Mark 15.31 : remarcable Coptic and Gothic Variants

Other Classical Languages Coptic Corner
1

In the Horner-Edition of the Southern Coptic NT-text (1921) Mk 15:31 has the English translation: „But likewise the chiefpriests also were mocking at him with the scribes, saying to one another, Others he delivered, but he, he is not about to be able to deliver himself”.

The ECM-Mark-edition has no Greek witness for „at him” and „but he”.

As I am doing research to reconstruct the Greek text underlying the Gothic translation and as the Gotic text is almost exactly the same as the text of Horner‘s translation. The reconstructed Greek text (< Gothic) would be: „ομοιως και οι αρχιερεις {εμπαιζοντες | ενπαιζοντες} [αυτω | αυτον] {προς αλληλους | εις αλληλους | μετ’ αλληλων} μετα των γραμματεων ελεγον αλλους εσωσεν εαυτον [δε] ου δυναται σωσαι.“

Since I don‘t know any coptic, I would like to know, whether the coptic sahidic text indeed has these variants.

2

Sahidic witnesses I checked (Quecke 1972, M569) all have the same text as Horner:
…ⲛⲉⲩⲥⲱⲃⲉ ⲛ̄ⲥⲱϥ…ⲛ̄ⲧⲟϥ ⲇⲉ ⲛⲉϥⲛⲁ…
…they mocked him…but he, he will not…

Note though that the inclusion of the words ⲛ̄ⲥⲱϥ, lit. “after him”, may be due to the fact that the verb ⲥⲱⲃⲉ used intransitively means “to laugh”. The translator had to add an object, if he wanted it to mean “to mock”. As far as I know, other Coptic verbs with a similar meaning behave in the same way. So, the presence of ⲛ̄ⲥⲱϥ may not be due to a Greek Vorlage but rather to the behaviour of the Coptic verbs the translator could choose from to render εμπαιζοντες.

That’s for Sahidic. A quick look at the Bohairic version shows it’s closer to the Greek.

3

Thanks!

It‘s a pity the Gothic-NT-Part doesn‘t have the parallels Lk 23:35 and Mt 27:41, so One cannot compare them.