I discovered an interesting reading in minuscule GA 2329 in the last two verses of the Revelation of John. This was prompted by the fact that the UBS5 apparatus has a “vid” next to 2329. So I looked at the photograph of the manuscript itself.
Most manuscripts say something like “Yes, come Lord Jesus. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.” But 2329 skips “May the grace of our Lord Jesus” and instead says ερχου κυριε ιησου χριστε μετα των αγιων σου αμην – “Come Lord Jesus Christ with your saints. Amen.”
In my previous post, I showed why I believed Erasmus’ 3rd and 4th editions read παρ εστιν and not περ εστιν. I titled the previous post “Hoskier and Ligatures” and questioned his ability to read ligatures. So this time I will title it “Palmer and Ligatures” since I was the questionable one.
The problem with ligatures is that they can be blurry or tiny in one important detail that makes all the difference. Such is the case here. My ligature table and chart is correct, but I was limited to the font I had. In the font chart, the difference between παρ and περ is quite small:
Today Dr. Maurice Robinson emailed me to say I was incorrect on this. So I set about to find other examples of Erasmus’ ligatures for παρ and περ. It turns out that in Erasmus’ ligature for παρ, he has a relatively large alpha letter above, compared to my example in my ligature chart, which was limited by the font. The ligature for περ in my chart has a small half moon, convexed to the left. However, in Erasmus, this half moon is larger. I will give examples below.
In addition, Erasmus’ tail to his Rho letters is a large loop that circles back up diagonally to the left, compared to my chart which has a small, barely discernible loop, whereas in the ligature for παρ there is a large loop.
Compounding the difficulty with ligatures is that one same author may use 3 or 4 different ligatures for the same thing. And in fact Erasmus wrote these 3 different ways, even 2 different ways in one word, see below.
Erasmus’ superscript alpha is relatively large and far to the left.
Mat 4:18 παρὰ in Erasmus 3:
Matt 1:19 παραδειγματίσαι in Erasmus 3:
Matt 1:19 παραδειγματίσαι in Erasmus 2:
Here I will show Erasmus’ περπερεύεται in 1 Cor. 13:4 in all five editions, from 1 to 5:
Observe that he wrote the word περπερεύεται five different ways!
My table of Ligatures is still correct, and useful. Also, I have corrected my Revelation document. In addition, you can purchase a printed paperback edition of my ligature guide.
EDIT: My next post updates this one, as I was mistaken in this post. But I will leave it for the images and information / illustration of the difficulties of reading New Testament Greek Ligatures.
As I posted before, I am currently busy updating and improving the footnotes to my translation of the Revelation of John, “The Apocalypse of John.” One of the ways I am expanding the footnotes, is specifying which Vulgate manuscripts (not just editions) support what reading. Also, where the Textus Receptus is divided, specifying which editions read what.
In this process, I have found several places in which I disagree with H. C. Hoskier’s collation of the TR editions. I do not know if he was relying on someone else’s collations, or if he looked at the original documents themselves. But the problem lies in understanding the ligatures for letter combinations that are used in Greek cursive manuscripts, including the Greek New Testament editions made by Erasmus, Beza, Elzevir, and Stephens. Now, I possess PDF copies of the original cursive manuscripts of the following “Textus Receptus” editions. All 5 Erasmus editions, the 1550 Stephanus edition, the 1598 Beza edition, the 1624 Elzevir edition, plus the Complutensian Polyglot (1514).
Revelation 17:8 variant- καιπερ εστιν
There is a famous textual variant in Revelation chapter 17 verse 8 where the Textus Receptus disagrees with all Greek manuscripts and reads καιπερ εστιν. However, I found that I disagree with Hoskier regarding the readings of Erasmus’ editions 1, 3 and 4, as follows.
First, a snip showing what Hoskier says:
Erasmus Ed. 1 (1516): Hoskier says και περ is two words, I say one:
Erasmus Ed. 3 (1522) very clearly reads καί παρ, not καί περ:
Erasmus Ed. 4 (1527) very clearly reads καί παρ, not καί περ:
See here the difference- Erasmus Ed. 5 (1535) shows the ligature for περ:
I still offer my chart of Greek cursive ligatures for free (also thanks go to Vernon Eugene Kooy, PhD for his font). These above images and data are now included in my Revelation pdf, downloadable for free.
The word Armageddon is found only once in the Bible, in Revelation 16:16. “And He gathered them together at the place called in Hebrew Harmagedōn.”
There is a great variety of spellings of the word in the Greek and Latin manuscripts of the New Testament. But there are two main divisions of the spellings: those with just Magedon, and those with the AR in front.
The earliest Greek manuscripts have αρμαγεδων. Here is the image snipped from Codex Alexandrinus (Codex A), 5th century:
The Greek New Testament editions read as follows:
Ἁρμαγεδών Antoniades, Robinson-Pierpont, SBL, and NA28
Ἀρμαγεδών BG (Byzantine Greek), and TH (Tyndale House)
Ἀρμαγεδδών TR (Textus Receptus)
The difference between the first two spellings is the “breathing mark” in front of or above the initial vowel. The first one has a backwards apostrophe, and that is the “h” sound in Greek, so Harmagedon.” The second and third spellings have a regular-facing apostrophe and so that has no “h” sound, thus Armagedon.
John tells us that it is a Hebrew name, so the Har would be Hebrew for mountain, and Magedō would be the place called Megiddo, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 35:22 and Judges 1:27. So “Mountain of Megiddō.” This was a frequent battleground because of a strategic pass and the Megiddo plain below. You can download here the book of Revelation with a fuller accounting of the readings in the Greek manuscripts.
In my ( David Robert Palmer ) translation documents, I provide a critical apparatus in the footnotes, indicating what ancient Greek, Latin and other manuscripts support which Greek text reading. However, I have up to this point been dissatisfied with the citations of Latin Vulgate manuscripts. I had been getting them from the footnotes of the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies’ editions, and also from, in the case of Revelation, on which I am currently working, H. C. Hoskier.
The problem I have with the Vulgate citations is that they are citing “editions.” They are not citing particular manuscripts of a certain date, but editions of all of them. For example, right now I am revising and expanding my footnotes in the Apocalypse of John. Quite often, the Textus Receptus and the King James Version have a reading that is found in no Greek manuscript, but only in one edition of the Vulgate, the “Clementine” edition, which is indicated by the sigla vg cl in the apparatuses. The majority reading in the same variant set may be supported by vg ww,st . The st stands for Stuttgart, which comes from a 5th century edition. The ww represents another critical edition, the Wordsworth-White.
Would it make a difference to you if you learned that the Clementine Vulgate dates from the year 1592, and was made for Pope Clement VIII? But, this Vulgate too, is an edition which seeks to ascertain the earliest text, especially of Jerome, and has been updated with revisions, to a final edition in 1995.
It gets murky when I try to cite the Latin evidence. A given Latin manuscript can be “Vetus Latina” or “Old Latin” in some books of the New Testament, while in Revelation or some other book, its text is considered “Vulgate” text.
So, for the Vulgate in Revelation I do use the sigla found in the UBS and NA footnotes for the Stuttgart, Wordsworth-White, and Clementine editions, but I also indicate when Hoskier or Tischendorf lets us know the readings of specific Vulgate manuscripts. These are:
am – Codex Amiatinus, beginning of the VIII century fu – Codex Fuldensis 541-546 tol – Codex Toletanus 950 dem – Codex Demidovianus XIII harl – Codex Harleianus, second half of the IX century lipss – 3 Leipzig Latin mss cited in Tischendorf 8th Edition
Here are 50 Bible versions’ rendering of Isaiah 34:14
KJ21 the satyr; the screech owl ASV the wild goat; the night-monster AMP the hairy goat; Lilith (night demon) AMPC the [shaggy] wild goat; the night monster Bishops the wylde: the Lamia Brenton satyrs: satyrs BRG the satyr; the screech owl HCSB wild goat. the screech owl CSB wild goat. the night birds CEB the goat demon, Lilith CJB billy-goats; Lilit [the night monster] CEV demons, creatures of the night DARBY the wild goat; the lilith DRA the hairy ones, the lamia ERV Wild goats. Night animals EHV wild goats. Creatures of the night EXB wild goats. Night animals Geneva the Satyr, the screech owl GW Male goats. Screech owls GNT demons. The night monster ICB wild goats. Night animals ISV goat-demons. Liliths JUB the satyr; the screech owl KJV the satyr; the screech owl AKJV the satyr; the screech owl LSB The hairy goat; the night creature LEB a goat-demon; Lilith MEV the wild goat; the screech owl NOG Male goats. Screech owls NAB satyrs; the lilith NASB The goat. the night-bird NASB95 The hairy goat; the night monster NCB wild goats, the nightjar NCV wild goats. Night animals NET wild goats. nocturnal animals NIRV Wild goats. Night creatures NIV wild goats; the night creatures TNIV wild goats, the night creatures NKJV the wild goat; the night creature NLV The wild goats. the night-demon NLT Wild goats, night creatures OJB sa’ir (wild goat), lilit (night creature) RSV the satyr; the night hag NRSV goat-demons; Lilith ESV the wild goat; the night bird TLV the goat-demon— the night monster VOICE demons, Lilith herself WEB the wild goat. the night creature WYC an hairy, Lamia YLT the goat, the night-owl
I am lately inclined to think as follows. The k or l variant was original, but copyists not fluent in LXX or Koine Greek took its meaning by lexical glosses only, as “I am become the Alpha and Omega.” This seemed doctrinally incorrect, since Jesus had always been the Alpha and Omega, not become just now. (The expression “I am become” is very common in the Old Testament. And the NT authors, including John, frequently used the verb γινομαι as merely “to be.”) So, thinking the “become” idea must more sensibly apply to the previous statement of Jesus’ words, “These words are trustworthy and true,” they thought this phrase was referring to that, that those words are “accomplished” now. Then they had to add the words εγω, “I,” or εγω ειμι, “I am,” to apply to the following Alpha and Omega.
This is a note in my PDF of the Apocalypse of John, freely downloadable.
The Kindle Textus Receptus Holy Bible contains the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is the American Standard Version with English updated by David Robert Palmer. The capitalized “LORD” as found in many Bibles for the sacred name of God, is rendered as Yehovah. The New Testament is entirely translated from the Greek Textus Receptus, with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation being David Robert Palmer’s new and original translations from the Textus Receptus Greek, and the rest of the books being David Robert Palmer’s updating of the King James Version New Testament. I will update the remaining New Testament books to his own translation as it becomes completed. You can go to the Kindle Textus Receptus Bible here.
