Chapter 31

to his house in that same hour found the servant whole.' It does not improve the matter to find that Eusebius[350], besides the Harkleian and the Ethiopic versions, recognize the same appendix. We are thankful, that no one yet has been found to advocate the adoption of this patent accretion to the inspired text. Its origin is not far to seek. I presume it was inserted in order to give a kind of finish to the story[351].

[Another and that a most remarkable Addition may be found in St. Matt. xxiv. 36, into which the words [Greek: oude ho Huios], 'neither the Son' have been transferred from St. Mark xiii. 32 in compliance with a wholly insufficient body of authorities. Lachmann was the leader in this proceeding, and he has been followed by Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers. The latter body add in their margin, 'Many authorities, some ancient, omit _neither the Son_.' How inadequate to the facts of the case this description is, will be seen when the authorities are enumerated. But first of those who have been regarded by the majority of the Revisers as the disposers of their decision, according to the information supplied by Tischendorf.

They are (_a_) of Uncials [Symbol: Aleph] (in the first reading and as re-corrected in the seventh century) BD; (_b_) five Cursives (for a present of 346 may be freely made to Tischendorf); (_c_) ten Old Latin copies also the Aureus (Words.), some of the Vulgate (four according to Wordsworth), the Palestinian, Ethiopic, Armenian; (_d_) Origen (Lat. iii. 874), Hilary (733^{a}), Cyril Alex. (Mai Nova Pp. Bibliotheca, 481), Ambrose (i. 1478^{f}). But Irenaeus (Lat. i. 386), Cyril (Zach. 800), Chrysostom (ad locum) seem to quote from St. Mark. So too, as Tischendorf admits, Amphilochius.

On the other hand we have, (_a_) the chief corrector of [Symbol: Aleph](c^{a})[Symbol: Phi][Symbol: Sigma] with thirteen other Uncials and the Greek MSS. of Adamantius and Pierius mentioned by Jerome[352]; (_b_) all the Cursives, as far as is known (except the aforenamed); (_c_) the Vulgate, with the Peshitto, Harkletan, Lewis, Bohairic, and the Sahidic; (_d_) Jerome (in the place just now quoted), St. Basil who contrasts the text of St. Matthew with that of St. Mark, Didymus, who is also express in declaring that the three words in dispute are not found in St. Matthew (Trin. 195), St. John Damascene (ii. 346), Apollonius Philosophus (Galland. ix. 247), Euthymius Zigabenus (in loc), Paulinus (iii. 12), St. Ambrose (ii. 656^{a}), and Anastasius Sinaita (Migne, lxxxix. 941).

Theophylact (i. 133), Hesychius Presb. (Migne, lxiii. 142) Eusebius (Galland. ix. 580), Facundus Herm. (Galland. xi. 782), Athanasius (ii. 660), quote the words as from the Gospel without reference, and may therefore refer to St. Mark. Phoebadius (Galland. v. 251), though quoted against the Addition by Tischendorf, is doubtful.

On which side the balance of evidence inclines, our readers will judge. But at least they cannot surely justify the assertion made by the majority of the Revisers, that the Addition is opposed only by 'many authorities, some ancient,' or at any rate that this is a fair and adequate description of the evidence opposed to their decision.

An instance occurs in St. Mark iii. 16 which illustrates the carelessness and tastelessness of the handful of authorities to which it pleases many critics to attribute ruling authority. In the fourteenth verse, it had been already stated that our Lord 'ordained twelve,' [Greek: kai epoiêse dôdeka]; but because [Symbol: Aleph]B[Symbol: Delta] and C (which was corrected in the ninth century with a MS. of the Ethiopic) reiterate these words two verses further on, Tischendorf with Westcott and Hort assume that it is necessary to repeat what has been so recently told. Meanwhile eighteen other uncials (including A[Symbol: Phi][Symbol: Sigma] and the third hand of C); nearly all the Cursives; the Old Latin, Vulgate, Peshitto, Lewis, Harkleian, Gothic, Armenian, and the other MSS. of the Ethiopic omit them. It is plainly unnecessary to strengthen such an opposition by researches in the pages of the Fathers.

Explanation has been already given, how the introductions to Lections, and other Liturgical formulae, have been added by insertion to the Text in various places. Thus [Greek: ho Iêsous] has often been inserted, and in some places remains wrongly (in the opinion of Dean Burgon) in the pages of the Received Text. The three most important additions to the Received Text occur, as Dean Burgon thought, in St. Matt. vi. 18, where [Greek: en tô phanerô] has crept in from v. 6 against the testimony of a large majority both of Uncial and of Cursive MSS.: in St. Matt. xxv. 13, where the clause [Greek: en hê ho huios tou anthrôpou erchetai] seemed to him to be condemned by a superior weight of authority: and in St. Matt. xxvii. 35, where the quotation ([Greek: hina plêrôthê ... ebalon klêron]) must be taken for similar reasons to have been originally a gloss.]

FOOTNOTES:

[338] [Greek: prosengisai] is transitive here, like [Greek: engizô] in Gen. xlviii. 10, 13: 2 Kings iv. 6: Isaiah xlvi. 13.

[339] The following are the numbers of Transpositions supplied by B, [Symbol: Aleph], and D in the Gospels:--B, 2,098: [Symbol: Aleph], 2,299: D, 3,471. See Revision Revised, pp. 12, 13.

[340] Marcion (Epiph. i. 317): Eusebius (Mai, iv. 266): Epiphanius (i. 348): Cyril (Mai, ii. 438): John Thess. (Gall. xiii. 188).

[341] St. John v. 26, in [Symbol: Aleph]

[342] St. Mark ii. 12, in D.

[343] St. Luke xiv. 13, in [Symbol: Aleph]B.

[344] St. John v. 27.

[345] 'Nec aliter' (says Tischendorf) 'Tertull.' (Prax. 21),--'_et judicium dedit illi facere in potestate_.' But this (begging the learned critic's pardon) is quite a different thing.

[346] See the very learned, ingenious, and satisfactory disquisition in The Revision Revised, pp. 424-501.

[347] The numbers are:--

B, substitutions, 935; modifications, 1,132; total, 2,067. [Symbol: Aleph], " 1,114; " 1,265; " 2,379. D, " 2,121; " 1,772; " 3,893.

Revision Revised, pp. 12, 13.

[348] B has 536 words added in the Gospels: [Symbol: Aleph], 839: D, 2,213. Revision Revised, pp. 12, 13. The interpolations of D are notorious.

[349] St. Luke vii. 10.

[350] Theoph. p. 212.

[351] An opposite fate, strange to say, has attended a short clause in the same narrative, which however is even worse authenticated. Instead of [Greek: oude en tô Israêl tosautên pistin euron] (St. Matt. viii. 10), we are invited henceforth to read [Greek: par' oudeni tosautên pistin en tô Israêl euron];--a tame and tasteless gloss, witnessed to by only B, and five cursives,--but having no other effect, if it should chance to be inserted, than to mar and obscure the Divine utterance.

For when our Saviour declares 'Not even in Israel have I found so great faith,' He is clearly contrasting this proficiency of an earnest Gentile against whatever of a like nature He had experienced in His dealing with the Jewish people; and declaring the result. He is contrasting Jacob's descendants, the heirs of so many lofty privileges, with this Gentile soldier: their spiritual attainments with his; and assigning the palm to him. Substitute 'With no one in Israel have I found so great faith,' and the contrast disappears. Nothing else is predicated but a greater measure of faith in one man than in any other. The author of this feeble attempt to improve upon St. Matthew's Gospel is found to have also tried his hand on the parallel place in St. Luke, but with even inferior success: for there his misdirected efforts survive only in certain copies of the Old Latin. Ambrose notices his officiousness, remarking that it yields an intelligible sense; but that, 'juxta Graecos,' the place is to be read differently (i. 1376.)

It is notorious that a few copies of the Old Latin (Augustine _once_ (iv. 322), though he quotes the place nearly twenty times in the usual way) and the Egyptian versions exhibit the same depravation. Cyril habitually employed an Evangelium which was disfigured in the same way (iii. 833, also Opp. v. 544, ed. Pusey.). But are we out of such materials as these to set about reconstructing the text of Scripture?

[352] 'In quibusdam Latinis codicibus additum est, _neque Filius_: quum in Graecis, et maxime Adamantii et Pierii exemplaribus hoc non habeatur adscriptum. Sed quia in nonnullis legitur, disserendum videtur.' Hier. vii. 199 a. 'Gaudet Arius et Eunomius, quasi ignorantia magistri gloria discipulorum sit, et dicunt:--"Non potest aequalis esse qui novit et qui ignorat."' Ibid. 6.

In vi. 919, we may quote from St. Mark.