Sitting here reading about 1 Corinthians 10:9 and how the WT uses "Jehovah" instead of "Christ" in the NWT. Looking in the Interlinear and it says "xBC". Anyone know what that means?
1 Corinthians 10:9
by lambsbottom 5 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
whathappened
56 views and no answer...guess no one knows. Any good guesses?
-
Earnest
At 1 Corinthians 10:9 various manuscripts support different readings. The footnote in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation states :
Jehovah, J 18,22,23 ; the Lord, [aleph]BC; the Christ, P 46 D; God, A.
So what this means is that where the English translation reads "Neither let us put Jehovah to the test..." some manuscripts read "Neither let us put the Lord to the test...", others read "Neither let us put the Christ to the test..." and still others read "Neither let us put God to the test...".
To address your question as to what xBC means, these are the manuscripts which support the reading "Neither let us put the Lord to the test..."
If you look closely you will see the 'x' is actually the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, namely 'aleph' and on page 13 of KIT it explains what the symbols refer to. So 'aleph' refers to the Codex Sinaiticus, 'B' refers to the Vatican ms 1209 also known as the Codex Vaticanus, and 'C' refers to Codex Ephraemi rescriptus. These three manuscripts are from the fourth and fifth centuries so it is strong support for that reading.
On the other hand, the reading "Neither let us put the Christ to the test..." is supported by P 46 D. P 46 is a papyrus from about 200 C.E. so it is even earlier than the readings which support "Neither let us put the Lord to the test...".
So because there are various readings the KIT shows the manuscript evidence supporting each reading and you can investigate further, if you wish, and decide which you think has the better support. The reading "Neither let us put Jehovah to the test..." is more an interpretation than a translation but there are some Hebrew translations which have translated it in the same way, namely J 18,22,23 . These refer to Hebrew translations by Isaac Salkinson and C.D. Ginsburg (J 18 ), United Bible Societies, 1979 (J 22 ) and J. Bauchet (J 23 ).
-
lambsbottom
Thanks. So, the earliest manuscript says uses "Christos"? Interesting how I never knew about this when an active JW.
-
disposable hero of hypocrisy
Interesting.. Thanks op for raising the question, and thanks earnest for that comprehensive answer...
-
Earnest
I forgot to mention that the other support shown for "Neither let us put the Christ to the test..." is D. 'D' refers to codex Bezae which has some very unusual readings and dates back to the fifth/sixth century.
While as a general rule it is true that the earlier a manuscript/papyrus is the more likely it will contain the original text, that cannot be followed blindly as even something written in 200 had already been copied many times no doubt.