[B-Greek] some lingustic questions on Jn 7:8

Jeffrey B. Gibson jgibson000 at comcast.net
Tue Jan 27 12:24:41 EST 2004


Some questions of both a linguistic and -- apologies -- a text critical
nature.

I've been asked by some members of some other lists and usenet groups to
adjudicate a dispute going on there about  which of the variant readings
of Jn 7:8a is the original.

Sinaticus D Syr C Syr S the old Latin other witnesses as well as  many
fathers, both in the east and in the west,  testify that the text read

           EGW OUK ANABAINW EIS THS hEORTHN TAUTHN

where as P 66 P 75 Vaticanus W Theta and some other witnesses and a few
fathers (Basil, Nonnus) testify that it read

           EGW OUPW ANABAINW EIS THS hEORTHN TAUTHN

Most – but not all – modern NT text critics and Johannine commentators
(both ancient and modern -- though see Kasemann) take the reading with
OUK as original. Their justification for doing so, despite the fact that
OUPW is attested relatively early and in Vaticanus, is usually that
scribes changed OUK to OUPW (= "not yet")  in order to alleviate or
avoid the "inconsistency" that apparently exists when the OUK reading is
set alongside Jn 7:10, where Jesus is noted as actually having gone up
to "the feast" mentioned in vs 7  (though in secret). [See, e.g. p. 216
of the UBS editorial committee's Textual Commentary on the GNT,
Schnackenborg, _John_, etc.].

But I wonder whether the explanation assumes something that might not be
the case and is therefore wholly unnecessary, namely, that the OUPW of P
66 etc. must be seen as bearing the meaning "not yet" and that, even if
it does, that  **that** meaning cannot be seen, given the context in
which it appears,  in the OUK of Sinaticus etc. ?

My question arises from the fact that LSJ and Moulton & Milligan note
that while OUPW is used to signify "not yet", it is also "sometimes" –
and certainly in Koine -- used as an even stronger negative than ouk
that bears no temporal significance.

This being the case, that is, that OUPW was also used to mean "not", as
well as "not yet", is it possible that the usual understanding of what
the reading of Jn 7:8 witnessed to in P 66 etc. is wrong? That it
actually is saying exactly the same thing as what the reading in
Sinaticus etc., is usually taken as saying  -- "I am not going up to the
feast", rather than "I am **not yet** going up to the feast"?

Since the witnesses that read oupO are third century and later, and, at
least in a number of cases,  in what appear to be Byzantine MSS, perhaps
the deciding factor is what OUPW was used to signify in later Koine
and/or in those areas from which the MSS which contain the reading came.

Can anyone help me with determining this? I don't have Lampe to hand or
any grammar of Byzantine Greek.

And what about OUK?  Are their instances in which it was used with the
meaning of "not yet"? If so, do their contexts look anything like the
context in which John has Jesus utter EGW OUK ANABAINW EIS THS hEORTHN
TAUTHN – one that has a reference to time?

Any and all help with these questions will be greatly appreciated.

Yours,

Jeffrey Gibson

--

Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon.)

1500 W. Pratt Blvd. #1
Chicago, IL 60626

jgibson000 at comcast.net





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