IX. Now because, on the one hand, it would be unreasonable to fill up the space at our disposal with details which none but professed students will care to read;—and because, on the other, we cannot afford to pass by anything in these pages which pretends to be of the nature of proof;—we have consigned our account of Dr. Hort's 8 instances of Conflation (which prove to be less than 7) to the foot of the page.[717]
And, after an attentive survey of the Textual phenomena connected with these 7 specimens, we are constrained to [pg 260] assert that the interpretation put upon them by Drs. Westcott and Hort, is purely arbitrary: a baseless imagination,—a [pg 261] dream and nothing more. Something has been attempted analogous to the familiar fallacy, in Divinity, of building a [pg 262] false and hitherto unheard-of doctrine on a few isolated places of Scripture, divorced from their context. The actual facts of the case shall be submitted to the judgement of learned and unlearned Readers alike: and we promise beforehand to abide by the unprejudiced verdict of either:—
(a) S. Mark's Gospel is found to contain in all 11,646 words: of which (collated with the Traditional Text) a omits 138: b, 762: א, 870: d, 900.—S. Luke contains 19,941 words: of which a omits 208: b, 757; א, 816: d, no less than 1552. (Let us not be told that the traditional Text is itself not altogether trustworthy. That is a matter entirely beside the question just now before the Reader,—as we have already, over and over again, had occasion to explain.[718] Codices must needs all alike be compared with something,—must perforce all alike be referred to some one common standard: and we, for our part, are content to employ (as every Critic has been content before us) the traditional Text, as the most convenient standard that can be named. So employed, (viz. as a standard of comparison, not of excellence,) the commonly Received Text, more conveniently than any other, reveals—certainly does not occasion—different degrees of discrepancy. And now, to proceed.)
(b) Dr. Hort has detected four instances in S. Mark's Gospel, only three in S. Luke's—seven in all—where Codices b א and d happen to concur in making an omission at the same place, but not of the same words. We shall probably be best understood if we produce an instance of the thing spoken of: and no fairer example can be imagined than the last of the eight, of which Dr. Hort says,—“This simple instance needs no explanation” (p. 104). Instead of αἰνοῦντες καὶ εὐλογοῦντες,—(which is the reading of every known copy of the Gospels except five,)—א b c l exhibit only εὐλογοῦντες: d, only αἰνοῦντες. (To speak quite accurately, א b c l omit αἰνοῦντες καί and are followed by Westcott and Hort: d omits καὶ εὐλογοῦντες, and is followed by Tischendorf. Lachmann declines to follow either. Tregelles doubts.)
(c) Now, upon this (and the six other instances, which however prove to be a vast deal less apt for their purpose than the present), these learned men have gratuitously built up the following extravagant and astonishing theory:—
(d) They assume,—(they do not attempt to prove: in fact they never prove anything:)—(1) That αἰνοῦντες καί—and καὶ εὐλογοῦντες—are respectively fragments of two independent Primitive Texts, which they arbitrarily designate as “Western” and “Neutral,” respectively:—(2) That the latter of the two, [only however because it is vouched for by b and א,] must needs exhibit what the Evangelist actually wrote: [though why it must, these learned men forget to explain:]—(3) That in the middle of the IIIrd and of the IVth century the two Texts referred to were with design and by authority welded together, and became (what the same irresponsible Critics are pleased to call) the “Syrian text.”—(4) That αἰνοῦντες καὶ εὐλογοῦντες, being thus shown [?] to be “a Syrian Conflation,” may be rejected at once. (Notes, p. 73.)
X. But we demur to this weak imagination, (which only by courtesy can be called “a Theory,”) on every ground, and are constrained to remonstrate with our would-be Guides at every step. They assume everything. They prove nothing. And the facts of the case lend them no favour at all. For first,—We only find εὐλογοῦντες standing alone, in two documents of the IVth century, in two of the Vth, and in one of the VIIIth: while, for αἰνοῦντες standing alone, the only Greek voucher producible is a notoriously corrupt copy of the VIth century. True, that here a few copies of the old Latin side with d: but then a few copies also side with the traditional Text: and Jerome is found to have adjudicated between their rival claims in favour of the latter. The probabilities of the case are in fact simply overwhelming; for, since d omits 1552 words out of 19,941 (i.e. about one word in 13), why may not καὶ εὐλογοῦντες be two of the words it omits,—in which case there has been no “Conflation”?
Nay, look into the matter a little more closely:—(for surely, before we put up with this queer illusion, it is our duty to look it very steadily in the face:)—and note, that in this last chapter of S. Luke's Gospel, which consists of 837 words, no less than 121 are omitted by cod. d. To state the case differently,—d is observed to leave out one word in seven in the very chapter of S. Luke which supplies the instance of “Conflation” under review. What possible significance therefore can be supposed to attach to its omission of the clause καὶ εὐλογοῦντες? And since, mutatis mutandis, the same remarks apply to the 6 remaining cases,—(for one, viz. the [7th], is clearly an oversight,)—will any Reader of ordinary fairness and intelligence be surprised to hear that we reject the assumed “Conflation” unconditionally, as a silly dream? It is founded entirely upon the omission of 21 (or at most 42) words out of a total of 31,587 from Codd. b א d. And [pg 265] yet it is demonstrable that out of that total, b omits 1519: א, 1686: d, 2452. The occasional coincidence in Omission of b + א and d, was in a manner inevitable, and is undeserving of notice. If,—(which is as likely as not,)—on six occasions, b + א and d have but omitted different words in the same sentence, then there has been no “Conflation”; and the (so-called) “Theory,” which was to have revolutionized the Text of the N. T., is discovered to rest absolutely upon nothing. It bursts, like a very thin bubble: floats away like a film of gossamer, and disappears from sight.
But further, as a matter of fact, at least five out of the eight instances cited,—viz. the [1st], [2nd], [5th], [6th], [7th],—fail to exhibit the alleged phenomena: conspicuously ought never to have been adduced. For, in the [1st], d merely abridges the sentence: in the [2nd], it paraphrases 11 words by 11; and in the [6th], it paraphrases 12 words by 9. In the [5th], b d merely abridge. The utmost residuum of fact which survives, is therefore as follows:—
[3rd]. In a sentence of 11 words, b א omit 4: d other 4.