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1 Cor 14.34–5 without ‘in All the Churches of the Saints’: External Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2017

Aļesja Lavrinoviča
Aļesja Lavrinoviča*
Affiliation:
Parka 12 – 25, Olaine, LV – 2114, Latvia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The present study of the oldest and most relevant extant manuscripts that contain 1 Cor 14.33b–35 shows that v. 33b (ὡς ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῶν ἁγίων) is not connected with vv. 34–5. Scribes would consider 33b to be a part of 33a. Manuscripts א, A, B, Fuldensis, D, F, G, ms. 88* clearly read 1 Cor 14.34–5 as a separate paragraph. In these manuscripts, where vv. 34–5 are found after v. 40, v. 33b closely follows 33a. P46 and P123 are damaged and require reconstruction. Moreover, Greek New Testament editions that link v. 33b with v. 34 reflect exegetical decisions and are not based on external evidence.

Keywords

1 Cor 14.33btextual criticismparagraph markingsilencing women
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 370 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

1 It must be said that this discussion can be only brief and general, because each scribe had his own habits.

2 Carson, D. A., ‘“Silent in the Churches”: On the Role of Women in 1 Corinthians 14:33b–35’, Rediscovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Westchester, IL: Crossways, 1991) 141Google Scholar.

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8 Bachmann, P., Der erste Brief des Paulus an die Korinther (KNT 7; Leipzig: A. Deichertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung Werner Scholl, 1910) 421Google Scholar. In v. 33b according to Bachmann Paul refers to the custom (es gehalten wird). In order to harmonise the translation of the repetitious ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις in vv. 33b and 34, Bachmann proposes to translate the first as Gemeinden, and the second as Gemeindeversammlungen.

9 Grosheide, F. W., Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974) 341Google Scholar. V. 33a represents a self-contained thought. When one joins v.33b with the pericope on women, it makes the injunction on women a global and universally observable command – so Grosheide.

10 Conzelmann, H., 1 Corinthians: A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (trans. Leitch, James W.; Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975) 245–6Google Scholar.

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12 Collins, R., First Corinthians (SP 7; Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999) 517Google Scholar. In vv. 33b–35 Paul quotes the conservative Corinthian slogan, which he rebuts with the v. 36.

13 Dautzenberg, G., ‘Tradition, paulinische Bearbeitung und Redaktion in 1 Kor 14, 26–40’, Tradition und Gegenwart: Ernst Schering zum 60. Geburtstag gewidmet (ed. Jendorff, B. and Schmalenberg, G; TW 5; Bern: Herbert Lang, 1974) 23Google Scholar.

14 Odell-Scott, D. W., ‘Let the Women Speak in Church: An Egalitarian Interpretation of 1 Cor 14:33b–36’, BTB 13 (1983) 90–3, at 90Google Scholar. In later works Odell-Scott changed his opinion.

15 Munro, W., Authority in Paul and Peter: The Identification of a Pastoral Stratum in the Pauline Corpus and 1 Peter (SNTSMS 45; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) 68Google Scholar.

16 Allison, R. W., ‘Let Women Be Silent in the Churches (1 Cor. 14:33b–36): What Did Paul Really Say, and What Did It Mean?’, JSNT 32 (1988) 27–60, at 48Google Scholar.

17 Witherington, B. III, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Carson, ‘“Silent in the Churches”’, 140.

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21 Garland, D. E., 1 Corinthians (BECNT 1; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003) 655Google Scholar. Garland exegetically divides the wider pericope of 1 Cor 14.31–6 into two parts: vv. 31–33a (that explains the order for the prophets) and vv. 33b–36 (that orders the conduct of the wives).

22 Thiselton, A. C., First Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical and Pastoral Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011 [2006]) 250Google Scholar.

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26 van Kooten, G. H., ‘’Εϰϰλησία τοῦ θεοῦ: The “Church of God” and the Civic Assemblies (ἐϰϰλησίαι) of the Greek Cities in the Roman Empire: A Response to Paul Trebilco and Richard A. Horsley’, NTS 58 (2012) 522–48, at 546CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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28 Paul, according to Moffatt, added vv. 34–5 himself after he had written the epistle. Verse 33b rather goes with vv. 36–40 and not with v. 33a or v. 34. See Moffatt, J., The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (MNTC; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1947) 230–3Google Scholar.

29 Lenski, St. Paul's First and Second Epistle, 614–15.

30 Ibid.

31 Grosheide, Commentary on the First Epistle, 341. Cf. Lenski, St. Paul's First and Second Epistle, 614.

32 Witherington III, Women in the Earliest Churches, 96.

33 Gemeinden and Gemendeversammlungen. See Heinrici, Der erste Brief an die Korinther, 436.

34 Thiselton, First Corinthians, 250.

35 The chiastic structure of vv. 33b–34 proposed by Beattie is as follows:

A. As in all the churches of the saints,  B. let women be silent in the churches;   C. for it is not permitted to them to speak,  B’. but let them be in submission A’. as the Law says.

See Beattie, G., Women and Marriage in Paul and his Early Interpreters (JSNTSup 296; London: T&T Clark, 2005) 55Google Scholar.

36 Beattie, Women and Marriage, 55.

37 Hiu, Regulations concerning Tongues and Prophecy, 152.

38 Hiu, Regulations concerning Tongues and Prophecy, 153.

39 Taylor, 1 Corinthians, 353.

40 Fee, G. D., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 697 n. 49Google Scholar.

41 Metzger, B. M. and Ehrman, B. D., The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 4) 22Google Scholar.

42 Smith, W. A., A Study of the Gospels in Codex Alexandrinus: Codicology, Palaeography, and Scribal Hands (NTTS 48; Leiden: Brill, 2014) 190CrossRefGoogle Scholar (emphasis original).

43 Smith, A Study of the Gospels, 204.

44 Smith, A Study of the Gospels, 205.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid.

47 Comfort, P., Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2005) 53Google Scholar.

48 According to the discussion thread ‘P123 1 Cor 14 – 15, P.Oxy 4844’ (24 Febuary 2009) in the Evangelical Textual Criticism Blog, http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/.

49 Transcription of 1 Cor. 14.31–4 by Dirk Jongkind:

.θα̣ν̣ωσινκ̣[

[c. 4]ν.[ … ]ν̣α̣προ̣φητω.[…

].τα̣σσετα̣[…].υ̣γαρε̣σ̣τ̣.[…].ατασ̣[…

].νησωσ̣[…]ε̣νπασαιστ.[…]ε̣κκ̣[…

] … […]υ̣να̣ικεσεν̣[…

]ε̣πιτρεπ̣

Source: Evangelical Textual Criticism Blog.

50 The scribe(s) of B who copied the New Testament started a new paragraph on the new line (but not always).

51 Miller, J. E., ‘Some Observations on the Text-critical Function of the Umlauts in Vaticanus, with Special Attention to 1 Corinthians 14.34–35*’, JSNT 26 (2003) 217–36Google Scholar.

52 Metzger, B. M., Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Paleography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) 32Google Scholar.

53 The number suggested for the A scribes varies from two (Milne, Skeat) to five (Kenyon). See Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible, 86.

54 My personal observation of the structural marking in codex A is confirmed by the study of W. Andrew Smith in A Study of the Gospels, 204–5.

55 Cf. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible, 86: ‘the first letter of each paragraph, or, if the paragraph begins in the middle of a line, the first letter of the first complete line in it … is enlarged and projects into the left-hand margin’.

56 The exceptions are:

  1. 1.

    1. In order to separate a minor logical thought, such as a sentence, the scribe leaves a dot, which occupies a space of approximately one character. To my knowledge this system is common in codices.

  2. 2.

    2. There are some spaces in 1 Corinthians that look like a paragraph mark but there is no capitalised letter in the following line. These exceptions in 1 Corinthians are very few, and they are as follows:

    1. (a)

      (a) 1 Cor 3.5 τι ουν εστιν απολλως τι δε εστιν παυλος

    2. (b)

      (b) 1 Cor 5.6 ου καλον το καυχημα υμων

    3. (c)

      (c) 1 Cor 6.9b αδικοι βασιλειαν θεου ου κληρονομησουσιν

    4. (d)

      (d) 1 Cor 8.5 και γαρ ειπερ εισιν λεγομενοι θεοι ειτε εν ουρανω ειτε επι γης ωσπερ εισιν θεοι πολλοι και κυριοι πολλοι.

The first three expressions could most probably be classified as questions in direct speech, whereas 1 Cor 8.5 seems to be not a question but a non-restrictive apposition.

57 Ms 33 observed at ‘The New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room’ of the INTF, http://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/manuscript-workspace.

58 Payne, P. B., Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul's Letters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009) 249Google Scholar. Payne says that since Ms 88 does not belong to the ‘Western text’, there are only two possible reasons why it relocates vv. 34–5 to the end of the chapter 14: (a) Ms 88 derives from the manuscript that contained vv. 34–5 at the end of the chapter; (b) Ms 88 derives from the manuscript that did not have vv. 34–5 (ibid.).

59 Payne, P. B., ‘Ms. 88 as Evidence for a Text without 1 Cor 14.34–5’, NTS 44 (1998) 152–8, at 155–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 Scrivener, F. H. A., An Exact Transcript of the Codex Augiensis: A Græco-Latin Manuscript of S. Paul's Epistles (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and co., 1859) xxiiiGoogle Scholar.

61 Some use the abbreviation fu to distinguish Codex Fuldensis from Codex Augiensis (F).

62 Metzger and Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament, 108.

63 I.e. sanctorum.

64 Baljon, J. M. S., De Tekst der Brieven van Paulus aan de Romeinen, de Corinthiërs en de Galatiërs als Voorwerp van de Conjecturaalkritiek Beschouwd (Utrecht: J. Van Boekhoven, 1884) 101Google Scholar.

65 Weiss, Der Erste Korintherbrief, 342.

66 The idea of the table and most of the left column that names the critical editions in their historical sequence has been taken from E. J. Epp ( Junia: The First Woman Apostle (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005) 62–3Google Scholar) and adapted to the issue of v. 33b.