Galatians

Word-Count by Verses

I received my copy of Reuben Swanson's New Testament Greek Manuscripts:Galatians, and have now counted the words in Galatians in Codex B (Vaticanus) three times. This resource is the place to start in any serious numerical analysis. We still need access to Codex B itself to confirm that the text is recorded accurately in the base line of this invaluable resource, as witnessed by the unresolved totals for the Synoptic Gospels.

The results of the word count are shown in the downloadable files. You will note in them two question marks:

1:11 A correction within Codex B itself removes the obvious dittography and eliminates four words [the phrase to euangellion appears three times]. I have also tentatively chosen to go with the reading of the Chester Beatty papyri here (which predates Codex B by more than 100 years and tends to represent the same text throughout Galatians). It is much easier to explain the anomalous reading of 'othen (rather than to euangeleothen) here as original. The principle of lectio difficilior favors the shorter text.

4:2 The double article in Codex B, opposed by all other textual witnesses (including the Chester Beatty papyrus), is corrected.

The end result strongly suggests that we are on the right track. Notice the following numbers:

My guess is that we will find the three extra words, which have been added to Codex B, somewhere in chapter 5 (or possibly in chapter 6). In short, Codex B is very close to the presumed original canonical form of the text for Paul's Letter to the Galatians.

It appears that texts in the Greek NT tend to grow by accretion of words that have little if any effect on the meaning.

I anxiously await the completion of careful analysis of Galatians within its larger literary context of Romans and 1-2 Corininthians. My guess is that we may find interesting numbers for the literary unit as a whole (all four of Paul's letters taken as a literary unit), if indeed Paul and Luke edited this group of letters early, perhaps as the first step in the canonical process (before their trip to Jerusalem in ca. 58 CE -- i.e., as the "Apostolic Writings" consisting of eight Letters of Paul together with the Gospel of Luke).

Duane Christensen