Bible Query – Early Manuscripts of Jude

October 27, 2022 version

 

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

A: Here are many of them.

p72 Bodmer 7 & 8 Papyrii 1 Peter 1:1-5:14, 2 Peter 1:1-3:18 and Jude 1-25. c.300 A.D. A photograph of part of this manuscript (showing 2 Peter 1:16-2:2) is in The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts p.468. It says the handwriting is written “in a documentary hand.”

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

p78 (=Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2684) c.300 A.D. Jude 4-5,7-8 The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts p.602 indicates this is not a very reliable text. “in four verses it contains two unique and three rare readings, all of them in disagreement with the earliest witness [p72].” (quoted from Grenfell and Hunt Oxy. Pap., 34:4) Earlier is not always better.

Vaticanus [B] 325-350 A.D. all of Jude

Sinaiticus [Si] 340-350 A.D. all of Jude

Alexandrinus [A] c.450 A.D all of Jude

Bohairic Coptic [Boh] 3rd/4th century

Sahidic Coptic [Sah] 3rd/4rth century

Ephraemi Rescriptus 5th century

Armenian [Arm] from 5th century

Georgian [Geo] from 5th century

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

Philoxenian Syriac 507/508 A.D. Bishop Philoxenus of Mabug

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

 

Q: In Jde, 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 8 words between the Textus Receptus and the majority text. These are in 8 places. He does not record any additional alternates.

 

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

A: The book of Jude has a total of 458 Greek words in 25 verses according to Aland et al. 5th revised edition. It is 461 Greek word in both Aland et al. 3rd edition and Aland et al. 4th revised edition, including 3 words in brackets. The text of the 3rd edition is on-line at http://www.greekbible.com. Jude has an estimated word-for-word accuracy of 96.9%, with 14 words in question. These are in 10 verses (13 places). Of these, 12 are single word and 1 is 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.

Jude 1 “kept by” vs. “having been set apart”

Jude 1 “and having been kept” vs. absent (a few manuscripts, so 4 word not counted in the totals)

Jude 3 “our” salvation” vs. “your salvation” vs. “salvation”

Jude 4a “master” (p72, p78, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi Rescriptus, some Byzantine Lectionary, Italic, Sahidic Coptic, Bohairic Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian) vs. “master, God” (some Byzantine, Harclean Syriac, Palestinian [Melchite] Syriac)

Jude 4b “our Jesus Christ” vs. other readings in later manuscripts

Jude 5a “once fully/all” vs. “fully/all”

Jude 5b “Lord” vs. “God” vs. “Jesus” vs. “Christ”, vs. "God, Christ" (unlikely). “Lord” is in original Sinaiticus, Athos (8th/9th century), Ephraemi Rescriptus (5th century), Harclean Syriac),

“God” is in Philoxenian Syriac, one Italic, Armenian, Georgian, 2nd corrector Ephraemi Rescriptus p72 (=Bodmer 7/8) ca.300 A.D.,

“Jesus” Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, many Italic, Ethiopic, Origen, Jerome, Cyril, (Bohairic Coptic) (Sahidic Coptic) (parentheses in Aland et al. 4th revised edition)

“Lord” Ephraem, Moscow 9th century, Byzantine Lectionary. See The Expositor's Bible Commentary vol.12 p.390 for more info.

Jude 8 “lordship” vs. “lordships” (1 letter difference)

Jude 12 “fearlessly themselves” vs. “fearlessly we”

Jude 18a “because they told you at the last” vs. “because they told you that at the last” (1 word different in aland et al. 4th and 5th editions0

Jude 18b “time” vs. “of the time”

Jude 19 “dividing apart” vs. “dividing apart themselves” (only Ephraemi Rescriptus)

Jude 22 “mercy/compassion” vs. “rebuke/convince” vs. “pity” (See Metzger’s A Textual Commentary on the new Testament p.661)

Jude 23a “save” vs. “save with fear” (2 words)

Jude 23b “mercy/compassion” vs. “pity”

Jude 25a “to God” vs. “to (the) only wise God” (only late manuscripts so 1 word not counted in the totals) (See Metzger’s A Textual Commentary on the new Testament p.661)

Jude 25b “from all the ages” vs. (absent in some late manuscripts) (4 words not counted in the totals) (See Metzger’s A Textual Commentary on the new Testament p.661)

Some manuscripts add the postscript, “Letter of Jude general”

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 Jde, 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 Jude, 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

 

Place of variant

Words

Iren

Clem A

Origen

p72

B

Si

Hilary

Lucifer

Did

Pris

Jer

Aug

A

C

Ital

Vulgate

Eth

Arm

Geo

Syr Ph

Syr H

Sah

Boh

Byz

Jde 1a

1

-

-

1 lat

1

1

1

3**

1

-

-

-

1

1

-

1

1

(1)

3

1

3

3

1

1

2

Jde 1b

1

-

-

1

1

1

1

-

1

-

-

-

1

1

-

1

1/ 2

(1)

2

2

2

3

1

1

1

Jde 3

1

-

-

-

1

1

1

-

1

-

-

-

-

1

-

2

1?/2

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

3

Jde 4a

1

-

-

-

1

1

1

-

1

1

-

-

-

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

1

1

1/2

Jde 4b

1

-

-

-

1

1

1

-

(1)

1

-

-

-

1

1

1

1/ 2?

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Jde 5a

1

-

1

2

8

1

2

-

 

 

 

1

-

9

 

 

4ms/6ms/9

 

 

 

6

7

10?/11?

10?/11?

3

Jde 5b

1

-

1?

2

7

5

9

-

(1)

-

-

3

-

5

1

4

2?/5/6?

(5)

2

2

2

1

3

3

8

Jde 8

1

-

1 lat

1/ 2

1

1

2

-

1

-

2

1

-

1

-

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

2

1

1

Jde 12

1

-

-

-

1

1

3

-

1

-

-

-

1

1

3?

2

2

1

-

1

2

1

1

1

1

Jde 18a

1

-

-

-

2

1

1

-

1

 

 

-

-

2

2

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

Jde 18b

1

-

-

-

1

1

2

-

 

 

 

-

-

2

1

 

 

 

 

 

2/4mss

 

 

3mss

4

Jde 19

1

-

1?

-

1

1

1

-

1

-

-

-

2

1

2

2

1/ 2

-

1

2

-

-

-

-

1

Jde 22

1

-

4

-

4

1

1

-

-

-

-

4

-

2

2

2/4

2/3?

-

-

1

4

1

4

2

3

Jde 23

2

-

1 lat/ 7

-

7

5

2

-

-

-

-

7

-

3

4

1/7

1

-

(1)

(1)

(7)

1

7

3

5

Jde 23

1

-

1 lat/ 6

-

5

1

1

-

-

-

-

6

-

1

4

1

1

-

1

1

5

4

5

1

4

Jde 25

1

-

-

-

1

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

1

1

1

1

-

1

1

1

1

1?

1

2

Place of variant

words

Iren

Clem A

Origen

p72

B

Si

Hilary

Lucifer

Did

Pris

Jer

Aug

A

C

Ital

Vulgate

Eth

Arm

Geo

Syr Ph

Syr H

Sah

Boh

Byz

by Steven M. Morrison, PhD.