Not a few marginal glosses might have been dispensed with. Thus, against διδάσκαλος, upwards of 50 times stands the Annotation, “Or, teacher.”—Ἄρτος, (another word of perpetual recurrence,) is every time explained to mean “a loaf.” But is this reasonable? seeing that φαγεῖν ἄρτον (Luke xiv. 1) can mean nothing else but “to eat bread”: not to mention the petition for “daily bread” in the Lord's prayer. These learned men, however, do not spare us even when mention is made of “taking the children's bread and casting it to the dogs” (Mk. vii. 27): while in the enquiry,—“If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father” (Lu. xi. 11), “loaf” is actually thrust into the text.—We cannot understand why such marked favour has been shown to similar easy words. Δοῦλος, occurring upwards of 100 times in the New Testament, is invariably honoured (sometimes [as in Jo. xv. 15] twice in the course of the same verse) with 2 lines to itself, to explain that in Greek it is “bondservant.”—About 60 times, δαιμόνιον is explained in the margin to be “demon” in the Greek.—It has been deemed necessary 15 times to devote three lines to explain the value of “a penny.”—Whenever τέκνον is rendered “Son,” we are molested with a marginal annotation, to the effect that the Greek word means “child.” Had the Revisionists been consistent, the margins would not nearly have sufficed for the many interesting details of this [pg 180] nature with which their knowledge of Greek would have furnished them.
May we be allowed to suggest, that it would have been better worth while to explain to the unlearned that ἀρχαι in S. Peter's vision (Acts x. 11; xi. 5) in strictness means not “corners,” but “beginnings” [cf. Gen. ii. 10]:—that τὴν πρώτην (in Lu. xv. 22) is literally “the first” [cf. Gen. iii. 7] (not “the best”) “robe”:—that ἀληθινός (e.g. in Lu. xvi. 11: Jo. i. 9: vi. 32; and especially in xv. 1 and Heb. viii. 2 and ix. 24) means “very” or “real,” rather than “true”?—And when two different words are employed in Greek (as in S. Jo. xxi. 15, 16, 17:—S. Mk. vii. 33, 35, &c. &c.), would it not have been as well to try to represent them in English? For want of such assistance, no unlearned reader of S. Matth. iv. 18, 20, 21: S. Mk. i. 16, 18, 19: S. Lu. v. 2,—will ever be able to understand the precise circumstances under which the first four Apostles left their “nets.”
(3) The third group consists of Explanatory Notes required by the obscurity of the original. Such must be the annotation against S. Luke i. 15 (explanatory of “strong drink”),—“Gr. sikera.” And yet, the word (σίκερα) happens to be not Greek, but Hebrew.—On the other hand, such must be the annotation against μωρέ, in S. Matth. v. 22:—“Or, Moreh, a Hebrew expression of condemnation;” which statement is incorrect. The word proves to be not Hebrew, but Greek.—And this, against “Maran atha” in 1 Cor. xvi. 22,—“That is, Our Lord cometh:” which also proves to be a mistake. The phrase means “Our Lord is come,”—which represents a widely different notion.[559]—Surely a room-full of learned men, volunteering to put the N. T. to-rights, ought to have made more [pg 181] sure of their elementary facts before they ventured to compromise the Church of England after this fashion!—Against “the husks which the swine did eat” (Lu. xv. 16), we find, “Gr. the pods of the carob tree,”—which is really not true. The Greek word is κεράτια,—which only signifies “the pods of the carob tree,” as “French beans” signifies “the pods of the Phaseolus vulgaris.”—By the way, it is quite certain that μύλος ὀνικός [in Matth. xviii. 6 and Lu. xvii. 2 (not Mk. xi. 42)] signifies “a mill-stone turned by an ass”? Hilary certainly thought so: but is that thing at all likely? What if it should appear that μύλος ὀνικός merely denotes the upper mill-stone (λίθος μυλικός, as S. Mark calls it,—the stone that grinds), and which we know was called ὄνος by the ancients?[560]—Why is “the brook Cedron” (Jo. xviii. 1) first spelt “Kidron,” and then explained to mean “ravine of the cedars”? which “Kidron” no more means that “Kishon” means “of the ivies,”—(though the Septuagintal usage [Judges iv. 13: Ps. lxxxiii. 9] shows that τῶν κισσῶν was in its common Hellenistic designation). As for calling the Kidron “a ravine,” you might as well call “Mercury” in “Tom quad” “a lake.” “Infelictious” is the mildest epithet we can bestow upon marginal annotations crude, questionable,—even inaccurate as these.
Then further, “Simon, the son of Jona” (in S. John i. 42 and xxi. 15), is for the first time introduced to our notice by the Revisionists as “the son of John:” with an officious marginal annotation that in Greek the name is written “Ioanes.” But is it fair in the Revisers (we modestly ask) to thrust in this way the bêtises of their favourite codex b upon us? In no codex in the world except the Vatican codex b, is “Ioannes” spelt “Ioanes” in this place. Besides, the name of Simon Peter's father was not “John” at all, but “Jona,”—as appears from S. Matth. xvi. 17, and the present [pg 182] two places in S. John's Gospel; where the evidence against “Ioannes” is overwhelming. This is in fact the handy-work of Dr. Hort. But surely the office of marginal notes ought to be to assist, not to mislead plain readers: honestly, to state facts,—not, by a side-wind, to commit the Church of England to a new (and absurd) Textual theory! The actual Truth, we insist, should be stated in the margin, whenever unnecessary information is gratuitously thrust upon unlearned and unsuspicious readers.... Thus, we avow that we are offended at reading (against S. John i. 18)—“Many very ancient authorities read ‘God only begotten’ ”: whereas the “authorities” alluded to read μονογενὴς Θεός,—(whether with or without the article [ὁ] prefixed,)—which (as the Revisionists are perfectly well aware) means “the only-begotten God,” and no other thing. Why then did they not say so? Because (we answer)—they were ashamed of the expression. But to proceed.—The information is volunteered (against Matth. xxvi. 36 and Mk. xiv. 32) that χωρίον means “an enclosed piece of ground,”—which is not true. The statement seems to have proceeded from the individual who translated ἄμφοδον (in Mk. xi. 4) the “open street:” whereas the word merely denotes the “highway,”—literally the “thoroughfare.”
A very little real familiarity with the Septuagint would have secured these Revisers against the perpetual exposure which they make of themselves in their marginal Notes.—(a) Πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας, for instance, is quite an ordinary expression for “always,” and therefore should not be exhibited (in the margin of S. Matth. xxviii. 20) as a curiosity,—“Gr. all the days.”—So (b) with respect to the word αἰών, which seems to have greatly exercised the Revisionists. What need, every time it occurs, to explain that εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων means literally “unto the ages of the ages”? Surely (as in Ps. xlv. 6, quoted Heb. i. 8,) the established rendering [pg 183] (“for ever and ever”) is plain enough and needs no gloss!—Again, (c) the numeral εἰς, representing the Hebrew substitute for the indefinite article, prevails throughout the Septuagint. Examples of its use occur in the N. T. in S. Matth. viii. 19 and ix. 18;-xxvi. 69 (μία παιδίσκη), Mk. xii. 42: and in Rev. viii. 13: ix. 13: xviii. 21 and xix. 17;—where “one scribe,” “one ruler,” “one widow,” “one eagle,” “one voice,” “one angel,” are really nothing else but mistranslations. True, that εἶς is found in the original Greek: but what then? Because “une” means “one,” will it be pretended that “Tu es une bête” would be properly rendered “Thou art one beast”?
(d) Far more serious is the substitution of “having a great priest over the house of God” (Heb. x. 21), for “having an high priest:” inasmuch as this obscures “the pointed reference to our Lord as the antitype of the Jewish high priest,”—who (except in Lev. iv. 3) is designated, not ἀρχιερεύς, but either ὁ ἱερεὺς ὁ μέγας, or else ὁ ἱερεύς only,—as in Acts v. 24[561].... And (e) why are we presented with “For no word from God shall be void of power” (in S. Luke i. 37)? Seeing that the Greek of that place has been fashioned on the Septuagintal rendering of Gen. xviii. 14 (“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”[562]), we venture to think that the A. V. (“for with God nothing shall be impossible”[563]) ought to have been let alone. It cannot be mended. One is surprised to discover that among so many respectable Divines there seems not to have been one sufficiently familiar with the Septuagint to preserve his brethren from perpetually falling into such mistakes as the foregoing. We really had no idea that the Hellenistic [pg 184] scholarship of those who represented the Church and the Sects in the Jerusalem Chamber, was so inconsiderable.
Two or three of the foregoing examples refer to matters of a recondite nature. Not so the majority of the Annotations which belong to this third group; which we have examined with real astonishment—and in fact have remarked upon already. Shall we be thought hard to please if we avow that we rather desiderate “Explanatory Notes” on matters which really do call for explanation? as, to be reminded of what kind was the “net” (ἀμφίβληστρον) mentioned in Matth. iv. 18 (not 20), and Mk. i. 16 (not 18):—to see it explained (against Matth. ii. 23) that netser (the root of “Nazareth”) denotes “Branch:”—and against Matth. iii. 5; Lu. iii. 3, that ἡ περίχωρος τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, signifies “the depressed valley of the Jordan,” as the usage of the LXX. proves.[564] We should have been glad to see, against S. Lu. ix. 31,—“Gr. Exodus.”—At least in the margin, we might have been told that “Olivet” is the true rendering of Lu. xix. 29 and xxi. 37: (or were the Revisionists not aware of the fact? They are respectfully referred to the Bp. of Lincoln's note on the place last quoted.)—Nay, why not tell us (against Matth. i. 21) that “Jesus” means [not “Saviour,” but] “Jehovah is Salvation”?
But above all, surely so many learned men ought to have spared us the absurd Annotation set against “ointment of spikenard” (νάρδου πιστικῆς,) in S. Mark xiv. 3 and in S. John xii. 3. Their marginal Note is as follows:—
“Gr. pistic nard, pistic being perhaps a local name. Others take it to mean genuine; others liquid.”
Can Scholars require to be told that “liquid” is an impossible [pg 185] sense of πιστική in this place? The epithet so interpreted must be derived (like πιστός [Prom. V. v. 489]) from πίνω, and would mean drinkable: but since ointment cannot be drunk, it is certain that we must seek the etymology of the word elsewhere. And why should the weak ancient conjecture be retained that it is “perhaps a local name”? Do Divines require to have it explained to them that the one “locality” which effectually fixes the word's meaning, is its place in the everlasting Gospel?... Be silent on such lofty matters if you will, by all means; but “who are these that darken counsel by words without knowledge?” S. Mark and S. John (whose narratives by the way never touch exclusively except in this place[565]) are observed here to employ an ordinary word with lofty spiritual purpose. The pure faith (πίστις) in which that offering of the ointment was made, determines the choice of an unusual epithet (πιστικός) which shall signify “faithful” rather than “genuine,”—shall suggest a moral rather than a commercial quality: just as, presently, Mary's “breaking” the box (συντρίψασα) is designated by a word which has reference to a broken heart.[566] She “contrited” it, S. Mark says; and S. John adds a statement which implies that the Church has been rendered fragrant by her act for ever.[567] (We trust to be forgiven for having said a little more than the occasion absolutely requires.)