The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 69

This page continues the discussion of manuscript variants for Mandate IV.

4–5 "I will dwell" is restored according to other manuscript traditions.

5–6 "For your former transgressions" is the likely original reading. Other manuscripts show influence from a later passage in the text.

7 Insufficient text remains to confirm the reading.

Fr. 12

(33.6) (Mand. V 1) is mixed, oxycholian bitter anger/irascibility with longsuffering,
longsuffering is polluted and is not
useful to God, the prayer
33.7 of it. I wanted, I say,
5 Lord, to know the operation
of oxycholian bitter anger, so that I may guard
myself from it. And he said,
if you do not guard yourself
from it, you and your house, you have
10 lost all hope.

The restorations are based on modern editions. Citations of variants are omitted where the text is lost.

3 "Is useful" is the reading; the manuscript does not have room for the variations seen in other traditions.
5 "Lord" is present in most witnesses.
10 The manuscript does not seem to have space for the word "your" after "lost."

Fr. 13

(35.3) (Mand. VI 1) Let go of the streblen crooked/twisted way, for
the streble crooked path has no
tracks, and it is rough and
thorny. Therefore, it is harmful
5 to those walking in it. But those
35.4 walking on the straight path walk
smoothly