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

William Warren wfwarren at aol.com
Sun Aug 5 19:51:01 EDT 2007


To echo what Carl said, in the manuscripts the shift from EM to EN  
and from EN to EM before P is quite common, so that should not cause  
any hesitancy as to the translation.

paz,

Bill Warren
Director of the Center for New Testament Textual Studies
Landrum P. Leavell, II, Professor of New Testament and Greek
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary


On Aug 5, 2007, at 3:39 PM, E wrote:

> (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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