From: Paul S. Dixon (dixonps@juno.com)
Date: Sun Dec 07 1997 - 20:23:18 EST
I've got three questions regarding this reputed early church creed.
First, until the 16th century, or thereabouts, the last clause in v. 15,
STULOS KAI hEDRAIWMA THS ALHQEIAS, was almost universally taken with the
following verse. It was not until after the 16th century that it has
been taken with the preceding. I suppose the rational for the change
must be the rather awkward construction, if a period is to be understood
after QEOU ZWNTOS. Is this the only reason, or are there other
considerations?
Second, the majority of manuscripts support the QEOS reading, instead of
the hOS reading at the start of the creed, QEOS EFANERWQH EN SARKI. I
read that the problem stemmed from taking the first uncial either as an
omicron or a theta, the difference being only the absence or the presence
of the horizontal line in the letter. A good number of old manuscripts
indicate the horizontal mark may have been added later. Does this
indicate the mark was very faint and needed to be darkened, or that there
was a desire to make this more clearly a reference to QEOS?
Third, how about AGGELOS in the third line? Should this be taken
strictly as angels, or should we broaden it to include messengers in
general, including human messengers? The latter would fit in well with
the second half of this couplet (if we assume 3 sets of couplets here,
the halves of each couplet in parallel), the meaning then being something
like: he was seen by messengers and he was preached by these messengers
among the nations. Or, if the couplet parallel is denied, then it might
make good sense to take it in parallel to the immediately preceding
EDIKAIWHN EN PNEUMATI and as further attestation or confirmation tof the
deity of the human Jesus.
Thanks.
Dr. Paul S. Dixon, Pastor
Wilsonville, Oregon
http://users.aol.com/dixonps
http://users.why.net/think/greek
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