Catholic Epistles
The variety in the order of the Catholic Epistles is even more significant than that of the Pauline. When the Syrian Church of Edessa obtained the New Testament, it consisted only of the Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, and the Acts. It contained neither the Apocalypse nor the Catholic Epistles. This is proved among other things by the fact that not a single quotation from these writings is found in the Homilies of Aphraates, the date of which falls between 336 and 345. At a later date the Syrian Church accepted the Epistle of James, 1 Peter, and 1 John, but the four so-called Antilegomena—viz. 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude—are to this day excluded from their Canon of the New Testament. Even in the West, James was not reckoned among the books of the New Testament previous to the fourth century. There is no mention made of it in Africa about the year 300, although it was cited at Rome and Carthage at an earlier date. At Alexandria, however, all the seven Catholic Epistles were counted in the New Testament as early as the time of Clement,286 and their place in the Canon becomes more and more firmly assured from the time of Eusebius onwards.287 At the same time, the order of their arrangement varies very considerably. Indeed, every possible variety occurs, except that Jude seems never to have been placed first, nor 2 Peter last. Thus we find James, 2 Peter, 3 John, Jude; James, Jude, 2 Peter, 3 John; 2 Peter, James, Jude, 3 John; 2 Peter, 3 John, James, Jude; 2 Peter, 3 John, Jude, James, etc.288 It follows that in the case of this group of New Testament writings, as well as in that of the preceding, it is necessary and possible to distinguish the three longer from the four shorter epistles in tracing the history of the text. And we see at the same time what justification Luther had in drawing a line between these epistles and the principal books of the New Testament as having been held in quite a different estimation in early times.
1 Peter iii. 22. After θεοῦ the Vulgate inserts deglutiens mortem ut vitae aeternae haeredes efficeremur, “apparently from a Greek original which had the aorist participle καταπιών; cf. 1 Cor. xv. 54” (W-H, Notes, in loco). See Vetter, Der dritte Korintherbrief.
2 Peter i. 1. Zahn considers ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ the original reading, and εἰς δικαιοσύνην a later correction due to taking πίστιν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ together as “faith in righteousness.” The last two words are to be taken with λαχοῦσιν. Einleitung, ii. 59.
i. 2. Zahn agrees with Lachmann and Spitta in holding that ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν is the correct text here—that is to say, he omits τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ. Tischendorf’s Apparatus is very diffuse on this verse, and Baljon’s note, which is extracted from it, is accordingly not quite satisfactory.289 Like all the other editors, he gives ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν in the text, but the only variants he mentions are the insertion of Χριστοῦ after Ἰησοῦ, and the omission of ἡμῶν. There is no notice of the omission of the words τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ by any of the witnesses. They are not found in P, the best manuscripts of the Vulgate (am fu dem harl), Philoxenian and Harklean Syriac, nor in minuscules 69, 137, 163. These last, however, the Syriac and the minuscules with m, insert Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ after ἡμῶν. Kühl believes that the shorter form is probably due to the fact that in the epistle Christ is everywhere regarded as the object of ἐπίγνωσις. But this is really very improbable. For the scribe could not have been aware of this when he began to write the epistle, so that he must have turned back and deleted the words καὶ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ afterwards. At the same time it is a fundamental principle of textual criticism that the lectio brevior is to be preferred. Reference may be made to the Epilogus of Wordsworth and White, ch. vi., De regulis a nobis in textu constituendo adhibitis, where the very title of section 4 implies this principle: “Cum brevior lectio probabilior sit, codices A F H* M Y plerumque praeferendi sunt,” and where the most conspicuous examples of this rule are said to be “Additamenta nominum propriorum, et praecipue sanctorum—e.g. Jesus, Christus, Dominus, Deus.” It is true that in the passage before us we have not simply a case of the insertion of a word or words understood; at the same time, here if anywhere the text is more likely to have been extended than abbreviated. It remains to be seen whether P exhibits a good text in other passages of the Catholic Epistles as well as this, but so far as the minuscules 69 and 137 are concerned, they justly bear a good reputation. Hort calls 69 one of the better cursives, and 137 has a text so closely resembling that of Codices D E as to be of material assistance when these are defective. The minuscules are too often regarded as mere ciphers; as if a cipher more or less behind a number did not make a vast difference. In the very next verse we find 137 supporting א A in reading τὰ πάντα, which is accepted by Tischendorf and Weiss, and preferred also by Kühl. In this instance it contradicts P, which omits τὰ with B C K L.
i. 12. Here μελλήσω is given by א A B C P, οὐ μελλήσω by 8 f tol (non differam), and οὐκ ἀμελήσω by K L etc. (“the Antiochean recension and the Syriac versions,” Zahn). “Μελλήσω, with the present infinitive, can hardly be simply a periphrastic future. The idea is rather that the writer will be prepared in the future, as well as in the past and in the present, to remind them of the truths they know, whenever the necessity arises. As they had no evidence of the fulfilment of this promise, the copyists and translators found a difficulty with this expression, and hence the variants.” Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 53 f.
i. 15. The reading σπουδάζω, found in א 31, and the Armenian, is also attested by the Philoxenian Syriac, a fact which Zahn regards as important. “On transcriptional grounds the reading σπουδάσω, preferred by our editors, would appear to be confirmed by the reading σπουδάσατε, exhibited by the Harklean Syriac and a few minuscules. But in reality both these latter readings merely serve to show that a difficulty was felt again in admitting a promise on the part of Peter which he seemed never to have fulfilled.” Einleitung, ii. 54. Compare on μελλήσω above.
i. 21. It is probable that Theophilus of Antioch (Ad Autolycum, ii. 9) read (οἱ) ἅγιοι (τοῦ) θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι, the form exhibited by א and A (“the chief representatives of the Antiochean family”), and also by several Latin witnesses. See Zahn, GK. i. 313; Chase on 2 Peter in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii. p. 801.
ii. 13. On this passage Zahn remarks (Einleitung, ii. 53): “The similarity of 2 Peter to the Epistle of Jude was doubtless a source of textual corruption. But it may also aid us in correcting the text. Because, whichever of the two we regard as the original, in any case the one is our earliest witness to the text of the other. If we accept the reading ἀγάπαις in Jude 12, it follows either (1) that Jude read ἀγάπαις in 2 Peter, and that this is the original reading there, or (2) that Peter, supposing he wrote second, altered Jude’s ἀγάπαις to ἀπάταις, which it is hard to conceive, the former being so unmistakable, and the latter much less suitable to the context. In either case, therefore, ἀγάπαις would seem to be the correct reading in 2 Peter ii. 13.” No doubt the alteration of ἀγάπαις to ἀπάταις is “hard to conceive,” but it is not inconceivable. As illustrating how a piece of writing may be misread, it is sufficient to point to Justin’s mistake with regard to “Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio.”290 As regards the particular words before us, I may be allowed to cite my Philologica Sacra, p. 47, where I have referred to the frequent confusion of ἀγαπάω and ἀπατάω, ἀγάπη and ἀπάτη in manuscripts of the Old Testament. In Ps. lxxviii. 36, for example, out of more than one hundred manuscripts that have been collated, not one has preserved the correct reading ἠπάτησαν; all have ἠγάπησαν. In 2 Chron. xviii. 2 again only one has the correct text ἠπάτα. From a psychological point of view, therefore, it would seem more natural to suppose that ἀπάταις is the original reading in the passage under consideration, and ἀγάπαις the transcriptional error. The authorities for each are distributed as follows:—
| ἀγάπαις. | ἀπάταις. | |
| 2 Peter ii. 13, | Ac B m vg, Syrphil, | א A* C K L P... |
| Syrhark. mg, Sahid. | Syrhark, Copt., Arm. | |
| Jude 12, | א B K L vg, Sahid., Copt., | A C 44, 56. |
| Syrphil, Syrhark, Arm. |
In the first edition of this work I said it was strange, considering the frequent confusion of ἀγάπη and ἀπάτη, that Tischendorf goes by the majority of his witnesses in the case of 2 Peter ii. 13 (Westcott and Hort in their text, Weiss, Weymouth, and Baljon all do the same), “whereas the same word should be read in both cases, and that ἀγάπαις. Otherwise it would be necessary to suppose that the text was already corrupt when the one writer used the epistle of the other, no matter whether Peter or Jude: quod variat, verum esse non potest.” I cannot understand an argument like that of Kühl (Meyer6, on 2 Peter ii. 13, p. 428): “ἀπάταις is presumably original in one of the passages, most likely in 2 Peter, as ἀγάπαις goes better with ὑμῶν in Jude 12 than with αὐτῶν here. B has ἀγάπαις in both places, and C in the same way ἀπάταις, which is explainable on the supposition that originally the one word stood in the one passage and the other in the other. Nearly all recent expositors favour the reading ἀπάταις in 2 Peter.” I am glad now to have the powerful support of Zahn in my dissent from that view. Reference may be made to the excellent article on Jude by F. H. Chase in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, ii. 799-805. His first paragraph is on the “Transmission of the Text,” and the article is a model of what such things should be.291 On the Philoxenian Syriac see the work of Merx mentioned above, p. 106 (5). On the rest of the verse, see Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 71. He points out that Tischendorf’s apparatus is misleading here, as it fails to notice the omission of ὑμῖν by the Philoxenian Syriac, the Sahidic version, the Speculum of Pseudo-Augustine (m), and by Pseudo-Cyprian. In his opinion it is an interpolation due to the συν— of συνευωχούμενοι. These pronouns are very liable to be interpolated, as is pointed out by Wordsworth and White in their Epilogus, p. 729, where these “additamenta” come next after “Proper Names”; see above, p. 238.
ii. 15. On Βοσόρ, see p. 243 f.
ii. 22b. In Hippolytus, Refutatio, ix. 7, we find: μετ’ οὐ πολὺ δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν αὐτὸν βόρβορον ἀνεκυλίοντο. On the connection of this with 2 Peter ii. 22, see Zahn, GK. i. 316. Wendland tried to make out that it is a saying of Heraclitus. Compare also Clement, Λόγος Προτρεπτικός, x. 96; ὕες γάρ, φασίν, ἥδονται βορβόρῳ μᾶλλον ἢ καθαρῷ ὕδατι, καὶ ἐπὶ φορυτῷ μαργαίνουσιν κατὰ Δημόκριτον.
iii. 6. The conjectural reading δι’ ὃν for δι’ ὧν Schmiedel thinks well worthy of consideration. See his Winer, § 19.
iii. 10. None of the variants here appears to be the correct reading (κατακαήσεται in various forms: ἀφανισθήσονται: εὑρεθήσεται). What is required is a passive form of ῥέω, or one of its compounds (? διαρρυήσεται).
iii. 16. The article is inserted before ἐπιστολαῖς by א and K L P (“the Antiochean recension”), but omitted by A B C. Zahn, who would omit it, points out that ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς would imply a complete collection of Paul’s Epistles, and would include all the constituents without exception, whereas without the article the phrase contrasts one epistle known to the readers with those of all kinds that he had written. See Einleitung, ii. 108. Tischendorf admitted the reading now favoured by critics in his seventh edition, but rejected it in the eighth. This same thing occurs not infrequently. See the article on 2 Peter by Chase in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii. p. 810.
1 John iv. 3. Von der Goltz has shown conclusively what was long a matter of conjecture, that Origen not only knew the reading ὁ λύει τὸν Ἰησοῦν, but seemingly preferred it; and that Clement also cites the text in this form in his work on the Passover, which is all but entirely lost. He has also established anew the reliable nature of the Latin version of Irenæus in the matter of Biblical quotations. See Zahn in the ThLbl., 1899, col. 180; Einleitung, ii. 574.
v. 7. The “comma Johanneum” needs no further discussion in an Introduction to the Greek Testament, but its history on Latin soil is all the more interesting. The fact that it is still defended even from the Protestant side is interesting only from a pathological point of view. On the decision of the Holy Office, confirmed by the Pope on the 15th January 1897, see Hetzenauer’s edition of the New Testament, and the notice of it by Dobschütz in the ThLz., 1899, No. 10. On the literature, compare also Kölling (Breslau, 1893); W. Orme’s Memoir of the Controversy respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses, 1 John v. 7 (London, 1830), New Edition, with Notes and Appendix by Ezra Abbot (New York, 1866); C. Forster, A New Plea for the Authenticity of the Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses (Cambridge, 1867); H. T. Armfield, The Three Witnesses: The disputed Text in St. John (London, 1893).
James
An Arabic scholion, attributed to Hippolytus, cites this epistle under the name of Jude. See Zahn, GK. i. 320, 2; 323, 3. In two minuscules cited by Tischendorf, Ἰακώβου is followed by τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ θεοῦ or ἀδελφοθεοῦ, and in one of the subscriptions by τοῦ ἀδελφοθεοῦ. The subscription in ff reads “explicit epistola Jacobi filii Zaebedei (sic).” See Zahn’s Einleitung, i. 75.
ii. 2. συναγωγὴν appears without the article in א* B C and one of Scrivener’s minuscules. This reading is accepted by Zahn, who sees in it an indication that those to whom the epistle is addressed were in possession of several synagogues, that is supposing the word to mean meeting-place, and not simply assembly, as he himself is inclined to believe. See Einleitung, i. 60, 66.
Jude
5. This verse exhibits an uncommonly large number of variants. Thus εἰδότας occurs with or without ὑμᾶς after it; for πάντα we find both πάντας and τοῦτο; while the position of ἅπαξ varies, the word being found before πάντα, ὅτι, and λαὸν. But even that is not all. Most recent editors read ὅτι Κύριος, but we find also ὅτι Ἰησοῦς: ὅτι ὁ θεὸς: and ὅτι ὁ Κύριος (textus receptus). Tischendorf’s apparatus might lead one to suppose that the witnesses for Ἰησοῦς and ὁ θεὸς omit ὅτι altogether, but that is not so. The ambiguity is due to the loose way in which the note is given. Westcott and Hort think it probable that the original text was ΟΤΙΟ, and that this was read as ΟΤΙΙ̅Ϲ̅, and perhaps as ΟΤΙΚ̅Ϲ̅. Kühl thinks that the easiest explanation of the variants is to suppose that κύριος was the original reading, and that Ἰησοῦς and θεὸς were derived from it. But it seems to me that Zahn has better reason on his side when he argues for ὅτι Ἰησοῦς as the original reading. He first of all eliminates ὁ θεὸς as having no great attestation, and as being found alongside of κύριος in Clement (dominus deus). The choice, therefore, lies between κύριος and Ἰησοῦς. The latter has by far the stronger external attestation, it is the lectio ardua, and is, on internal grounds, also to be preferred. See Einleitung, ii. 88.
22, 23. Zahn has a strong impression that this passage lies at the foundation of Didache, ii. 7: οὐ μισήσεις πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλὰ οὓς μὲν ἐλέγξεις, περὶ δὲ ὧν προσεύξῃ, οὓς δὲ ἀγαπήσεις ὑπὲρ τὴν ψυχήν σου. If this is really so, we have here a piece of very early testimony, not certainly to the actual words, but to the thought conveyed. See Einleitung, ii. 86.
Subscription: At the end of the Armenian Bible of 1698 we find a note to the effect that “this epistle was written in the year 64 by Judas Jacobi, who is also called Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus, and who preached the Gospel to the Armenians and the Persians.”