Bible Query – Early Manuscripts of James

October 29, 2022 version

 

Q: In Jms, what are early New Testament manuscripts we have preserved today?

A: Here are many of them.

p20 (=Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1171) 3rd century. James 2:19-3:2; (6 out of 96 letters of 3:3); 3:4-9) A photograph of this manuscript is in The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts p.96. This book also mentions that the handwriting on the manuscript is very similar to the P. Egerton 4 manuscript of 2 Chronicles and p27, a manuscript of Romans. Alexandrian text

3rd century - 1968 - The Text of the New Testament does not mention 3:3.

3rd century - 1998 - Aland et al. 4th Revised Edition

p23 Urbana (early 3rd) (=Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1229 (James 1:10-12, 15-18) A photograph of this is in The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts p.102.

Beginning of 3rd century - 1968 - The Text of the New Testament.

p54 5th-6th century. (James 2:16-18, 2:21?; 2:22-26; 3:2-4) Agrees with Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Ephraemi Rescriptus

5th/6th century - 1968 - The Text of the New Testament does not have 2:21.

p74 (=Bodmer 17) Acts 1:2-5,7-11,13-15,18-19,22-25; 2:2-4; 2:6-3:26; 4:2-6,8-27; 4:29-27:25; 27:27-28:31; James 1:1-6,8-19,21-23,25,27; 2:1-3,5-15; 18-22, 25-26; 3:1,5-6,10-12,14,17-18; 4:8,11-14; 5:1-3,7-9,12-14,19-20; 1 Peter 1:1-2,7-8,13,19-20,25; 2:6-7,11-12,18,24; 3:4-5; 2 Peter 2:21; 3:4,11,16; 1 John 1:1,6; 2:1-2,7,13-14,18-19,25-26; 3:1-2,8,14,19-20; 4:1,6-7,12,16-17;5:3-4,9-10,17; 2 John 1,6-7,13; 3 John 6,12; Jude 3,7,12,18,24 (7th century)

7th century - 1968 - The Text of the New Testament has James 2:4 and 1 Peter 1:12

7th century - 1975 - Aland et al. 3rd Edition

6th century - 1998 - Aland et al. 4th Revised Edition

p100 (=Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 4449) James 3:13-4:4; 4:9-5:1 (3rd or 4th century)

Vaticanus (325-350 A.D.), Sinaiticus (340-350 A.D.), and Alexandrinus (c.450 A.D) have all of James.

Bohairic Coptic 3rd/4th century

Sahidic Coptic 3rd/4rth century

Ephraemi Rescriptus [C] 5th (James 1:1-4:2)

048 5th century

0166 5th century. (James 1:11)

0173 5th century. (James 1:25-27)

Armenian [Arm] from 5th century

Georgian [Geo] from 5th century

Ethiopic [Eth] from c.500 A.D.

Palestinian Syriac [Syr Pal] from c.6th century (James 1:1-12)

Peshitta Syriac [Syr P] 411-435 A.D. Over 350 manuscripts.

Harclean Syriac [Syr H] 616.A.D Thomas of Harkel

According to the New International Greek Testament Commentary on James p.59-60, there are no “western family” texts of James, only Alexandrian and Byzantine.

 

Q: In Jms, what are the manuscript variations with the Textus Receptus, the basis for the KJV?

A: Jay P. Green, Sr. in the Interlinear Bible records variations in approximately 39 words between the Textus Receptus and the majority text. These are in 26 places. He does not record any additional alternates.

 

Q: In Jms, what are some of the manuscript variations?

A: The book of James has a total of 1,742 Greek words in 108 verses. This is the count in Aland et al. 5th revised edition, 4th revised edition, and 3rd edition, including 3 words in brackets. The text of the 3rd edition is on-line at http://www.greekbible.com. James has an estimated word-for-word accuracy of 98.2%, with 32 words in question. These are in 25 verses (29 places). Of these, 26 are single word and 3 are two words.

   Below are the variations with the primary choice and the top alternate choice. Aland et al. 5th revised edition, 4th revised edition, and 3rd edition, from which this primarily is based, also give a judgment of the degree of certainty per variation. The list below does not include many places where the evidence for a particular reading is so strong that the alternatives are very unlikely. See the next question for which manuscripts support which variants.

Jms 1:3 “testing” vs. “severe ordeal” (1 letter) (1241 12th century) (1 word not counted in the totals)

Jms 1:12 “promised” vs. “God has promised” vs. “the Lord has promised” (2 words)

Jms 1:17a “shadow” vs. “darkness”

Jms 1:17b “due to change” vs. “of turning”

Jms 1:19 “brothers” vs. “my brothers”

Jms 1:20 “not works” (ou katergasetai) vs. “not works” (ouk ergasetai)

Jms 1:27 “unspotted himself to keep” singular vs. plural

Jms 2:3 “stand there or sit” vs. “stand there and sit”

Jms 2:4 “even/and did not make” vs. “did not make”

Jms 2:15 “lacking maybe of daily food” vs. “lacking of daily food”

Jms 2:19 “the God is one” vs. “is God one”

Jms 2:20 “useless” vs. “dead”

Jms 2:25 “messengers” vs. “messengers of Israel” (2 words)

Jms 3:3 “Surely but” vs. “Look”

Jms 3:8 “unrestrainable evil” vs. “unsettled evil”

Jms 3:9 “Lord” vs. “God”

Jms 3:12 “Thus” vs. “so neither”

Jms 4:4 “adulteresses.” vs. “adulterers and adulteresses.”

Jms 4:5 “has dwelt” vs. “he once dwelt”

Jms 4:10 “the Lord” vs. “Lord”

Jms 4:12 “the lawgiver” vs. “lawgiver” (the one-letter word ‘o’)

Jms 4:14a “of the morrow” vs. “the morrow”

Jms 4:14b “what” vs. “what for”

Jms 4:14c “it is” vs. “to be”

Jms 5:4 “has been kept back” (Alexandrinus, 2nd corrector of Vaticanus, Byzantine Lectionary, Ethiopic) vs. “?” (a rare word) (Sinaiticus and original Vaticanus)

Jms 5:7 “receive” vs. “receive rain” vs. “rain receive”

Jms 5:14 “the Lord” vs. “Lord” vs. “Christ” (2 words)

Jms 5:16 “pray one another” vs. “pray for one another” (English would translate both as pray for one another)

Jms 5:20a “Let him know” vs. “He knows”. Also add “that”

Jms 5:20b “of him from death” vs. “from death of him”

Jms 5:20 Some manuscripts add a postscript, “Of James letter”

Bibliography for this question: The Greek New Testament Third Edition by Kurt Aland et al., The Greek New Testament Fourth Edition by Kurt Aland et al., Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry, the Interlinear Bible by Jay P. Green, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary volume 8, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament 2nd edition by Bruce M. Metzger, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by Bart Ehrman, The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts edited by Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Expositor’s Greek Testament edited by W. Robertson Nicoll, and footnotes in the NASB, NIV, NKJV, and NRSV Bible translations. Manuscripts of the Greek Bible : An Introduction to Paleography by Bruce M. Metzger also has interesting information on the characteristics and quality of the copying of each manuscript.

 

Q: In Jms, how do the early manuscripts compare with each other?

A: The table below shows each of the places in question, and the number says which variant is in each manuscript.

This chart shows the variations of some of the manuscripts of James, with the one Aland et al. views as correct labeled as “1”, the next choice “2”, and so on. Corrections to manuscripts by later scribes are not included. A question mark means it is probably but not certain the manuscript had these words. Parentheses means fragmentary or hard to read. Where there is more than one number, such as “1 /2?”, this means that one or more manuscripts in the family give the first choice, and one or more manuscripts are not clear, but appear to give the second choice. A parenthesis, such as (6), means that through translation or loss of letters are not sure, but it appears to support reading 6. There are so many manuscripts and writers that they cannot all be listed here; this shows the most significant early ones.

 

The witnesses are ordered chronologically, as much as possible.

Columns: blue=Bible manuscript, white = early Christian writer, green=heretical writer, orange=schismatic writer, pink=strange writer

 

James is not preserved in Italic b, italic d, Pelagius, Lucifer of Cagliari or Irenaeus.

Place of variant

words

Ori-gen

p20

p23

p54

p74

p100

048

B

Si

A

C

Ach.

Sa-hidic

Bo-hairic

Ital ff

Vulgate family

Eth

Chry-sost

Jer-ome

Arm

Geo

Syr Pal

Syr P

Syr H

Byz

Jms 1:3

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

1

1

1

1

 

 

 

1

1

1

 

-

1

1

1

1

1

1

Jms 1:12

2

-

-

1

-

-

-

 

1

1

1

 

 

1

1

1

2

 

 

 

1

1

2

2

3

3

Jms 1:17a

1

-

-

3

-

-

-

 

2

2

1

1

 

 

 

-

1

 

 

 

1

 

-

1

1

1

Jms 1:17b

1

 

-

 

-

-

-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

Jms 1:19

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

1

2

4

1

 

3

1/ 3?

1

1/ 3?

 

 

 

(1)

1

-

(5)

5

3

Jms 1:20

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

2

2

1*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

Jms 1:27

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

1

1

2

1

-

1

1

1

1

3

-

-

1

-

-

1

1

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jms 2:3

1

-

-

-

-

4?

-

 

 

4

1

2

 

 

4

2

1

4

 

-

(1)

1

-

3

1

4

Jms 2:4

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

2

2

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

 

1

Jms 2:15

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

2

1

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

 

1

Jms 2:19

1

-

7

-

-

1

-

 

4

1

1

2

 

1

1

3

1/ 3?

1

 

-

1

1

-

(3)

3

5/6

Jms 2:20

1

-

1

-

-

4

-

 

1

2

2

1

 

1

2

3

1/ 2

2

 

-

 

 

-

2

2

2

Jms 2:25

2

-

1

-

1?

-

-

 

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

-

1

2

 

 

2

2

-

3

1

1/2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jms 3:3

1

-

-

-

 

-

-

 

1

4

1

 

 

 

1

1

1

 

 

-

2

1

-

4

-

 

Jms 3:8

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

1

1

1

2

 

1

1

1

1

2

 

 

 

2

-

1

2

2

Jms 3:9

1

-

1

-

-

-

-

 

1

1

1

1

2

2

1/ 2

1

1

 

 

 

1

2

-

1

2

2

Jms 3:12

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

1

2

1

1

 

1

2

2

1

 

 

-

1

2

-

2

3

3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jms 4:4

1

-

-

-

-

-

 

 

1

1

1

-

 

1

1

1

1

 

 

-

2

1

-

1

2

 

Jms 4:5

1

-

-

-

-

1

-

 

1

1

3

-

 

 

 

2

1

2

 

-

2

 

-

(2)

2

2

Jms 4:10

1

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

2

2

2

 

3

 

3pt

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

1

1

1

1

Jms 4:12

1

-

-

-

-

-

 

 

2A

1

1

-

1

1

1

-

 

 

 

-

2

2

-

-

-

1

Jms 4:14a

1

-

-

-

-

-

 

 

3

1

2

-

 

 

 

1

1

(1)

 

 

 

 

-

-

2

1

Jms 4:14b

1

-

-

-

-

2?

 

 

1

1

2

-

 

2

1/2

3

2

3

 

 

1

3

-

2

1

2

Jms 4:14c

1

-

-

-

-

-

 

 

2

6

3

-

 

 

 

4

5

 

 

 

 

 

-

-

1

4/5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jms 5:4

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

2

2

1

-

 

 

 

1

1

(1)

 

-

1

1

-

-

-

1

Jms 5:7

1

-

-

-

-

1

-

 

1

3

-

-

 

1

(3)

3

1/ 2?

 

 

-

1

1/ 2?

-

2

2

2

Jms 5:14

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

5A

1

2

-

 

 

 

2

(1)

(1)

1

-

 

 

-

2

2

1

Jms 5:16

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

2?

3

1

2

-

 

-

-

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jms 5:20a

1

3

-

-

-

-

-

 

2

1

1

-

 

4

1

4

1

1

 

-

1

(1)

-

1

2

1

Jms 5:20b

1

3

-

-

-

-

-

 

2

1

1

-

 

 

1

2

1

(1)

 

-

1

 

-

1

1

3

Jms 5:20c

8

1

-

-

-

-

-

 

1

1

1

-

 

 

1

1

1

1

 

-

1

 

-

1

2

1

Place of variant

words

Ori-gen

p20

p23

p54

p74

p100

048

B

Si

A

C

Ach.

Sa-hidic

Bo-hairic

Ital ff

Vulgate family

Eth

Chry-sost

Jer-ome

Arm

Geo

Syr Pal

Syr P

Syr H

Byz

by Steven M. Morrison, PhD.