Sunday, April 01, 2018

Galatians 4:6-Potential Readings

Ὅτι δέ ἐστε υἱοί, ἐξαπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν κρᾶζον· αββα ὁ πατήρ. (Galatians 4:6 NA28)

"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (ESV)

Ὅτι δέ ἐστε υἱοί ἐξαπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν κρᾶζον Αββα ὁ πατήρ (TR)

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (KJV)

Hence, should the verse read "our hearts" or "your hearts"?

Douglas J. Moo explains:
"The one variant worthy of comment in this verse is the variation in pronoun after εἰς τὰς καρδίας. This variant is one of the more common ones found in the NT, the difference being of only one letter, with both pronouns often making perfectly good contextual sense. The earliest and best MSS (𝔓⁴⁶ א B et al.) read the first-person plural ἡμῶν, 'into our hearts.' But other MSS (𝔐 along with D², Ψ, 33) have the second-person plural ὑμῶν, 'into your hearts.' In addition to having the stronger external support, the former reading, because it involves a shift in person in midverse—'because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts'—is the more difficult reading. It is rather clear, then, that it should be preferred (Metzger 1994: 526; for the contrary opinion, see Witherington 1998: 289–90)."

See Moo, Galatians, 519-520.

P46 just states that God has sent "his spirit into our hearts." It omits τοῦ υἱοῦ. See Howard Eshbaugh, "Textual Variants and Theology: A Study of the Galatians Text of Papyrus 46," JSNT 3 (1979): 60-72.

The potential date for P46 is ca. 200-225 CE.

See http://www.bible-researcher.com/links19.html

The link above contains images of P46.



No comments: