I may be one of the world’s worst bloggers. Instead of writing about editing the Gospel of John, I have been too immersed in the research questions to write about them. But I do have plenty to write about.
Since the last post (was it really so long ago?), a lot has happened. We received a large grant from the AHRC which keeps our editorial team going to the end of John. Mostly I have been engaged in work on the Latin text. I made a list of all the readings in Greek MSS which are found in the Latin MSS which we will include in Vetus Latina Iohannes. I say all the readings, but in accordance with scientific practice I limited the MSS I included to the papyri, majuscules, MSS included in our edition of the Byzantine text of John, and Families 1 and 13 according to research in Birmingham. These readings appear in the edition as variants against the text of Nestle-Aland 27, which is given as a point of comparison for the Latin tradition.
It has been fascinating work. The interplay between the oldest Greek and Latin witnesses, and interestingly between the early Byzantine and Carolingian ones, has proved a good way into the process of understanding the wide picture of the textual transmission of John.
As members of the Latin team compile the patristic evidence for each chapter, I go back over it looking for Greek readings attested in Latin citations but not in MSS. The number we find will be a test of the measure to which the extant Latin MSS preserve the entire tradition (with the proviso that both MSS and citations from certain geographical areas may be better preserved than those from others). Here is a sample, the readings I have noted from Chapter 2:
2.3 oινος ουκ εστιν 01*; uinum non est; 2.9 OM αυτω 01; OM ei; 2.19 OM εν 03; OM in ; 2.21 OM αυτου 01*; OM sui; 2.25 OM οτι 02 083 0233; OM quoniam/quia
The frequency of 01 is intriguing. The question of course is, how likely are these variants to have arisen independently, through textual development in MSS and the common natural tendencies of citations to adapt and smooth a phrase?
Another question, which I am not going to begin to answer yet, is how often the Latin tradition may preserve a reading which began in the Greek tradition but no longer survives in a Greek manuscript. For example, the omission of ουν at 20.21 (cf 2 6 35).
On the Greek front, we have been pressing on with transcribing the MSS we will need for the edition, and I have been admiring the skill and dedication of our large team of professional and amateur contributors.
That will do for the moment. More to follow.
