Sunday, February 23, 2025

Early Versions on Revelation 16:5

Metzger's "The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations," provides a helpful overview of the versional evidence that can sometimes attest to a particular Greek Vorlage behind the translation.

Metzger's taxonomy provides a useful skeleton:

  1. Syriac (link to my analysis)
  2. Coptic (link to my analysis)
  3. Armenian (link to my analysis)
  4. Georgian (link to my analysis)
  5. Ethiopic (link to my very detailed analysis)
  6. "Minor Eastern" Versions
    1. Arabic  (see discussion here)
    2. Nubian (Revelation fragments exist, but not of Revelation 16:5)
    3. Persian (Only a portion of Psalms remains, apparently, from Pre-Islamic times)(see more here)
    4. Sogdian (Revelation fragments apparently don't exist)
    5. Caucasian Albanian (Revelation is not part of the extant copies)
  7. Latin
    1. Vetus Latina 
    2. Vulgate
  8. Gothic (Current reconstruction of Gothic Bible does not include Revelation)
  9. Old Church Slavonic (link to my analysis)
  10. "Minor Western" Versions (None of these include Revelation, however) 
    1. Anglo-Saxon  
    2. Old High German 
    3. Old Saxon

As can be gleaned from the links above, we have already discussed the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) version at length, as also the Old Latin versions and the Vulgate in a variety of videos (mostly stemming from the usage of less literal Latin translations).  


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