[sign]The value of a time capsule is that it helps to gives a time line for alterations to the text.
The Harmonized Gospel that Victor attributes to Tatian:
1/ Omits the tale of the adulteress,(accepted into the canon post AD 200),
2/ Omits Matthew 16: 2-3, ‘Red sky at night’,(missing from ancient Eastern documents, and geographically, only accurately applicable in Northern UK),
3/ Reverses the verdict on the two sons in the vineyard, to accord with Stuttgart, and with Roman, and military law, thus mocking the pro-Roman quislings,
4/ Restores the missing 100 to the 60 furlongs, (stadia), between Jerusalem and Emmaus. 160 furlongs is 20 miles, a stiff, but not impossible evenings forced march, easily achieved in bright moonlight in the time between sunset and midnight, to a people well used to traveling on foot.
I never ceased to be amazed at tales of farm-workers and apprentices walking ten miles to work every morning, to arrive by seven in the morning, but that was the rule in the nineteenth century here in UK.[/sign]
Voco proTatiano
Most variants are 99.9% of the time supported by other manuscripts and not supported by others. Such as Matt. 16:1-2 is supported by Ephreami Rescriptus, Codex Bezae, Codex Cyprius, Codex Regis, Codex N, Codex W, etc etc, and it is not supported by Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Codex X, etc etc. Plus there are some ancient versions such as the Peshitta and some Coptic that support it and then some the other way around too, and also some very ancient Fathers who support it and an Armenian version of Origen that does not support it. You run into these type of variants because no 2 ancient manuscripts are pefectly identical. But this is where we as Catholic’s are able to rely upon the the authority of the Catholic Church to reveal to us what is reliable and not reliable as Sacred Scripture, the same Church and the same authority that determined what writings were canonical and what was not.
I envy your certainty. I seem to have been set in the footsteps of Thomas, always seeking proof.
1/ It would seem that the pericope of the adulteress is late, ie post AD 200 in its present location, and CF is a good witness of that.
One of the writers on the subject which I have found posits, and papably, that the pericope is grossly out of context, and that by building a context around it, makes it into a more likely, and more deadly trap, but one that leaves Our Lord wounded, so the details have been air-brushed:
bsw.org/project/biblica/bibl80/Ani01.htm
jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2006/08/the_woman_caugh.html
2/ Red sky at night . . .
There is convincing evidence that this proverb is strictly geographically applicable to Northern UK, and absolutely inapplicable to the Holy Lands. It requires a prevalent westerly climate, with a warm sea mass to the west. Though the Med is a warm sea mass, the prevalent climate in the Holy Land is Doldrum to Easterly, hence the dryness of the land.
The route for this interpolation is then via Codex Amiatinus, which sets a time window of AD 710 for its entry into the Latin canon. It might have found its way into the Greek canon by another route, but its source is the same: Durham.
3/ The TR verdict on the two sons in the vinyard makes no possible sense. If however we reverse the verdict, as found in Stuttgart, and CF, then it makes very good sense, for the one who refused, had committed a crime punishable by death in military law, that is, blatant disobedience of a lawful order. The other son, who accepted the order, then for some undetailed reason, failed to carry it out, committed only the minor offence of failing to comply.
Yes we all know that this is contrary to justice, but military law, and Roman law is baed upon authority, and authority cannot be seen to be flouted with impunity.
Thus the Pharisees were being rebuked as both Quislings and hypocrites.
4/ If you look on a map of the Holy Land, at the road from Jerusalem to Joppa, (Jaffa), about half way, you will find Emmaus, not far from Nicopolis. The distance of the former from Jerusalem is then about 20 miles. The direction to Jerusalem is just South of Due East, and after sunset, just a week after Passover, a gibbous moon would be rising ahead to mark the way. Full moon was the 15th of Nisan.