John 12:7

Mr. Gary S. Dykes yhwh3in1 at lightspeed.net
Mon Dec 6 21:58:00 EST 1999


To C. W. Conrad and others,

Textual critics come in two primary flavors: those who follow the herd, and 
those who have independent minds. I hope I am amongst the latter.

The Greek texts produced by the Munster Institute favor the oldest MSS. The 
oldest NT MSS are almost all exclusively from one locale-- Egypt. Myself I 
favor examining all of the evidence, as we know the oldest reading is not 
always the best, and we know that the Egyptian text-type may be a local 
one, and may itself have been a modified one.
 
As you point out, two (actually one) old papyri support the aorist tense 
form of the word in question. And hence the German editions follow suit. 
And it is well known that the NA editions (Nestle/Aland) are full of 
numerous errors in their apparatuses. They need to be first validated.

Here is a list of MSS which do support the perfect tense form (of "keep"):

codex 02  (A)
codex 039
minuscules 1 and 2 (at Basle)
minuscule 1424
minuscule 1071
the majority text (several hundred minuscules)
families 1 and 13
codices 021, 030, 037
western flavored MSS, 28,  565 and others

-- Latin MSS vary also, most have "servet" a present tense form
-- Some Syriac texts support the perfect (others an imperfect)
-- Papyrus P75 is a conjecture here
-- codex 044 supports the aorist form, BUT it has AFETE (a present 
imperative) in the first portion of our passage.

I can check the Bohairic and other versions as well, if needed.

But, I believe I have supported my supposition: that the perfect tense form 
has GOOD support. MOST Greek witnesses read the perfect tense, AND
a wide geographical distribution exists. The perfect tense may be the 
easier reading, but this canon of textual criticism (that the easier 
reading is secondary) is not always true.

For the reading of Aleph and B, you have good additional support with codex 
05 (D) and W, along with the papyrus P66 -- these form good support for the 
aorist form. D and W add a wider geographical base.

So Both forms are well supported. And if given a week or so, I could really 
get specific with the MS evidence.

To be more positive, one should examine EACH of John's usages of the 
aorist/aorist -- aorist/perfect juxtapositions, this would take some time, 
but it may shed light on style (I assume someone has already done this-- 
but many search engines use the NA text!!, which can give erroneous 
results!!) I suggest also searching the TR as well.

It is popular to just blindly follow the popular text of Nestle/Aland, but 
this is a very narrow means, and could be error laden. Swanson's work is 
very useful here. I hope this clarifies my statements.


Mr. Gary S. Dykes  email -- yhwh3in1 at lightspeed.net
Swanson's Errata -- http://userzweb.lightspeed.net/yhwh3in1/



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