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Matt. 11:9



I promised Sterling B. that I would get back to the question of the
variants at this passage after I'd had a chance to check some things at my
office.  Well, I now report, though I have nothing earth-shaking.
1) Wescott-Hort, Tischendorf and NA25 all agree in preferring "propheten
idein" at Mt. 11:9.  NA 26 innovates here by preferring "idein propheten".
2) The majority of witnesses support the latter reading here, and as NA26
shows a marked tendency to bow to bow to external evidence, I think this
is another case.
3) I still regard both variants as stylistic variations with no intended
difference in meaning.  In support of this, note that the original hand of
Sinaiticus reads "proph. id." and the first corrector changes it to "id.
proph.", while the original hand of Vaticanus reads "id. proph." and the
first corrector changes it to "proph. id."!  This suggests to me that the
changes went pretty much as the individual scribe preferred.  So, I don't
think anyone in the ancient church saw any ambiguity in either reading. 
In Greek, both are fine and clear ways of saying the same thing, with
perhaps a bit more emphasis on "propheten" in the "proph. id." reading.
4) The latter variant seems to be the more unusual, and as the other
reading is pretty predictable as a harmonization with the other statements
in the context, "proph. id." seems to me the one that explains the other,
not the other way around.  Larry Hurtado, Religion, Univ. of Manitoba