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Two Readings in Papyrus Bodmer II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Edgar R. Smothers S.J.
Edgar R. Smothers S.J.
Affiliation:
West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana
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Extract

Papyrus Bodmer II has come quietly into a world stunned a little with ever fresh discoveries of ancient monuments. New Testament students know, indeed, that they are enriched with a very precious accession to their store of manuscripts. We have never possessed before so large a portion of any Gospel, so well preserved, from so early a date, as we now have, thanks to Victor Martin's distinguished editing, in these fourteen chapters of the Gospel according to St. John, copied about the year 200.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 1958 , pp. 109 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958

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References

1 Papyrus Bodmer II: de Jean, Évangile, chap. 1–14, edited by Martin, Victor, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana V (Geneva, 1956)Google Scholar.

2 Among the studies already published, the writer is especially indebted to the following: Aland, K., “Papyrus Bodmer II: Ein erste Bericht,” Theologische Literaturzeitung, LXXXII (Leipzig, 1957), coll. 161–183Google Scholar; Barrett, C. K., “Papyrus Bodmer II: A Preliminary Report,” Expository Times, LXVI (Edinburgh, 1957), 174–177Google Scholar; Boismard, M. E., “Le Papyrus Bodmer II,” Revue Biblique, LXXIV (Jerusalem, 1957), 363–398Google Scholar; Brinkmann, B., “Eine Papyrus-Handschrift des Johannesevangeliums aus dem 2. Jahrhundert?” Scholastik, XXXII (Freiburg/Br., 1957) 399–410Google Scholar, Klijn, A. J., “Papyrus Bodmer II (John i-xiv) and the Text of Egypt,” New Testament Studies, III (Cambridge, 1957), 327–334Google Scholar; de la Potterie, I., “Een Nieuwe Papyrus van het Vierde Evangelie, Papyrus Bodmer II,” Bijdragen: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie en Theologie, XVIII (Nijmegen, 1957), 117–128Google Scholar. I have published a short review, “Papyrus Bodmer II: An Early Codex of St. John,” in Theological Studies, XVIII (Baltimore, 1957), 434–441Google Scholar. Dr. Barrett, as cited above, presents with brief remarks a select list of Bodmer readings, including both of those we here consider.

3 Professor Martin, in a letter of July 13, 1957, replying to certain queries on corrections in P. Bodmer II, has this pertinent remark: “On p. 52, line 2, the article 0 with προφητης, as finally written, is paler and, on close inspection, seems to have been imperfectly scratched. If so, the corrector, whoever he was, wished to remove it.” The impulse to alter readings into conformity with a previously adopted text fortunately failed, in this instance, of success. I am deeply indebted to Professor Martin, who had the kindness to reëxamine the papyrus on my account. See also below, fn. 39.

4 Bultmann, R., Das Evangelium des Johannes (Göttingen, 1950), p. 236Google Scholar, fn. 1. The same conjecture, credited to Owen, is noted in Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece22 (Stuttgart, 1956), appartus ad loc.

5 Barrett, as above (fn. 2), p. 176.

6 Ibid.

7 St. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, liber imperfectus, c. iii (Migne, P. L. XXXIV, col. 222): “Ipse Dei filius principium se dixit, quando ei dictum est, Tu quis es, et dixit, Principium quod et loquor vobis.” Ample references to other places in Augustine are given by Comeau, Marie, S. Augustin Exégète du Quatrième Évangile3 (Paris, 1930), p. 53, fn. 1.Google Scholar

8 St. Augustine, In Joannis Evangelium, tract. XXXVIII, c. xi (Migne, P. L. XXXV, col. 1681).

9 See Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, editio octava maior, ad loc.

10 St. John Chrysostom, In Joannem, hom. LIII, i (Migne, P. G. LIX, col. 293).

11 See Blass-Debrunner, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch,9 § 300, 2 (Anhang). This is the sense adopted by Bauer, , Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (Berlin, 1952)Google Scholar, s. v. ἀρχή, i.b, in fine.

12 St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Joannis Evangelium, lib. V, ad locum (Migne, P. G. LXXIII, col. 817).

13 Ibid.

14 Nonni Panopolitani Paraphrasis S. Evangelii Ioannei, edited by Scheindler, A. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1881), p. 91, lines 59–63Google Scholar (cf. Migne, P. G. XLIII, col. 817).

15 Joannis Maldonati Commentarii in Quatuor Evangelistas, edited by Raich, J. M. (Mainz, 1874), II, 703.Google Scholar

16 Frederick Field, Notes on the Translation of the New Testament, being the Otium Norvicense Pars III (Cambridge, 1899). See p. 93.

17 Bultmann, independently, makes the same remark, Das Evangelium des Johannes, p. 267, fn. 7, citing John xii, 50. See also Prat, F., Jésus Christ, sa Vie, sa Doctrine, son Oeuvre2 (Paris, 1933), II, 58Google Scholar, fn., citing John iii, 11 and 34.

18 Bultmann, op. cit., p. 267.

19 The New Testament in the Original Greek, edited by B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort. ὐμῖν with a period is printed in the margin.

20 The Student's New Testament: the Greek Text and the American Translation by Edgar J. Goodspeed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954)Google Scholar.

21 Westcott, B. F., The Gospel according to St. John (London, 1908), II, 10Google Scholar.

22 Op. cit, p. 29.

23 Ibid.

24 See Nouum Testamentum Graece: Euangelium secundum Marcum, edited by Legg, S. C. E. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935)Google Scholar, ad loc.

25 Blass-Debrunner, Grammatik, §300, 2 (Anhang).

26 Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John, II, p. 29.

27 La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dai testi originali con note a cura del Pontificio Istituto Biblico di Roma, vol. VIII, I Vangeli (Florence [1950]).

28 La sainte Bible, traduite en français sous la direction de l'École Biblique de Jérusalem (Paris, 1956)Google Scholar.

29 Op. cit., p. 268. If τὴν ἀρχήν has its correlative term in the future, “er wäre in dem ὄταν … τότɛ v.28 ausgesprochen. Aber zu dem ὄτι καὶ λαλῶ ὐμῖν bildet das γνώσɛσθɛ keine verständliche Entsprechung; der Text müsste verderbt sein.”

30 See above, p. 112.

31 Barrett, C. K., The Gospel according to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (New York [1951])Google Scholar. See p. 283.

32 Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John, II, 29.

33 The Four Gospels: a New Translation, by C. C. Torrey (New York and London [1933Google Scholar]), p. 323.

34 Op. cit., p. 202.

35 Black, M., An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946)Google Scholar. See pp. 172 ff.

36 The same, second edition, 1954.

37 Bultmann, Das Evangelium, p. 266, fn. 7.

38 Op. cit., p. 268 and fn. 2.

39 Martin, Papyrus Bodmer II, p. 31: “Nous avons déjà laissé entendre que la réparation des très nombreuses omissions était selon toute probabilité due au scribe original. En tout cas rien n' oblige à les attribuer à une autre main.” In a letter mentioned above (fn. 3), Professor Martin added these particulars. The hand of the corrections and additions “is smaller than the main text and the letters a little more angular, also often in a blacker ink, but, to my sentiment at least, can be assigned to the writer of the whole.”

40 ɛρχɛσθω tantum S*D be testes: + προς μɛ ScBLT etc.

41 See Kenyon, F. G., The Chester Beatty Papyri, Fasciculus II, The Gospels and Acts: Text (London, 1933)Google Scholar. Dθ fam. 1 are cited in support of the papyrus. Even the textus receptus has ɛνɛβριμησατο κ.τ.λ with SABCLW fam. 13. So all the editors.

42 John viii, 25–26. These two verses contain six verbs of saying, from λέγω, ɛἶπον or λαλῶ. It seems probable that the writer varies his vocabulary mainly to avoid tedious repetition. In the translation, I have not attempted a rigorously consistent distinction of meaning.