Defending the "Western Non-Interpolations": The Case for an Anti-Separationist Tendenz in the Longer Alexandrian Readings‪.‬

In the last century or so, two principal views have emerged regarding the authenticity and character of the so-called Western non-interpolations. (1) Whereas B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort on the basis of internal evidence had relegated to double brackets nine verses or partial verses judged to be rare "Neutral" interpolations lacking in the Western text (Matt 27:49b; Luke 22:19b-20; 24:3b, 6a, 12, 36b, 40, 51b, and 52a), a majority of scholars now view most of the longer readings as authentic (Matt 27:49b usually excepted) and most of the shorter Western readings as "omissions" rather than "noninterpolations." (2) This change in opinion has resulted largely from the publication of papyrus text p75, a text unknown to Westcott and Hort, which showed that the longer "Neutral" readings in Luke are datable to the second century. (3) The dominance of this opinion is evidenced today in the UBS (4)th edition, which does not bracket the Lukan readings and, moreover, assigns them a "B" (= "almost certain") rating. (4) In opposition to the majority view, Mikeal Parsons and, more recently, Bart D. Ehrman have revived the Westcott-Hort thesis on somewhat new grounds, arguing in favor of the Western non-interpolations and against what we will refer to hereinafter as "the longer Alexandrian readings" (= the verses listed above) on the basis of a perceived christological Tendenz common to the latter. (5) These scholars rightly observe that Westcott and Hort anticipated the discovery of a document like p75, for they believed that behind Vaticanus and Sinaiticus stood a very early Neutral ancestor and, moreover, that the stream of textual tradition feeding the later Western witnesses was already in the second century divided from the Neutral stream. Thus, too much has been made, in Parsons's and Ehrman's opinion, of the "new" evidence provided by p75. (6)