Romans 8:2

Romans 8:2 se {B}

While it is rather certain that the reading h`ma/j is a secondary modification, introduced in order to make the apostle’s statement apply to all Christians (as in ver. Romans 8:4), it is much more difficult to choose between me and se. The latter, as the more difficult reading, is more likely to have been replaced by the former (which harmonizes better with the argument in chap. Romans 7:1) than vice versa. On the other hand se may have originated in the accidental repetition of the final syllable of hvleuqe,rwsen when the terminal &n, represented by a horizontal line over the e, was overlooked.

Although it is possible that the original text was without any object pronoun, the verb being used absolutely (i.e. as a kind of gnomic aorist), the Committee was reluctant to rely upon the slender evidence for omission (arm^mss Origen), since the absence of a pronoun in these witnesses may reflect nothing more than freedom of translation or quotation. Impressed by the weight of the combination of Alexandrian and Western witnesses, a majority of the Committee preferred se as the earliest attainable text.