Note 279 — CRITICAL NOTES ON VARIOUS PASSAGES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

I have already (p. 37) referred to the frequency with which mistakes, often quite incredible mistakes, in translation occur. A few additional instances may be cited here.

There is, for example, that of Ephraem in John ii. 2, mentioned above, p. 287.

According to Aphraates 41, 16, Jesus promised to the mourners דלהין נתבשפון, i.e. that they should be entreated. The writer of the text, therefore, that Aphraates used, must have taken παρακαλεῖν here in the sense of “to entreat.” See Zahn, Forschungen, i. 78.

The same writer (383, 16) renders the words in Luke xvi. 25 νῦν δὲ ὅδε παρακαλεῖται in the form יומנא דין בעית מנה, i.e. “but to-day thou entreatest of him”, where παρακαλεῖν is again taken in the sense of “to entreat”, though a different word is used for it. See Zahn, ibid.

Again, Aphraates (390, 4) renders παράκλησιν (αὐτῶν) in Luke vi. 24 בעותהין, “their prayer, their request.” Zahn, ibid.

The last clause of John v. 14 is rendered “that thou mayest have need of nothing else,” where χρεία must have been read instead of χεῖρον. Zahn, Forschungen, i. 161 f. Compare also the Syriac text of Apoc. ii. 13; viii. 13, etc.