It will be seen how slenderly B is supported; and yet we can hardly resist the impression that it has the right reading in all three cases. In the omission of πνευματικαῖς more especially, where the support is weakest, this impression must, I think, be very strong.
Excellence of B elsewhere.
This highly favourable estimate of B is our starting-point; and on the whole it will be enhanced as we proceed. Thus for instance in i. 22 and ii. 2 we shall find this MS alone (with one important Latin father) retaining the correct text; in the latter case amidst a great complication of various readings. And when again, as in iv. 8, we find B for once on the side of a reading which might otherwise be suspected as a harmonistic change, this support alone will weigh heavily in its favour. Other cases in which B (with more or less support) preserves the correct reading against the mass of authorities are ii. 2 πᾶν πλοῦτος, ii. 7 τῇ πίστει, ii. 13 τοῖς παραπτώμασιν (omitting ἐν), v. 12 σταθῆτε, together with several instances which will appear in the course of the following investigation. On the other hand its value must not be overestimated. |False readings in B.|Thus in iv. 3 τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ δι’ ὃ καὶ δέδεμαι[[536]] there can be little doubt that the great majority of ancient authorities correctly read δι’ ὅ, though B F G have δι’ ὅν: but the variation is easily explained. A single stroke, whether accidental or deliberate, alone would be necessary to turn the neuter into a masculine and make the relative agree with the substantive nearest to it in position. Again in ii. 10 ὅς ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλή, the reading of B which substitutes ὅ for ὅς is plainly wrong, though supported in this instance by D F G 47*, by the Latin text d, and by Hilary in one passage (de Trin. ix. 8, II. p. 263), though elsewhere (ib. i. 13, I. p. 10) he reads ὅ. But here again we have only an instance of a very common interchange. Whether for grammatical reasons or from diplomatic confusion or from some other cause, five other instances of this interchange occur in this short epistle alone; i. 15 ὅ for ὅς F G; i. 18 ὅ for ὅς F G; i. 24 ὅς for ὅ C D* etc.; i. 27 ὅς for ὅ א C D K L etc.; iii. 14 ὅς for ὅ א* D. Such readings again as the omission of καὶ αἰτούμενοι i. 9 by B K, or of δι’ αὐτοῦ in i. 20 by B D* F G etc., or of ἡ ἐπιστολή in iv. 16 by B alone, need not be considered, since the motive for the omission is obvious, and the authority of B will not carry as great weight as it would in other cases. Similarly the insertion of ἡ in i. 18, ἡ ἀρχή, by B, 47, 67**, bscr, and of καί in ii. 15, καὶ ἐδειγμάτισεν, by B alone, do not appear to deserve consideration, because in both instances these readings would suggest themselves as obvious improvements. In other cases, as in the omission of τῆς before γῆς (i. 20), and of ἑνί in ἐν ἑνί σώματι (iii. 15), the scribe of B has erred as any scribe might err.
The various readings in this epistle are more perplexing than perhaps in any portion of St Paul’s Epistles of the same length. The following deserve special consideration.
i. 3 τῷ θεῷ πατρί.
i. 3 τῷ θεῷ πατρί,]
On this very unusual collocation I have already remarked in the notes (p. [199]). The authorities stand as follows:
(1) τῷ θεῷ πατρί B C*.
(2) τῷ θεῷ τῷ πατρί D* F G Chrysostom.