What a nightmarke...
JW:
Mark 3:14
And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, (ASV)
And the Textual Criticism issue:
http://biblehub.com/text/mark/3-14.htm
Strong's | Transliteration | Greek | English | Morphology |
2532 [e] | kai | καὶ | And | Conj |
4160 [e] | epoiēsen | ἐποίησεν | he appointed | V-AIA-3S |
1427 [e] | dōdeka | δώδεκα | twelve | Adj-AMP |
3739 [e] | hous | [οὓς | ones, | RelPro-AMP |
2532 [e] | kai | καὶ | and | Conj |
652 [e] | apostolous | ἀποστόλους | apostles | N-AMP |
3687 [e] | ōnomasen | ὠνόμασεν] | he called, | V-AIA-3S |
2443 [e] | hina | ἵνα | that | Conj |
1510 [e] | ōsin | ὦσιν | they might be | V-PSA-3P |
3326 [e] | met’ | μετ’ | with | Prep |
846 [e] | autou | αὐτοῦ, | him, | PPro-GM3S |
2532 [e] | kai | καὶ | and | Conj |
2443 [e] | hina | ἵνα | that | Conj |
649 [e] | apostellē | ἀποστέλλῃ | he might send | V-PSA-3S |
846 [e] | autous | αὐτοὺς | them | PPro-AM3P |
2784 [e] | kēryssein | κηρύσσειν | to preach, | V-PNA |
The offending words in question in
red.
By an Act of Providence foremost Textual Critic Bart Ehrman is currently articulating on Textual Criticsm (Bart's desire to lose his tag of "Textual Critic" in exchange for being a noted Biblical Historian reminds me of
"The earlier, funnier Woody Allen". Bart, you want to do mankind a real service? Do more textual criticism.) and discusses External evidence here:
External Evidence in Textual Criticism
Willker gives the External evidence here:
http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/TC-Mark.pdf
TVU 58
...
omit: A, C, C2, D, L, P, f1, 33, 565, 579, 700, 892, 1342, Maj, Latt, Sy, goth
Ehrman discusses Internal evidence here:
http://ehrmanblog.org/jesus-sweating-bl ... -evidence/
Note that the short-hand (so to speak) rule for Textual Criticism is that a combination of a minimum of quality External evidence and Internally, the difficult reading, supports the difficult reading as more likely original.
Here the oMission of the disciples being described as Apostles by "Mark" (author) has quality External evidence and is clearly the difficult reading. Most textual critics and translations accept that omission is more likely original. Most people, including Skeptics, would be surprised to learn just how rare it is for "Mark" to use the word "apostles" for the disciples. The only other instance is
6:30 where the disciples report back to Jesus on the results of their mission with a religious context.
Note that the case here is "perfect" indicating a completed as opposed to ongoing mission. This coordinates with Paul who generally describes the competition in his time as "false apostles". The subsequent Gospellers use the term "apostles" to describe the subsequent effort of the disciples more often than ebola is found in a Dallas hospital.
Here an apostle of Daniel Wallace (still waiting on that first century fragment of GMark Dan. At this rate I fear Jesus might actually return before that fragment does) gives an apologetic argument for inclusion:
https://bible.org/article/%E2%80%9Cwhom ... n-mark-314
What CBS (Christian Bible Scholarship) is still missing is that the most important context to consider regarding the relationship of the Gospels is claimed historical witness:
- Pre (Paul): Revelation
GMark: Revelation (by the Gospel) and discrediting of historical witness
GMatthew: Crediting of historical witness at the end of the Gospel
GLuke: Crediting of historical witness at the end of the Gospel with support during the Gospel
GJohn: Crediting of historical witness at the start of the Gospel
Post (Church): Crediting of historical witness to the disciples in the Gospels
An editing of GMark at 3:14 fits this development well:
Mark 3
13 And he goeth up into the mountain, and calleth unto him whom he himself would; and they went unto him.
14 And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
15 and to have authority to cast out demons:
16 and Simon he surnamed Peter;
17 and James the [son] of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and them he surnamed Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder:
18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean,
19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. And he cometh into a house.
as this would be the only place in GMark indicating that Jesus authorized the disciples as apostles for an ongoing mission. Without it Gnostics could argue (correctly) that the original narrative discredited the disciples as witnesses to Jesus and never indicated that Jesus authorized them as apostles in an ongoing sense. Ironically, in destroying/censoring/not preserving the Gnostic versions we have no direct evidence that the Gnostics edited anything while on the other hand, in a Act of Providence, orthodox Christianity has (unwittingly) preserved the direct evidence that they were the ones caught inflagrantee derilictio of their fiduciary responsibility.
Joseph
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