xii. 56), have their own special causes of substitution, and are
naturally and best considered under the cause which in each case gave them birth.
Yet the class of Substitutions is a large one, if Modifications, as they well may be, are added to it[347]. It will be readily concluded that some substitutions are serious, some of less importance, and many trivial. Of the more important class, the reading of [Greek: hamartêmatos] for [Greek: kriseôs] (St. Mark iii. 29) which the Revisers have adopted in compliance with [Symbol: Aleph]BL[Symbol: Delta] and three Cursives, is a specimen. It is true that D reads [Greek: hamartias] supported by the first corrector of C, and three of the Ferrar group (13, 69, 346): and that the change adopted is supported by the Old Latin versions except f, the Vulgate, Bohairic, Armenian, Gothic, Lewis, and Saxon. But the opposition which favours [Greek: kriseôs] is made up of A, C under the first reading and the second correction, [Symbol: Phi][Symbol: Sigma] and eleven other Uncials, the great bulk of the Cursives, f, Peshitto, and Harkleian, and is superior in strength. The internal evidence is also in favour of the Traditional reading, both as regards the usage of [Greek: enochos], and the natural meaning given by [Greek: kriseôs]. [Greek: Hamartêmatos] has clearly crept in from ver. 28. Other instances of Substitution may be found in the well-known St. Luke xxiii. 45 ([Greek: tou hêliou eklipontos]), St. Matt. xi. 27 ([Greek: boulêtai apokalypsai]), St. Matt. xxvii. 34 ([Greek: oinon] for [Greek: oxos]), St. Mark i. 2 ([Greek: Hêsaia] for [Greek: tois prophêtais]), St. John i. 18 ([Greek: ho Monogenês Theos] being a substitution made by heretics for [Greek: ho Monogenês Huios]), St. Mark vii. 31 ([Greek: dia Sidônos] for [Greek: kai Sidônos]). These instances may perhaps suffice: many more may suggest themselves to intelligent readers. Though most are trivial, their cumulative force is extremely formidable. Many of these changes arose from various causes which are described in many other places in this book.]
§ 5.
[The smallest of the four Classes, which upon a pure survey of the outward form divide among themselves the surface of the entire field of Corruption, is that of Additions[348]. And the reason of their smallness of number is discoverable at once. Whilst it is but too easy for scribes or those who have a love of criticism to omit words and passages under all circumstances, or even to vary the order, or to use another word or form instead of the right one, to insert anything into the sacred Text which does not proclaim too glaringly its own unfitness--in a word, to invent happily--is plainly a matter of much greater difficulty. Therefore to increase the Class of Insertions or Additions or Interpolations, so that it should exceed the Class of Omissions, is to go counter to the natural action of human forces. There is no difficulty in leaving out large numbers of the Sacred Words: but there is much difficulty in placing in the midst of them human words, possessed of such a character and clothed in such an uniform, as not to betray to keen observation their earthly origin.
A few examples will set this truth in clearer light. It is remarkable that efforts at interpolation occur most copiously amongst the books of those who are least fitted to make them. We naturally look amongst the representatives of the Western school where Greek was less understood than in the East where Greek acumen was imperfectly represented by Latin activity, and where translation into Latin and retranslation into Greek was a prolific cause of corruption. Take then the following passage from the Codex D (St. Luke vi. 4):--
'On the same day He beheld a certain man working on the sabbath, and said to him, "Man, blessed art thou if thou knowest what thou doest; but if thou knowest not, thou art cursed and a transgressor of the law."'
And another from the Curetonian Syriac (St. Matt. xx. 28), which occurs under a worse form in D.
'But seek ye from little to become greater, and not from greater to become less. When ye are invited to supper in a house, sit not down in the best place, lest some one come who is more honourable than thou, and the lord of the supper say to thee, "Go down below," and thou be ashamed in the presence of them that have sat down. But if thou sit down in the lower place, and one who is inferior to thee come in, the lord also of the supper will say to thee, "Come near, and come up, and sit down," and thou shalt have greater honour in the presence of them that have sat down.'
Who does not see that there is in these two passages no real 'ring of genuineness'?
Take next some instances of lesser insertions.]
§ 6.
Conspicuous beyond all things in the Centurion of Capernaum (St. Matt. viii. 13) was his faith. It occasioned wonder even in the Son of Man. Do we not, in the significant statement, that when they who had been sent returned to the house, 'they found the servant whole that had been sick[349],' recognize by implication the assurance that the Centurion, because he needed no such confirmation of his belief, went _not_ with them; but enjoyed the twofold blessedness of remaining with Christ, and of believing without seeing? I think so. Be this however as it may, [Symbol: Aleph]CEMUX besides about fifty cursives, append to St. Matt.