Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion"

by J. B. Lightfoot

Lower down he mentions how Irenæus 'continues with a quotation from Isaiah his own train of reasoning,' adding in the early editions—'and it might just as well be affirmed that Irenæus found the quotation from the Prophet in Papias as that which we are considering.' [56:1] As the reference to Isaiah is in the indicative, whereas the clause under consideration is in the infinitive, this was equivalent to saying that the one mood is just as good as the other, where it is a question of the direct or oblique narrative. This last sentence is tacitly removed in the fourth edition.

In the translation of the infinitive [Greek: einai de tên diastolên] we notice this difference:—

FOURTH EDITION. | EARLIER EDITIONS.
|
But … there is this distinction.' | 'But there is to be this
| distinction.'

The translation of the passage containing these oblique infinitives is followed by the author's comment, which is altered thus:—

FOURTH EDITION. | EARLIER EDITIONS. | 'Now it is impossible for anyone | 'Now it is impossible for anyone who attentively considers the whole | who attentively considers the whole of this passage, and who makes | of this passage, and who makes himself acquainted with the manner | himself acquainted with the manner in which Irenæus conducts his | in which Irenæus conducts his argument, and interweaves it _with | argument, and interweaves it with quotations, to assert that the | texts of Scripture, to doubt that phrase we are considering must | the phrase we are considering is have been taken from a book | introduced by Irenæus himself_, referred to three chapters earlier, | and is in no case a quotation and was not introduced by Irenæus | from the work of Papias.' from some other source.' |

Here the author has tacitly withdrawn an interpretation which a few weeks before he declared to be beyond the reach of doubt, and has substituted a wholly different one for it. He then proceeds:—

FOURTH EDITION. | EARLIER EDITIONS. | 'In the passage from the | 'The passage from the commencement commencement of the second | of the second paragraph (§ 2) is paragraph Irenæus enlarges upon, | an enlargement or comment on what and illustrates, what "the | the Presbyters say regarding the Presbyters say" regarding the | blessedness of the Saints, and blessedness of the Saints, by | Irenæus illustrates the distinction quoting the view held as to the | between those bearing fruit distinction between those bearing | thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and one fruit thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and | hundred-fold, so often represented one hundred-fold, and _the | in the Gospel, by the saying interpretation given of the saying_ | regarding "many mansions" being regarding "many mansions."' | prepared in Heaven.'

After this our author, in the earlier editions, quotes a number of passages from Irenæus to support his view that the words in question are direct and not oblique, because they happen to begin with [Greek: dia touto]. It is unfortunate that not one of them is in the infinitive mood, and therefore they afford no illustration of the point at issue.

'These,' he there adds, 'are all direct quotations by Irenæus, as is most certainly that which we are considering, which is introduced in precisely the same way. That this is the case is further shown etc…. and it is rendered quite certain by the fact that' etc.

All these false parallels are withdrawn in the fourth edition and the sentence is rewritten. We are now told that 'the source of his (Irenæus') quotation is quite indefinite, and may simply be the exegesis of his own day [57:1].' So then it was a quotation after all, and the old interpretation, though declared to be 'most certain' and 'quite certain' in two consecutive sentences, silently vanishes to make room for the new. But why does the author allow himself to spend nine octavo pages over the discussion of this one passage, freely altering sentence after sentence to obliterate all traces of his error, without any intimation to the reader? Had not the public a right to expect more distinctness of statement, considering that the author had been led by this error to libel the character of more than one writer? Must not anyone reading the apology to Dr Westcott, contained in the note quoted above, necessarily carry off a wholly false impression of the facts?