Two Books of Ezekiel

Greek papyrus codex 967 (p967) manifests a different edition of Ezekiel from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT). This study defines and uses a "manuscript approach" to argue that p967 qualifies as a variant literary edition of Ezekiel. Methodologically, the approach is rooted in text-critical analysis, clarifies p967's textual significance, and shows that its text usually reflects the Old Greek translation and in many cases an early Hebrew edition of Ezekiel. The literary analysis of p967 and MT procedes according to sets of variants that participate in literary Tendenzen, adopting the principle of coherence found in Literaturkritik. In so doing, the literary analysis identifies the scope and literary character of p967 and MT's meaningful textual variants. Finally, the codicological analysis explores p967's manuscript as an historical and sociological artifact, focusing especially on what the paratextual marks reveal about the interpretive interests of a 3rd century CE community.