Tag Archives: variant

Revelation 19;6 Variant

Rev. 19:6b txt κυριος ο θεος ημων ℵ² P 046 91 93 469 1424 1611 1854 1888 2053 2062 2065 2074 2329 2344 𝔐Κ it-ar,c,dem,div,(gig),haf vg-am,fu syr-h cop-sa> geo arab-e Oec Apr Beat ps-Ambr Tyc2 TR-Compl HF BG RP TH ECM NA28 [ημων] {C} ‖
κυριος ο θεος A 792 911 1006 1734 1841 2070 2846 it-t vg-ms syr-phc cop-sams,bo Cypr TR-Scriv,Elz,Bez,Steph,Eras4,5 AN SBL ‖
ο θεος ημων 051 2081 arab-s Andr ‖ ο θεος ο κυριος ημων ℵ* 2080 ‖
ο θεος ο κυριος 1778 ‖
ο θεος 1678 2814 eth TR-Eras1,2,3,Ald,Col ‖
κυριος ημων Prim ‖
κυριος syr-ph* cop-boms ‖
lac C 0229 1828 2050 2351.

This is one of the most difficult variants for me to decide.  The NA28 has [ημων] in square brackets and for good reason.  Family 052 is split 3 ways.  The TR editions are split 3 ways.  The Latin, Syriac and Coptic versions are split.

Even though I highly esteem MSS A and 2846, I decided to go with the RP/TH reading with ημων not in square brackets, for 3 reasons.

1.) The phrase κυριος ο θεος ο παντοκρατωρ without ημων, as found here in A 2846 and the KJV, is also in 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, and 21:22. Since this phrase is common and familiar in the Apocalypse, scribes might tend to write it unconsciously automatically, rather than the phrase with ημων added.

2.) MS 1734 is almost always found backing the RP text, not as here. This makes me suspect that the MSS without ημων are random scattered ones that accidentally omitted it, and not according to their usual clusters.

3.) The general tendency of scribes to more often accidentally drop a small word rather than add one.

If not for the presence of these factors, I would be loathe not to go with the TR phrase, since it is in the famous Hallelujah chorus in G. F. Handel’s oratorio The Messiah.

How various English translations have rendered the aorist verb ἐβασίλευσεν: 

Tyndale reigneth
KJV reigneth
ASV reigneth
NKJV reigns
CSB reigns
ERV rules
ESV reigns
Ehteridge (from Syriac) reigneth
ISV is reigning
NET reigns
NIV reigns
Murdock (from Syriac) reigns
WEB reigns
Mounce reigns
NASB reigns
NRSV reigns

And ones that rendered it non-gnomic:
Wycliffe hath regned
Douay hath reigned
Geneva: hath reigned
EMTV: has begun to reign
CJB has begun to reign
CEV now rules
GW has become king
JB Phillips has come into his kingdom
NAB has established his reign
Young’s reign did

You can download my latest revision of the Apocalypse of John here.

Matthew chapter 25 verse 6 variant

There is a variant in the Greek manuscripts of the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 verse 6, where the Majority text reads, “Look! The bridegroom is coming,” while the NA28 reads, “Look! The bridegroom.”  So the NA28 text lacks the word ερχεται, “is coming.”  Then after that, in both texts, the next Greek word is also a form of the word “come,” εξερχεσθε, and says “Come out to meet him.”

νυμφιος ερχεται C³ E W Σ Φ latt syr-p,h arm Chrys TR RP νυμφιος ℵ B C* D L Z cop-sa Cyr SBL TH NA28 {\} lac A N P 0233 0281

What I found that is significant, is that the scribe of Codex D, Codex Bezae, first wrote εξερχεται, which is only two letters different than ερχεται, just adding εξ to it, “out,” but then he omitted εξερχεσθε that is supposed to follow that according to all manuscripts.  He seems to have gotten confused by the similarity of the two words.  Here is a snip from the image of Codex D.

Matthew 25:6 in Codex D

So in view of the problem the scribe of Codex D had, I changed my Greek text to that of the Majority text, adding ερχεται, “the bridegroom is coming.”  Because I find this to be an explanation as to how the variant arose, how ερχεται dropped out of text streams.  In other words, the most important question in textual criticism is, which variant best explains the rise of the others?