42. 1 Tim. vi. 7. By omitting δῆλον of the Received text, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, produce a Greek sentence as inconsequential as the most thorough votaries of the “harder reading” can wish for: “For we brought nothing into the world, because neither can we carry anything out.” Dr. Hort sees, of course, that St. Paul could not reason in this fashion, and says that “The text [i.e. his text, without δῆλον] is manifestly the parent of all the other readings, which are futile attempts to smooth away its difficulty. A primitive corruption must lurk somewhere,”—and then ventures on the awkward suggestion that ΟΤΙ arose from the transcriptional repetition of the last syllable of κοσμον (ΟΝ being read as ΟΤΙ), a guess which we observe that Dr. Westcott does not care to vouch for (Notes, p. 134). But why create a difficulty at all? Cod. B, which ends in Heb. ix. 14, is now lost to us, and of the rest δῆλον is omitted in א*AFG and [pg 396] its Latin version g with copies of the Vulgate referred to by Lachmann, the Bohairic (καί for ὅτι), Sahidic; the Armenian and both Ethiopic varying with the Bohairic. Instead of δῆλον D*, m, fuld., Cyprian and the Gothic have ἀληθές, and the printed Vulgate with its codices (even f) and Ambrosiaster haud dubium, which will suit δῆλον well enough, as will ܘܕܝܥܐ (or ܐܥܝܕܘ) (et notum est) of the Syriac versions. For δῆλον itself stand א**D** (hiat E) KLP, all the cursives save one, and of the Fathers Basil, Macarius, Chrysostom, Euthalius, Theodoret, and John Damascene, evidence which we should have liked to see a little stronger.
43. Philem. 12. For ὃν ἀνέπεμψα; σὺ δὲ αὐτόν, τουτέστι τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα, προσλαβοῦ of the Received text, the critics, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles (but not his margin), Bp. Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort read ὃν ἀνέπεμψά σοι, αὐτόν, τουτέστι τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα, omitting προσλαβοῦ, which they judge to have been interpolated from ver. 17. Tregelles and Bp. Lightfoot, moreover, put a full stop after σοι, so that αὐτόν is regarded as an “accusative suspended; the sentence changes its form and loses itself in a number of dependent clauses; and the main point is not resumed till ver. 17 προσλαβοῦ αὐτὸν ὡς ἐμέ, the grammar having been meanwhile dislocated.” So Lightfoot, who vindicates the emphatic place he has assigned to αὐτόν by the not very close parallels John ix. 21, 23; Eph. i. 22. Manuscripts, of course, will not help us much in punctuation, but Codd. א*A, 17 are very good witnesses for σοι in the room of σὺ δέ and for the omission of προσλαβοῦ, a simple, although somewhat rude, construction well worthy of attention. For σοι, with or without σὺ δέ following, we have the additional support of C*DE, d e and g against its own Greek, the Clementine Vulgate and such Vulgate codices as demid. harl.2**, the Peshitto Syriac, Bohairic, Armenian, Ethiopic, &c. For the omission of προσλαβοῦ, which is of course the chief variation, besides א*A, 17 are cited F and G in the Greek but not in their Latin versions, 37 and others setting it before αὐτόν. It is found in all the rest, D**E**KLP, all other cursives, and (as might have been anticipated) the versions, as well Latin as Syriac, Bohairic (which reads as Cod. 37), Gothic, and Ethiopic: g, the Armenian and Theodoret put it after αὐτόν.
Fourth Series. Catholic Epistles.
44. James iv. 4. Μοιχοὶ καί should be omitted before μοιχαλίδες on the testimony of א*AB, 13. The Peshitto, Bohairic, Latin, Armenian, and both Ethiopic versions have “adulterers” (fornicatores ff) only, but since no Greek copy thus reads, we must suppose that their translators were startled by the bold imagery so familiar to the Hebrew prophets (Isa. liv. 5; Jer. ii. 2; Ezek. xvi. 32 are cited from a host of similar passages by Wordsworth) and endeavoured to dilute it in this way. Tischendorf would join μοιχαλίδες with δαπανήσητε ver. 3, alleging the point or stop placed after it in Cod. B: but this point is not found in Vercellone's edition, although he leaves a small space before οὐκ. The full form Μοιχοὶ καὶ μοιχαλίδες of אcKLP, the later Syriac, and all other known copies, is evidently a correction of early scribes.
45. James iv. 5. The variation between κατῴκισεν and κατῴκησεν is plainly to be attributed to a mere itacism, whichsoever is to be regarded as the true form. We find ι in אAB, 101, 104 only, nor is it quite accurate to say with Tischendorf that collators are apt to overlook such points. In KLP, and apparently in all other manuscripts of every class, η is read, and so the catenas, with Theophylact and Œcumenius, understand this difficult passage. That all the versions (Latin, Syriac, Egyptian, &c.) thus render seems decisive in favour of η. The combination of אAB, however strong, has repeatedly been seen not to be irresistible; and while it must be confessed that in our existing Greek copies the interchange of ι and η (though found in Cod. A) is not an itacism of the very oldest type (p. 10), yet here the testimony of the versions refers it back to the second century. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, combine in reading κατῴκισεν.
46. 1 Pet. i. 23. Here we have a remarkable example to illustrate what we saw in the cases of Rom. viii. 20; 2 Cor. iii. 3, Phil. ii. 1, that the chief uncials sometimes conspire in readings which are unquestionably false, and can hardly have arisen independently of each other. For σπορᾶς φθαρτῆς Codd. אAC have φθορᾶσ φθαρτῆς, the scribe's eye wandering in writing [pg 398] σπορᾶς to the beginning of the next word: Cod. B is free from this vile corruption. When Mill records the variation for Cod. A, he adds (as well he might), “dormitante scribâ:” but that the same gross error should be found in three out of the four oldest codices, and in no other, is very suggestive, and not a little perplexing to false theorists.
47. 1 Pet. iii. 15. Κύριον δὲ τὸν θεὸν ἁγιάσατε ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν. For θεόν we find χριστόν (a change of considerable doctrinal importance)[434] in אABC, 7, 8 (Stephen's ια´), 13, 33 (margin), 69, 137, 182, 184 (but not 221: see p. [310], note 2), Apost. 1 (ιν χν ἡμῶν) with its Arabic translation. Thus too read both Syriac versions, the Sahidic, Bohairic, Armenian (τὸν αὐτὸν καὶ χριστόν), Erpenius' Arabic, the Vulgate, Clement of Alexandria, Fulgentius, and Bede. Jerome has “Jesum Christum:” the Ethiopic and one other (Auctor de promiss., fourth century) omit both words. Against this very strong case we can set up for the common text only the more recent uncials KLP (not more than seven uncials contain this Epistle), the mass of later cursives (ten out of Scrivener's twelve, also Wake 12, or Cod. 193), the Polyglott Arabic, Slavonic, Theophylact, and Œcumenius, authorities of the ninth century and downwards. It is a real pleasure to me in this instance to express my cordial agreement with Tregelles (and so read Lachmann, Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort), when he says, “Thus the reading χριστόν may be relied on confidently” (An Account of the Printed Text, p. 285). I would further allege this text as one out of many proofs that the great uncials seldom or never conspire in exhibiting a really valuable departure from the later codices, unless supported by some of the best of the cursives themselves. See, however, Acts xiii. 32.
48. 2 Pet. ii. 13. The resemblance between the second epistle of St. Peter and that of St. Jude is too close to be unobserved by the most careless reader, and the supposition that the elder [pg 399] Apostle's letter was in Jude's hands when he wrote his own is that which best meets the circumstances of the case. The σπῖλοι of the present verse, for example, looks like the origin of σπιλάδες in Jude 12, where the latter word is employed in a signification almost unprecedented in classical Greek, though the Orphic poems have been cited for its bearing the sense of “spots,” which all the ancient versions rightly agree with our Authorized Bible in attributing to it. Bearing in mind the same verse of St. Jude, it seems plain that ἀπάταις of the Received text cannot be accepted as true, as well because it affords so poor a meaning in connexion with ἐντρυφῶντες and συνευωχούμενοι, as because the later writer must have seen ἀγάπαις in his model, when he paraphrased it by οἱ ἐν ταῖς ἀγάπαις ὑμῶν σπιλάδες συνευωχούμενοι. For this change of two letters we have the support of Cod. A (as corrected by the first hand) and B alone of the manuscripts, but of the versions, the Latin Speculum m which in these later epistles is strangely loose, yet cannot be misunderstood in the present place, the Vulgate, the Sahidic version, the Ethiopic, the Syriac printed with the Peshitto[435], and the margin of the Harkleian version. Add to these Ephraem and the Latin author of the tract “de singularitate clericorum,” both of the fourth century. The little group of cursives 27, 29, and the second hand of 66 read ἀγνοίαις; but ἀπάταις, nescio quo sensu[436], still [pg 400] cleaves to the text of Tischendorf and of Westcott and Hort, and to the margin of Tregelles, who in the text prefers ἀγάπαις with Lachmann and Westcott and Hort's margin. Codd. אA (in its original form) CKLP, all other cursives, the catenas (Cod. 36, &c.), the Bohairic, Armenian, and Harkleian versions also have ἀπάταις, and so Theophylact and Œcumenius, but hardly Jerome as cited by Tischendorf.
49. 1 John ii. 23. The English reader will have observed that the latter clause of this verse, “but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also,” is printed in italics in our Authorized version, this being the only instance in the New Testament wherein variety of reading is thus denoted by the translators, who derived both the words and this method of indicating their doubtful authenticity from the “Great Bible” of 1539[437]. The corresponding Greek ὁ ὁμολογῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει (which appears to have been lost out of some copies by Homoeoteleuton), was first inserted in Beza's Greek Testament in 1582[438], it is approved by all modern editors (Griesbach, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort), and, though still absent from the textus receptus, is unquestionably genuine. This is just such a point as versions are best capable of attesting. The “Great Bible” had no doubt taken the clause from the Latin Vulgate, in whose printed editions and chief manuscripts it is found (e.g. in am. fuld. demid. tol. harl.), as also in both Syriac, both Egyptian (the Sahidic not for certain), the Armenian, Ethiopic, and Erpenius' (not the Polyglott) Arabic version. Of manuscripts the great uncials אABC (with P) contain the clause, the later KL omit it. Of the cursives only two of Scrivener's (182, 225) have it, and another (183) secundâ manu: from twelve or more of them it is absent, as also from seven of Matthaei's: but of the other cursives it is present in at least thirty, whereof 3, 5, 13, 66** (marg.), 68, 69, 98 are valuable. It is also acknowledged by Clement, Origen (thrice), Eusebius, both Cyrils, Theophylact, and the Western Fathers. The younger Cyril, possibly Euthalius, and one or [pg 401] two others have ὁμολογεῖ for the final ἔχει: the Old Latin m, Cyprian, and Hilary repeat τὸν υἱὸν καί before τὸν πατέρα ἔχει. The critical skill of Beza must not be estimated very highly, yet in this instance he might well have been imitated by the Elzevir editors.
50. 1 John v. 7, 8. Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες [ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ Πατήρ, ὁ Λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα; καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι. καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῇ γῇ], τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ τὸ αἷμα; καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.