XLIII. We are not suffered to remain long in a state of suspense. The assurance awaits us (at p. 150), that the Vatican codex,
“b—is found to hold a unique position. Its text is throughout Pre-Syrian, perhaps purely Pre-Syrian.... From distinctively Western readings it seems to be all but entirely free.... We have not been able to recognize as Alexandrian any readings of b in any book of the New Testament.... So that ... neither of the early streams of innovation has touched it to any appreciable extent.”—(p. 150.)
“The text of the Sinaitic codex (א)” also “seems to be entirely, or all but entirely, Pre-Syrian. A very large part of the text is in like manner free from Western or Alexandrian elements.”—(p. 151.)
“Every other known Greek manuscript has either a mixed or a Syrian text.”—(p. 151.)
Thus then, at last, at the end of exactly 150 weary pages, the secret comes out! The one point which the respected [pg 301] Editors are found to have been all along driving at:—the one aim of those many hazy disquisitions of theirs about “Intrinsic and Transcriptional Probability,”—“Genealogical evidence, simple and divergent,”—and “the study of Groups:”—the one reason of all their vague terminology,—and of their baseless theory of “Conflation,”—and their disparagement of the Fathers:—the one raison d'être of their fiction of a “Syrian” and a “Pre-Syrian” and a “Neutral” text:—the secret of it all comes out at last! A delightful, a truly Newtonian simplicity characterizes the final announcement. All is summed up in the curt formula—Codex b!
Behold then the altar at which Copies, Fathers, Versions, are all to be ruthlessly sacrificed:—the tribunal from which there shall be absolutely no appeal:—the Oracle which is to silence every doubt, resolve every riddle, smooth away every difficulty. All has been stated, where the name has been pronounced of—codex b. One is reminded of an enegmatical epitaph on the floor of the Chapel of S. John's College, “Verbum non amplius—Fisher”! To codex b all the Greek Fathers after Eusebius must give way. Even Patristic evidence of the ante-Nicene period “requires critical sifting” (p. 202),—must be distrusted, may be denied (pp. 202-5),—if it shall be found to contradict Cod. b! “b very far exceeds all other documents in neutrality of Text.”—(p. 171.)
XLIV. “At a long interval after B, but hardly a less interval before all other MSS., stands א” (p. 171).—Such is the sum of the matter!... A coarser,—a clumsier,—a more unscientific,—a more stupid expedient for settling the true Text of Scripture was surely never invented! But for the many foggy, or rather unreadable disquisitions with which the Introduction is encumbered, “Textual Criticism made easy,” might well have been the title of the little [pg 302] volume now under Review; of which at last it is discovered that the general Infallibility of Codex b is the fundamental principle. Let us however hear these learned men out.
XLV. They begin by offering us a chapter on the “General relations of b and א to other documents:” wherein we are assured that,—
“Two striking facts successively come out with especial clearness. Every group containing both א and b, is found ... to have an apparently more original Text than every opposed group containing neither; and every group containing b ... is found in a large preponderance of cases ... to have an apparently more original Text than every opposed group containing א.”—(p. 210.)
“Is found”! but pray,—By whom? And “apparently”! but pray,—To whom? and On what grounds of Evidence? For unless it be on certain grounds of Evidence, how can it be pretended that we have before us “two striking facts”?