A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Jude 1:5

ver. Jude 1:5 pa,nta o[ti @o`# ku,rioj a[pax {D}

Despite the weighty attestation supporting VIhsou/j (A B 33 81 322 323 424^c 665 1241 1739 1881 2298 2344 vg cop^{sa, bo} eth Origen Cyril Jerome Bede; o` VIhsou/j 88 915), a majority of the Committee was of the opinion that the reading was difficult to the point of impossibility, and explained its origin in terms of transcriptional oversight (k=c= being taken for i=c=). It was also observed that nowhere else does the author employ VIhsou/j alone, but always VIhsou/j Cristo,j. The unique collocation qeo.j Cristo,j read by î⁷² (did the scribe intend to write qeou/ cristo,j, “God’s anointed one”?) is probably a scribal blunder; otherwise one would expect that Cristo,j would be represented also in other witnesses.

The great majority of witnesses read o` before ku,rioj, but on the strength of its absence from a Y and the tendency of scribes to add the article, it was thought best to enclose o` within square brackets.

[Critical principles seem to require the adoption of VIhsou/j, which admittedly is the best attested reading among Greek and versional witnesses (see above). Struck by the strange and unparalleled mention of Jesus in a statement about the redemption out of Egypt (yet compare Paul’s reference to Cristo,j in 1 Corinthians 10:4), copyists would have substituted (o`) ku,rioj or o` qeo,j. It is possible, however, that (as Hort conjectured) “the original text had only o`, and that otio was read as otii=c= and perhaps as otik=c=” (“Notes on Select Readings,” ad loc.).

The origin of the variations in the position of a[pax is best explained by assuming that it originally stood after eivdo,taj (as in î⁷² A B C² L 049 33 81 104 181 326 330 436 451 629 945 1877 2127 al); because, however, the word did not seem to suit eivdo,taj, and because the following to. deu,teron appeared to call for a word like prw/ton( a[pax was moved within the o[ti-clause so as to qualify sw,saj. ² B.M.M. and A.W.]

² For further discussion see Allen Wikgren, “Some Problems in Jude 1:5, ” in Studies in the History and Text of the New Testament in Honor of Kenneth Willis Clark, edited by Boyd L. Daniels and M. Jack Suggs (= Studies and Documents, vol. xxix; Salt Lake City, 1967), pp. 147—152.

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A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Jude 1:5

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