John 19:29

John 19:29 u`ssw,pw| {A}

One eleventh-century manuscript (476*) reads u`ssw|/ (“a javelin”; compare perticae (it<sup>b, ff2, n, v</sup>) “a pole or long staff”), a reading which, though more appropriate in the context, seems to have arisen accidentally through haplography (uccwperi;entec being written for uccwpwperi;entec). <sup>20</sup> Influenced by Matthew 27:34 several witnesses (Q 892 1195 2174 al) read meta. colh/j kai. u`ssw,pou “with gall and hyssop.” One Old Latin witness (it^c) omits “hyssop” and reads merely cum felle permixtum “mixed with gall.”

²⁰ Among modern translations that adopt “javelin” (or something similar) are those of Moffatt. Goodspeed, Phillips, C. K, Williams, Schonfield, and the NEB. G. D. Kilpatrick points out, however, that u`sso,j (Latin pilum) was not used by Roman auxiliary troops, but only by legionary troops, and that the latter were first sent to Judea A.D. 66 (The Bible Translator, IX [1958], pp. 133 f.); cf. R. G. Bratcher’s remarks, “It may be granted that a ‘javelin’ and not a stalk of ‘hyssop’ would be the means of conveying the sponge to the lips of Jesus; this does not mean, however, that the author of the Gospel necessarily wrote u`ssw|/; on the contrary the evidence is that he wrote … u`ssw,pw|” (Babel: Revue Internationale de la traduction, VII [1961], p. 61). For a wide-ranging discussion of the uses of hyssop see F. G. Beethan and P. A. Beethan, “A Note on John 19:29, ” Journal of Theological Studies, N.S. XLIV (1993), pp. 163—169.