That this is the true history of the substitution of αναπεσων in St. John xiii. 25 for the less obvious επιπεσων is certain. Origen, who was probably the author of all the mischief, twice sets the two places side by side and elaborately compares them; in the course of which operation, by the way, he betrays the viciousness of the text which he himself employed. But what further helps to explain how easily αναπεσων might usurp the place of επιπεσων[197], is the discovery just noticed, that the ancients from the earliest period were in the habit of identifying St. John, as St. John had identified himself, by calling him 'the one that lay ('ο αναπεσων) upon the Lord's chest.' The expression, derived from St. John xxi. 20, is employed by Irenaeus[198] (A.D. 178) and by Polycrates[199] (Bp. of Ephesus A.D. 196); by Origen[200] and by Ephraim Syrus[201]: by Epiphanius[202] and by Palladius[203]: by Gregory of Nazianzus[204] and by his namesake of Nyssa[205]: by pseudo-Eusebius[206], by pseudo-Caesarius[207], and by pseudo-Chrysostom[208]. The only wonder is, that in spite of such influences all the MSS. in the world except about twenty-six have retained the true reading.
Instructive in the meantime it is to note the fate which this word has experienced at the hands of some Critics. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort, have all in turn bowed to the authority of Cod. B and Origen. Bishop Lightfoot mistranslates[209] and contends on the same side. Alford informs us that επιπεσων has surreptitiously crept in 'from St. Luke xv. 20': (why should it? how could it?) 'αναπεσων not seeming appropriate.' Whereas, on the contrary, αναπεσων is the invariable and obvious expression,—επιπεσων the unusual, and, till it has been explained, the unintelligible word. Tischendorf,—who had read επιπεσων in 1848 and αναπεσων in 1859,—in 1869 reverts to his first opinion; advocating with parental partiality what he had since met with in Cod. [Symbol: Aleph]. Is then the truth of Scripture aptly represented by that fitful beacon-light somewhere on the French coast,—now visible, now eclipsed, now visible again,—which benighted travellers amuse themselves by watching from the deck of the Calais packet?
It would be time to pass on. But because in this department of study men are observed never to abandon a position until they are fairly shelled out and left without a pretext for remaining, I proceed to shew that αναπεσων (for επιπεσων) is only one corrupt reading out of many others hereabouts. The proof of this statement follows. Might it not have been expected that the old uncials' ([Symbol: Aleph]ABCD) would exhibit the entire context of such a passage as the present with tolerable accuracy? The reader is invited to attend to the results of collation:—
xiii. 21.-ο [Symbol: Aleph]B: υμιν λεγω tr. B.
xiii. 22.-ουν BC: + οι Ιουδαιοι [Symbol: Aleph]: απορουντει D.
xiii. 23.-δε B: + εκ [Symbol: Aleph]ABCD:-ο B: + και D.
xiii. 24. (for πυθεσθαι τις αν ειη + ουτος D) και λεγει αυτω, ειπε τις εστιν BC: (for λεγει) ελεγεν [Symbol: Aleph]: + και λεγει αυτω ειπε τις εστιν περι ου λεγει [Symbol: Aleph].
xiii. 25. (for επιπεσων) αναπεσων BC:-δε BC: (for δε) ουν [Symbol: Aleph]D; -ουτος [Symbol: Aleph]AD.
xiii. 26. + ουν BC: + αυτω D:—ο B: + και λεγει [Symbol: Aleph]BD: + αν D: (for βαψας) εμβαψας AD: βαψω ... και δωσω αυτω BC: + ψωμου (after ψωμιον) C: (for εμβαψας) βαψας D: (for και εμβαψας) βαψας ουν [Symbol: Aleph]BC: -το B: + λαμβανει και BC: Ισκαριωτου [Symbol: Aleph]BC: απο Καρυωτου D.
xiii. 27.-τοτε [Symbol: Aleph]:-μετα το ψωμιον τοτε D: (for λεγει ουν) και λεγει D:-ο B.