Monday, November 16, 2020

Tetelestai "paid in full" receipt update!

Part of the Calvinist (and evangelical) claim for penal substitution is invoking John 19:30 and indicating tetelestai is used, (although translated "it is finished" by virtually every translation) insisting the word is used in financial documents where its stamped or written at the top to indicate a debt was paid off. Therefore, it is concluded Christ was saying He just paid off the debt of the elect. Some older dictionaries did seem to indicate this, however, corrections have been made to the sources cited, showing...

TETELESTAI was not actually written at all.

I first became aware of this evidence though a reply on stackexchange. Linked is an article produced by a Lutheran journal on the matter, though the author agrees Christ "paid it in full" he states the tetelestai evidence is false, the phrase does not especially indicate paying a debt. contrary to many claims.

The stackexchange comment by Ryan S. states:

According to Moulton and Milligan's The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, "Receipts are often introduced by the phrase τετέλεσται, usually written in an abbreviated manner, e.g., P Grenf II. 50(a)(b)(c) al., mostly belonging to ii/A.D."

You can view Bernard Grenfell's (and Arthur Hunt's) publication of these receipts online: https://archive.org/details/newclassicalfrag00gren/page/78/mode/2up. They are customs tax receipts from the second and third centuries C.E. for transporting goods between the Fayoum and Memphis, Egypt. As the lexicon indicates, these customs tax receipts begin with the abbreviation τετελ, "tetel", except for P Grenf II. 50 f 2, which contains the word fully written. This publication transcribes the word as τετέλεσται, "tetelestai", and appears to be the basis for reading the abbreviation on the other receipts as τετέλ(εσται), "tetel(estai)". (The transcription is on p. 82 of the publication and labeled as Bodl. MSS. Gr. class g. 27 (P).)

However, a correction has been made to this reading since the publication. The fully written word is now transcribed as τετελώνιται, "tetelonitai," which is a different verb meaning "tax has been paid": http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.grenf;2;50f. As such, the abbreviated word is now transcribed as τετελ(ώνιται), "tetel(onitai)": E.g., http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.grenf;2;50a. 

I have not been able to find a picture of P Grenf II. 50 f 2 available online yet, but there are other customs tax receipts published since P Grenf II. 50 f 2 that have the fully written word as τετελώνιται, "tetelonitai"—-or the correct spelling of τετελώνηται "tetelonitai"—-and they are viewable online: E.g., https://berlpap.smb.museum/02707/; http://berlpap.smb.museum/02710/; and http://berlpap.smb.museum/04802/?lang=en. 

In my assessment, because (1) these receipts are specifically customs duty receipts and not receipts for a debt or bill payment, and (2) the abbreviated and fully written word indicating that the tax has been paid appears to actually be τετελώνηται "tetelonitai" rather than τετέλεσται, "tetelestai", it does not seem that there is a connection between these receipts and John 19:30, or Col 2:13–14 for that matter.


The papyri P Grenf II. 50(a) (and c and d) shown below evidence cited was originally based on the below work with what was presumed then to be tetelestai abbreviated as tetel with the ending shown as (estai):


However, these papyri have been re-evaluated and words were corrected since its first publication. Below we can see the reading for P Grenf II. 50(a) was corrected and a note for the previous reading:

As you can see per note 1 which reads:

1. BL 1.188 : τετέλ(εσται) prev. ed.

Showing that (εσται) was replaced with (ώνηται). This is the case for the others in the papyri listed as examples by Moulton and Milligan's The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament.


and so on.

Needless to say, the tetelestai claim was based in part outdated scholarship.

Even if, hypothetically, tetelestai meant "paid in full" it does not change it does not fit the context of John 19 considering John 19:28 uses the word in reference to the fulfilment of prophecy, not mention of paying debts. In fact, the sources cited refer to paying a tax for importing goods, the only time the root is used in the NT for money is when paying taxes. 




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