Thursday, November 20, 2014

149. Matthew 9:19

David Inglis, “I besought thy disciples.” But in addition to, “And they could not cast it out,” [9:40] he had “And he said unto them, ‘O faithless generation, how long shall I suffer you’?” [9:41] (Scholion 19) As has been previously reported, Epiphanius does not always quote whole verses, and this may be the case here. He does not indicate that anything is missing from Mcg, but instead is just questioning the use of “how long.” In combination, Tertullian and Epiphanius refer to almost all of vv. 9:40-41, albeit with slight variations. Like Tertullian, Epiphanius does not mention vv. 9:37-39 and 9:42-43, which could mean that these verses were not present in Mcg. However, vv. 9:40-41a on their own would make little sense. In addition, the whole passage has parallels in both Mt and Mk, making it almost certain that the rest of the passage existed in Mcg. Both Tertullian and Epiphanius quote “O faithless generation” rather than “O faithless and perverse generation,” so it is virtually certain that this is what they saw in Mcg. As neither suggest that Marcion had omitted anything here it is highly likely that this is also what they saw in Lk, as in the parallel at Mk 9:19 in most mss (P45 and W have both words, possibly as an assimilation to Mt or Lk).


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