Footnotes
[1.] See Jerome, Epist. 34 (Migne, xxii. p. 448). Cod. V. of Philo has the following inscription:—Εὐζόϊος ἐπίσκοπος ἐν σωματίοις ἀνενέωσατο, i.e. transcribed on vellum from papyrus. Leopold Cohn's edition of Philo, De Opiticiis Mundi, Vratislaw, 1889. [2.] See my Guide to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, pp. 7-37. George Bell and Sons, 1886. [3.] For an estimate of Tischendorf's great labour, see an article on Tischendorf's Greek Testament in the Quarterly Review for July, 1895. [4.] Dr. Hort's theory, which is generally held to supply the philosophical explanation of the tenets maintained in the school of critics who support B and א as pre-eminently the sources of the correct text, may be studied in his Introduction. It is also explained and controverted in my Textual Guide, pp. 38-59; and has been powerfully criticized by Dean Burgon in The Revision Revised, Article III, or in No. 306 of the Quarterly Review, without reply. [5.] Quarterly Review, July 1895, “Tischendorf's Greek Testament.” [6.] See Preface. [7.] It is remarkable, that in quarters where we should have looked for more scientific procedure the importance of the Textual Criticism of the New Testament is underrated, upon a plea that theological doctrine may be established upon passages other than those of which the text has been impugned by the destructive school. Yet (a) in all cases consideration of the text of an author must perforce precede consideration of inferences from the text—Lower Criticism must be the groundwork of Higher Criticism; (b) confirmatory passages cannot be thrown aside in face of attacks upon doctrine of every possible character; (c) Holy Scripture is too unique and precious to admit of the study of the several words of it being interesting rather than important; (d) many of the passages which Modern Criticism would erase or suspect—such as the last Twelve Verses of St. Mark, the first Word from the Cross, and the thrilling description of the depth of the Agony, besides numerous others—are valuable in the extreme; and, (e) generally speaking, it is impossible to pronounce, especially amidst the thought and life seething everywhere round us, what part of Holy Scripture is not, or may not prove to be, of the highest importance as well as interest.—E. M. [8.] See below, Vol. II. throughout, and a remarkable passage quoted from Caius or Gaius by Dean Burgon in The Revision Revised (Quarterly Review, No. 306), pp. 323-324. [9.] St. John xiv. 26. [10.] St. John xvi. 13. [11.] Rev. John Oxlee's sermon on Luke xxii. 28-30 (1821), p. 91 (Three Sermons on the power, origin, and succession of the Christian Hierarchy, and especially that of the Church of England). [12.] Westcott and Hort, Introduction, p. 92. [13.] Ibid. p. 142. [14.] Scrivener, Plain Introduction, ed. 4, Vol. I. pp. 75-76. [15.]
Of course this trenchant passage refers only to the principles of the school found to fail. A school may leave fruits of research of a most valuable kind, and yet be utterly in error as to the inferences involved in such and other facts. Dean Burgon amply admitted this. The following extract from one of the many detached papers left by the author is appended as possessing both illustrative and personal interest:—
“Familiar as all such details as the present must of necessity prove to those who have made Textual Criticism their study, they may on no account be withheld. I am not addressing learned persons only. I propose, before I lay down my pen, to make educated persons, wherever they may be found, partakers of my own profound conviction that for the most part certainty is attainable on this subject-matter; but that the decrees of the popular school—at the head of which stand many of the great critics of Christendom—are utterly mistaken. Founded, as I venture to think, on entirely false premisses, their conclusions almost invariably are altogether wrong. And this I hold to be demonstrable; and I propose in the ensuing pages to establish the fact. If I do not succeed, I shall pay the penalty for my presumption and my folly. But if I succeed—and I wish to have jurists and persons skilled in the law of evidence, or at least thoughtful and unprejudiced persons, wherever they are to be found, and no others, for my judges,—if I establish my position, I say, let my father and my mother's son be kindly remembered by the Church of Christ when he has departed hence.”
The evidence on the passage is as follows:—For the insertion:—
א* etc. BC*ΦΣDPΔ, 1, 13, 33, 108, 157, 346, and about ten more. Old Latin (except f), Vulgate, Bohairic, Ethiopic, Hilary, Cyril Alex. (2), Chrysostom (2).
Against:—
EFGKLMSUVXΓΠ. The rest of the Cursives, Peshitto (Pusey and Gwilliam found it in no copies), Sahidic, Eusebius, Basil, Jerome, Chrysostom, in loc., Juvencus. Compare Revision Revised, p. 108, note.
An instance is afforded in St. Mark viii. 7, where “the Five Old Uncials” exhibit the passage thus:
A. και ταυτα ευλογησας ειπεν παρατεθηναι και αυτα.
א*. και ευλογησας αυτα παρεθηκεν.
א1. και ευλογησας ειπεν και ταυτα παρατιθεναι.
B. ευλογησας αυτα ειπεν και ταυτα παρατιθεναι.
C. και ευλογησας αυτα ειπεν και ταυτα παραθετε.
D. και ευχαριστησας ειπεν και αυτους εκελευσεν παρατιθεναι.
Lachmann, and Tischendorf (1859) follow A; Alford, and Tischendorf (1869) follow א; Tregelles and Westcott, and Hort adopt B. They happen to be all wrong, and the Textus Receptus right. The only word they all agree in is the initial καί.
In the Syriac one form appears to be used for all the Marys ([Syriac characters] Mar-yam, also sometimes, but not always, spelt in the Jerusalem Syriac [Syriaic characters] = Mar-yaam), also for Miriam in the O. T., for Mariamne the wife of Herod, and others; in fact, wherever it is intended to represent a Hebrew female name. At Rom. xvi. 6, the Peshitto has [Syriaic characters] = Μαρία obviously as a translation of the Greek form in the text which was followed. (See Thesaurus Syriacus, Payne Smith, coll. 2225, 2226.)
In Syriac literature [Syriac characters] = Maria occurs from time to time as the name of some Saint or Martyr—e.g. in a volume of Acta Mart. described by Wright in Cat. Syr. MSS. in B. M. p. 1081, and which appears to be a fifth-century MS.
On the hypothesis that Hebrew-Aramaic was spoken in Palestine (pace Drs. Abbot and Roberts), I do not doubt that only one form (cf. Pearson, Creed, Art. iii. and notes) of the name was in use, “Maryam,” a vulgarized form of “Miriam”; but it may well be that Greek Christians kept the Hebrew form Μαριαμ for the Virgin, while they adopted a more Greek-looking word for the other women. This fine distinction has been lost in the corrupt Uncials, while observed in the correct Uncials and Cursives, which is all that the Dean's argument requires.—(G. H. G.)
Another very ancient MS. of the Peshitto Gospels is the Cod. Philipp. 1388, in the Royal Library, Berlin (in Miller's Scrivener the name is spelt Phillipps). Dr. Sachau ascribes it to the fifth, or the beginning of the sixth century, thus making it older than the Vatican Tetraevangelicum, No. 3, in Miller's Scrivener, II. 12. A full description will be found in Sachau's Catalogue of the Syr. MSS. in the Berlin Library.
The second was collated by Drs. Guidi and Ugolini, the third, in St. John, by Dr. Sachau. The readings of the second and third are in the possession of Mr. Gwilliam, who informs me that all three support the Peshitto text, and are free from all traces of any pre-Peshitto text, such as according to Dr. Hort and Mr. Burkitt the Curetonian and Lewis MSS. contain. Thus every fresh accession of evidence tends always to establish the text of the Peshitto Version more securely in the position it has always held until quite recent years.
The interesting feature of all the above-named MSS. is the uniformity of their testimony to the text of the Peshitto. Take for example the evidence of No. 10 in Miller's Scrivener, II. 13, No. 3, in Miller's Scrivener, II. 12, and Cod. Philipp. 1388. The first was collated by P. E. Pusey, and the results are published in Studia Biblica, vol. i, “A fifth century MS.”
Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. iii. 25) divides the writings of the Church into three classes:—
1. The Received Books (ὁμολογούμενα), i.e. the Four Gospels, Acts, the Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John, and the Revelation (?).
2. Doubtful (ἀντιλεγόμενα), i.e. James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude (cf. ii. 23 fin.).
3. Spurious (νόθα), Acts of St. Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Revelation of St. Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, the so-called Διδαχαί, Revelation of St. John (?).
This division appears to need confirmation, if it is to be taken as representing the general opinion of the Church of the time.
Cureton's Syriac is the only known copy of the Gospels in which the three omitted kings are found in St. Matthew's Gospel: which, I suppose, explains why the learned editor of that document flattered himself that he had therein discovered the lost original of St. Matthew's Gospel. Cureton (Pref., p. viii) shews that in other quarters also (e.g. by Mar Yakub the Persian, usually known as Aphraates) 63 generations were reckoned from Adam to Jesus exclusive: that number being obtained by adding 24 of St. Matthew's names and 33 of St. Luke's to the 3 names common to both Evangelists (viz. David, Salathiel, and Zorobabel); and to these, adding the 3 omitted kings.
The testimony of MSS. is not altogether uniform in regard to the number of names in the Genealogy. In the Textus Receptus (including our Saviour's name and the name of the Divine Author of Adam's being) the number of the names is 77. So Basil made it; so Greg. Naz. and his namesake of Nyssa; so Jerome and Augustine.
I am not of course asserting that any known cursive MS. is an exact counterpart of one of the oldest extant Uncials. Nor even that every reading however extraordinary, contained in Codd. BאD, is also to be met with in one of the few Cursives already specified. But what then? Neither do any of the oldest Uncials contain all the textual avouchings discoverable in the same Cursives.
The thing asserted is only this: that, as a rule, every principal reading discoverable in any of the five or seven oldest Uncials, is also exhibited in one or more of the Cursives already cited or in others of them; and that generally when there is consent among the oldest of the Uncials, there is also consent among about as many of the same Cursives. So that it is no exaggeration to say that we find ourselves always concerned with the joint testimony of the same little handful of Uncial and Cursive documents: and therefore, as was stated at the outset, if the oldest of the Uncials had never existed, the readings which they advocate would have been advocated by MSS. of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.
Ap. Galland. iii. 688 c:—ὅθεν ὁ Ἀπόστολος εὐθυβόλως εἰς Χριστὸν ἀνηκόντισε τὰ κατὰ τὸν Ἀδάμ; οὕτως γὰρ ἂν μάλιστα ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν συμφωνήσει γεγονέναι. And lower down (e, and 689 a):—ὅπως αὐξηθῶσιν οἱ ἐν αὐτῷ οἰκοδομηθέντες ἅπαντες, οἱ γεγεννημένοι διὰ τοῦ λουτροῦ, ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν καὶ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς ἁγιωσύνης αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκ τῆς δόξης προσειληφότες; ὀστᾶ γὰρ καὶ σάρκα Σοφίας ὁ λέγων εἶναι σύνεσιν καὶ ἀρετήν, ὀρθότατα λέγει. From this it is plain that Methodius read Ephes. v. 30 as we do; although he had before quoted it (iii. 614 b) without the clause in dispute. Those who give their minds to these studies are soon made aware that it is never safe to infer from the silence of a Father that he disallowed the words he omits,—especially if those words are in their nature parenthetical, or supplementary, or not absolutely required for the sense. Let a short clause be beside his immediate purpose, and a Father is as likely as not to omit it. This subject has been discussed elsewhere: but it is apt to the matter now in hand that I should point out that Augustine twice (iv. 297 c, 1438 c) closes his quotation of the present place abruptly: “Apostolo dicente, Quoniam membra sumus corporis ejus.” And yet, elsewhere (iii. 794), he gives the words in full.
It is idle therefore to urge on the opposite side, as if there were anything in it, the anonymous commentator on St. Luke in Cramer's Cat. p. 88.
What follows is obtained (June 28, 1884) by favour of Sig. Veludo, the learned librarian of St. Mark's, from the Catena on St. Luke's Gospel at Venice (cod. 494 = our Evan. 466), which Cordier (in 1628) translated into Latin. The Latin of this particular passage is to be seen at p. 622 of his badly imagined and well-nigh useless work. The first part of it (συνέφαγε ... ἐναπογράψονται) is occasionally found as a scholium, e.g. in Cod. Marc. Venet. 27 (our Evan. 210), and is already known to scholars from Matthaei's N. T. (note on Luc. xxiv. 42). The rest of the passage (which now appears for the first time) I exhibit for the reader's convenience parallel with a passage of Gregory of Nyssa's Christian Homily on Canticles. If the author of what is found in the second column is not quoting what is found in the first, it is at least certain that both have resorted to, and are here quoting from the same lost original:—
Συνέφαγεν δὲ καὶ τῷ ὀπτῷ ἰχθύῳ (sic) τὸ κηρίον τοῦ μέλιτος; δηλῶν ὡς οἱ πυρωθέντες διὰ τῆς θείας ἐνανθρωπήσεως καὶ μετασχόντες αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος, ὡς μέλι μετ᾽ ἐπιθυμίας τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ παραδέξονται; κηρῷ ὤσπερ τοὺς νόμους ἐναπογράψαντες; ὅτι ὁ μὲν τοῦ πάσχα
[Transcriber's Note: The following two paragraphs were side-by-side columns in the original.]
ἄρτος ἐπὶ πικρίδων ἠσθίετο καὶ ὁ νόμος διεκελεύτο;
πρὸς γὰρ τὸ παρὸν ἡ πικρία;
ὁ δὲ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἄρτος τῷ κηρίῳ τοῦ μέλιτος ἡδύνετο;
ὄψον γὰρ ἑαυτοῖς τὸ μέλι ποιησόμεθα, ὅταν ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ κηρῷ ὁ καρπὸς τῆς ἀρετῆς καταγλυκαίνει τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια.
Anon. apud Corderium (fol. 58): see above.
... ἄρτος ... οὐκέτι ἐπὶ πικρίδων ἐσθιόμενος, ὡς ὁ νόμος διακελεύεται;
πρὸς γὰρ τὸ παρόν ἐστιν ἡ πικρίς;
(... ὁ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τοῦ κυρίου προσφανεὶς τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἄρτος ἐστί, τῷ κηρίῳ τοῦ μέλιτος ἡδυνόμενος.)
ἀλλ᾽ ὄψον ἑαυτῷ τὸ μέλι ποιούμενος, ὅταν ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ καιρῷ ὁ καρπὸς τῆς ἀρετῆς καταγλυκαίνῃ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια.
Greg. Nyss. in Cant. (Opp. i. a); the sentence in brackets being transposed.
Quite evident is it that, besides Gregory of Nyssa, Hesychius (or whoever else was the author of the first Homily on the Resurrection) had the same original before him when he wrote as follows:—ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδὴ ὁ πρὸ τοῦ πάσχα σῖτος ὁ ἄζυμος, ὄψον τὴν πικρίδα ἔχει, ἴδωμεν τίνι ἡδόσματι ὁ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἄρτος ἡδύνεται. ὁρᾶς τοῦ Πέτρου ἁλιεύοντος ἐν ταῖς χεροὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἄρτον καὶ κηρίον μέλιτος νόησον τί σοι ἡ πικρία τοῦ βίου κατασκευάζεται. οὐκοῦν ἀναστάντες καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐκ τῆς τῶν λόγων ἀλείας, ἤδη τῷ ἄρτῳ προσδράμωμεν, ὂν καταγλυκαίνει τὸ κηρίον τῆς ἀγαθῆς ἐλπίδος. (ap. Greg. Nyss. Opp. iii. 399 c d.)
Midway between the two places cited above, Irenaeus shews how the four Gospels may be severally identified with the four living creatures described in the Apocalypse. He sees the lion in St. John, who says: “In the beginning was the Word: and ... all things were made by him: and without him was not anything made:” the flying eagle in St. Mark, because he begins his gospel with an appeal to “the prophetic spirit which comes down upon men from on high; saying, ‘The beginning of the Gospel ... as it is written in the prophets.’ Hence the Evangelists' concise and elliptical manner, which is a characteristic of prophecy” (lib. iii. cap. xi. § 8, p. 470). Such quotations as these (18 words being omitted in one case, 5 in the other) do not help us. I derive the above notice from the scholium in Evan. 238 (Matthaei's e,—N. T. ii. 21); Curzon's “73. 8.”
The lost Greek of the passage in Irenaeus was first supplied by Grabe from a MS. of the Quaestiones of Anastasius Sinaita, in the Bodleian (Barocc. 206, fol. πβ). It is the solution of the 144th Quaestio. But it is to be found in many other places besides. In Evan. 238, by the way, twelve more of the lost words of Irenaeus are found: viz. Οὔτε πλείονα τὸν ἀριθμόν, οὔτε ἀλάττονα ἀνδέχεται εἶναι τὰ εὐαγγέλια; ἐπεὶ γὰρ ... Germanus also (a.d. 715, ap. Gall. xiii. 215) quoting the place, confirms the reading ἐν τοῖς προφήταις,—which must obviously have stood in the original.