Song of Songs - speakers identified in the text - Jay Curry Treat, Louis Francis, Tremper Longman, Stéphane Simonnin

[Steven Avery]

In the Greek text of Sirach, several passages contain extra text in the 1820 Zosimas Bible (which relies heavily on the Received Text/Codex 248 tradition) that is missing in Codex Sinaiticus. These omissions in Sinaiticus are widely recognized by textual critics as being caused by homoeoteleuton (when the eyes of a copyist skip from one word or phrase to the end of another line that shares the same ending). [1, 2, 3]

Sirach 1:7–8

• The Zosima Text: Includes the full sequence and continues through verses 7 and 8.
• The Sinaiticus Omission: The scribe's eye skipped from a word or phrase at the end of verse 6 to the identical or highly similar ending of verse 8, entirely omitting the text of verse 7 and the first half of verse 8.

Codex Sinaiticus - See The Manuscript | Sirach |

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. The Codex Sinaiticus Project is an international collaboration to reunite the...

www.codexsinaiticus.org

Sirach 7:29–31

• The Zosima Text: Includes the detailed instructions regarding honoring the priesthood, the Lord's portion, and caring for the Levites and the poor.
• The Sinaiticus Omission: Often skips key portions of this block of text due to visual repetition (homoeoteleuton) occurring across these verses. [1]

Sirach, 7:23 - 8:16 library: BL folio: 163b scribe: A
Q 68 F4V

https://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR=01FB804F&dir=next&folioNo=4&lid=en&quireNo=68&side=r&zoomSlider=0

29
εν ολη ψυχη ϲου · ευλαβου τον κν ·
+
και τουϲ ϊερειϲ αυτου · θαυμαζε ·
30
εν ολη δυναμει ϲου · αγαπηϲον
τον ποιηϲαντα ϲε ˙
και τουϲ λιτουργουνταϲ αυτω ·
μη ενκαταλιπηϲ
31
φοβου τον κν · και δοξαϲον ϊερεα
και δοϲ την μεριδα αυτω . καθωϲ
εντεταλται ϲοι ·
απαρχην · και περι πλημμελιαϲ
και δοϲιν βραχιονοϲ ·
και θυϲιαν αγιαϲμου · και απαρ
χην αγιων ·
32
και πτωχω . εκτινον την χειρα ϲου ·

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Sirach 18:31–33

• The Zosima Text: Contains the full continuous admonitions about self-indulgence, ignoring your appetites, and sharing with the poor.
• The Sinaiticus Omission: The text abruptly jumps, skipping lines of text that feature repetitive sentence endings.

Textual Overview of this Relationship:

In textual criticism, Sinaiticus is classified as an Alexandrian manuscript characterized by shorter readings, while the Zosimas Bible (representing the GrII/Byzantine tradition) preserves longer, fuller blocks of text. When scribes were copying documents, identical line-endings (homoeoteleuton) frequently caused them to accidentally drop blocks of text in the Alexandrian exemplar. Therefore, the 1820 Zosimas Bible provides crucial context for restoring the omitted, longer text found in the Sinaiticus tradition. [1, 2, 3]

For a more detailed breakdown of these specific verses, consult the resources on Bible Research for guidelines on recognizing scribal omissions due to homoeoteleuton in faulty manuscripts. [1]

Textual Overview of this Relationship:

While several such instances exist in the book of Sirach, the most prominent locations where the 1820 Zosimas Bible contains longer text and Sinaiticus has an omission via homoeoteleuton are:

In the Greek text of Sirach, several passages contain extra text in the 1820 Zosimas Bible (which relies heavily on the Received Text/Codex 248 tradition) that is missing in Codex Sinaiticus. These omissions in Sinaiticus are widely recognized by textual critics as being caused by homoeoteleuton (when the eyes of a copyist skip from one word or phrase to the end of another line that shares the same ending). [1, 2, 3]

While several such instances exist in the book of Sirach, the most prominent locations where the 1820 Zosimas Bible contains longer text and Sinaiticus has an omission via homoeoteleuton are:

 

[Steven Avery]

what are the most prominent locations in the Old Testament where the 1820 Zosimas Bible contains longer text and Sinaiticus has an omission via homoeoteleuton?

Prominent Old Testament locations where the 1820 Zosimas Bible preserves longer text while Codex Sinaiticus omits text due to homoioteleuton (skip-reading errors) include: [1, 2, 3]

• Genesis 4:8: Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus omit Cain's speech to Abel ("Let us go out to the field") due to a common parableptic slip caused by sentences ending similarly in early Greek. [1, 2]
• Genesis 31:38 & 31:41: The scribe of Sinaiticus frequently skipped text blocks in Jacob's recounting of his flocks, leaving out entire lines due to the repeated words and endings associated with his time serving Laban.
• 1 Samuel 14:41: Sinaiticus omits the longer prayer of Saul inquiring of God—missing a large block of words that ends similarly to the following verses. [1]
• Jeremiah 27:1 (LXX): Sinaiticus omits the name of Jehoiakim due to the similar names/endings between the first half of the verse and the start of the next, an omission frequently discussed in Septuagint vs. Masoretic Text comparative studies.
• Daniel 3:23-24: Sinaiticus omits the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews entirely. While largely a difference in canonical tradition, the surrounding verses demonstrate massive block-skipping errors caused by identical refrains and endings. [1]

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To view these omissions alongside the manuscript's original corrections, you can use the interactive Codex Sinaiticus Project viewer.

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1. The Book of Tobit

• Tobit 4:3–6: Sinaiticus leaves out a large chunk of Tobit's ethical instructions to his son Tobias. The text in Sinaiticus jumps prematurely from "...give alms to the righteous" in verse 3 directly to verse 7, entirely omitting the intermediate instructions on keeping the law and giving alms. [1]
• Tobit 13:8–10: A significant portion of Tobit’s hymn of praise is omitted in Sinaiticus due to a matching phrase, leaving the passage truncated compared to the fuller Zosimas text.

2. The Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)

• Sirach 30:25–31:2: Sinaiticus notoriously suffers from severe homoeoteleuton and misplaced text in this region. Entire phrases dealing with the sorrow and anxiety of a poor man are absent from the uncorrected text of Sinaiticus, resulting in a much shorter passage compared to the Zosimas Bible.
• Sirach 46:19–21: The conclusion of the eulogy for Samuel skips a line detailing Samuel's faithfulness before and after the anointing of Saul

https://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR=01FB804F&dir=next&folioNo=7&lid=en&quireNo=70&side=r&zoomSlider=0

3. The Book of Judith

• Judith 6:11–15: The scribe of Sinaiticus skipped the narrative describing Achior being delivered to the servants of Ozias and taken into the city of Bethulia, jumping directly to the crowd questioning Achior about the events.

4. 1 Maccabees

• 1 Maccabees 14:5–7: Sinaiticus drops a crucial transitional section regarding Simon Maccabeus and the confirmation of his leadership over the Jewish people due to a repeated word pattern.

You can study these variants in depth by comparing the digitized transcripts in the Codex Sinaiticus Project against a critical text or historic Septuagint edition (like the 1820 Zosimas).