One of the most important NT manuscripts, the codex Bezae, included between the Gospels and the Book of Acts several writings that are nowadays lost. The present article corrects the author’s former views, published in 1996, concerning the contents of this lacuna: the 66 missing pages may very well have included a seven letters corpus, in fact a forerunner of the Catholic Epistles corpus, including Hb but not yet Jd. The analysis of these letters allows us both to understand better the period of redaction of NT writings and to bring this enterprise in connection with the writing process of the Old Testament.
The purpose of this study is to address two questions: 1) Should Mark 16:9-20 be included in biblical exegesis and 2) If so, what are the structural features of this passage that might aid in its interpretation? In order to answer the first question, the external and internal evidence concerning this passage as a textual variant and the question of its canonicity will be explored. The second question will be answered by presenting a diagram of the passage’s syntactical and semantic structure and by making observations concerning the unit’s overall structure and development.
The present section deals with the events concerning the conversion of Peter (Acts 9:31–11:18) whereby he at last comes to understand that the good news of Jesus is for Jews and Gentiles alike. Since the Greek pages of Codex Bezae are missing from 8:29 to 10:14 and the Latin ones from 8:20b to 10:4, we have noted in the Critical Apparatus the variants of other witnesses that differ from the Alexandrian text. From 10:4b (fol. 455a), the Latin text of Codex Bezae is available. The Greek text starts at 10:14b (fol. 455b).
The backgrounds of Jn 6 and 7-8 having been missed, a)lhqh&j is still rendered “true”, whereas it means “legitimate” both in (e4du+t (testimony) and in s# eli+hu+t (agency).
The objective of this brief note is to propose that the dative tw~| ko&smw| in James 2,5 (o9 qeo\j e)cele/cato tou_j ptwxou_j tw~| ko&smw| ) should be read as a dative of means of the causal type (“God chose those who are poor on account/because of this world”). This is a reading that goes against the rendering of the majority of exegetes who interpret this dative to be either one of the following: a dativus commodi, dativus incommodi, a dative of reference or a dativus iudicantis.
Commentators have often been stymied by the idiosyncratic patronymic Boso&r assigned to Balaam of Beor by the best textual witnesses of 2 Peter 2:15. However, detailed investigation of the development of the Balaam traditions in tandem with the Edomite king-lists of Gen 36:32, 1 Chr 1:43, and Job 42:17d (LXX only) reveals a tightly intertwined history that paved the way for the unintentional replacement of Bew&r with Boso&r. The confusion of numerous other names and places associated with the two titles in the Septuagint and Targums witnesses to a trajectory which culminated in the textual variants of 2 Peter 2.15.