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  • From: "Ted Blakley" <jtedblakley AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Kata Markon" <gmark AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [GMark] Mark 4:11 -- What's going on with GNWNAI?
  • Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:10:38 +0100

I sent this email to the TC list and thought I would try it here as well.

Last night I was at home reading through the parables discourse in Mark 4. I have a book that is simply a Greek-English diglot of Mark that was produced some years ago as a help for Bible translators. I was surprised when I came to Mark 4:11 which reads:

YMIN DEDOTAI GNWNAI TO MUSTHRION THS BASILEIAS TOU QEOU

My surprise was with GNWNAI because I had never seen (or at least recalled) a Greek text with GNWNAI in it. I checked my UBS3 and it didn't show any variants for 4:11. When I came to work, I checked my NA27 which has a variant for 4:11 but no reference to this one. I then checked Swanson and there are actually quite a few manuscripts that attest to GNWNAI (G f1 1424, delta, 33, 28, 1346, C, D, M, U, theta, f13, 2 157, 565, 579, 700, 1071, the majority text). It is also found in the editions by Tishendorf, Scrivener, and Stephanus.

I then glanced through some Markan commentaries, the ones that generally note textual issues (JMarcus, RTFrance, RAGuelich, RGundry) and no body mentioned it; even Gundry who usually has a comment about everything. I then went to my excellent and trusted textual commentary by Wieland Wilker and again no mention of this variant, as far as I can tell. Why is it that this variant does not show up on anybody's radar except for Swanson? After all it seems to me that it is a fairly significant variant; perhaps not original (I haven't spent any time thinking through the evidence) but significant nonetheless not least because there is a minor agreement at this point between Matthew and Luke against Mark. They both have

YMIN DEDOTAI GNWNAI TA MUSTHRIA THS BASILEIAS ... (Matt 13:11 // Luke 8:9). Notice the GNWNAI and the plural TA MUSTHRIA

Am I missing something here?
Also, if anyone knows of any discussions regarding the variant I would appreciate the bibliography.

Sincerely,
Ted Blakley

--
========================================================================
J. Ted Blakley
Ph.D. Candidate -- New Testament, The Gospel of Mark
University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK

Email 1:  jtb1 AT st-andrews.ac.uk
Email 2:  jtedblakley AT gmail.com

Online CV:         www.blakleycreative.com/jtb
Hebrew 2 Hub:   www.blakleycreative.com/jtb/Hebrew.htm
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  • [GMark] Mark 4:11 -- What's going on with GNWNAI?, Ted Blakley, 07/25/2006

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