Variant Reading in Josephus
Posted: March 22nd, 2012, 9:24 pm
I came across this variant morphological form in Βίος:
§385 Ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἀκούσας ἠπόρουν, τίνα τρόπον ἐξαρπάσω τὴν
Τιβεριάδα τῆς Γαλιλαίων ὀργῆς. ἀρνήσασθαι γὰρ οὐκ ἐδυνάμην
μὴ γεγραφέναι τοὺς Τιβεριεῖς καλοῦντας τὸν βασιλέα· ἤλεγχον γὰρ
αἱ παρ ̓ ἐκείνου πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀντιγραφαὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
Niese's apparatus reads:
γεγραφηκέναι MW
I never expected to see this form for γράφω's perfect infinitive. Perseus won't parse it and I only see four other instances in the Duke Databank Papyri. Am I just seeing a desire by the scribe (and the four papyri authors) to regularize this perfect infinitive to the -κα paradigm? When I see -κε- I normally think pluperfect, but that can't be the case with the infinitive.
Anyway, more than anything else, I'm just curious to hear what other think of this particular morphological creation.
Thoughts?
§385 Ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἀκούσας ἠπόρουν, τίνα τρόπον ἐξαρπάσω τὴν
Τιβεριάδα τῆς Γαλιλαίων ὀργῆς. ἀρνήσασθαι γὰρ οὐκ ἐδυνάμην
μὴ γεγραφέναι τοὺς Τιβεριεῖς καλοῦντας τὸν βασιλέα· ἤλεγχον γὰρ
αἱ παρ ̓ ἐκείνου πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀντιγραφαὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
Niese's apparatus reads:
γεγραφηκέναι MW
I never expected to see this form for γράφω's perfect infinitive. Perseus won't parse it and I only see four other instances in the Duke Databank Papyri. Am I just seeing a desire by the scribe (and the four papyri authors) to regularize this perfect infinitive to the -κα paradigm? When I see -κε- I normally think pluperfect, but that can't be the case with the infinitive.
Anyway, more than anything else, I'm just curious to hear what other think of this particular morphological creation.
Thoughts?