A new textual variant

Greek Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek
1

Καὶ ὅτε ἐπλήσθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῶν κατὰ τὸν νόμον Μωϋσέως, ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα παραστῆσαι τῷ κυρίῳ, καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν νόμῳ κρίου ὅτι > Πᾶν ἄρσεν διανοῖγον μήτραν ἅγιον τῷ κυρίῳ κληθήσεται, > καὶ τοῦ δοῦναι θυσίαν κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ κυρίου, > ζεῦγος τρυγόνων ἢ δύο νοσσοὺς περιστερῶν. >

(Luke 2:22-24 UBS Greek NT, Reader’s Edition 2010) (italics theirs)

This is big! A previously undiscovered source text for the Gospels. I’m going to write a monograph right away.

2

this is a little cryptic. would you like to elaborate?

3

Isn’t it obvious that τῳ κυριῳ in the first quote is a misprint for τῳ κριῳ?

4

κρίε πέπον!

5

To quote Miles Davis, “so what?”

6

I think you mean “Say what?” But Πᾶν ἄρσεν “every male thing” confirms. For what could be more male than The Ram?

7

So there’s a difference of exactly one letter in this passus compared with Nestle-Aland. Exodus 13:2,12,15 (the reference kindly provided by Novum) talks of בְּהֵמָה which can refer to many kinds of animals (often quadruped), especially cattle. But I fear I’ll never rid myself of my eternal obtundity (nor occasional orotundity): why κρίου and not κριοῦ?

8

That’s why I omitted accents in my joke (which was intended to make Joel’s post less cryptic for Stirling).

9

Now I’m even more baffled. Is there actually a new source or was it just a funny made by Joel in the first place?

10

Don’t spoil it by asking for an explicit answer, Timothée!

11

Joel has a warped sense of humor, that’s all. And so do I. We were having fun with the misprint (the dropped upsilon) in this particular UBS edition. Nobody’s seriously entertaining kriou. Sorry if anyone was misled.

12

If I truly had a warped sense of humor, I would have cited Leviticus 7:1 for support.

καὶ οὗτος ὁ νόμος τοῦ κριοῦ τοῦ περὶ τῆς πλημμελείας ἅγια ἁγίων ἐστίν