[B-Greek] John Rylands Papyrus 470 prayer to the Theotokos questions

E papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sun Aug 5 16:39:05 EDT 2007


(This may not exactly be a B-Greek question, except re: "EM" for "EN", but I'd 
appreciate any responses, including off-list if my wording-change questions are 
out of bounds.)

John Rylands Papyrus 470, viewable here:

http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/insight/papyrus.htm

(Use the insight browser viewer, and then search by Reference Number for 
Greek  Papyrus 470, and then click on it to activate the magnify and zoom 
functions.)

has a prayer to the Theotokos, circa 250 A.D. The present form of the prayer is 
(per the layout on the papyrus):

1 hUPO THN SHN 
2 EUSPLAGCNIAN 
3 KATAFEUGOMEN 
4 QEOTOKE; TAS HMWN 
5 IKESIAS MH PA 
6 RIDHiS EN PERISTASEI, 
7 ALL' EK KINDUNWN 
8 LUTRWSAI HMAS, 
9 MONH AGNH, MO 
10 NH EULOGHMENH.

which roughly translates (adapted per Wikipedia entry for "Sub tuum 
praesidium," the Latin version):

1 Beneath your
2 compassion
3 we take refuge
4 Theotokos. Our
5 petitions do not de-
6 spise in time of trouble
7 but from dangers
8 rescue us
9 Only Holy, On-
10 ly Blessed

The John Rylands Papyrus looks to me like this:

[  ] = gaps in papyrus
The writer uses a lunate Sigma (i.e., "C")

1 [hU]PO [THN SHN] 
2 EUSPL[AGCNIAN]
3 KA[T]AFE[UGOMEN]
4 QEOTOKE T[AS HMWN]
5 IKESIAS MH P[A]
6 RIDHiS EM PERISTASEI
7 ALL' EK KINDUNOU
8 RUSAI HMAS
9 M[O]NH A[GNH MON]
10 H EULO[GHMENH]

Am I reading this correctly? I.e., in comparison with the Greek Orthodox 
prayerbook rendering and spelling, the papyrus seems to have:

6 "EM" instead of "EN"
7 KINDUNOU (singular) instead of KINDUNWN
8 RUSAI instead of LUTRWSAI

If I'm correct about 6, is the writing of "EM" for "EN" purely a scribal 
error/misspelling? Or is there evidence that "EM" was sometimes used for "EN"? 


  Eric S. Weiss
  

       
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