The Double Transmission of the Parable of the Two Sons (Matt. 21:28–32) in Coptic Manuscripts

This paper investigates the Coptic manuscript evidence for the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21:28–32, a passage known in the Greek tradition to exist in three distinct textual forms—A, B, and C—depending on which son performs the will of the father According to the critical apparatus of the Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28), the Sahidic witnesses reflect a mixed tradition, combining elements of form A (sa 2, sa 9, sa 128, sa 143, sa 101, sa 130) and form B (sa 104, sa 113, sa 118, sa 120, sa 133, sa 150), with several manuscripts too fragmentary to allow for precise classification (sa 166, sa 192, sa 118E). Conversely, all Bohairic witnesses consistently attest to form B alone. Form C appears only in a small group of Greek manuscripts, notably in the Codex Bezae (D 05).The paper advances a new reconstruction of the textual transmission history of these three forms, proposing that the seemingly ‘nonsensical’ Greek form C represents an early archetype from which forms A and B subsequently diverged. The Coptic evidence, and particularly the Sahidic tradition, is shown to preserve traces of to this early textual bifurcation, probably dating to the second or third century C, whereas the Bohairic reflects the later, more standardized Alexandrian recension.