Appendix IV. St. Mark i. 1.
St. Mark's Gospel opens as follows:—“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The significancy of the announcement is apparent when the opening of St. Matthew's Gospel is considered,—“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.” Surely if there be a clause in the Gospel which carries on its front the evidence of its genuineness, it is this[606]. But in fact the words are found in every known copy but three (א, 28, 255); in all the Versions; in many Fathers. The evidence in its favour is therefore overwhelming. Yet it has of late become the fashion to call in question the clause—Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Westcott and Hort shut up the words in brackets. Tischendorf ejects them from the text. The Revisers brand them with suspicion. High time is it to ascertain how much of doubt really attaches to the clause which has been thus assailed.
Tischendorf relies on the testimony of ten ancient Fathers, whom he quotes in the following order,—Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Origen, Basil, Titus, Serapion, Cyril of Jerusalem, Severianus, Victorinus, Jerome. But the learned [pg 280] critic has to be reminded (1) that pro hac vice, Origen, Serapion, Titus, Basil, Victorinus and Cyril of Jerusalem are not six fathers, but only one. Next (2), that Epiphanius delivers no testimony whatever on the point in dispute. Next (3), that Jerome[607] is rather to be reckoned with the upholders, than the impugners, of the disputed clause: while (4) Irenaeus and Severianus bear emphatic witness in its favour. All this quite changes the aspect of the Patristic testimony. The scanty residuum of hostile evidence proves to be Origen and three Codexes,—of which two are cursives. I proceed to shew that the facts are as I have stated them.
As we might expect, the true author of all the mischief was Origen. At the outset of his commentary on St. John, he writes with reference to St. Mark i. 1,—“Either the entire Old Testament (represented by John Baptist) is here spoken of as ‘the beginning’ of the New; or else, only the end of it (which John quotes) is so spoken of, on account of this linking on of the New Testament to the Old. For Mark says,—‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger, &c. The voice of one, &c.’ I can but wonder therefore at those heretics,”—he means the followers of Basilides, Valentinus, Cerdon, Marcion, and the rest of the Gnostic crew,—“who attribute the two Testaments to two different Gods; seeing that this very place sufficiently refutes them. For how can John be ‘the beginning of the Gospel,’ if, as they pretend, he belongs to another God, and does not recognize the divinity of the New Testament?” Presently,—“In illustration of the former way of taking the passage, viz. that John stands for the entire Old Testament, I will quote what is found in the Acts [viii. 35] ‘Beginning at the same Scripture of [pg 281] Isaiah, He was brought as a lamb, &c., Philip preached to the eunuch the Lord Jesus.’ How could Philip, beginning at the prophet, preach unto him Jesus, unless Isaiah be some part of ‘the beginning of the Gospel[608]?’ ” From the day that Origen wrote those memorable words [a.d. 230], an appeal to St. Mark i. 1-3 became one of the commonplaces of Theological controversy. St. Mark's assertion that the voices of the ancient Prophets, were “the beginning of the Gospel”—of whom John Baptist was assumed to be the symbol,—was habitually cast in the teeth of the Manichaeans.
On such occasions, not only Origen's reasoning, but often Origen's mutilated text was reproduced. The heretics in question, though they rejected the Law, professed to hold fast the Gospel. “But” (says Serapion) “they do not understand the Gospel; for they do not receive the beginning of it:—‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet[609].’ ” What the author of this curt statement meant, is explained by Titus of Bostra, who exhibits the quotation word for word as Serapion, following Origen, had exhibited it before him; and adding that St. Mark in this way “connects the Gospel with the Law; recognizing the Law as the beginning of the Gospel[610].” How does this prove that either Serapion or Titus disallowed the words υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ? The simple fact is that they are both reproducing Origen: and besides availing themselves of his argument, are content to adopt the method of quotation with which he enforces it.
Next, for the testimony of Basil. His words are,—“Mark makes the preaching of John the beginning of the Gospel, [pg 282] saying, ‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ... as it is written in Isaiah the prophet ... The voice of one crying in the wilderness[611].’ ” This certainly shews that Basil was treading in Origen's footsteps; but it no more proves that he disallowed the three words in dispute in ver. 1, than that he disallowed the sixteen words not in dispute in ver. 2.—from which it is undeniable that he omits them intentionally, knowing them to be there. As for Victorinus (a.d. 290), his manner of quoting the beginning of St. Mark's Gospel is identical with Basil's[612], and suggests the same observation.
If proof be needed that what precedes is the true account of the phenomenon before us, it is supplied by Cyril of Jerusalem, with reference to this very passage. He points out that “John was the end of the prophets, for ‘All the prophets and the Law were until John;’ but the beginning of the Gospel dispensation, for it says, ‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,’ and so forth. John was baptizing in the wilderness[613].” Cyril has therefore passed straight from the middle of the first verse of St. Mark i. to the beginning of ver. 4: not, of course, because he disallowed the eight and thirty words which come in between; but only because it was no part of his purpose to quote them. Like Serapion and Titus, Basil and Cyril of Jerusalem are in fact reproducing Origen: but unlike the former two, the two last-named quote the Gospel elliptically. The liberty indeed which the ancient Fathers freely exercised, when quoting Scripture for a purpose,—of leaving out whatever was irrelevant; of retaining just so much of the text as made for their argument,—may never be let slip out of sight. Little did those ancient men imagine that at the end of some 1500 years a school of Critics would arise who would insist on regarding every [pg 283] irregularity in such casual appeals to Scripture, as a deliberate assertion concerning the state of the text 1500 years before. Sometimes, happily, they make it plain by what they themselves let fall, that their citations of Scripture may not be so dealt with. Thus, Severianus, bishop of Gabala, after appealing to the fact that St. Mark begins his Gospel by styling our Saviour Υἱὸς Θεοῦ, straightway quotes ver. 1 without that record of Divine Sonship,—a proceeding which will only seem strange to those who omit to read his context. Severianus is calling attention to the considerate reserve of the Evangelists in declaring the eternal Generation of Jesus Christ. “Mark does indeed say ‘Son of God’; but straightway, in order to soothe his hearers, he checks himself and cuts short that train of thought; bringing in at once about John the Baptist: saying,—‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ... as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold,’ &c. No sooner has the Evangelist displayed the torch of Truth, than he conceals it[614].” How could Severianus have made his testimony more emphatic?
And now the reader is in a position to understand what Epiphanius has delivered. He is shewing that whereas St. Matthew begins his Gospel with the history of the Nativity, “the holy Mark makes what happened at Jordan the introduction of the Gospel: saying,—The beginning of the Gospel ... as it is written in Isaiah the prophet ... The voice of one crying in the wilderness[615].” This does not of course prove that Epiphanius read ver. 1 differently from [pg 284] ourselves. He is but leaving out the one and twenty words (5 in ver. 1: 16 in ver. 2) which are immaterial to his purpose. Our Lord's glorious designation (“Jesus Christ, the Son of God,”) and the quotation from Malachi which precedes the quotation from Isaiah, stand in this writer's way: his one object being to reach “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Epiphanius in fact is silent on the point in dispute.
But the most illustrious name is behind. Irenaeus (a.d. 170) unquestionably read Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ in this place. He devotes a chapter of his great work to the proof that Jesus is the Christ,—very God as well as very Man; and establishes the doctrine against the Gnostics, by citing the Evangelists in turn. St. Mark's testimony he introduces by an apt appeal to Rom. i. 1-4, ix. 5, and Gal. iv. 4, 5: adding,—“The Son of God was made the Son of Man, in order that by Him we might obtain the adoption: Man carrying, and receiving, and enfolding the Son of God. Hence, Mark says,—‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets[616].’ ” Irenaeus had already, in an earlier chapter, proved by an appeal to the second and third Gospels that Jesus Christ is God. “Quapropter et Marcus,” (he says) “interpres et sectator Petri, initium Evangelicae conscriptionis fecit sic: ‘Initium Evangelii Jesu Christi Filii Dei, quemadmodum scriptum est in Prophetis,’ &c.[617]” This at all events is decisive. The Latin of either place alone survives: yet not a shadow of doubt can be pretended as to how the man who wrote these two passages read the first verse of St. Mark's Gospel[618].
Even more interesting is the testimony of Victor of Antioch; for though he reproduces Origen's criticism, he makes it plain that he will have nothing to say to Origen's text[619]. He paraphrases, speaking in the person of the Evangelist, the two opening verses of St. Mark's Gospel, as follows!—“I shall make ‘the beginning of the Gospel’ from John: of the Gospel, I say ‘of the Son of God:’ for so ‘it is written in the prophets,’ viz. that He is the Son of God.... Or, you may connect ‘as it is written in the prophets’ with ‘Behold, I send my messenger’: in which case, I shall make ‘the beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God’ that which was spoken by the prophets concerning John.” And again,—“Mark says that John, the last of the prophets, is ‘the beginning of the Gospel’: adding, ‘as it is written in the prophets, Behold,’ &c., &c.[620]” It is therefore clear how Victor at least read the place.
It is time to close this discussion. That the Codexes which Origen habitually employed were of the same type as Cod. א,—and that from them the words Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ were absent,—is undeniable. But that is the sum of the evidence for their omission. I have shewn that Serapion and Titus, Basil and Victorinus and Cyril of Jerusalem, do but reproduce the teaching of Origen: that Epiphanius delivers no testimony either way: while Irenaeus and Severianus bear emphatic witness to the genuineness of the clause in dispute. To these must be added Porphyry (a.d. 270)[621], Cyril of Alexandria[622], Victor of Antioch, ps.-Athanasius[623], and Photius[624],—with Ambrose [625], and Augustine[626] among the Latins. The clause is found besides in all the Versions, and in every known copy of the Gospels but three; two of which are cursives. On what principle Tischendorf would uphold the authority of א and Origen against such a mass of evidence, has never been explained. In the meantime, the disappearance of the clause (Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ) from certain of the earliest copies of St. Mark's Gospel is only too easily accounted for. So obnoxious to certain precursors of the Gnostic sect was the fundamental doctrine which it embodies, that St. John (xx. 31) declares it to have been the very purpose of his Gospel to establish “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” What is more obvious than that the words at some very remote period should have been fraudulently removed from certain copies of the Gospel?
Appendix V. The Sceptical Character Of B And א.
The sceptical character of the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS. affords a strong proof of the alliance between them and the Origenistic school. Instances found in these Codexes may be classed thus:—
Note 1. The following instances are professedly taken from the Gospels. Only a few are added from elsewhere.
Note 2. Other Uncials are also added, to indicate by specimens how far these two MSS. receive countenance or not from other sources, and also in part how far the same influence enter them.
I. Passages detracting from the Scriptural acknowledgement of the Divinity of our Lord:—
Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ omitted—St. Mark i. 1 (א*).
Ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ Υἱὸς ... τοῦ ζῶντος omitted—St. John vi. 69 (אBC*DL).
Κύριε omitted—St. Mark ix. 24 (אABC*DL).
Τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ omitted—St. Luke xxiv. 3 (D).
Θεοῦ changed into Κυρίου—Acts xx. 28 (AC*DES).
Omission of faith in Christ. εἰς ἐμέ—St. John vi. 47 (אBLΓ).
Slur on efficacy of prayer through Christ:
Insert μέ—St. John xiv. 14 (אBEHUΓΔ).
Transfer ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου—St. John xxi. 23 (אBC*LXVΔ).
Omission of εὐθέως in the cure—St. Mark vii. 35 (אBDLWdΔ) Cf. St. Mark ii. 12.
Judgement-seat of God instead of Christ—Rom. xiv. 10 (א*ABC*D &c.).
Ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ omitted—St. John iii. 13 (אBLΓb).
Omission of Κύριε in penitent thief's prayer—St. Luke xxiii. 42 (אBC*DLM*).
" " the Ascension in St. Luke, ἀνεφέρετο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν—St. Luke xxiv. 51 (א*D).
Insertion of οὐδὲ ὁ Υἱός from St. Mark xiii. 32 in St. Matt. xxiv. 36. Cf. Basil to Amphilochius, iii. 360-2 (Revision Revised, p. 210, note).
Omission of Θεός in reference to the creation of man—St. Mark x. 6 (אBCIΔ). Cf. St. Matt. xii. 30 (BD).
" " ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν—St. John iii. 31 (א*D).
" " ὁ Υἱός μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα—St. John viii. 35 (אXΓ).
" " διελθὼν διὰ μέσον αὐτῶν, καὶ παρῆγεν οὕτως—St. John viii. 59 (אBD).
τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου for τ. Υ. τ. Θεοῦ—St. John ix. 35 (אBD).
Κυρίου for Θεοῦ—2 Pet. i. 1 (א).
Omission of ὅτι ἐγὼ ὑπάγω πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα—St. John xvi. 6 (אBD).
" " Κύριος—1 Cor. xv. 47 (א*BCD*EFG).
Ὅς for Θσς—1 Tim. iii. 16 (א, Revision Revised, pp. 431-43).
Ὅ for Ὅς—Col. ii. 10, making the Fulness of the Godhead the head of all principality and power (BDEFG).
II. Generally sceptical tendency:—
N.B.—Omission is in itself sceptical.
Πνεῦμα Θεοῦ instead of τὸ Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ—Matt. iii. 16 (אB). Cf. Acts xvi. 7, τὸ Πνεῦμα Ιησοῦ for τὸ Πνεῦμα—אABC2DE2[627].
Γένεσις for γέννησις, slurring the Divine Birth—Matt. i. 18 (אBCPSZΔ).
Omission of the title of “good” applied to our Lord—Matt. xix. 16, 17 (אBDL).
" " the necessity of our Lord to suffer. καὶ οὕτως ἔδει—St. Luke xxiv. 46 (אBC*DL).
" " last Twelve Verses of St. Mark (אB).
Omission of passages relating to Everlasting Punishment (closely Origenistic):
αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος for αἰων. κρίσεως—St. Mark iii. 29 (אBLΔ).
ἁμαρτίας (D)—ibid.
ὅπου ὁ σκώληξ αὐτῶν οὐ τελευτᾷ, καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ σβέννυται—St. Mark ix. 44, 46 (אBCLΔ).
" " the danger of rejecting our Lord—St. Matt. xxi. 44 (D).
" " καὶ πᾶσα θυσία ἁλὶ ἁλισθήσεται—St. Mark ix. 49 (אBLΔ).
" " the condemnation of Pharisaic treatment of widows—St. Matt. xxiii. 14 (אBDLZ).
" " καὶ τὸ βάπτισμα ὂ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθῆναι—St. Matt. xx. 22, 23 (אBDLZ).
" " αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον—St. Matt. i. 25 (אBZ).
" " the verse about prayer and fasting—St. Matt. xvii. 21 (א*B).
" " the words giving authority to the Apostles to heal diseases—St. Mark iii. 15 (אBC*).
" " the forgiveness of sins to those who turn—St. Mark iv. 12 (אBCL).
" " condemnation of cities and mention of the Day of Judgement—St. Mark vi. 11 (אBCDLΔ).
" " fasting—St. Mark ix. 29 (א*B).
" " taking up the Cross—St. Mark x. 21 (אBCDΔ).
" " the danger of riches—St. Mark x. 24 (אBΔ).
" " the danger of not forgiving others—St. Mark xi. 26 (אBLSΔ).
" " εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν—St. Luke i. 28 (אBL).
" " ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι Θεοῦ—St. Luke iv. 4 (אBL).
" " ὁ διάβολος εἰς ὄπος ὑψηλόν—St. Luke iv. 5 (אBL).
" " ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ—St. Luke iv. 8 (אBDLΞ).
" " reference to Elijah's punishment, and the manner of spirit—St. Luke ix. 55, 56.
" " the saving effect of faith—St. Luke xvii. 19 (B).
" " the day of the Son of Man—St. Luke xvii. 24 (BD).
" " the descent of the Angel into Bethesda—St. John v. 3, 4 (אBC*D).
" " ἢν ἐγὼ δώσω—St. John vi. 51 (אBCLΔ).
III. Evincing a “philosophical” obtuseness to tender passages:—
Omissions in the records of the Institution of the Holy Sacrament: thus—
Φάγετε ... τὸ ... καινῆς—St. Mark xiv. 22-24 (אBCD).
καινῆς—St. Matt. xxvi. 27 (אB).
λάβετε, φάγετε ... κλώμενον—1 Cor. xi. 2-4 (אABC*).
Omission of Agony in the Garden and strengthening Angel—St. Luke xxii. 43, 44 (ABRT, first corrector).
" " First Word from the Cross—St. Luke xxiii. 34 (אaBD*).
Mutilation of the Lord's Prayer—St. Luke xi. 2-4: i.e.
Omission of ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (אBL).
" " γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς (BL).
" " ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ (א*BL).
Omission of εἰκῆ—Matt. v. 22 (אB).
" " the verse telling of our Lord's coming to save what was lost—St. Matt. xviii. 11 (אBL*).
" " εὐλογεῖτε τοὺς καταρωμένους ὑμᾶς καλῶς ποιεῖτε τοὺς μισοῦντας ὑμᾶς—St. Matt. v. 44 (אB).
" " the prophecy of being numbered with the transgressors—St. Mark xv. 28 (אABCet 3DX).
" " ἐν τῷ φανερῷ—St. Matt. vi. 6 (אBDZ).
" " reference to the last cry—St. Mark xv. 39 (אBL).
" " striking on the face—St. Luke xxii. 64 (אBLMTΦ).
" " triple superscription (γράμμ. Ἑλλην. κ. Ῥωμ. κ. Ἑβραϊκ.)—St. Luke xxiii. 38 (BCL). So א* in St. John xix. 20-21.
" " καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ μελισσίου κηρίου—St. Luke xxiv. 42 (אABDLΦ).
" " καὶ ἐζήτουν αὐτὸν ἀποκτεῖναι—St. John v. 15 (אBCDL).
λύσαντι for λούσαντι—Rev. i. 5 (אAC).
δικαιοσύνην for ἐλεημοσύνην—Matt. vi. 1 (א*et bBD).
IV. Shewing attempts to classicize New Testament Greek.
These attempts have left their traces, conspicuous especially for omissions, all over B and א in a multiplicity of [pg 291] passages too numerous to quote. Their general character may be gathered in a perusal of Dr. Hort's Introduction, pp. 223-227, from which passage we may understand how these MSS. may have commended themselves at periods of general advancement in learning to eminent scholars like Origen and Dr. Hort. But unfortunately a Thucydidean compactness, condensed and well-pruned according to the fastidious taste of the study, is exactly that which does not in the long run take with people who are versed in the habits of ordinary life, or with scholars who have been exercised in many fields, as was shewn by the falling into disuse of Origen's critical manuscripts. The echoes of the fourth century have surely been heard in the nineteenth.
Appendix VI. The Peshitto And Curetonian.
[The Rev. C. H. Waller, D.D., Principal of St. John's Hall, Highbury.]
A careful collation of the Curetonian Syriac with the Peshitto would I think leave no doubt on the mind of any one that the Curetonian as exhibited by Cureton himself is the later version. But in order to give full effect to the argument it would be necessary to shew the entire Curetonian fragment side by side with the corresponding portions of the Peshitto. Otherwise it is scarcely possible to realize (1) how entirely the one version is founded upon the other—(2) how manifestly the Curetonian is an attempt to improve upon the other; or (3) how the Curetonian presupposes and demands an acquaintance with the Gospels in general, or with views of Gospel history which belong to the Church rather than to the sacred text.
Even in those brief passages exhibited by Dr. Scrivener from both editions this can be made out. And it is capable of still further illustration from almost every page of Dr. Cureton's book.
To take the fragments exhibited by Dr. Scrivener first. (a) In St. Matt. xii. 1-4, where the Peshitto simply translates the Textus Receptus (not altered by our Revisers), saying that the disciples were hungry “and began to pluck ears of corn and to eat,” the Curetonian amends thus:—“and the disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears of corn, and break them in their hands, and eat,” introducing (as it frequently does, e.g. St. Matt. iv. 11, “for a season”; St. Matt. [pg 293] iv. 21, “laying his hand”; St. Matt. v. 12, “your fathers”; St. Matt. v. 47, “what thank have ye?”) words borrowed from St. Luke vi. 1.
But in the next verse of the passage, where the words “on the Sabbath,” are absolutely required in order to make the Pharisees' question intelligible to the first readers of St. Matthew, “Behold, thy disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath” (Textus Receptus and Peshitto; not altered by our Revisers), the Curetonian must needs draw on the common knowledge of educated readers by exhibiting the question thus, “Why are thy disciples doing what is not lawful to do?” an abbreviated reading which leaves us ignorant what the action objected to might be; whether to pluck ears in another man's field, or to rub the grain from them on the Sabbath day? On what possible ground can such emendations as this have the preference of antiquity in their favour?
Again, the shewbread in ver. 4 of this passage is, not as we have it in the Peshitto, “the bread of the table of the Lord,” [Syriac letters], a simple phrase which everyone can understand, but the Old Testament expression, “face-bread,” [Syriac letters], which exhibits the translator's knowledge of the earlier Scriptures, as do his emendations of the list of names in the first chapter of St. Matthew, and, if I mistake not, his quotations also.
(b) Or, to turn to St. Mark xvi. 17-20 (the other passage exhibited by Dr. Scrivener). Both the Peshitto and Curetonian shew their agreement, by the points in which they differ from our received text. “The Lord Jesus then, after He had commanded His disciples, was exalted to heaven and sat on the right hand of God”—is the Curetonian phrase. The simpler Peshitto runs thus. “Jesus the Lord then, after He had spoken with them, ascended to heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.” Both alike introduce the word “Jesus” as do our Revisers: but the two slight [pg 294] touches of improvement in the Curetonian are evident, and belong to that aspect of the matter which finds expression in the Creed, and in the obedience of the Church. Who can doubt which phrase is the later of the two? A similar slight touch appears in the Curetonian addition to ver. 17 of “them that believe on Me” instead of simply “them that believe.”
The following points I have myself observed in the collation of a few chapters of St. Matthew from the two versions. Their minuteness itself testifies to the improved character of the Curetonian. In St. Matt. v. 32 we have been accustomed to read, with our Text Received and Revised and with all other authorities, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication.” So reads the Peshitto. But whence comes it that the Curetonian Syriac substitutes here adultery for fornication, and thereby sanctions,—not the precept delivered by our Lord, but the interpretation almost universally placed upon it? How is it possible to contend that here the Curetonian Syriac has alone preserved the true reading? Yet either this must be the case, or else we have a deliberate alteration of a most distinct and precise kind, telling us, not what our Lord said, but what He is commonly supposed to have meant.
Not less curious is the addition in ver. 41, “Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him two others.” Our Lord said “go with him twain,” as all Greek MSS. except D bear witness. The Curetonian and D and some Latin copies say practically “go with him three.” Is this again an original reading, or an improvement? It is no accidental change.
But by far the most striking 'improvements' introduced by the Curetonian MS. are to my mind, those which attest the perpetual virginity of our Lord's Mother. The alterations of this kind in the first chapter form a group [pg 295] quite unique. Beginning with ver. 18, we read as follows:—
| In the Peshitto and our Greek Text without any variation. | In the Curetonian. |
| Ver. 16. “Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus, who is called Messiah.” | “Jacob begat Joseph to whom was espoused Mary the virgin, which bare Jesus the Messiah.” |
| Ver. 18. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise (Peshitto, and Textus Receptus: Revised also, but with some uncertainty).” | “The birth of the Messiah was thus.” |
| Ver. 19. “Joseph her husband being a just man,” &c. | Ver. 19. “Joseph, because he was a righteous man,” &c. [there is no Greek or Latin authority with Cn. here]. |
| Ver. 20. “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife.” | ... “Mary thine espoused” (Cn. seems to be alone here). |
| Ver. 24. “Joseph ... did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife.” | ... “and took Mary” (Cn. seems alone in omitting “his wife”). |
| Ver. 25. “And knew her not until she brought forth [her firstborn] a son.” | “And purely dwelt with her until she bare the son” (Cn. here is not alone except in inserting the article). |
The absolute omission from the Curetonian Syriac of all mention of Joseph as Mary's husband, or of Mary as his wife is very remarkable. The last verse of the chapter has suffered in other authorities by the loss of the word “firstborn,” probably owing to a feeling of objection to the inference drawn from it by the Helvidians. It seems to have been forgotten (1) that the fact of our Lord's being a “firstborn” in the Levitical sense is proved by St. Luke [pg 296] from the presentation in the temple (see Neh. x. 36); and (2) that His being called a “firstborn” in no way implies that his mother had other children after him. But putting this entirely aside, the feeling in favour of Mary's perpetual virginity on the mind of the translator of the Curetonian Syriac was so strong as to draw him to four distinct and separate omissions, in which he stands unsupported by any authority, of the word “husband” in two places, and in two others of the word “wife.”
I do not see how any one can deny that here we have emendations of the most deliberate and peculiar kind. Nor is there any family of earlier readings which contains them, or to which they can be referred. The fact that the Curetonian text has some readings in common with the so-called western family of text (e.g. the transposition of the beatitudes in Matt. v. 4, 5) is not sufficient to justify us in accounting for such vagaries as this. It is indeed a “Western” superstition which has exalted the Virgin Mary into a sphere beyond the level of all that rejoice in God her Saviour. But the question here suggested is whether this way of regarding the matter is truly ancient; and whether the MS. of an ancient version which exhibits such singular phenomena on its first page is worthy to be set above the common version which is palpably its basis. In the first sentence of the Preface Dr. Cureton states that it was obtained from a Syrian Monastery dedicated to St. Mary Deipara. I cannot but wonder whether it never occurred to him that the cultus of the Deipara, and the taste which it indicates, may partly explain why a MS. of a certain character and bias was ultimately domiciled there. [See note at the end of this Chapter.]
Shall I be thought very disrespectful if I say that the study which I have been able to devote to Dr. Cureton's book has impressed me with a profound distrust of his [pg 297] scholarship? “She shall bare for thee a son,” says he on the first page of his translation;—which is not merely bald and literal, but absolutely un-English in many places.
In Matt. vi. in the first verse we have alms and in the third and fourth righteousness. An explanation.
In ver. 13 the Cn. has the doxology, but with power omitted, the Peshitto not.
In ver. 17. Cn. wash thy face and anoint thy head instead of our text.
In ver. 19. Cn. leaves out βρῶσις “rust” and puts in “where falleththe moth.”
In x. 42. The discipleship instead of disciple.
In xi. 2. Of Jesus instead of Christ.
In xiii. 6. Parable of Sower, a Targum-like alteration.
ver. 13 a most important Targum.
ver. 33 a wise woman took and hid in meal.
xiv. 13 leaves out “by ship,” and says “on foot,” where the Peshitto has “on dry land,” an odd change, of an opposite kind to some that I have mentioned.
In St. John iii. 6, Cn. has: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, because of flesh it is born; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, because God is a spirit, and of God it is born.”And in ver. 8: “So is every one that is born of water and of the Spirit.” This is a Targum-like expansion: possibly anti-Arian. See Tischendorf's Gr. Test. in loco. All the above changes look like deliberate emendations of the text.
[It is curious that the Lewis Codex and the Curetonian both break off from the Traditional account of the Virgin-birth, but in opposite directions. The Lewis Codex makes Joseph our Lord's actual Father: the Curetonian treats the question as described above. That there were two streams of teaching on this subject, which specially characterized the fifth century, is well known: the one exaggerating the Nestorian division of the two Natures, the other tending in a Eutychian direction. That two fifth-century MSS. should illustrate these deviations is but natural; and their survival not a little remarkable.]
Appendix VII. The Last Twelve Verses Of St. Mark's Gospel.
It would be a manifest defect, if a book upon Textual Criticism passing under the name of Dean Burgon were to go forth without some reference to the present state of the controversy on the subject, which first made him famous as a Textual critic.
His argument has been strengthened since he wrote in the following ways:—
1. It will be remembered that the omission of the verses has been rested mainly upon their being left out by B and א, of which circumstance the error is mutely confessed in B by the occurrence of a blank space, amply sufficient to contain the verses, the column in question being the only vacant one in the whole manuscript. It has been generally taken for granted, that there is nothing in א to denote any consciousness on the part of the scribe that something was omitted. But a closer examination of the facts will shew that the contrary is the truth. For—
i. The page of א on which St. Mark ends is the recto of leaf 29, being the second of a pair of leaves (28 and 29), forming a single sheet (containing St. Mark xiv. 54-xvi. 8, St. Luke i. 1-56), which Tischendorf has shewn to have been written not by the scribe of the body of the New Testament in this MS., but by one of his colleagues who wrote part of the Old Testament and acted as diorthota or corrector of the New Testament—and who is further [pg 299] identified by the same great authority as the scribe of B. This person appears to have cancelled the sheet originally written by the scribe of א, and to have substituted for it the sheet as we now have it, written by himself. A correction so extensive and laborious can only have been made for the purpose of introducing some important textual change, too large to be effected by deletion, interlineation, or marginal note. Thus we are led not only to infer that the testimony of א is here not independent of that of B, but to suspect that this sheet may have been thus cancelled and rewritten in order to conform its contents to those of the corresponding part of B.
ii. This suspicion becomes definite, and almost rises to a certainty, when we look further into the contents of this sheet. Its second page (28 vo) exhibits four columns of St. Mark (xv. 16-xvi. 1); its third page (29 ro), the two last columns of St. Mark (xvi. 2-8) and the first two of St. Luke (i. 1-18). But the writing of these six columns of St. Mark is so spread out that they contain less matter than they ought; whereas the columns of St. Luke that follow contain the normal amount. It follows, therefore, that the change introduced by the diorthota must have been an extensive excision from St. Mark:—in other words, that these pages as originally written must have contained a portion of St. Mark of considerable length which has been omitted from the pages as they now stand. If these six columns of St. Mark were written as closely as the columns of St. Luke which follow, there would be room in them for the omitted twelve verses.—More particularly, the fifth column (the first of page 29 ro) is so arranged as to contain only about five-sixths of the normal quantity of matter, and the diorthota is thus enabled to carry over four lines to begin a new column, the sixth, by which artifice he manages to conclude St. Mark not with a blank column such as in B tells its own story, but with a column [pg 300] such as in this MS. is usual at the end of a book, exhibiting the closing words followed by an “arabesque” pattern executed with the pen, and the subscription (the rest being left empty). But, by the very pains he has thus taken to conform this final column to the ordinary usage of the MS., his purpose of omission is betrayed even more conclusively, though less obviously, than by the blank column of B[628].
iii. A further observation is to be noted, which not only confirms the above, but serves to determine the place where the excision was made to have been at the very end of the Gospel. The last of the four lines of the sixth and last column of St. Mark (the second column of leaf 29 ro) contains only the five letters το γαρ ([ἐφοβοῦν]το γαρ), and has the rest of the space (more than half the width of the column) filled up with a minute and elaborate ornament executed with the pen in ink and vermilion, the like of which is nowhere else found in the MS., or in the New Testament part of B, such spaces being invariably left unfilled[629]. And not only so, but underneath, the usual “arabesque” above the subscription, marking the conclusion of the text, has its horizontal arm extended all the way across the width of the column,—and not, as always elsewhere, but halfway or less[630]. It seems hardly possible to regard these carefully executed works of the pen of the diorthota otherwise than as precautions to guard against the possible restoration, by a subsequent reviser, of a portion of text deliberately omitted by him (the [pg 301] diorthota) from the end of the Gospel. They are evidence therefore that he knew of a conclusion to the Gospel which he designedly expunged, and endeavoured to make it difficult for any one else to reinsert.
We have, therefore, good reason to believe that the disputed Twelve Verses were not only in an exemplar known to the scribe of B, but also in the exemplar used by the scribe of א; and that their omission (or, more properly, disappearance) from these two MSS. is due to one and the same person—the scribe, namely, who wrote B and who revised א,—or rather, perhaps, to an editor by whose directions he acted.
2. Some early Patristic evidence has been added to the stores which the Dean collected by Dr. Taylor, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge. This evidence may be found in a book entitled “The Witness of Hermas” to the Four Gospels, published in 1892, of which § 12 in the Second Part is devoted to “The ending of St. Mark's Gospel,” and includes also quotations from Justin Martyr, and the Apology of Aristides. A fuller account is given in the Expositor of July 1893, and contains references to the following passages:—Irenaeus iii. 11. 6 (quoting xvi. 19); Justin Martyr, Trypho, § 138; Apol. i. 67; Trypho, § 85; Apol. i. 45; Barnabas, xv. 9; xvi. 7; Quarto-deciman Controversy (Polycarp)? and Clement of Rome, i. 42. The passages from Hermas are, 1. (xvi. 12-13) Sim. ii. 1, Vis. i. 1, iii. 1, iv. 1, and v. 4; 2. (xvi. 14) Sim. ix. 141 and 20. 4, Vis. iii. 8. 3, iii. 7. 6; 3. (xvi. 15-16) Vis. iii, Sim. ix. 16, 25; 4. (xvi. 17-18) Vis. iv, Mand. i, xii. 2. 2-3, Sim. ix. 1. 9, iii. 7, ix. 26, Mand. xii. 6. 2; 5. (xvi. 19-20) Vis. iii. 1. Some of the references are not apparent at first sight, but Dr. Taylor's discussions in both places should be read carefully.
3. In my own list given above, p. [109], of the writers who died before a.d. 400, I have added from my two [pg 302] examinations of the Ante-Chrysostom Fathers to the list in The Revision Revised, p. 421, the Clementines, four references from the Apostolic Canons and Constitutions, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, and two references to the four of St. Ambrose mentioned in “The Last Twelve Verses,” p. 27. To these Dr. Waller adds, Gospel of Peter, § 7 (πενθοῦντες καὶ κλαίοντες), and § 12 (ἐκλαίομεν καὶ ἐλυπούμεθα), referring to the ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, as regards the attitude of the Twelve at the time, in xvi. 10.
4. On the other hand, the recently discovered Lewis Codex, as is well known, omits the verses. The character of that Codex, which has been explained above in the sixth chapter of this work, makes any alliance with it suspicious, and consequently it is of no real importance that its testimony, unlike that of B and א, is claimed to be unswerving.
For that manuscript is disfigured by heretical blemishes of the grossest nature, and the obliteration of it for the purpose of covering the vellum with other writing was attended with circumstances of considerable significance.
In the first chapter of St. Matthew, Joseph is treated as the father of our Lord (vers. 16, 21, 24) as far as His body was concerned, for as to His soul even according to teaching of Gnostic origin He was treated as owing His nature to the Holy Ghost (ver. 20). Accordingly, the blessed Virgin is called in the second chapter of St. Luke Joseph's “wife,” μεμνηστευμένη being left with no equivalent[631]: and at His baptism, He is described as “being as He was called the son of Joseph” (St. Luke iii. 23). According to the heretical tenet that our Lord was chosen out of other men to be made the Son of God at the baptism, we read afterwards, “This is My Son, My chosen” [pg 303] (St. Luke ix. 35), “the chosen of God” (St. John i. 34), “Thou art My Son and My beloved” (St. Matt. iii. 17), “This is My Son Who is beloved” (St. Mark ix. 7); and we are told of the Holy Ghost descending like a dove (St. Matt. iii. 16), that It “abode upon Him.” Various smaller expressions are also found, but perhaps the most remarkable of those which have been left upon the manuscript occurs in St. Matt. xxvii. 50, “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and His Spirit went up.” After this, can we be surprised because the scribe took the opportunity of leaving out the Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark which contain the most detailed account of the Ascension in the Gospels, as well as the καὶ ἀνεφέρετο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν of St. Luke?
Again, at the time when the manuscript was put out of use, and as is probable in the monastery of St. Catherine so early as the year 778 a.d. (Introduction by Mrs. Lewis, p. xv), the old volume was pulled to pieces, twenty-two leaves were cast away, the rest used in no regular order, and on one at least, as we are told, a knife was employed to eradicate the writing. Five of the missing leaves must have been blank, according to Mrs. Lewis: but the seventeen remaining leaves contained passages of supreme importance as being expressive of doctrine, like St. John i. 1-24, St. Luke i. 16-39, St. Mark i. 1-11, St. Matt. xxviii. 8-end, and others. Reading the results of this paragraph in connexion with those of the last, must we not conclude that this manuscript was used for a palimpsest, and submitted to unusual indignity in order to obliterate its bad record?
It will be seen therefore that a cause, which for unchallenged evidence rests solely upon such a witness, cannot be one that will commend itself to those who form their conclusions judicially. The genuineness of the verses, as part of the second Gospel, must, I hold, remain unshaken by such opposition.
5. An ingenious suggestion has been contributed by [pg 304] Mr. F. C. Conybeare, the eminent Armenian scholar, founded upon an entry which he discovered in an Armenian MS. of the Gospels, dated a.d. 986, where “Ariston Eritzou” is written in minioned uncials at the head of the twelve verses. Mr. Conybeare argues, in the Expositor for October, 1893, that “Ariston Eritzou” is not the copyist himself, who signs himself Johannes, or an Armenian translator, Ariston or Aristion being no Armenian name. He then attempts to identify it with Aristion who is mentioned by Papias in a passage quoted by Eusebius (H. E. iii. 39) as a disciple of the Lord. Both the words “Ariston Eritzou” are taken to be in the genitive, as “Eritzou” certainly is, and to signify “Of or by Aristion the presbyter,” this being the meaning of the latter word. The suggestion is criticized by Dr. Ad. Harnack in the Theologische Literaturzeitung, 795, where Dr. Harnack pronounces no opinion upon the soundness of it: but the impression left upon the mind after reading his article is that he is unable to accept it.
It is remarkable that the verses are found in no other Armenian MS. before 1100. Mr. Conybeare traces the version of the passage to an old Syrian Codex about the year 500, but he has not very strong grounds for his reasoning; and even then for such an important piece of information the leap to the sub-Apostolic age is a great one. But there is another serious difficulty in the interpretation of this fragmentary expression. Even granting the strong demands that we may construe over the expression of Papias, Ἀριστίων καὶ ὁ πρεσβύτερος Ἰωάννης, and take Aristion to have been meant as a presbyter, and that according to the parallel of Aristion in Eusebius' history having been transliterated in an Armenian version to Ariston, Aristion “the disciple” may be the man mentioned here, there is a formidable difficulty presented by the word “Aristŏn” as it is written in the place quoted. It ought at [pg 305] least to have had a long ō according to Dr. Harnack, and it is not in the genitive case as “Eritzou” is. Altogether, the expression is so elliptical, and occurs with such isolated mystery in a retired district, and at such a distance of years from the event supposed to be chronicled, that the wonder is, not that a diligent and ingenious explorer should advocate a very curious idea that he has formed upon a very interesting piece of intelligence, but that other Critics should have been led to welcome it as a key to a long-considered problem. Are we not forced to see in this incident an instance of a truth not unfrequently verified, that when people neglect a plain solution, they are induced to welcome another which does not include a tenth part of the evidence in its support?
Of course the real difficulty in the way of accepting these verses as the composition of St. Mark lies in the change of style found in them. That this change is not nearly so great as it may appear at first sight, any one may satisfy himself by studying Dean Burgon's analysis of the words given in the ninth chapter of his “Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark.” But it has been the fashion in some quarters to confine ancient writers to a wondrously narrow form of style in each case, notwithstanding Horace's rough Satires and exquisitely polished Odes, and Cicero's Letters to his Friends and his Orations and Philosophical Treatises. Perhaps the recent flood of discoveries respecting early Literature may wash away some of the film from our sight. There seems to be no valid reason why St. Mark should not have written all the Gospel that goes by his name, only under altered circumstances. The true key seems to be, that at the end of verse 8 he lost the assistance of St. Peter. Before ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ, he wrote out St. Peter's story: after it, he filled in the end from his own acquired knowledge, and composed in summary. This very volume may supply a parallel. Sometimes I have transcribed Dean [pg 306] Burgon's materials with only slight alteration, where necessary imitating as I was able his style. In other places, I have written solely as best I could.
I add two suggestions, not as being proved to be true, because indeed either is destructive of the other, but such that one or other may possibly represent the facts that actually occurred. To meet the charge of impossibility, it is enough to shew what is possible, though in the absence of direct evidence it may not be open to any one to advocate any narrative as being absolutely true.
I. Taking the story of Papias and Clement of Alexandria, as given by Eusebius (H. E. ii. 15), that St. Mark wrote his gospel at the request of Roman converts, and that St. Peter, as it seems, helped him in the writing, I should suggest that the pause made in ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ, so unlike the close of any composition, of any paragraph or chapter, and still less of the end of a book, that I can recollect, indicates a sudden interruption. What more likely than that St. Peter was apprehended at the time, perhaps at the very moment when the MS. reached that place, and was carried off to judgement and death? After all was over, and the opportunity of study returned, St. Mark would naturally write a conclusion. He would not alter a syllable that had fallen from St. Peter's lips. It would be the conclusion composed by one who had lost his literary illuminator, formal, brief, sententious, and comprehensive. The crucifixion of the leading Apostle would thus impress an everlasting mark upon the Gospel which was virtually his. Here the Master's tongue ceased: here the disciple took up his pen for himself.
II. If we follow the account of Irenaeus (Eus. H. E. v. 8) that St. Mark wrote his Gospel—and did not merely publish it—after St. Peter's death, Dr. Gwynn suggests to me that he used his notes made from St. Peter's dictation or composed with his help up to xvi. 8, leaving at the end [pg 307] what were exactly St. Peter's words. After that, he added from his own stores, and indited the conclusion as I have already described.
Whether either of these descriptions, or any other solution of the difficulty, really tallies with the actual event, I submit that it is clear that St. Mark may very well have written the twelve verses himself; and that there is no reason for resorting to Aristion, or to any other person for the authorship. I see that Mr. Conybeare expresses his indebtedness to Dean Burgon's monograph, and expresses his opinion that “perhaps no one so well sums up the evidence for and against them” as he did (Expositor, viii. p. 241). I tender to him my thanks, and echo for myself all that he has said.
Appendix VIII. New Editions Of The Peshitto-Syriac And The Harkleian-Syriac Versions.
A book representing Dean Burgon's labours in the province of Sacred Textual Criticism would be incomplete if notice were not taken in it of the influence exercised by him upon the production of editions of the two chief Syriac Versions.
Through his introduction of the Rev. G. H. Gwilliam, B.D. to the late Philip E. Pusey, a plan was formed for the joint production of an edition of the Peshitto New Testament by these two scholars. On the early and lamented death of Philip Pusey, which occurred in the following year, Mr. Gwilliam succeeded to his labours, being greatly helped by the Dean's encouragement. He has written on the Syriac Canons of the Gospels; and the nature of his work upon the Peshitto Gospels, now in the press, may be seen on consulting his article on “The Materials for the Criticism of the Peshitto New Testament” in the third volume of Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica, pp. 47-104, which indeed seems to be sufficient for the Prolegomena of his edition. A list of his chief authorities was also kindly contributed by him to my Scrivener, and they are enumerated there, vol. II. pp. 12-13. The importance of this work, carried on successively by two such accomplished Syriacists, may be seen from and will illustrate the sixth chapter of this work.
In connexion with the Dean, if not on his suggestion, the late Rev. Henry Deane, B.D., when Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, began to collect materials for a new and critical edition of the Harkleian. His work was carried on during many years, when ill-health and failing eyesight put a stop to all efforts, and led to his early death—for on leaving New College, after having been Tutor there for five years, I examined him then a boy at the top of Winchester College. Mr. Deane has left the results of his work entered in an interleaved copy of Joseph White's “Sacrorum Evangeliorum Versio Syriaca Philoxeniana”—named, as my readers will observe, from the translator Mar Xenaias or Philoxenus, not from Thomas of Harkel the subsequent editor. A list of the MSS. on which Mr. Deane based his readings was sent by him to me, and inserted in my Scrivener, vol. II. p. 29. Mr. Deane added (in a subsequent letter, dated April 16, 1894):—“My labours on the Gospels shew that the H[arkleian] text is much the same in all MSS. The Acts of the Apostles must be worked up for a future edition by some one who knows the work.” Since his lamented death, putting a stop to any edition by him, his widow has placed his collation just described in the Library of St. John's College, where by the permission of the Librarian it may be seen, and also used by any one who is recognized as continuing the valuable work of that accomplished member of the College. Is there no capable and learned man who will come forward for the purpose?