Mark 14:61 - NT Variants Lists

Mark 14:61 - The Messiah or not the Messiah?

Taking inspiration from this post over at the ETC Blog, it was interesting to look at the other variants listed for this passage, and how some different TC editions list them, or don't list them.

Mark 14:61 (According to Robinson-Pierpont Majority Text)

Ὁ δὲ ἐσιώπα, καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίνατο. Πάλιν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ἐπηρώτα αὐτόν, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ, Σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστός, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ εὐλογητοῦ;

However He kept His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said, "Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed?"

Tischendorf (8th Edition, Vol. 1 p. 384) has quite a few variants listed, of which I only want to concentrate on the following (minus Latin and ECF, plus not interested in the particular variants of Bezae/D):

ὁ δὲ ] + Ἰησοῦς א A 106. al fere syrsch persp
οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίνατο ] οὐκ ἀπεκρίνατο οὐδέν א B C L 33. sah cop aeth go
ἐπηρώτα ] ἐπηρώτησεν sah go 
αὐτόν ] + ἐκ δεύτερου 13. 69. 124 346. [565.]
καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ] λέγων 346. [565.]
ὁ χριστός ] Γ k om
ὁ υἱὸς ] + τοῦ θεοῦ A K Π al
τοῦ εὐλογητοῦ ] τοῦ θεοῦ א*

The Nestle-Aland 27th edition notes the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th variants respectively, however adds the following witnesses:

οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίνατο ] οὐκ ἀπεκρίνατο οὐδέν Ψ 892. 2427 pc
ἐπηρώτα ] ἐπηρώτησεν Θ 700. 2542s
αὐτόν ] + ἐκ δεύτερου W Θ 700. pc sys
ὁ χριστός ] Φ

Plus the following variants:

καὶ πάλιν ] Θ 565. 2542s

The NA28th edition has the same variants listed above, however doesn't cite the following witnesses: 2427 (which is now a proved forgery) Φ or pc (= pauci is removed for all citations in NA28). 

Von Soden (Vol. 4 p. 221) more or less gives the same witnesses as Tischendorf and Nestle-Aland, with a few more variants listed.

Interestingly in von Soden, for the witnesses listed as having ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, he gives the following:

Iι c226 (GA 346), φ b309 (GA 827), κ exc b c1390 (GA 473), 192 (GA 251), 1246 (GA 133)

The Greek letters ι, φ, κ correspond to different groupings of manuscripts developed by von Soden (notoriously complicated - see here for instance), of which there are sub-groupings in each one represented by letters a, b, c etc. Iι c226 therefore indicates manuscript number 226 in sub-grouping c in main grouping I (mainly "Western" witnesses), converted to GA numbers being minuscule 346.

If some manuscripts in one of the sub-groups within a main group didn't share the same variant, von Soden indicated these by putting exc (except) beforehand. So above κ exc b c1390 means manuscripts under main grouping κ read ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, except for sub-grouping b, and within sub-grouping c only manuscript number 1390 (minuscule 473) doesn't share this reading.

Within main grouping κ then, there are three sub-groups: a, b, c. Thus according to von Soden, all the manuscripts in a read ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ (A K Y P 265 489 1219 1346), none of those in b have this reading (270 726 1200 1375), and all those in c except GA 473 share this reading (229 280 482 1354).

Due to the excellent resource which is the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, it's possible to check quite a lot of the manuscripts above (just go to Library - Manuscripts, and then either search for a New Testament Bible verse, or a specific manuscript GA number or name), and see whether the TC editions are correct in their readings. It's also possible to find even more manuscripts with the same reading hitherto unnoticed, or at least not listed anywhere.

When it comes to von Soden and his manuscript groupings, I was able to determine he was wrong in some cases. Minuscule 280 for instance doesn't read ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, but instead just reads ὁ υἱὸς (see here at the CSNTM - right-hand page, lines 4-5). Though it does read ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ originally, a corrector to GA 1354 has scrapped away τοῦ θεοῦ (see here, right-hand page, line 2).

I can add the following witnesses as also reading ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ: GA 474; GA 775; GA 796; GA 804; GA l184.

The following read ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς: GA 1692; GA 1697.

The following read αὐτόν ἐκ δεύτερου: GA 788; GA 1689.

GA 1689 reads ἐπηρώτησεν

GA 788 reads καὶ πάλιν.

GA 700 reads λέγων.

GA l184 reads a conflated reading λέγων καὶ λέγει.