Now, when it is considered that Bא confessedly represent one and the same archetype, which may very well have been of the date of Origen himself,—how is it possible to resist the conviction that these three are not independent voices, but echoes of one and the same voice? And, What if certain Codexes preserved in the library of Caesarea in Palestine[597];—Codexes which were handled in turn by Origen, by Eusebius, by Jerome, and which also furnished the archetype from which B and א were derived;—what, I say, if it shall some day come to be generally admitted, that [pg 275] those Caesarean Codexes are most probably the true fons et origo of much of our past perplexity and of our present trouble? Since “coincidence of reading infallibly implies identity of ancestry[598],” are we not even led by the hand to see that there must have existed in the famous library of Caesarea a little nest of copies credited, and justly so, with containing every “last new thing” in the way of Textual Criticism, to which Critics of the type of Origen and Jerome, and perhaps Eusebius, must have been only too fond of resorting? A few such critically corrected copies would furnish a complete explanation of every peculiarity of reading exhibited exclusively by Codexes B and א, and [fondled, perhaps with some critical cynicism, by] those three Fathers.
Yet it is to be remembered, (with reference to the place before us,) that “Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome” are not in accord here, except in reading τί με ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ?—for Eusebius differs from Origen and Jerome in proceeding with the traditional text οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἶς: while Jerome and even Origen concur with the traditional text in recognizing the epithet ἀγαθέ,—a circumstance which, as already explained, may be regarded as fatal to the formula τί με ἐρωτᾷς κ.τ.λ. which follows.
This however by the way. That so ill-supported a fraud should have imposed upon Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers of 1881, including Scrivener,—is to me unintelligible. The substituted reading is an impossible one to begin with, being inconsistent with its context. And although I hold the introduction of intrinsic probability into these inquiries to be unlawful, until the truth has been established on grounds of external evidence; yet, when that has been accomplished, not only do internal considerations claim [pg 276] a hearing, but their effect is often, as in the present case, entirely to sweep the field. It is impossible, so at least it seems to me, to survey the narrative by the light of internal probability, without being overcome by the incoherence and essential foolishness of the reading before us. This is a point which deserves attention.
1. That our Lord actually did remonstrate with the young ruler for calling Him “good,” is at least certain. Both St. Mark (x. 17, 18) and St. Luke (xviii. 18, 19) record that fact, and the text of neither is disputed. How grossly improbable then is the statement that He also reproved the young man for inviting Him to a philosophical discussion concerning τὸ ἀγαθόν,—which yet the young man clearly had not done. According to two out of the three Evangelists, if not to the third also, his question had not been about the abstract quality; but concerning the concrete thing, as a means to an end:—“What good work must I do in order that I may inherit eternal life?”—a purely practical question. Moreover, the pretended inquiry is not touched by the proposed rejoinder,—“One there is who is good,”—or “There is none good but one, that is God.” Does not the very wording of that rejoinder shew that it must needs have been preceded by the inquiry, “Why callest thou Me good?” The young man is told besides that if he desires to “inherit eternal life” he must keep God's commandments. The question and the answer in the genuine text are strictly correlative. In the fabricated text, they are at cross purposes and inconsistent with one another in a high degree.
2. Let it however be supposed for an instant that our Lord's reply actually was,—“Why askest thou Me concerning abstract goodness?” Note what results. Since it cannot be thought that such an interrogation is substantially equivalent to “Why callest thou Me good?” the saying,—if uttered at all,—must have been spoken in [pg 277] addition. Was it then spoken to the same man?—“Yes,” replies the author of Cureton's Syriac: “the rejoinder ran thus,—‘Why callest thou Me good?’ and, ‘Why askest thou Me respecting the good[599]?’ ”—“Not exactly,” remarks the author of Evan. 251, “The second of those two inquiries was interposed after the word ‘Which?’ in ver. 18.”—“Not so,” cries the author of the Gospel to the Hebrews. “The men who came to our Lord were two in number[600].” There is reason for suspecting that certain of the early heretics were of the same opinion[601]. Will not every candid reader admit that the more closely we look into the perplexed tangle before us, the more intolerable it becomes,—the more convinced we feel of its essential foolishness? And—Is it too much to hope that after this deliberate exposure of the insufficiency of the evidence on which it rests, no further efforts will be made to bolster up a reading so clearly indefensible?
Nothing more, I suppose, need be added. I have been so diffuse concerning the present place of Scripture because I ardently desire to see certain of the vexatae quaestiones in Textual Criticism fairly threshed out and settled. And this is a place which has been famous from the earliest times,—a θρυλλούμενον κεφάλαιον as Macarius Magnes (p. 12) calls it, in his reply to the heathen philosopher who had proposed it as a subject for discussion. It is (in the opinion of modern critics) “quite a test passage[602].” Tischendorf made this the subject of a separate dissertation in 1840[603]. Tregelles, who discusses it at great length[604], informs us [pg 278] that he even “relies on this one passage as supplying an argument on the whole question” which underlies his critical Recension of the Greek Text. It has caused all the Critics—Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, W.-Hort, the Revisers, even Scrivener[605], to go astray. Critics will spend their strength in vain if they seek any further to establish on a rational basis alterations made on the strength of testimony which is both restricted and is at variance with itself.
Let it be noted that our persistent appeal concerning St. Matt. xix. 17, 18 has been made to Antiquity. We reject the proposed innovation as undoubtedly spurious, because of the importance and overwhelming number of the witnesses of the second, third, and fourth centuries which come forward to condemn it; as well as because of the plain insufficiency and want of variety in the evidence which is adduced in its support. Whenever a proposed correction of the Sacred Text is insufficiently attested, and especially when that attestation is destitute of Variety,—we claim that the traditional reading shall stand.