----- Original Message -----

From: James Snapp, Jr.

To: textualcriticism@ yahoogroups. com

Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 9:48 PM

Subject: [textualcriticism] Eznik of Golb and Mark 16:17-18

 

In the Expositor in 1895 or so, Conybeare claimed that Eznik of Golb, the Armenian translator/writer of the 400's, is a witness for Mark 16:17-18, but I was never able to actually find the quotation. Until now.

It is in English on p. 85 of

A Treatise on God Written in Armenian by Eznik of Kolb (430-450)
by Monica J. Blanchard and Robin Darling Young, 1998.
(Easter Christian Texts in Translation series)

<SNIP>
Paragraph 112:
"But Satan is unable to prevail over true believers by his temptations, nor are sorcerers able to do so by demons, just as the Lord Himself said to His disciples: "Behold, I gave you power to tread under foot serpents and scorpions, and all the powers of the enemy" (Luke 10:10) And again, "Here are signs of believers: they will dislodge demons, and they will take serpents into their hand, and they will drink a deadly poison and it will not cause harm." (Mark 16:17-18)"

That's an interesting form of the quotation, because, among other things, it has the "And in their hands" phrase which is an Alexandrian variant.

450. Let's see . . . that's about 400 years earlier than any Armenian witness against Mark 16:9-20, as far as I know.

Hi James

 

Thanks for this

I suspect that Eznik is (here and in other places) a witness to the Diatessaronic text. ("And in their hands" is in the Curetonian Syriac and may have been Tatian's text)

 

Andrew Criddle

.