John 19:14

John 19:14 e[kth

Instead of “about the sixth hour” several witnesses (a^c D^supp L X^txt D Y 053 72 88 123*^mg 151 Eusebius Nonnus) read “about the third hour” (w[ra … w`j tri,th), an obvious attempt to harmonize the chronology with that of Mark 15:25 (see the comment there on the converse corruption). Although one may conjecture that the disagreement originally arose (as Ammonius, ¹⁶ followed by Eusebius ¹⁷ and Jerome, ¹⁸ suggested) when copyists confused the Greek numerals g (= 3) and « (= 6), ¹⁹ the manuscript evidence is overwhelmingly in support of e[kth (î⁶⁶ a* B E H I K M S U W Y G Q L P ¦¹ ¦¹³ all minuscules (except those cited above) Old Latin vg syr^{p, h, pal} cop^{sa bo} arm eth geo pers al).

¹⁶ Migne, Patrologia Graeca, LXXXV, col. 1512B.

¹⁷ Migne, Patrologia Graeca, XXII, col. 1009B.

¹⁸ Migne, Patrologia Latina, XXVII, col. 1108C.

¹⁹ For a full discussion see Sebastián Bartina, S.J., “Ignotmn episèmon gabex,” Verbum Domini, XXXVI (1958), pp. 16—37, who reproduces a portion of Papyrus Berolinensis 8279 of A.D. 42 (edited by Wilhelm Schubart in Papyri Graecae Berolinenses [Bonn, 1911], p. XV, nr. 16a) showing first century specimens of the Greek numerals for 3 and 6. Gabex (gabe,x) is the name given by Ammonius to the sign denoting six (see above, footnote 16[1]).

¹⁶ Migne, Patrologia Graeca, LXXXV, col. 1512B.