A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

1 Timothy 3:1

The origin of the variant reading avnqrw,pinoj o` lo,goj (“it is a human saying,” i.e. “a common [or popular] saying”), supported by several Western witnesses (D* it^{d, 86} Ambrosiaster mss^{acc. to Jerome} Augustine Speculum Sedulius Scotus), is puzzling. If the evidence were confined to Latin witnesses (as is the case for the similar variant at 1 Timothy 1:15), the translation humanus could be taken as a very free rendering of pisto,j (hum. = benignus), but this leaves unexplained the origin of the reading in D* (the theory that the Greek text of this manuscript was influenced by the Latin translation is disputable). Perhaps the Greek text arose accidentally when a copyist mistook pictoc for a=n=inoc and mistakenly resolved it as an;rwpinoc; or (as H. B. Swete proposed ¹) perhaps the translator (or copyist) confused pictoc, standing at the beginning of a line, with pinoc, and considered it to be the final syllables of avnqrw,pinoj; or perhaps a copyist, taking the designation pisto.j o` lo,goj to be a formula that introduces a following statement and observing how ill-suited the expression is to introduce ver. 1 Timothy 1:3, deliberately substituted avnqrw,pinoj for pisto,j. In any case, the Committee was impressed by the over-whelming weight and variety of witnesses that support pisto,j, and thought it improbable that pisto,j was introduced as a substitute for avnqrw,pinoj by copyists who recalled the expression pisto.j o` lo,goj at 1 Timothy 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11; and Titus 3:8, where the text is firm. In Titus the words cannot be a formula introducing a quotation, but must be taken as a formula of asseveration, relating to what precedes. In the present passage, likewise, pisto,j may be taken with 1 Timothy 2:15.

¹ Journal of Theological Studies, XVIII (1916—17), p. 1.

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A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

1 Timothy 3:1

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