The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels

by John William Burgon

Chapter VI. The Antiquity Of The Traditional Text. II. Witness of the Early Syriac Versions.

The rise of Christianity and the spread of the Church in Syria was startling in its rapidity. Damascus and Antioch shot up suddenly into prominence as centres of Christian zeal, as if they had grown whilst men slept.

The arrangement of places and events which occurred during our Lord's Ministry must have paved the way to this success, at least as regards principally the nearer of the two cities just mentioned. Galilee, the scene of the first year of His Ministry—“the acceptable year of the Lord”—through its vicinity to Syria was admirably calculated for laying the foundation of such a development. The fame of His miracles and teaching extended far into the country. Much that He said and did happened on the Syrian side of the Sea of Galilee. Especially was this the case when, after the death of John the Baptist had shed consternation in the ranks of His followers, and the Galilean populace refused to accompany Him in His higher teaching, and the wiles of Herod were added as a source of apprehension to the bitter opposition of Scribes and Pharisees, He spent some months between the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in the north and north-east of Palestine. If Damascus was not one of the “ten cities[145],” yet the report [pg 124] of His twice feeding thousands, and of His stay at Caesarea Philippi and in the neighbourhood[146] of Hermon, must have reached that city. The seed must have been sown which afterwards sprang up men knew not how.

Besides the evidence in the Acts of the Apostles, according to which Antioch following upon Damascus became a basis of missionary effort hardly second to Jerusalem, the records and legends of the Church in Syria leave but little doubt that it soon spread over the region round about. The stories relating to Abgar king of Edessa, the fame of St. Addaeus or Thaddaeus as witnessed particularly by his Liturgy and “Doctrine,” and various other Apocryphal Works[147], leave no doubt about the very early extension of the Church throughout Syria. As long as Aramaic was the chief vehicle of instruction, Syrian Christians most likely depended upon their neighbours in Palestine for oral and written teaching. But when—probably about the time of the investment of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus and the temporary removal of the Church's centre to Pella—through the care of St. Matthew and the other [pg 125] Evangelists the Gospel was written in Greek, some regular translation was needed and doubtless was made.

So far both Schools of Textual Criticism are agreed. The question between them is, was this Translation the Peshitto, or was it the Curetonian? An examination into the facts is required: neither School has any authority to issue decrees.

The arguments in favour of the Curetonian being the oldest form of the Syriac New Testament, and of the formation of the Peshitto in its present condition from it, cannot be pronounced to be strong by any one who is accustomed to weigh disputation. Doubtless this weakness or instability may with truth be traced to the nature of the case, which will not yield a better harvest even to the critical ingenuity of our opponents. May it not with truth be said to be a symptom of a feeble cause?

Those arguments are mainly concerned with the internal character of the two texts. It is asserted[148] (1) that the Curetonian was older than the Peshitto which was brought afterwards into closer proximity with the Greek. To this we may reply, that the truth of this plea depends upon the nature of the revision thus claimed[149]. Dr. Hort was perfectly logical when he suggested, or rather asserted dogmatically, that such a drastic revision as was necessary for turning the Curetonian into the Peshitto was made in the third century at Edessa or Nisibis. The difficulty lay in his manufacturing history to suit his purpose, instead of following it. The fact is, that the internal difference between the text of the Curetonian and the Peshitto is so great, that the former could only have arisen in very queer times such as the earliest, when inaccuracy and looseness, [pg 126] infidelity and perverseness, might have been answerable for anything. In fact, the Curetonian must have been an adulteration of the Peshitto, or it must have been partly an independent translation helped from other sources: from the character of the text it could not have given rise to it[150].

Again, when (2) Cureton lays stress upon “certain peculiarities in the original Hebrew which are found in this text, but not in the Greek,” he has not found others to follow him, and (3) the supposed agreement with the Apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews, as regards any results to be deduced from it, is of a similarly slippery nature. It will be best to give his last argument in his own words:—“It is the internal evidence afforded by the fact that upon comparing this text with the Greek of St. Matthew and the parallel passages of St. Mark and St. Luke, they are found to exhibit the same phenomena which we should, a priori, expect certainly to discover, had we the plainest and most incontrovertible testimony that they are all in reality translations from such an Aramaic original as this.” He seems here to be trying to establish his position that the Curetonian was at least based on the Hebrew original of St. Matthew, to which he did not succeed in bringing over any scholars.

The reader will see that we need not linger upon these arguments. When interpreted most favourably they carry us only a very short way towards the dethronement of the great Peshitto, and the instalment of the little Curetonian upon the seat of judgement. But there is more in what other scholars have advanced. There are resemblances between the Curetonian, some of the Old-Latin texts, the Codex Bezae, and perhaps Tatian's Diatessaron, which lead us to assign an early origin to many of the peculiar readings in this manuscript. Yet there is no reason, but all the reverse, for supposing that the Peshitto and the [pg 127] Curetonian were related to one another in line-descent. The age of one need have nothing to do with the age of the other. The theory of the Peshitto being derived from the Curetonian through a process of revision like that of Jerome constituting a Vulgate rests upon a false parallel[151]. There are, or were, multitudes of Old-Latin Texts, which in their confusion called for some recension: we only know of two in Syriac which could possibly have come into consideration. Of these, the Curetonian is but a fragment: and the Codex Lewisianus, though it includes the greater part of the Four Gospels, yet reckons so many omissions in important parts, has been so determinedly mutilated, and above all is so utterly heretical[152], that it must be altogether rejected from the circle of purer texts of the Gospels. The disappointment caused to the adherents of the Curetonian, by the failure of the fresh MS. which had been looked for with ardent hopes to satisfy expectation, may be imagined. Noscitur a sociis: the Curetonian is admitted by all to be closely allied to it, and must share in the ignominy of its companion, at least to such an extent as to be excluded from the progenitors of a Text so near to the Traditional Text as the Peshitto must ever have been[153].