Page 308 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

288 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

• John 8:16. The phrase the Father who sentmehas a variant, hewho sent
me. 40
• John 9:35.Jesus' appellation the Son qf God has a variant of greater
documentary evidence, the Son of man (asurrogate term for Messiah)."!
Mark 16:9-20. The concluding twelve verses of Mark are replaced
by a much shorter ending in several manuscripts, negating any ref-
erence to Jesus' reappearance to his disciples and his subsequent
ascension.f
Luke3:22. You are mybeloved Son in whom I amwellpleasedhas a variant,
You are my Son; thisdqy I have begottenyou.43
Luke23:34. AndJesussaid, "Fatha.forgioe them,ftr they do notknowwhat
they are doing.» This passage is omitted in several diverse manuscripts,
the earliest of these from c. 200 C.E. This verse was most likelynever
part of Luke's original autograph, and was inserted subsequently
from an oral tradition. But the phrase has proven so popular that
translators are unwilling to excise it, resorting instead to a footnote
about its absence in various manuscripts.r'
Luke24:6and 24:12. Heisnothere butisrisen and all of verse 12(where
Peter discoversJesus' burial clothes but no body) are excluded from
a few older manuscripts.f
Luke 24:51 and 24:52. And Oesus} was carried up into heaven and they
worshipped him are not present in certain early manuscripts."

ii. Scribal Alterations

I will suffice with these examples and turn now to the categories of deliberate
and unintentional scribal alterations, as classifiedby NT scholars. This will
provide us with a flavour for the range of errors which must be confronted.
In explaining away unintentional changes, scholars use psychology most
skilfully in retracing the mental workings of scribes who died well over
ten centuries ago. Astigmatism isblamed for the manuscript in which similar
Greek letters are often transposed; a momentary wandering of the eye
explains the deletion or repetition of an entire passage. Confusion when

40 ibid, p. 117.
41 ibid,p.118.
42 See this work pp. 297-8.
43 Comfort, p. 89.
44 ibid,p. 101.
45 ibid, p. 102.
46 ibid,pp. 103-4.