and so are quite easily detectable; hence, the reconstruction of the original text is relatively easy. Acts 13:26: While preaching to the Jews in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, does Paul proclaim that the word of salvation has been sent out "to you" (igiv) or "to us" (igLtiv)? This common confusion of i and i1 in the New Testament texts is part of a larger phonetic development called "itacism"-the fact that by the Koine period u, Fr, et, ot, ut, and n were all pronounced like t. Hence bitiv and igtiv would have sounded identical to a scribe copying a text from dictation. Acts 13:18: Does Paul, in the same sermon, claim that for forty years in the desert God "cared for" (&rpopo(p6prlaEv) the Hebrews, or does he claim that God "endured the behavior" (&rpoxoqp6pl~aEv) of the Hebrews? Faulty hearing of (p for x, or vice versa, may have played a part here in the development of a variant. 2 Peter 2:13: Are they to be condemned who revel in their "deceptions" (&darat) or who revel in their "loves" (&dydiinau)? A variant has arisen here apparently for visual rather than phonetic reasons: i.e. since the letters lI, T, F are often confused for one another in the uncial script, AHATAIC could easily have been mistaken for AFAMIAIC, or vice versa. Matthew 12:47: This entire verse is absent in many manuscripts. Its omission has apparently resulted from "parablepsis" (the scribe has "looked away" from his exemplar and then turned his eyes.back to a different place in the text of the manuscript) owing to "homoeoteleuton" (the last word of this verse--afiaat- is identical to the last word of the preceding verse). This type of omission is commonly called "haplography." Acts 27:37: The opposite of haplography is "dittography" (the scribe writes the same letter or word[s] twice). Dittography of the letter f2 appears to have been the source of confusion in this verse: were there This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TEACHING KOINE GREEK 427 "276" men on board the ship with Paul (f "around 76" (HlAOIDQ Q C OF)? 1 Thessalonians 2:7: Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a variant arose as a result of a phonetic or a visual ambiguity. Does Paul in this verse remind the church at Thessalonica that he and Silas had become "babes" (vjlntot) among them or "gentle" (i7tot) among them? The variant clearly arose because the word immediately preceding ended with v (~yEvil'~10gEv); but it is unclear whether it arose from an ambiguity that was visual (haplography or dittography of v in a text written scriptio continua) or phonetic (the nearly identical articulation of both combinations of words). Intentional Variants. These are deliberate changes that are made by scribes in order to "correct" or "improve" a questionable text. Sometimes these changes are made simply to improve the spelling, the grammar, the syntax, or the style of a passage, or to make the meaning of a passage more clear; sometimes these changes are made to correct what are perceived by the scribes to be factual errors; and sometimes these changes are motivated by larger doctrinal considerations. Such changes are, of course, much more insidious than the unintentional changes listed above. Matthew 22:35: Does the original text explicitly designate the Pharisee who questions Jesus a "lawyer" (vojwuc6k)? In spite of the very large number of good manuscripts that include this designation, it is unlikely that it was in the original text of Matthew. For while there was no reason for a scribe to omit the word, there was a strong temptation for a scribe to add such a detail from a parallel version of the story. This is but one of many occasions in the transmission of the text of the New Testament on which a scribe felt the temptation to harmonize the readings of the synoptic gospels. In this case the word appears to have been interpolated from the version of the same story in Luke 10:25. Luke 11:2-4: Here in a more comprehensive and complex harmonization of the synoptic gospels, Luke's shorter version of the Lord's Prayer has been expanded by many manuscripts to agree with the longer form in Matthew 6:9-13. Matthew 6:9-13: Matthew's longer form of the Lord's Prayer has itself been expanded in some manuscripts over the course of centuries by the addition of a doxology, a trinitarian ascription, and an "amen." As a general rule, the later the manuscript, the longer the prayer. This may be explained by the increased use of the prayer in the liturgies of the early church. Acts 12:25: This passage illustrates the maxim difficilior lectio potior ("the more difficult reading is preferable"). Barnabas and Saul, having This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 428 STEVE REECE recently arrived in at in earliest least the Jerusalem fro and be Jerusalem" (0?donpE_yav Ei; 'IE appears out of place in the con variants Yet we for the need to preposition bear in Eiq mind o th are often the same as those that p were even more prone to "correct we are. original New Hence, in reading Testament), this and case Eiq explained going with a the p i.e. "having fulfilled their miss Antioch)." Colossians 4:15: Some of the m variants are those that were mo Western text of the New Testame codex Bezae, has a tendency to eff church. In this verse does Paul a the or, church as the in her Western house" text (N~)(pa records, " (N)gpav ialri v iar' oilcov Oa'roio Acts 17:4: Similarly, in Thessal new converts "a number of th xp9 of yXV the oica leading Matthew and more along at the 2:33: The things in scribes the and or all hu shall motivated by and to replaced this whether and best mother" said W yuvait in earth attempt have (icai oldest and as issue here "Joseph an or, angels and posed "father instead ently the heaven Luke At specifically difficulty Jesus' men" 24:36: with when 6Xiyat) (6 m x0a Simeon his m ab moth safeguard b6 xat0lp a& John 7:53-8:11: While most va markable, often involving a sing two passages are considerable; th Testament colorful upon and which some doub compassionate This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms sto TEACHING KOINE GREEK 429 absent in the oldest and best manuscripts. up in other parts of the gospel of John, or even in those manuscripts that include often marked with asterisks or obeli, ind selves were doubtful of its authenticity. It that was circulated orally for some time be places in the New Testament text. Mark 16:9-20: The last twelve verses of the received text of the gospel of Mark are absent in, among others, the two oldest and most venerable manuscripts of the Greek New Testament: codex Sinaiticus and codex Vaticanus. This long and eventful passage, with its several post-resurrection appearances by Christ, and its apocalyptic expecta- tions (signs, casting out demons, speaking in tongues, picking up serpents, drinking poison, and healing), is apparently a later expansion of the original gospel. Remarkably, this entire passage made its way without comment into the earliest modem translations of the New Testament, including the Authorized Version (King James), simply because the codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were in the one case yet undiscovered and in the other case still inaccessible. Variants of this magnitude, posing difficulties such as these, impress upon the students the need to gain a close familiarity, if not a working knowledge, of the complex discipline of textual criticism. STEVE REECE Saint Olaf College This content downloaded from 130.71.96.21 on Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:08:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms