Mark 11:8

Mark 11:8 (Traditional text)

  ... KΑI ΠOΛΛOI TΑ IMΑTIΑ
ΑΥTΩN    ΕΣTΡΩΣΑN   ΕIΣ THN OΔON
ΑΛΛOI ΔΕ ΣTOIΒΑΔΑΣ KΥΨΑNTΕΣ ΕK TΩN
ΑΓΡΩN KΑI ΕΣTΡΩNNΥON ΕIΣ THN OΔON
KΑI OI     ΠΡOΑΓONTΕΣ
KΑI OI ΑKOΛOΥΘOΥNTΕΣ
ΕKΡΑZON ΩΣΑNNΑ ΕΥΛOΓHMΕNOΣ
O ΕΡXOMΕNOΣ ΕN ONOMΑTI KΥΡIOΥ


and many, their garments
(they had) spread on the road,
but others spread leafy branches
which they had cut from the fields
and spread on the road.
and those who went before
and those who followed cried out,
"Hosanna! Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord!"

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The UBS-2 (1968) text doesn't even give notice that they have deleted a line from the traditional text here, and so the textual evidence must be sought elsewhere (for instance from W/H's Introduction of 1882, or Tischendorf's 8th ed.). But this section of Mark is so loaded with duplications of phrase that it is a wonder there were not many more mistakes and textual variants. The style of prose of the rest supports the inclusion of the phrase, not its exclusion.

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Its easy to see here how the scribe, already fatigued by having to work with a 'wordy' Byzantine text-type, went completely cross-eyed and lost a line out of this cluster. What is ironic is that the scribe drops a line on the first "KAI", and doesn't even make it to the next line, where an even greater potential haplography hazard awaits.

Again, nobody in the Alexandrian stream was going to pick up the pieces here, And we could have predicted that critics would just close their eyes and hope the shorter text would at least remove some of the headache.

Modern versions follow along, like donkeys tracking a retreating carrot on a stick. But not even telling the reader of the deletion of a half-verse must be labelled a dubious practice.