62 Dean B. Deppe and careful in his transmission67. Against this contention, many scribal errors have occurred because of the difficulty of reading the nomina sacra. In this very passage the reading by 1241, “Jesus Christ, Son of the Lord” is according to Globe caused by a misreading of abbreviations68. As widely acknowledged, the divergent readings of Jn. 1:18 trace back to a problem in reading the nomina sacra (see Allen Wikgren’s note in the Textual Commentary). Further prominent examples can be exhibited in Acts 1:3 and 1 Tim. 3:16 as illustrated by the Alands69 and with regard to Codex Alexandrinus at Jn. 19:40 according to Bart Ehrman70. Further- more, authors do not always employ the nomina sacra to call attention to special vocabulary. Jose O’Callaghan, for instance, documents a page and a half of abbreviations in the papyri of the common word ἄνθρωπος71, and Tuckett emphasizes that ἄνθρωπος is employed as a nomen sacrum in early manuscripts, some emanating from the second century72 and that “it is notable how many of the occurrences of ἄνθρωπος as a nomen ‘sacrum’ are in fact what could only be called a ‘profane’ sense”73. Finally, although early on Christian writers employed the four main nomina sacra (θεός, κύριος, ᾿Ιησοῦς , Χριστός) like nomina divina for purposes of piety to parallel the use of the Tetragrammaton in Jewish documents, later this usage became purely conventional so that as Larry Peter M. Head, “A Text-Critical Study of Mark 1.1 ‘The Beginning of the Gospel of 67 Jesus Christ,” NTS 37 (1991): 628-629. Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scrip- ture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament (Oxford: University Press 1993) 73 supports the contention that errors due to tiredness would not occur in the first chapter of a work. Alexander Globe, “The Caesarean Omission of the Phrase ‘son of God’ in Mark 1.1”, 68 HTR 75 (1982) 215. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament, tr. Erroll F. Rhodes. 69 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1989) 283. Ehrman, Orthodox Corruption, 83. 70 Jose O’Callaghan, ‘Nomina Sacra’ in Papyrus Graecus Saeculi III Neotestamen- 71 tariis (Rome: Biblical Institute Press 1970) 41-42. He offers two and a half pages of examples for θεός, three pages for Ἰησοῦς, two pages for κύριος, and two and a half pages for Χριστός. In addition, Hurtado, Christian Artifacts, 128 admits that OT Biblical names like Moses, Isaac, and David as well as common words like mother and prophet are abbreviated. Christopher M. Tuckett, “‘Nomina Sacra’: Yes and No?” in The Biblical Canons. 72 eds. J.-M. Auwers and H. J. de Jonge. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovani- ensium 98 (Leuven: Peeters 2003) 450-452 mentions P. Chester Beatty II and VI, P. Oxy. 1 and Larry Hurtado, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2006) 127, n. 96 adds P. Chester Beatty III, P. Bod. II, the Freer Minor Prophets Codex, P. Ryl. 463 and 469, and P. Oxy. 1228. Tuckett, “Nomina Sacra”, 450 calls attention to Thomas 28 in POxy 1, line 19 and 1 73 Cor. 2:6-16. He claims on page 451 that there is “no clear evidence that the use of ἄνθρωπος in the phrase ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου can be regarded as significant in determining the origin of the practice of abbreviated ἄνθρωπος”. It could have developed from the employment of “God” as an abbreviation so that both terms “God” and “man” are shortened.