¹ Peters (Gotische Conjecturen [Leitrneritz, 1879] 3 f., quoted from G. W. S. Friedrichsen, The Gothic Version of the Gospels [London 1926] 129) proposes to read ∗afaram instead of afar (CA). Friedrichsen thinks that ‘afar looks like the result of an attempt at an etymologizing improvement on kunja, which was the original and correct reading of v. 5, the reviser, corrector, or scribe suggesting that us kunnja be altered to us afarkunnja, simulating the Greek φŋμ∈ρία; afar being by the next scribe taken to be a substitution for, instead of an addition to, the original kunja, thus giving us the reading of C.A.‘ Of the two opinions that of Peters seems more probable than that of Friedrichsen.

² The two Greek passages are rendered in D. E. Nestle, Novum Testamentum Graece et Germanice¹³ (Stuttgart, 1929), in the following way: Von der Ordnung Abia' and ‘zur Zeit seiner Ordnung’. Streitberg translates Luc. 1. 8 by: ‘weil seine Tagesklasse an der Reihe war’.

³ W. Bauer, Griechisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des neuen Testaments; 2. Auflage von Erwin Preuschens Vollst. Griechisch-Deutschem Wörterbuch zum N.T. (Glessen, 1928), gives the following explanation of φŋμερία: 'Tagklasse. So benannt werden die 24 Hauptabteilungen der Priester, die in wöchentlichen Turnus den Tempeldienst versahen (1. Chron. 23. 6; 28. 13 etc.).' Wulfila must have known the meaning of this word; it could hardly be rendered otherwise than by kuni (or afara); the translation ∗dagakuni suggested by Friedrichsen (p. 129) seems artificial, if not impossible, as the Germanic peoples had a rather definite set of expressions to designate classifications according to office or function or birth etc. It seems that Wulfila knew the Greek language of this time better than we do, formen like Bernhardt and Streitberg are of the erroneous opinion that Wulfila misunderstood φŋμ∈ρία: 'φŋμ∈ρία also ward von dem Übersetzer missverstanden ' (Bernhardt); 'falsch übersetzt durch in wikon kunjis seinis' (Streitberg, Wörterbuch, s. kuni).

⁴ Walde-Pokorny, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 1926—; A. Walde, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch²; E. Boisacq, Dictionaire étymologique de la lanque grecque², 1923.