THEOLOGICAL

7. "The chosen one." The lacuna gap here is larger by the space of one letter than in the two lines preceding. It would therefore be hardly filled up by reading "the Son." Moreover, in this MS. manuscript, "Son" would naturally have been written in the shortened form. There is indeed apparent above and rather to the left of the sigma a spot of ink which might represent the end of a stroke of contraction. But in other cases of contraction in the papyrus the horizontal stroke projects beyond the letters over which it is placed, which the spot above sigma here does not do. On the other hand, "the chosen son" would be too long for the lacuna, besides being open to the objection already stated to reading "son" here. "The chosen one" has the support of א Codex Sinaiticus, and is printed in the margin by W-H., who give "the Son" in the text.

8. "Was standing" (אAF, &c., W-H.) suits the lacuna better than "was standing" variant spelling (BCE, &c.); cf. "Elijah" fol. 1, verso 6, note.

12. "His," which is read before "the two disciples" by A and other MSS., after "two" by CL, &c., and after "disciples" by אB, was apparently omitted altogether in the papyrus. It certainly did not stand in the first position; and it is impossible to get twenty-five letters into the lacuna of this line, which would be the result of assigning the word to either of the latter positions. To suppose that "speaking" was omitted would make the line too short.

15. "They," which has been added above the line by the original scribe, is read by all MSS.; cf. fol. 2, verso 2. "To him" has been cancelled by dots placed over the letters. The omission of the pronoun has no support from other MSS.

16. If, as is at least probable, "to" was written at the beginning of this line, there would scarcely be room enough for "interpreted," even supposing that "Rabbi" (ACFGL, &c.) and not "Rabbi" variant spelling (אBE, &c.) stood here. "Interpreted" is read by W-H. with ABCL and other MSS.; "interpreted" variant spelling אP, &c.

19. It seems on the whole more probable that the papyrus agreed with the majority of MSS. in having "therefore" here. The size of the lacuna is practically the same as in the two lines preceding.

20. The reading is very uncertain. At the end of the line is a mark which resembles the rough breathing in l. 11; and the other vestiges are consistent with "that one." But the line is then abnormally short.

21. Considerations of space are slightly in favour of the addition of "then" after "hour," but are insufficient to justify its insertion. There is a strong consensus of manuscript authority against it.

22. It is evident that the ordinary text "brother of Simon Peter, one of the two" (W-H., T.R.) is considerably too long for the space here available. The question is whether this reading would be sufficiently shortened by the omission (with א and C) of "the," or whether it is necessary to suppose a variant peculiar to the papyrus, e.g. the omission of "Peter." The upsilon of "two" stands slightly to the right of the upsilon of "John" in the next line, and therefore twenty-two letters should approximately fill the lacuna in l. 22. This is the number produced by omitting "Peter"; while if "Peter" be retained, and "the" omitted, the number of letters will be twenty-five. Probably the latter alternative is the safer.

Fol. 2, recto. 18. The omission of "in Hebrew" with AEGK, &c., T.R., would make the line considerably too short.

19. The ordinary reading "Rabbouni, which is said 'Teacher.' Jesus says to her" produces a line of at least thirty-four letters, which is obviously too long. D has "Lord, teacher," which looks rather like a conflation of two variants, and suggests that "Lord" alone may have stood here in the papyrus; cf. note on fol. 1, verso 5. "Lord" is found in the Vercelli manuscript.

Verso. 2. There is no authority for the omission of "and," which is added above the line by the first hand. The reading of the papyrus here perhaps points to "having stood," with a variant "he stood," in the lacuna.

3. "This": "this" full form MSS., W-H.