[b-greek] Re: IORDANH POTAMW

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 04 2001 - 07:02:59 EST


At 10:21 AM +0100 12/4/01, Wieland Willker wrote:
>In Matthew 3:6 and Mk 1:5 we have either
>IORDANH POTAMW or
>IORDANH alone:
>KAI EBAPTIZONTO EN TW IORDANH POTAMW UP AUTOU
>KAI EBAPTIZONTO EN TW IORDANH UP AUTOU
>
>Is there a difference? Or, when/why do you add POTAMW?
>In the Bible IORDANH POTAMW is the more unusual phrase, normally it
>appears as IORDANHS
>alone.
>
>Compare the previous verse:
>Matthew 3:5 TOTE EXEPOREUETO PROS AUTON IEROSOLUMA KAI PASA H IOUDAIA KAI
>PASA H PERICWROS
>TOU IORDANOU,
>
>Is it possible that POTAMW has been added to distinguish the river from
>the region?
>
>Any thoughts?

Well, my first thought is: "How could they be baptized in "the region"? My
second: what else could IORDANHi refer to but a body of water if it was
what people EBAPTIZONTO in? My third thought: If Mark was writing for
Gentiles he probably wanted to be explicit and put down POTAMWi (I realize
of course that the subscripts weren't being written at this time); If Mt
took his text from Mk (as I still think more probable) he either (a)
followed Mk's wording (although he changed Mk's hOI hIEROSOLUMITAI PANTES
to the more plausible hIEROSOLUMA) and retained POTAMWi, or (b) deleted
POTAMWi. If one really believes in Matthaean priority, one could view the
process the other way, with Mark ADDING POTAMWi to a Matthaean text that
didn't have it, for the reason I've suggested above. I must add, however,
that this is all speculation; it could just as well be that POTAMW was in
the earlier MSS and was omitted by a later copyist. I'm no textual critic,
but judging from the critical note in NA27, that's what looks to me most
likely.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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