4 comments

1. I had a question about this episode for the Dr. Clark and the Superfriends.

   Dr. Clark spends quite a bit of time in this episode discussing Luke 23:34, “And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'” However, this passage seems to be questioned by most modern textual critics. The NA 28 places this text in double brackets to indicate that it is know that this is not part of the original text, but that it is significant historically.

   How should we deal with passages like this which are very well known, but do not appear to be part of the original text? Should these passages be used extensively for exegesis?

   As a note, I have no objection to Dr. Clark’s conclusions in this episode, but I was a little surprised at his reliance on this text, and I wanted to hear the thoughts of the superfriends on text critical issues like this.

   ὑμῶν δοῦλος,

   Josiah Royer

   Reply ↓

   • Hi Josiah,

     I wrote the piece relying on the ESV and did not check the textual critical apparatus. Thanks for this prompt. I should have done better work but it is interesting that though both the NA28 and the UBS committee have serious doubts about this text there is no indication in the ESV (at least not that I can see right away).

     The UBS text critical commentary says:

     The absence of these words from early and diverse witnesses…is most impressive and can scarcely be explained as a deliberate excision by copyists who, considering the fall of Jerusalem to be proof that God had not forgiven the Jews, could not allow it to appear that the prayer of Jesus had remained unanswered. At the same time, the logion, though probably not a part of the original gospel of Luke, bears self evident tokens of its dominical origin and was retained, within double square brackets, in its traditional place where it had been incorporated by unknown copyists relatively early in the transmission of the third gospel.

     I tend to err on the side of external evidence when making text-critical questions (though the internal considerations must be weighed) and I take the UBS committee’s warning seriously but it’s interesting that they are confident that it is a saying of Jesus.

     I’ll add your question to the coffer for the Superfriends.

     Reply ↓

     • Thanks so much for your response!

       Unfortunately, I don’t have a printed version of the ESV to hand to see what that looks like. The version at Bible Gateway does have a footnote reading, “Some manuscripts omit the sentence And Jesus… what they do” which certainly isn’t very forceful. The edition of the NASB I have on my desk has no note at all, which seems really odd.

       The fact that USB suggests that the statement isn’t in the original text of Luke, but that Jesus *did* say it seems extremely odd. I’m not sure how much weight to put on a statement supposedly from Jesus but not recorded in the original inspired text. Rooms within rooms…

       Reply ↓

       • I see the footnote now in my hardcopy. There was no such note in the electronic version I was using. This is a good reminder to check the hardcopy. I checked the CSB, the NIV, the NASB, and the NKJV (Geneva Study Bible). Only the latter has no note. Typically the notes say something to the effect that “some early mss….” I don’t know if the NKJV has textual notes. The Greek text of the Majority Text note says “P75” et al v. the MT, aleph corrected, and lists some others. None of those who follow the eclectic text seems to treat the verse the way we do the longer ending of Mark or the woman taken in adultery. In the UBS 3 they give it a C rating for probability. P75 is the main witness against the logion. It’s 3rd century and Aleph (corrected) from the 4th century contains it.

         Reply ↓

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