Permutation

Explanation

Letters which resemble one another are difficult to distinguish. This is especially true if the letters were not written carefully in the manuscript which is being copied and if the copyist is hurrying, is working in poor light, or suffers from astigmatism. The copyist reads the text as representing a different word or combination of words and writes that down. When an unusual change is found in a manuscript involving letters which look alike, then it is possible that the error arose from permutation.

Examples

Acts 20:35

Three minuscule manuscripts (614, 1611, and 2138) have the same reading which goes back to an uncial ancestor written in scriptio continua.

 


I Timothy 3:16

The earlier manuscripts have a relative pronoun while many later manuscripts read the usual contraction for God.

 


II Peter 2:13

Some letters were easily confused if the cross-bars or the legs of the letter had not been written carefully.

 


Rom. 6:5

If two lambdas (l) were written too close together, they could be mistaken for the letter mu (m) as in the case of Codex Augiensis (F 101) and Codex Boernerianus (G 012), both of the ninth century.

 


II Peter 2:18

A lambda (l) followed closely by an iota (i) may look like the letter nu (n). Notice that the tau (t) and the gamma (g) have also been confused in this reading found in Codex Sinaiticus (4th cent.), Codex Ephraemi (5th cent.), and Codex Porphyrianus (9th cent.).

 


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