Mark 3:32

Mark 3:32 sou @kai. ai` avdelfai, son# {C}

A majority of the Committee considered it probable that the words kai. ai` avdelfai, sou were omitted from most witnesses either (a) accidentally through an oversight in transcription (the eye of the scribe passing from sou to sou), or (b) deliberately because neither in ver. Mark 3:31 nor ver. Mark 3:34 (nor in the parallel passages) are the sisters mentioned. Had the words been interpolated, the addition would probably have been made already in ver. Mark 3:31. Nevertheless, in view of the weight of attestation for the shorter text, it was thought best to enclose the disputed words within square brackets.

[The shorter text should be adopted; the longer reading, perhaps of Western origin, crept into the text through mechanical expansion. From a historical point of view, it is extremely unlikely that Jesus’ sisters would have joined in publicly seeking to check him in his ministry. B.M.M.]