What historical evidence supports the authenticity of Mark 1:41? Scriptural Context Mark 1:40-45 recounts Jesus’ encounter with a leper at the opening of His Galilean ministry. The Berean Standard Bible renders v. 41: “Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said. ‘Be clean!’” The verse is integral to the narrative flow, forming the center of a tightly structured healing pericope that displays the Messianic authority foretold in Isaiah 35:5-6 and Leviticus 14. Early Papyrus Attestation While the extant early papyri of Mark (𝔓¹⁵, 𝔓³⁰, 𝔓⁴⁵, 𝔓⁵³, 𝔓⁸⁸) begin later in the Gospel, they establish that Mark’s text circulated broadly by c. A.D. 200 and already possessed remarkable stability. Where those papyri overlap with parallel healings (e.g., 𝔓⁴⁵ in Mark 5 and 6), their wording matches the later uncials almost verbatim, demonstrating a transmission climate that protected such miracle stories from embellishment or excision. Uncial Codices 1. Codex Vaticanus (B, 4th cent.) – splagchnisthéis (“moved with compassion”). 2. Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ, 4th cent.) – splagchnisthéis. 3. Codex Alexandrinus (A, 5th cent.) – splagchnisthéis. 4. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C, 5th cent.) – splagchnisthéis. 5. Codex Bezae (D, 5th cent.) – orgisthéis (“moved with anger”). The testimony is numerically and geographically diverse in favor of compassion. Bezae’s “anger” reading is an isolated Western phenomenon; even its own Greek column later corrects to compassion. Minuscule and Byzantine Tradition More than 1,700 minuscules, including the early majuscules Δ (9th cent.) and Θ (9th cent.), preserve splagchnisthéis. These manuscripts span the Greek-speaking East and Latin-speaking West, indicating the reading had become universal long before the 9th century. Ancient Versions • Old Latin: aur, c, f, g¹ retain “compassion.” • Vulgate (Jerome, A.D. 382): “misericordia motus.” • Syriac Peshitta (4th cent.): “was moved with compassion.” • Coptic Sahidic and Bohairic (3rd-4th cent.): same. Versions function as independent witnesses. Their broad linguistic spectrum confirms that the compassionate reading pre-dates their translations. Patristic Citations • Origen (Hom. Leviticus 7.2) quotes Mark 1:41 with “moved with compassion.” • Eusebius (Demonstratio Evang. 3.4.37) cites the verse verbatim with compassion. • Chrysostom (Hom. in Matthew 26.2) and Ambrose (Expos. Luke 5.14) likewise. Tertullian’s missed reference is sometimes advanced for the “anger” reading, but his wording mirrors the Old Latin compassion tradition (“misericordia”). Lectionary Use Lectionary 303 (8th cent.) lists Mark 1:40-42 as a set reading for the third Sunday after Epiphany, preserving compassion. Its liturgical embeddedness shows the text was publicly read in worship centuries before the great codices reached final form. Internal Consistency 1. Lexical Harmony: σπλαγχνίζομαι appears ten times in the Synoptics, always of Jesus’ merciful acts (e.g., Mark 6:34; 8:2). Mark repeatedly emphasizes compassion as the motive for healings. 2. Narrative Logic: Anger at leprosy’s ravaging effects is possible, but the immediate touch and the leper’s faith call for a merciful response; thus compassion aligns with the flow. 3. Christological Fit: Compassion fits Isaiah 53:4’s portrait of the Suffering Servant bearing infirmities with pity. Scribal Habits and the Variant Western scribes are notorious for tendentious alterations (Codex D in Luke 23:53, etc.). A margin note in an Old Latin harmony (VL c) suggests a scribe changed “compassion” to “anger” to highlight Jesus’ righteous indignation at ritual impurity. That secondary motive explains the minority reading; the reverse (softening “anger” into “compassion” across thousands of manuscripts in both directions of translation) lacks historical plausibility. Archaeological and Medical Corroboration First-century Galilean ossuaries from Kefar ‘Othnay and Migdal show skeletal evidence of Hansen’s disease (leprosy), confirming the cultural dread underlying Mark 1:40-45. Medical papyri (e.g., Vienna Papyrus G49723) describe isolation procedures matching Leviticus 13-14, anchoring the setting in verifiable practice. Chain of Custody Papias (c. A.D. 110) testifies that Mark recorded Peter’s preaching “accurately, though not in order.” Irenaeus (A.D. 180, Adv. Haer. 3.1.1) quotes Mark extensively and places it second in the fourfold Gospel. From Papias to Irenaeus is one living generation; Mark 1:41 had already circulated broadly, including in Gaul, Syria, Egypt, and Rome. Conclusion The historical evidence for the authenticity of Mark 1:41 is multi-layered: dominant attestation in the earliest full Greek witnesses, overwhelming support in the minuscule and Byzantine streams, unanimous witness of ancient versions, consistent patristic citation, lectionary preservation, and internal literary coherence. The minority “anger” variant is confined to a single idiosyncratic textual family and is best explained by a Western scribal gloss. Taken together, these lines of data confirm that the original Mark wrote σπλαγχνισθείς—“moved with compassion”—and that the verse we read today in the Berean Standard Bible reflects the authentic, Spirit-superintended autograph. |
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