Luke 9:55-56

Luke 9:55-56

(homoioarcton: kai..., kai... )

και ειπεν ουκ οιδατε οιου πνευματος εστε
υμεις ο γαρ υιος του ανθρωπου ουκ ηλθεν
ψυχας ανθρωπων απολεσαι αλλα σωσαι
και επορευθησαν εις ετεραν κωμην

and [Jesus] said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of: For the Son of Man has come not
to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
and they went to another village. But as they went...

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INCLUDE LINE:
D, K (Θ) Π ψ, 1079 1242 1546, Byz, Maj (Majority of all continuous MSS), it^{-aur/a/b/c/e/f/q/r/vg}, Syr^-C/P/H, Cop(Bo) Goth Arm Marcion Diat. Ambrose Epiph. Antioch. etc. (1195 1365 2148 2174 f¹ f¹³ l^-69)

OMIT LINE:
P^45,75 (200-250 CE), א ^Corr1, B, A, C, L, W, Δ Ξ , 28 33 565 892 1009 1010 1071 (1241) it ^-l Lect. Syr-S, Cop-Sa/Bo AEth, Basil Cyril-Jer, Jerome

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Luke's smoother and easier to read Greek may have been copied in larger portions by scribes.

But in any case, at least FOUR identical letters similarly placed in a line is enough to allow the eye to skip when flitting back and forth from a long column of compressed letters to the copy. Any number of letters per line that would allow the "KAI E" to appear in a similar horizontal position would create the all too common hazard.

The textual evidence offered by the UBS-2 apparatus is blurred and made over-complex by the inclusion of variants from the previous verse and minor variants among the versions, making it all but useless even for establishing what the textual evidence actually is.

The readings of P45 and P75 give a weighty appearance, but once again prove too much. They are excellent evidence of a common exemplar for Aleph/B, by agreement in error, but this agreement in error only confirms thats what the reading really is: an early error that crept into the Alexandrian text-type preferred by the editors of Aleph/B.

Recommendation: Leave the verse in the text. Its clearly a beautiful example of a difficult teaching by Jesus to His apostles, and could hardly have been invented by later copyists sucking back wine and blacking out.