Fifth Series. Apocalypse.
53. apoc. xiii. 10. Εἴ τις αἰχμαλωσίαν συνάγει, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει. This reading of the Received text is perfectly clear; indeed, when compared with what is found in the best manuscripts, it is too simple to be true (Canon I, Chap. VIII). We read in Codd. אBC: ει (C) τις εις αιχμαλωσιαν ὑπαγει (ὑπάγῃ B), the reading also of those excellent cursives 28, 38, 79, 95, and of a manuscript of Andreas: εἰς is further omitted in 14 (sic), and in 92 its echo, in 32, 47, the Bohairic (?), Arabic (Polyglott), and a Slavonic manuscript: and so Tregelles in 1872. The sense of this reading, if admissible at all, is very harsh and elliptical; [pg 410] that of the only remaining uncial A, though apparently unsupported except by a Slavonic manuscript and the best copies of the Vulgate (am. fuld. and another known to Lachmann), looks more probable: εἴ τις εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει: “if any one is for captivity, into captivity he goeth” (Tregelles, Kelly: the latter compares Jer. xv. 2, LXX): the second εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν being omitted by Homoeoteleuton in the above-mentioned codices. Tregelles (in 1844), Lachmann, Tischendorf, Kelly, Westcott and Hort follow Cod. A, and it would seem rightly.
All other variations were devised for the purpose of supplying the ellipsis left in the uncials. For συνάγει of the common text (now that it is known not to be found in C) no Greek authority is expressly cited except Reuchlin's Cod. 1, after Andreas (whence it came into the text of Erasmus) and the recent margin of 94. The favourite form of the cursives is that printed in the Complutensian Polyglott: εἴ τις ἔχει αἰχμαλωσίαν, ὑπάγει, after P, 2, 6, 8, 13, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 37, 40, 41, 42, 48, 49, 50, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94*, 96, 97, 98, perhaps some six others, a Slavonic manuscript, Andreas in the edition of 1596. The Vulgate, the Latin version printed with the Peshitto Syriac, and Primasius in substance, read “Qui in captivitatem duxerit, in captivitatem vadet,” but (as we stated above) am. fuld. (not demid.) and the best codices omit “duxerit” and have “vadit” (Syr. ܡܘܒܥ ... ܐܙܥ or ܥܙܐ ... ܥܒܘܡ), which brings the clause into accordance with Cod. A. The Greek corresponding with the printed Vulgate is εἴ τις εἰς (33 omits εἰς) αἰχμαλωσίαν (ὑπάγει 87), εἰς (ἐς 87) αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει, 33, 35, 87. Other modes of expression (e.g. εἴ τις αἰχμαλωτίζει εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει, 7; εἴ τις αἰχμαλωτιεῖ, αἰχμαλωτισθήσεται, 18; εἴ τις αἰχμαλωτησεῖ, εἰς αἰχ. ὑπ. 36, &c.) resemble those already given, in their attempt to enlarge and soften what was originally abrupt and perhaps obscure.
We submit the two following as a pair of readings which, originating in the pure error of transcribers, have been adopted by eminent critics in their unreasonable and almost unreasoning admiration for Bengel's canon, “Proclivi orationi praestat ardua.”
54. Apoc. xv. 6. In the transparently clear clause ἐνδεδυμένοι λίνον καθαρόν Lachmann, Tregelles in his text, Westcott and Hort, [pg 411] present the variation λίθον for λίνον “arrayed with stone,” i.e. precious stone, for which καθαρόν “clean” would be no appropriate epithet. Dr. Hort (Notes, p. 139) justifies what he rightly calls “the bold image expressed by this well-attested reading” by Ezek. xxviii. 13 πάντα λίθον χρηστὸν ἐνδέδεσαι (or ἐνδέδυσαι), σάρδιον καὶ τοπάζιον κ.τ.λ., but that was said of a king of Tyre, not of the angelic host. The manifestly false λίθον is only too “well-attested” for the reputation of its advocate, AC, 38 in the margin, 48, 90, the best manuscripts of the Vulgate (am. fuld. demid. tol. lips.4.5.6, &c.), though not the printed editions. Andreas knew of the variation without adopting it: Haymo and Bede also mention both readings. Cod. א reads καθαροὺς λίνους with the Bohairic, and so helped to keep Tischendorf right: Tregelles sets this form in his margin. For λίνον or λινοῦν or λην- we have all the other manuscripts and other authorities, including BP, that excellent cursive Cod. 95, Primasius. Between the two forms with ν we should probably choose λινοῦν of B, [7], 14, 18, 92, 97, as λίνον seems to belong to the raw material in a rough state. The later Syriac has ܒܬܢܐ (or ܐܢܬܒ) (χιτῶνα), which admits of no ambiguity.
55. Apoc. xviii. 3. For πέπωκε of the Received text, or πέπωκαν of Lachmann and Tischendorf, Tregelles (whose margin has πεπτώκασιν), Westcott and Hort in their text (not margin) have πέπτωκαν. Dr. Hort has no note on this place, but treats it in his index of “Quotations from the Old Testament” as a reference to Isa. li. 17, 22 (ἡ πιοῦσα τὸ ποτήριον τῆς πτώσεως) and to Jer. xxv. 27 (πίετε καὶ μεθύσθητε ... καὶ πεσεῖσθε), with the notion of stumbling through drink. What is required to complete the parallel is some passage in the Septuagint wherein πέπτωκαν stands alone, whether τοῦ οἴνου be in the text or not, and, in the absence of such parallel, πέπτωκαν must be regarded as incredible on any evidence. Yet πέπτωκαν or the virtually identical πεπτώκασιν is found in אAC, in B, 7, 8, 14, 25, 27, 29, 91, 92, 94, 95 (πέπτωσι primâ manu), the Bohairic and Ethiopic. The alternative reading πέπωκαν or πεπώκασιν (πέπωκε 96) occurs in P, 1, 18, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 47, 48, 49, 50, 79, 87, 90, 93, 97, 98, the Latin and later Syriac. Thus the very versions are divided in a case where the omission of a single letter produces so great a change in the sense.
56. Apoc. xxi. 6. Καὶ εἶπε μοι, Γέγονε. ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω. Here the true reading Γέγοναν “They are done” (adopted, with or without εἰμι after ἐγώ, by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Kelly, Archdeacon Lee in the “Speaker's Commentary,” Westcott and Hort) is preserved by Cod. A, whose excellency is very conspicuous in the Apocalypse: its compeer C is defective here. The very valuable Apoc. 38 confirms it (γεγόνασιν), as did אc, but the whole word was afterwards erased: the interpreter of Irenaeus renders facta sunt, and this is all the support A has. The first hand of א with BP, 1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 35, 47, 48, 79, 87, 89, 91, 92 (hiat 14), 93, 96, 97, 98, the Armenian, Origen (quod mireris), Andreas, Arethas, with the Complutensian, read γέγονα, most of them omitting either the ἐγώ or the ἐγώ εἰμι which follows. Erasmus was too good a scholar to adopt from Apoc. 1 a meaning for γίγνομαι which it cannot possibly bear, and seems to have got his own reading Γέγονε (though he recognizes that of Apoc. 1 in his Annotations) from the Vulgate factum est, which is confirmed by Primasius: it probably has no Greek authority whatsoever. The Syriac printed with the Peshitto (commonly assigned to the sixth century) appears, like the hand which followed אc, to omit γέγονα, as do the Bohairic and Ethiopic versions, with lux. of the Vulgate. Those which read γέγονα yet retain the following ἐγώ (אBP, 7 and some others) obviously differ from the true reading γέγοναν by the single stroke which in uncial manuscripts was set over a letter to represent nu, especially at the end of a line, and so avoid the monstrous rendering necessarily implied in 1, 8, 93, 96, 97, 98, “I have become alpha and omega, the first and the last.” P accordingly puts the proper stop after γέγονα.
God grant that if these studies shall have made any of us better instructed in the letter of His Holy Word, we may find grace to grow, in like measure, in that knowledge which tendeth to salvation, through faith in His mercy by Christ Jesus.