§ 5.

A gross depravation of the Text resulting from this cause, which nevertheless has imposed on several critics, as has been already said, is furnished by the first words of Acts iii. The most ancient witness accessible, namely the Peshitto, confirms the usual reading of the place, which is also the text of the cursives: viz. Επι το αυτο δε Πετρος και Ιωαννης κ.τ.λ. So the Harkleian and Bede. So Codex E.

The four oldest of the six available uncials conspire however in representing the words which immediately precede in the following unintelligible fashion:—'ο δε Κυριος προσετιθει τους σωζομενους καθ' 'ημεραν επι το αυτο. Πετρος δε κ.τ.λ. How is it to be thought that this strange and vapid presentment of the passage had its beginning? It results, I answer, from the ecclesiastical practice of beginning a fresh lection at the name of 'Peter,' prefaced by the usual formula 'In those days.' It is accordingly usual to find the liturgical word αρχη—indicative of the beginning of a lection,—thrust in between επι το αυτο δε and Πετρος. At a yet earlier period I suppose some more effectual severance of the text was made in that place, which unhappily misled some early scribe [165]. And so it came to pass that in the first instance the place stood thus: 'ο δε Κυριος προσετιθει τους σωζομενους καθ' 'ημεραν τη εκκλησια επι το αυτο,—which was plainly intolerable.

What I am saying will commend itself to any unprejudiced reader when it has been stated that Cod. D in this place actually reads as follows:—καθημεραν επι το αυτο εν τη εκκλησια. Εν δε ταις 'ημεραις ταυταις Πετρος κ.τ.λ.: the scribe with simplicity both giving us the liturgical formula with which it was usual to introduce the Gospel for the Friday after Easter, and permitting us to witness the perplexity with which the evident surplusage of τη εκκλησια επι το αυτο occasioned him. He inverts those two expressions and thrusts in a preposition. How obvious it now was to solve the difficulty by getting rid of τη εκκλησια.

It does not help the adverse case to shew that the Vulgate as well as the copy of Cyril of Alexandria are disfigured with the same corrupt reading as [Symbol: Aleph]ABC. It does but prove how early and how widespread is this depravation of the Text. But the indirect proof thus afforded that the actual Lectionary System must needs date from a period long anterior to our oldest Codexes is a far more important as well as a more interesting inference. In the meantime I suspect that it was in Western Christendom that this corruption of the text had its beginning: for proof is not wanting that the expression επι το αυτο seemed hard to the Latins [166].

Hence too the omission of παλιν from [Symbol: Aleph]BD (St. Matt, xiii. 43). A glance at the place in an actual Codex [167] will explain the matter to a novice better than a whole page of writing:—

ακουετω. τελος
παλιν. αρχη. ειπεν ο Κυριος την παραβολην ταυτην.
Ομοια εστιν κ.τ.λ.

The word παλιν, because it stands between the end (τελος) of the lesson for the sixth Thursday and the beginning (αρχη) of the first Friday after Pentecost, got left out [though every one acquainted with Gospel MSS. knows that αρχη and τελος were often inserted in the text]. The second of these two lessons begins with 'ομοια [because παλιν at the beginning of a lesson is not wanted]. Here then is a singular token of the antiquity of the Lectionary System in the Churches of the East: as well as a proof of the untrustworthy character of Codd. [Symbol: Aleph]BD. The discovery that they are supported this time by copies of the Old Latin (a c e ff^1.2 g^1.2 k l), Vulgate, Curetonian, Bohairic, Ethiopic, does but further shew that such an amount of evidence in and by itself is wholly insufficient to determine the text of Scripture.

When therefore I see Tischendorf, in the immediately preceding verse (xiii. 43) on the sole authority of [Symbol: Aleph]B and a few Latin copies, omitting the word ακουειν,—and again in the present verse on very similar authority (viz. [Symbol: Aleph]D, Old Latin, Vulgate, Peshitto, Curetonian, Lewis, Bohairic, together with five cursives of aberrant character) transposing the order of the words παντα 'οσα εχει πωλει,—I can but reflect on the utterly insecure basis on which the Revisers and the school which they follow would remodel the inspired Text.

It is precisely in this way and for the selfsame reason, that the clause και ελυπηθησαν σφοδρα (St. Matt. xvii. 23) comes to be omitted in K and several other copies. The previous lesson ends at εγερθησεται,—the next lesson begins at προσηλθον.