H. A. G. Houghton on Mark 1:1 and the reading Χριστου υιου του θεου

  

1:1 Χριστου υιου του θεου (lit. Christ the Son of God) {C}

 

The way in which Jesus is characterized in the first verse of the gospel has a significant bearing on how the following narrative is understood: is he identified as ‘Son of God’ from the first verse or not? The text adopted in the ECM has the support of the majority of Greek manuscripts, Χριστου υιου του θεου (‘Christ the Son of God’; 037 f¹ f¹³ etc.). Earlier hand editions employed brackets to indicate uncertainty as to whether the earliest reading was Χριστου υιου θεου (‘Christ the Son of God’; 01¹ 03 05 109 032) or just Χριστου (‘Christ’; 01* 038 and some early versions). The long string of nomina sacra abbreviations, ΙΥ, ΧΥ, ΥΥ (ΤΟΥ) ΘΥ, could easily have led to oversights or errors (as seen in 1241, which reads Χριστου υιου του κυριου, ‘Christ the Son of the Lord’). Alternatively, a shorter original first line could have been expanded by an editor who wished to make it more substantial. The fact that this is the first line of the gospel does not preclude the possibility of scribal error. The CBGM analysis indicates that, despite their earlier attestation, the two shorter forms emerged independently several times, a situation consistent with one or more words being overlooked by a copyist. In contrast, the coherence of the Byzantine reading has led to its adoption here, even though important witnesses support Χριστου υιου θεου. The latter formulation is only paralleled in Mark in the affirmation of the centurion at Mark 15:39 (in contrast to Mark 3:11 and 5:7): the absence of the article there could be translated as ‘a son of a god’, appropriately for the context, whereas in this verse the customary English rendering of ‘Son of God’ can apply whether or not του is present. Overall, however, the question remains open: The SBLGNT just reads Χριστου while the THGNT has υιου θεου. The suggestion that Mark 1:1-3 is a later addition to the gospel may also be borne in mind. The full attestation for this variant in Greek continuous text manuscripts is given in TuT Mark TS1. (H. A. G. Houghton, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A Companion to the Sixth Edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament [Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2025], 72-73)