§ 3.
Our Saviour's lament over Jerusalem (“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!”) is just one of those delicately articulated passages which are safe to suffer by the process of transmission. Survey St. Luke's words (xix. 42), Εἰ ἔγνως καὶ σύ, καί γε ἐν τῇ ἡμερᾳ σου ταύτῃ, τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην σου,—and you will perceive at a glance that the vulnerable point in the sentence, so to speak, is καὶ σύ, καί γε. In the meanwhile, attested as those words are by the Old Latin[300] and by Eusebius[301], as well as witnessed to by the whole body of the copies beginning with Cod. A and including the lost original of 13-69-124-346 &c.,—the very order of those words is a thing quite above suspicion. Even Tischendorf admits this. He retains the traditional reading in every respect. Eusebius however twice writes καί γε σύ[302]; once, καὶ σύ γε[303]; and once he drops καί γε entirely[304]. Origen drops it 3 times[305]. Still, there is at least a general consensus among Copies, Versions and Fathers for beginning the sentence with the characteristic words, εἰ ἔγνως καὶ σύ; the phrase being [pg 208] witnessed to by the Latin, the Bohairic, the Gothic, and the Harkleian Versions; by Irenaeus[306],—by Origen[307],—by ps.-Tatian[308],—by Eusebius[309],—by Basil the Great[310],—by Basil of Seleucia[311],—by Cyril[312].
What then is found in the three remaining Uncials, for C is defective here? D exhibits ει εγνως και συ, εν τη ημερα ταυτη, τα προς ειρηνην σοι: being supported only by the Latin of Origen in one place[313]. Lachmann adopts this reading all the same. Nothing worse, it must be confessed, has happened to it than the omission of καί γε, and of the former σου. But when we turn to Bא, we find that they and L, with Origen once[314], and the Syriac heading prefixed to Cyril's homilies on St. Luke's Gospel[315], exclusively exhibit,—ει εγνως εν τη ημερα ταυτη και συ τα προς ειρηνην: thus, not only omitting καί γε, together with the first and second σου, but by transposing the words καὶ σύ—ἐν τῇ ἡμερᾳ ταύτῃ, obliterating from the passage more than half its force and beauty. This maimed and mutilated exhibition of our Lord's words, only because it is found in Bא, is adopted by W.-Hort, who are in turn followed by the Revisers[316]. The Peshitto by the way omits καὶ σύ, and transposes the two clauses which remain[317]. The Curetonian Syriac runs wild, as usual, and the Lewis too[318].
Amid all this conflict and confusion, the reader's attention is invited to the instructive fact that the whole body of cursive copies (and all the uncials but four) have retained [pg 209] in this passage all down the ages uninjured every exquisite lineament of the inspired archetype. The truth, I say, is to be found in the cursive copies, not in the licentious BאDL, which as usual stand apart from one another and from A. Only in respect of the first σου is there a slight prevarication on the part of a very few witnesses[319]. Note however that it is overborne by the consent of the Syriac, the Old Latin and the Gothic, and further that the testimony of ps.-Tatian is express on this head[320]. There is therefore nothing to be altered in the traditional text of St. Luke xix. 42, which furnishes an excellent instance of fidelity of transmission, and of an emphatic condemnation of B-א.