Another Orthodox Corruption at Luke 3:21–22: Platonizing the Material Spirit

Abstract Luke 3:21–22 contains a prominent textual variant that Bart Ehrman has argued constitutes an “orthodox corruption of Scripture.” Ehrman focuses on the divine voice at Jesus’s baptism but does not consider another variant found in 𝔓4 at that same passage. This textual variant alters the form of the spirit’s descent upon Jesus. This article demonstrates that the copyist of 𝔓4 exerted a Platonizing effort to distance Luke 3:21–22 from the concept of the “material spirit,” an interpretation for which Luke/Acts offers some support. The manuscript dates to a time when Christians engaged in debate over the question of divine embodiment and the materiality of spirit. The text of this manuscript, therefore, may be understood as a window into this debate and an attempt to negotiate the difficulties Luke’s Gospel posed to emerging orthodoxy.