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Text critic

A Deliberate Change

In his erudite and fascinating article on the task of the biblical text critic (“Caution: Bible Critic at Work,” BR 15:01), David Noel Freedman elegantly discusses why James 4:4, a verse that scolds adulteresses (moichalides), came to refer to both adulterers and adulteresses (moichoi kai moichalides) in most later versions of James’ epistle even though it reads adulteresses (moichalides) in the oldest extant manuscripts, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus. He suggests the emendation occurred either because the scribe had other manuscript evidence favoring the addition of moichoi or because of the scribe’s understanding of authorial intent.