3 WHO WAS MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH? A CONSIDERATION OF INTERNAL EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF A VARIANT IN 1 TIM 3:16A STEPHEN W. FRARY 1 Tim 3:16 contains a textual variant in the initial line of what is considered to be a hymn fragment which is difficult if not impossible to resolve based on external evidence. This verse thus provides an interesting test case by which we might examine the differing and often contradictory ways that the leading schools of textual criticism use the agreed canons of their trade to arrive at the original reading from the internal evidence. This paper outlines the difficulties in the external evidence, and considers how answers to three key questions about the internal readings of the text result in contradictory findings. The author concludes that thoroughgoing eclecticism (consideration of internal evidence alone) cannot determine the original text and thus only a reexamination of external evidence or the likely transmissional history can resolve the question. Introduction NT text critics are a strange breed. They tend to defend their terri- tory staunchly, and one must trespass with extreme caution. Familiarity with jargon is essential, and one must not assume that mere fluency in their native language will suffice. For example, “those who employ the eclectic method with the greatest abandon seem to be the least eclectic, for they tend, usually, to emphasize not a selection of various principles and canons of textual criticism –as the term would imply– but only the principles from one small corner of criticism, particularly the intrinsic principle. . .”1 In response, these “thoroughgoing eclectics” charge their brother “reasoned eclectics” with being most unreasonable practitioners, devotees of the “cult of the ‘best’ manuscripts,”2 for whom nearly a cen- tury of effort has resulted in a critical edition of the NT which agrees in substantially every respect with that produced over 100 years ago by their E.J. Epp, “The Twentieth Century Interlude in New Testament Textual Criticism”, JBL 1 93 (1974) 404. J.K. Elliott, “Thoroughgoing Eclecticism in New Testament Textual Criticism”, in 2 B.D. Ehrman and M.W. Holmes (eds), The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research. Essays on the Status Quaestionis (Grand Rapids, MI 1995) 332. Filología Neotestamentaria - Vol. XVI - 2003, pp. 3-18 Facultad de Filosofía y Letras - Universidad de Córdoba (España)