ήμει̑ν

[jgibson000]

Some manuscript witnesses to the Lukan version of the bread petition of the Lord's Prayer read τον αρτον ημών τον έττιοΰσιον δίδου *_ήμει̑ν_* το καθ' ήμεραν rather than the better attested τον αρτον ημών τον έττιοΰσιον δίδου *_ήμιν_* το καθ' ήμεραν. At the risk of showing my ignorance, is _ήμει̑ν_ an an attested alternative form of the dative plural of ἐγώ?

If so, where does it appear?

Jeffrey

[Ken M. Penner]

Right. It's just an alternate spelling.

[Wes Wood]

I believe that it does appear. Here is an example from the Priene inscription:
"Επειδη η παντα διαταξασα του βιου ημων προνοια σπουδην εισενενκαμενη και φιλοτιμιαν το τεληοτατον τω βιω διεκοσμησεν ενενκαμενη τον Σεβαστον, ον εις ευεργεσιαν ανθρωπων επληρωσεν αρετης, ωσπερ ημειν και τοις μεθ ημας σωτηρα πεμψασα τον παυσοντα μεν πολεμον, κοσμησοντα δε παντα"

[Robert Emil Berge]

Yes, this is a very common way to write ἡμῖν in papyri (and manuscripts it seems), and it's not strange since ει and ι had the same pronunciation. Greek orthography was not as fixed as it can seem in modern editions, and the same word could be written differently from manuscript to manuscript, and even within the same manuscript, but in the editions this is usually normalised.

[RandallButh]

For a quick survey that includes evidence/examples from the Greek Judean desert texts, as well as Egypt and a reference for the Roman catacombs, go to https://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/ ... unciation/.

Besides the phonology article in html, there is also a link for downloading a PDF of the same article at that address.

That article includes an example of υμειν and υμιν from the Judean Desert around 125CE:
Babatha 15.8 υμειν ὑμῖν ‘for you’ (125 CE)

So yes, both ΕΙ and Ι in the first century were pronounced [ i ] (like in the word "ski", or like "ee" in the word "tweet"). See the above article before raising questions or making conclusions about this sentence.

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