And although these two facts certainly prove nothing in and by themselves, yet, when brought close alongside of the problem which has to be solved, their significancy becomes immediately apparent: for,
(3rdly.) As a matter of fact, there are found to have existed before the time of Eusebius, copies of S. Mark's Gospel which did come to an end at this very place. Now, that the Evangelist left off there, no one can believe.[430] Why, then, did the Scribe leave off? But the Reader is already in possession of the reason why. A sufficient explanation of the difficulty has been elicited from the very MSS. themselves. And surely when, suspended to an old chest which has been locked up for ages, a key is still hanging which fits the lock exactly and enables men to open the chest with ease, they are at liberty to assume that the key belongs to the lock; is, in fact, the only instrument by which the chest may lawfully be opened.
XI. And now, in conclusion, I propose that we summon back our original Witness, and invite him to syllable his evidence afresh, in order that we may ascertain if perchance it affords any countenance whatever to the view which I have been advocating. Possible at least it is that in the Patristic record that copies of S. Mark's Gospel were anciently defective from the 8th verse onwards some vestige may be discoverable of the forgotten truth. Now, it has been already fully shewn that it is a mistake to introduce into this discussion any other name but that of Eusebius.[431] Do, then, the terms in which Eusebius alludes to this matter lend us any assistance? Let us have the original indictment read over to us once more: and this time we are bound to listen to every word of it with the utmost possible attention.
1. A problem is proposed for solution. “There are two ways of solving it,” (Eusebius begins):—ὁ μὲν γὰρ [τὸ κεφάλαιον αὐτὸ] τὴν τοῦτο φάσκουσαν περικοπὴν ἀθετῶν, εἔποι ἀν μὴ ἐν ἅπασιν αὐτην φέρεσθαι τοῖς ἀντιγράφοις τοῦ κατὰ Μάρκον εὐαγγελίου: τὰ γοῦν ἀκριβῆ τῶν ἀντιγράφων ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ περιγράφει τῆς κατὰ τὸν Μάρκον ἱστορίας ἐν τοῖς λόγοις κ.τ.λ. οἶς ἐπιλέγει, “καὶ οὐδενὶ οὐδὲν εἶπον, ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ.” Ἐν τούτῳ σχεδὸν ἐν ἅπασι τοῖς ἀντιγράφοις τοῦ κατά Μάρκον εὐαγγελίου περιγέγραπται ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ[432] ... Let us halt here for one moment.
2. Surely, a new and unexpected light already begins to dawn upon this subject! How is it that we paid so little attention before to the terms in which this ancient Father delivers his evidence, that we overlooked the import of an expression of his which from the first must have struck us as peculiar, but which now we perceive to be of paramount significancy? Eusebius is pointing out that one way for a man (so minded) to get rid of the apparent inconsistency between S. Mark xvi. 9 and S. Matth. xxviii. 1, would be for him to reject the entire “Ecclesiastical Lection”[433] in which S. Mark xvi. 9 occurs. Any one adopting this course, (he proceeds; and it is much to be noted that Eusebius is throughout delivering the imaginary sentiments of another,—not his own:) Such an one (he says) “will say that it is not met with in all the copies of S. Mark's Gospel. The accurate copies, at all events,”—and then follows an expression in which this ancient Critic is observed ingeniously to accommodate his language to the phenomenon which he has to describe, so as covertly to insinuate something else. Eusebius employs an idiom (it is found elsewhere in his writings) sufficiently colourless to have hitherto failed to arouse attention; but of which it is impossible to overlook the actual design and import, after all that has gone before. He clearly recognises the very phenomenon to which I have been calling [pg 234] attention within the last two pages, and which I need not further insist upon or explain: viz. that the words ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ were in some very ancient (“the accurate”) copies found written after ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ: although to an unsuspicious reader the expression which he uses may well seem to denote nothing more than that the second Gospel generally came to an end there.
3. And now it is time to direct attention to the important bearing of the foregoing remark on the main point at issue. The true import of what Eusebius has delivered, and which has at last been ascertained, will be observed really to set his evidence in a novel and unsuspected light. From the days of Jerome, it has been customary to assume that Eusebius roundly states that, in his time almost all the Greek copies were without our “last Twelve Verses” of S. Mark's Gospel:[434] whereas Eusebius really does nowhere say so. He expresses himself enigmatically, resorting to a somewhat unusual phrase[435] which perhaps admits of no exact English counterpart: but what he says clearly amounts to no more than this,—that “the accurate copies, at the words ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ, circumscribe the end (ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ) of Mark's narrative:” that there, “in almost all the Copies of the Gospel according to Mark, is circumscribed the end.” He says no more. He does not say that there “is circumscribed the Gospel.” As for the twelve verses which follow, he merely declares that they were “not met with in all the copies;” i.e. that some copies did not contain them. But this, so far from being [pg 235] a startling statement, is no more than what Codd. B and א in themselves are sufficient to establish. In other words, Eusebius, (whose testimony on this subject as it is commonly understood is so extravagant [see above, p. [48-9],] as to carry with it its own sufficient refutation,) is found to bear consistent testimony to the two following modest propositions; which, however, are not adduced by him as reasons for rejecting S. Mark xvi. 9-20, but only as samples of what might be urged by one desirous of shelving a difficulty suggested by their contents;—
(1st.) That from some ancient copies of S. Mark's Gospel these last Twelve Verses were away.
(2nd.) That in almost all the copies,—(whether mutilated or not, he does not state,)—the words ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ were found immediately after ver. 8; which, (he seems to hint,) let those who please accept as evidence that there also is the end of the Gospel.
4. But I cannot dismiss the testimony of Eusebius until I have recorded my own entire conviction that this Father is no more an original authority here than Jerome, or Hesychius, or Victor.[436] He is evidently adopting the language of some more ancient writer than himself. I observe that he introduces the problem with the remark that what follows is one of tho questions “for ever mooted by every body.”[437] I suspect (with Matthaei, [suprà, p. [66],]) that Origen is the true author of all this confusion. He certainly relates of himself that among his voluminous exegetical writings was a treatise on S. Mark's Gospel.[438] To Origen's works, Eusebius, (his [pg 236] apologist and admirer,) is known to have habitually resorted; and, like many others, to have derived not a few of his notions from that fervid and acute, but most erratic intellect. Origen's writings in short, seem to have been the source of much, if not most of the mistaken Criticism of Antiquity. (The reader is reminded of what has been offered above at p. [96-7]). And this would not be the first occasion on which it would appear that when an ancient Writer speaks of “the accurate copies”, what he actually means is the text of Scripture which was employed or approved by Origen.[439] The more attentively the language of Eusebius in this place is considered, the more firmly (it is thought) will the suspicion be entertained that he is here only reproducing the sentiments of another person. But, however this may be, it is at least certain that the precise meaning of what he says, has been hitherto generally overlooked. He certainly does not say, as Jerome, from his loose translation of the passage,[440] evidently imagined,—“omnibus [pg 237] Graeciae libris pene hoc capitulum in fine non habentibus:” but only,—“non in omnibus Evangelii exemplaribus hoc capitulum inveniri;” which is an entirely different thing. Eusebius adds,—“Accuratiora saltem exemplaria finem narrationis secundum Marcum circumscribunt in verbis ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ;”—and, “In hoc, fere in omnibus exemplaribus Evangelii secundum Marcum, finem circumscribi.”—The point, however, of greatest interest is, that Eusebius here calls attention to the prevalence in MSS. of his time of the very liturgical peculiarity which plainly supplies the one true solution of the problem under discussion. His testimony is a marvellous corroboration of what we learn from Cod. 22, (see above, p. [230],) and, rightly understood, does not go a whit beyond it.
5. What wonder that Hesychius, because he adopted blindly what he found in Eusebius, should at once betray his author and exactly miss the point of what his author says? Τὸ κατὰ Μάρκον εὐαγγέλιον (so he writes) μέχρι τοῦ “ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ,” ἔχει ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ.[441]