Romans 11:21

May not what has happened to the natural branches, happen to the engrafted branches? There is even here an a fortiori: For the engrafted branches being less homogeneous with the trunk than the natural branches, their rejection may take place more easily still, in case of unbelief. The Alex. reading rejects the conj. μήπως, from fear that; thus the meaning is: “neither will He spare thee.” But the T. R., with the Greco-Latins, reads μήπως before οὐδὲ σοῦ, and should be translated by borrowing from the word fear in the preceding verse the notion of fear: “[fear] that He will no more spare thee.” It is difficult to believe that a copyist would have introduced this form μήπως, lest, which softens the threat; it is more probable that this conjunction should have been omitted. Why? The other variant which the last word of this short proposition presents probably explains the reason. The future φείσεται, will spare, which is read in all the Mjj., seemed incompatible with the conj. μήπως, which usually governs the subjunctive. Hence two kinds of corrections in opposite ways: the one (the Alex.) have rejected the conjunction, all the more that it was not dependent on any verb; and the others, the Byz. Mnn., have changed the indicative (φείσεται) into the subjunctive (φείσηται.).