Timo Flink, «Reconsidering the Text of Jude 5,13,15 and 18.», Vol. 20 (2007) 95-125
The text of Jude has been reconstructed recently by two different works to replace the critical text found in the NA27. The Novum Testamentum Editio Critica Maior (ECM) and a monograph by T. Wasserman offer changes to the critical text. I evaluate these suggested changes and offer my own text-critical suggestions. I argue that in Jude 13, 15 and 18 the text should read a)pafri/zonta, pa/ntaj tou\j a)sebei=j, and o3ti e!legon u(mi=n o3ti e)p ) e)sxa/tou tou= xro/nou, respectively. These solutions differ from both the NA27 and the ECM and agree with Wasserman’s reconstruction. I suggest that the «original» reading in Jude 5 was a3pac pa/nta o3ti )Ihsou=j, which none of the above works have.
Reconsidering the Text of Jude 5, 13, 15 and 18 117
not necessarily yield an independent testimony for the variant reading
πᾶσαν ψυχήν, even though P72 has an uncontrolled text in Jude usually
associated with the “Western†text (the D-text)86. If this is so, the external
attestation is further weakened. There are no text-critical umlauts for this
verse in codex B.
The internal evidence is more complex. The known sources of 1 Enoch
read a text close or related to πάνταϛ τοὺϛ ἀσεβεῖϛ. In none of them
πᾶσαν ψυχήν is found87. This could give scribes ample reason to har-
monise the text of Jude 15 with 1 Enoch 1,9. The author of Jude has not
cited his source(s)88 without modifications. He has omitted a reference
to destruction and the object of the second clause, joined the remaining
clauses into one and applied the resulting text to his opponents89. There-
fore πᾶσαν ψυχήν could be just another modification by the author of
Jude. Since verse 4 has ἀσεβεῖϛ, it is possible that a scribe harmonised v.
15 to it. These reasons favour reading πᾶσαν ψυχήν as “originalâ€.
In contrast, πᾶσαν ψυχήν could be a scribal emendation due to an
influence of Rom. 2,9 to avoid repeating ἀσεβεῖϛ. Paul speaks about af-
fliction to those to do evil and reads πᾶσαν ψυχήν in Rom. 2,990. It could
also be a reading in conformity with κατὰ πάντων in the same verse to
avoid repeating the ἀσεβ- word group four times in a single verse91. An-
other reason in favour of the longer reading is that πάνταϛ τοὺϛ ἀσεβεῖϛ
as a triadic expression. The author of Jude often has πᾶς + definite article
+ an adjective or a substantive, three times in vv. 14-15 if the longer
reading is accepted. This creates a triadic of triadic expressions, πάνταϛ
τοὺϛ ἀσεβεῖϛ – πάντων τῶν á¼”Ïγῶν- πάντων τῶν σκληÏῶν, a stylisti-
P.W. Comfort and D.P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manu-
86
scripts. New and Complete Transcriptions with Photographs (Wheaton, IL 2001) 479.
Wasserman, The Epistle of Jude, 302, who lists the readings from the Aramaic source
87
4Q204, codex Panopolitanus, Ethiopic source and Ps.-Cyprian and Ps.-Vigilius. E. Mazich,
however, points out that not all sources known to us could have been used by the author
of Jude, because Ethiopian sources are later than Jude. Syriac sources are no help either,
because they derive from known Greek sources. Thus, the author of Jude could have used
only an Aramaic source, a Greek one or a combination (see below). See E. Mazich, “The
Lord Will Come with His Holy Myriadsâ€.
There is a debate of what exactly was the source for the author of Jude in preparing
88
his text. Did he use an Aramaic source, which he perhaps paraphrased or did he combine an
Aramaic and a Greek source together? See, e.g. E. Mazich, “The Lord Will Come with His
Holy Myriadsâ€, for a scholar arguing in those lines. For an argument that he also used a text
similar to that of the Ethiopian text, see C.D. Osburn, “The Christological Use of 1 Enoch
I. 9 in Jude 14,15â€, NTS 23 (1977) 334-41. Kelly, The Epistles of Peter and Jude, 276, has
argued that the author of Jude quoted from memory but this seems unlikely.
Osburn, â€The Christological Useâ€, 338.
89
Kubo, P72 and Codex Vaticanus, 88.
90
Albin, Judasbrevet, 615.
91