Μαρία and Μαριάμ in John’s Gospel in the Novum Testamentum Graece

Abstract The name Mary was popular and a number of different women with this name are mentioned in the Gospel of John. The text of the Gospel of John in the Novum Testamentum Graece uses in this context the Hellenized and the transcribed form of the name “Mary” rather unsystematically. A scrutiny of the evidence as presented in the manuscripts points to a problem: cases where the transliterated form is used as accusative might be not so much a decision to use a transliterated form but a misspelled form of the Greek accusative—exchange of the nasals is a known phenomenon. That is, the distribution of forms of the name might in part be due to phonetics and incorrect spellings and not to a decision to use one of the two forms of the name. A possible conclusion might be that the Greek text of the Gospel of John should present only the Hellenized form and relegate the transcribed form to the apparatus (which in quite a few instances would accord with the fact that the Hellenized form may be better attested than the transcribed form).