Textual Problems in Mark 7:24, 28

From: Kenneth Litwak (kenneth@sybase.com)
Date: Tue Nov 28 1995 - 19:51:35 EST


   I'm wondering about a couple of textual problems I'm looking at in
Mark 7. The presence of "Sidon" in 7:24 and nai in 7:28 in many
important, Alexandrian-type witnesses, leads me to really wonder about the
rejection of these words in NA27. While Metzger has a point that these
could be due to harmonization with Matt 15, I wonder if that's reasonable
given the substantial evidence for their presence in both verses. In
7:28, the only major witnesses that omit nai are P45 W and Theta.
While P45 is important, I don't think we want to take it as superior to
Aleph, A, B, 33 etc without other reasons. Furthermore, I can't see how
the Alexandrian reading in v.28 could have arisen from the version in
P45. So in both of these instances, I am inclined to go against the
NA27, even though the issue in v.24 might be influenced by the dictum of
taking the shorter text. I would like to know what others think.
Thanks.

Ken Litwak
GTU
Bezerkley, CA



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