Lk 1:79 FWS (Codex Bezae 05)
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 11 08:01:46 EDT 2002
CWC forwarding note: I am forwarding to the list the response of Mme.
Chabert d'Hyères, Englished as well as I was able, to Glendon Gross's
message of yesterday:
Glendon M. Gross wrote
> "hO LAOS hO POREUOMENOS EN SKOTEI, IDETE FWS MEGA. hOI KATOIKOUNTES EN XWRA
> SXIA QANATOU, FWS LAMPSEI EPH h'UMAS."
> Isn't it interesting that the word FWS appears twice in this verse? If I am
> not mistaken, it is the direct object
> of IDETE in the first phrase, and the subject of LAMPSEI in the second. If
> in fact the NT writer was quoting
> this verse from the LXX, wouldn't it make sense to consider that he could be
> paraphrasing the first phrase?
> If so, then possibly this verse would support your option (2), that FWS is
> direct object of a transitive EPIFANAI.
> Nevertheless, the verb used here is LAMPSEI as opposed to EPIFANAI.
This remark seems to me all the more relevant inasmuch as in the LXX the
oracle of Is 9:1 is in the second-person plural (IDETE and EF' hUMAS)
precisely where the critical text is in the third person. As a realization
of the prophecy of Isaiah, Luke would have altered "you" to "us" in "he
visited us."
> I am curious to know your
> opinion on this, and whether you think that the author of Codex Bezae might
> have been cognizant of the
> text that the author of Luke was quoting.
Isaiah had already been translated into Greek in the first century; it
seems, and Luke could have known it. Wouldn't its text as preserved in
Codex Bezae be oldest?
Sylvie Chabert d'Hyères
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