1: 450.
2: 500.
16 (say): 650 to a.d. 850.
1470: 850 to a.d. 1350.
And the question to which I invite the reader to render an answer is this:—By what process of reasoning, apart from an appeal to other authorities, (which we are going to make by-and-by), can it be thought credible that the few witnesses shall prove the trustworthy guides,—and the many witnesses the deceivers?
Now those many MSS. were executed demonstrably at different times in different countries. They bear signs in their many hundreds of representing the entire area of the Church, except where versions were used instead of copies in the original Greek. Many of them were written in monasteries where a special room was set aside for such copying. Those who were in trust endeavoured with the utmost pains and jealousy to secure accuracy in the transcription. Copying was a sacred art. And yet, of multitudes of them that survive, hardly any have been copied from any of the rest. On the contrary, they are discovered to differ among themselves in countless unimportant particulars; and every here and there single copies exhibit idiosyncrasies which are altogether startling and extraordinary. There has therefore demonstrably been no collusion—no assimilation [pg 047] to an arbitrary standard,—no wholesale fraud. It is certain that every one of them represents a MS., or a pedigree of MSS., older than itself; and it is but fair to suppose that it exercises such representation with tolerable accuracy. It can often be proved, when any of them exhibit marked extravagancy, that such extravagancy dates back as far as the second or third century. I venture to think—and shall assume until I find that I am mistaken—that, besides the Uncials, all the cursive copies in existence represent lost Codexes of great antiquity with at least the same general fidelity as Ev. 1, 33, 69, which enjoy so much favour in some quarters only because they represent lost MSS. demonstrably of the same general type as Codd. אBD[30].
It will be seen that the proofs in favour of Number being a recognized and powerful Note of Truth are so strong, that nothing but the interests of an absorbing argument can prevent the acknowledgement of this position. It is doubtless inconvenient to find some 1490 witnesses contravening some ten, or if you will, twenty favourites: but Truth is imperative and knows nothing of the inconvenience or convenience of Critics.
8. When therefore the great bulk of the witnesses,—in the proportion suppose of a hundred or even fifty to one,—yield unfaltering testimony to a certain reading; and the remaining little handful of authorities, while advocating a different reading, are yet observed to be unable to agree among themselves as to what that different reading shall precisely be,—then that other reading concerning which all that discrepancy of detail is observed to exist, may be regarded as certainly false.
I will now give an instance of the general need of the testimony of Number being added to Antiquity, in order to establish a Reading.
There is an obscure expression in the Epistle to the Hebrews,—Alford speaks of it as “almost a locus desperatus”—which illustrates the matter in hand not unaptly. The received reading of Heb. iv. 2,—“not being mixed [viz. the word preached] with faith in them that heard it,”—is supported by the united testimony of the Peshitto and of the Latin versions[31]. Accordingly, the discovery that א also exhibits συγκεκερασμενος determined Tischendorf, who however stands alone with Scholz, to retain in this place the singular participle. And confessedly the note of Antiquity it enjoys in perfection; as well as yields a sufficiently intelligible sense. But then unfortunately it proves to be incredible that St. Paul can have been the author of the expression[32]. All the known copies but four[33] read not συγκεκραμένος but -μένους. So do all the Fathers who are known to quote the place[34]:—Macarius[35], Chrysostom[36], Theodorus of Mopsuestia[37], Cyril[38], Theodoret[39], Damascene[40], Photius[41], Theophylactus[42], Oecumenius[43]. The testimony of four of the older of these is even express: and such an amount of evidence is decisive. But we are [pg 049] able to add that of the Harkleian, Bohairic, Ethiopic, and Armenian versions. However uncongenial therefore the effort may prove, there can be no doubt at all that we must henceforth read here,—“But the word listened to did not profit them, because they were not united in respect of faith with those who listened [and believed]”: or words to that effect[44]. Let this then be remembered as a proof that, besides even the note of Variety to some extent super-added to that of Antiquity, it must further be shewn on behalf of any reading which claims to be authentic, that it enjoys also the support of a multitude of witnesses: in other words that it has the note of Number as well[45].