We shall perhaps be told that, scandalously corrupt as the text of א b c d hereabouts may be, no reason has been shown as yet for suspecting that heretical depravation ever had anything to do with such phenomena. That (we answer) is only because the writings of the early depravers and fabricators of Gospels have universally perished. From the slender relics of their iniquitous performances which have survived to our time, we are sometimes able to lay our finger on a foul blot and to say, “This came from Tatian's Diatessaron; and that from Marcion's mutilated recension of the Gospel according to S. Luke.” The piercing of our Saviour's side, transplanted by codices א b c from S. John xix. 34 into S. Matt, xxvii. 49, is an instance of the former,—which it may reasonably create astonishment to find that Drs. Westcott and Hort (alone among Editors) have nevertheless admitted into their text, as equally trustworthy with the last 12 verses of S. Mark's Gospel. But it occasions a stronger sentiment than surprise to discover that this, “the gravest interpolation yet laid to the charge of b,”—this “sentence which neither they nor any other competent scholar can possibly believe that the Evangelist ever wrote,”[73]—has been [pg 034] actually foisted into the margin of the Revised Version of S. Matthew xxvii. 49. Were not the Revisionists aware that such a disfigurement must prove fatal to their work? For whose benefit is the information volunteered that “many ancient authorities” are thus grossly interpolated?
An instructive specimen of depravation follows, which can be traced to Marcion's mutilated recension of S. Luke's Gospel. We venture to entreat the favour of the reader's sustained attention to the license with which the Lord's Prayer as given in S. Luke's Gospel (xi. 2-4), is exhibited by codices א a b c d. For every reason one would have expected that so precious a formula would have been found enshrined in the “old uncials” in peculiar safety; handled by copyists of the IVth, Vth, and VIth centuries with peculiar reverence. Let us ascertain exactly what has befallen it:—
(a) d introduces the Lord's Prayer by interpolating the following paraphrase of S. Matt. vi. 7:—“Use not vain repetitions as the rest: for some suppose that they shall be heard by their much speaking. But when ye pray” ... After which portentous exordium,
(b) b א omit the 5 words, “Our” “which art in heaven,” Then,
(c) d omits the article (τό) before “name:” and supplements the first petition with the words “upon us” (ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς). It must needs also transpose the words “Thy Kingdom” (ἡ βασιλεία σου).
(d) b in turn omits the third petition,—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, also on the earth;” which 11 words א retains, but adds “so” before “also,” and omits the article (τῆς); finding for once an ally in a c d.
(e) א d for δίδου write δός (from Matt.).
(f) א omits the article (τό) before “day by day.” And,
(g) d, instead of the 3 last-named words, writes “this day” (from Matt.): substitutes “debts” (τὰ ὀφειλήματα) for “sins” (τὰ [pg 035] ἁμαρτήματα,—also from Matt.): and in place of “for [we] ourselves” (καὶ γὰρ αὐτοί) writes “as also we” (ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς, again from Matt.).—But,
(h) א shows its sympathy with d by accepting two-thirds of this last blunder: exhibiting “as also [we] ourselves” (ὡς καὶ αὐτοί).