Bible Query – Early Manuscripts of James
November 15, 2009
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. Fourth Revised Edition
p23
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. Third Edition
6th century - 1998 - Aland et al. Fourth 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
5th (James 1:1-4:2)
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.
A: The book of James has a total of 1,742 Greek words in 108
verses. This is the count in both Aland et al. 3rd edition and Aland et al. 4th
revised edition, including 3 words in brackets. You can see the text of the 3rd
edition on-line at http://www.greekbible.com. James has an estimated
word-for-word accuracy of 98.5%, with 26 words in question. These are in 20
verses (24 places). Of these, 21 are single word and 3 are two words.
Below are the variations with the primary
choice and the top alternate choice. Aland et al 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 the evidence for a particular reading is so strong that the
alternatives are very unlikely. See the next question for which manuscripts
support which variant.
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 1:17
“shadow” vs. “darkness”
Jms 1:17
“due to change” vs. “of turning”
Jms 1:19
“brothers” vs. “my brothers”
Jms 1:27
“unspotted himself to keep” singular vs. plural
Jms 2:3 “stand
there or sit” vs. “stand there and sit”
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 4:12
“the lawgiver” vs. “lawgiver” (the one-letter word ‘o’)
Jms 4:14
“of the morrow” vs. “the morrow”
Jms 4:14
“what” vs. “what for”
Jms 4:14
“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 5:20
“Let him know” vs. “He knows”. Also add “that”
Jms 5:20
“of him from death” vs. “from death of him”
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.
A: The table below shows each of the places in question, and
the number says which variant is in each manuscript.
No Italic b, italic
d, Pelagius, Lucifer of Cagliari or Irenaeus
|
Place |
words |
p20 |
p23 |
p54 |
Si |
A |
B |
C |
Ach. |
Sah |
Boh |
Origen |
Ital ff |
Vulgate family |
Eth |
Chrysost |
Byz |
Arm |
Geo |
Syr Pal |
Syr P |
Syr H |
|
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 |
|
|
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
|
Jms 1:17a |
1 |
|
3 |
|
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
- |
- |
1 |
|
|
1 |
1 |
|
- |
1 |
1 |
|
Jms 1:17b |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
Jms 1:19 |
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
|
3 |
1/ 3? |
- |
1 |
1/ 3? |
|
|
3 |
(1) |
1 |
- |
(5) |
5 |
|
Jms 1:27 |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
3 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
1 |
|
Jms 2:3 |
1 |
|
|
|
4 |
1 |
|
2 |
|
|
4 |
- |
2 |
1 |
4 |
|
4 |
(1) |
1 |
- |
3 |
1 |
|
Jms 2:19 |
1 |
7 |
|
|
1 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
|
1 |
1 |
- |
3 |
1/ 3? |
1 |
|
5/6 |
1 |
1 |
- |
(3) |
3 |
|
Jms 2:20 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
2 |
1 |
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 |
|
1/2 |
2 |
2 |
- |
3 |
1 |
|
Jms 3:3 |
1 |
- |
|
|
4 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
- |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
1 |
- |
4 |
- |
|
Jms 3:8 |
1 |
- |
|
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
1 |
1 |
- |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
- |
1 |
2 |
|
Jms 3:9 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1/ 2 |
- |
1 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
1 |
2 |
- |
1 |
2 |
|
Jms 3:12 |
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
1 |
2 |
- |
2 |
1 |
|
|
3 |
1 |
2 |
- |
2 |
3 |
|
Jms 4:4 |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
1 |
- |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
1 |
- |
1 |
2 |
|
Jms 4:5 |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
3 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
- |
2 |
1 |
2 |
|
2 |
2 |
|
- |
(2) |
2 |
|
Jms 4:12 |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
2A |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
|
Jms 4:14a |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
- |
1 |
1 |
(1) |
|
1 |
|
|
- |
- |
2 |
|
Jms 4:14b |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
1/2 |
- |
3 |
2 |
3 |
|
2 |
1 |
3 |
- |
2 |
1 |
|
Jms 4:14c |
1 |
|
|
|
6 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
- |
4 |
5 |
|
|
4/5 |
|
|
- |
- |
1 |
|
Jms 5:4 |
1 |
|
|
|
2 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
- |
1 |
1 |
(1) |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
|
Jms 5:7 |
1 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
1 |
|
|
1 |
(3) |
- |
3 |
1/ 2? |
|
|
2 |
1 |
1/ 2? |
- |
2 |
2 |
|
Jms 5:14 |
2 |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
5A |
|
|
|
|
- |
2 |
(1) |
(1) |
1 |
1 |
|
|
- |
2 |
2 |
|
Jms 5:20a |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
4 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
|
1 |
1 |
(1) |
- |
1 |
2 |
|
Jms 5:20b |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
1 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
(1) |
|
3 |
1 |
|
- |
1 |
1 |
|
Place |
words |
p20 |
p23 |
p54 |
Si |
A |
B |
C |
Ach. |
Sah |
Boh |
Origen |
Ital ff |
Vulgate family |
Eth |
Chrysost |
Byz |
Arm |
Geo |
Syr Pal |
Syr P |
Syr H |