Anger Issues: Mark 1.41 in Ephrem the Syrian, the Old Latin Gospels and Codex Bezae* NATHAN C. JOHNSON Princeton Theological Seminary, 201 Loetscher Place #111, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. Email: nathan.johnson@ptsem.edu While the vast majority of manuscripts portray Jesus in Mark . as ‘moved to compassion’ (σπλαγχνισθείς) before healing a leper, five putative witnesses in three languages depict him ‘becoming angry’ (ὀργισθείς/iratus). Following Hort’s dictum that ‘knowledge of documents should precede final judgments on readings’, this article offers the first thorough examination of the witnesses to ‘anger’, with the result that the sole putative Syriac witness is dismissed, the Old Latin witnesses are geographically isolated, and the sole Greek witness linked to the Old Latin as a Greek–Latin diglot. Since the final grounds for Jesus’ ‘anger’, that it is the lectio difficilior, also prove insubstantial, σπλαγχνισθείς is concluded to be original, with ‘anger’ originating in the Old Latin manuscript tradition. Keywords: textual criticism, Mark ., Codex Bezae, Ephrem, Diatessaron, Old Latin . Introduction Few verses have been the object of as much text-critical debate as Mark ., a verse in which the manuscript tradition gives us two widely diverging pictures of Jesus. After Jesus is approached by a man with a skin disease who pleads with him saying, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean’ (v. ), Jesus’ response varies: καὶ σπλαγχνισθεὶς/ὀργισθεὶς ἐκτείνας τὴνχεῖρααὐτοῦἥψατο καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ · θέλω, καθαρίσθητι· And moved to compassion/anger, he stretched out his hand and touched [him] and said to him, ‘I am willing, be clean’ (v. ).  * An earlier draft of this article was presented at Princeton Theological Seminary’s New Testament Research Colloquium (); I am indebted to the participants for their probing questions and comments, especially to respondents C. Clifton Black and James Neumann. Any remaining deficiencies are my own. I am also indebted to Princeton’s Ph.D. Studies Office for providing for expenses associated with the manuscript images.  All translations are the author’s unless otherwise noted.  New Test. Stud. (), , pp. –. © Cambridge University Press,  doi:10.1017/S0028688516000412 use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0028688516000412 Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Princeton Theological Seminary Library, on 09 Mar 2017 at 02:15:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of