The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels

by John William Burgon

But what is the position which the Peshitto has occupied till the middle of the present century? What is the evidence of facts on which we must adjudicate its claim?

Till the time of Cureton, it has been regarded as the Syriac Version, adopted at the time when the translation of the New Testament was made into that language, which [pg 128] must have been either the early part of the second century, or the end of the first,—adopted too in the Unchangeable East, and never deposed from its proud position. It can be traced by facts of history or by actual documents to the beginning of the golden period of Syriac Literature in the fifth century, when it is found to be firm in its sway, and it is far from being deserted by testimony sufficient to track it into the earlier ages of the Church.

The Peshitto in our own days is found in use amongst the Nestorians who have always kept to it[154], by the Monophysites on the plains of Syria, the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar, and by “the Maronites on the mountain-terraces of Lebanon[155].” Of these, the Maronites take us back to the beginning of the eighth century when they as Monothelites separated from the Eastern Church; the Monophysites to the middle of the fifth century; the Nestorians to an earlier date in the same century. Hostile as the two latter were to one another, they would not have agreed in reading the same Version of the New Testament if that had not been well established at the period of their separation. Nor would it have been thus firmly established, if it had not by that time been generally received in the country for a long series of years.

But the same conclusion is reached in the indubitable proof afforded by the MSS. of the Peshitto Version which exist, dating from the fifth century or thereabouts. Mr. Gwilliam in the third volume of Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica[156] mentions two MSS. dating about 450 a.d., besides four of the fifth or sixth century, one of the latter, and three which bear actual dates also of the sixth. These, with the exception of one in the Vatican and one belonging [pg 129] to the Earl of Crawford, are from the British Museum alone[157]. So that according to the manuscriptal evidence the treasures of little more than one library in the world exhibit a very apparatus criticus for the Peshitto, whilst the Curetonian can boast only one manuscript and that in fragments, though of the fifth century. And it follows too from this statement, that whereas only seven uncials of any size can be produced from all parts of the world of the Greek Text of the New Testament before the end of the sixth century, no less than eleven or rather twelve of the Peshitto can be produced already before the same date. Doubtless the Greek Text can boast certainly two, perhaps three, of the fourth century: but the fact cannot but be taken to be very remarkable, as proving, when compared with the universal Greek original, how strongly the local Peshitto Version was established in the century in which “commences the native historical literature of Syria[158].”

The commanding position thus occupied leads back virtually a long way. Changes are difficult to introduce in “the unchangeable East.” Accordingly, the use of the [pg 130] Peshitto is attested in the fourth century by Ephraem Syrus and Aphraates. Ephraem “in the main used the Peshitto text”—is the conclusion drawn by Mr. F. H. Woods in the third volume of Studia Biblica[159]. And as far as I may judge from a comparison of readings[160], Aphraates witnesses for the Traditional Text, with which the Peshitto mainly agrees, twenty-four times as against four. The Peshitto thus reckons as its supporters the two earliest of the Syrian Fathers.

But the course of the examination of all the primitive Fathers as exhibited in the last section of this work suggests also another and an earlier confirmation of the position here taken. It is well known that the Peshitto is mainly in agreement with the Traditional Text. What therefore proves one, virtually proves the other. If the text in the latter case is dominant, it must also be in the former. If, as Dr. Hort admits, the Traditional Text prevailed at Antioch from the middle of the fourth century, is it not more probable that it should have been the continuance of the text from the earliest times, than that a change should have been made without a record in history, and that in a part of the world which has been always alien to change? But besides the general traces of the Traditional Text left in patristic writings in other districts of the Church, we are not without special proofs in the parts about Syria. Though the proofs are slight, they occur in a period which in other respects was for the present purpose almost “a barren and dry land where no water is.” Methodius, bishop of Tyre in the early part of the fourth century, Archelaus, bishop in Mesopotamia in the latter half of the third, the Synodus Antiochena in a.d. 265, at a greater distance Gregory Thaumaturgus of Neocaesarea in Pontus who flourished about 243 and passed some time at Caesarea in Palestine, are found to have used mainly [pg 131] Traditional MSS. in Greek, and consequently witness to the use of the daughter text in Syriac. Amongst those who employed different texts in nearly equal proportions were Origen who passed his later years at Caesarea and Justin who issued from the site of Sychar. Nor is there reason, whatever has been said, to reject the reference made by Melito of Sardis about a.d. 170 in the words ὁ Σύρος. At the very least, the Peshitto falls more naturally into the larger testimony borne by the quotations in the Fathers, than would a text of such a character as that which we find in the Curetonian or the Lewis Codex.

But indeed, is it not surprising that the petty Curetonian with its single fragmentary manuscript, and at the best its short history, even with so discreditable an ally as the Lewis Codex, should try conclusions with what we may fairly term the colossal Peshitto? How is it possible that one or two such little rills should fill so great a channel?

But there is another solution of the difficulty which has been advocated by the adherents of the Curetonian in some quarters since the discovery made by Mrs. Lewis. It is urged that there is an original Syriac Text which lies at the back of the Curetonian and the Codex Lewisianus, and that this text possesses also the witness of the Diatessaron of Tatian:—that those MSS. themselves are later, but that the Text of which they give similar yet independent specimens is the Old Syriac,—the first Version made from the Gospels in the earliest ages of the Church.

The evidence advanced in favour of this position is of a speculative and vague nature, and moreover is not always advanced with accuracy. It is not “the simple fact that no purely ‘Antiochene’ [i.e. Traditional] reading occurs in the Sinai Palimpsest[161].” It is not true that “in the Diatessaron [pg 132] Joseph and Mary are never spoken of as husband and wife,” because in St. Matt. i. 19 Joseph is expressly called “her husband,” and in verse 24 it is said that Joseph “took unto him Mary his wife.” It should be observed that besides a resemblance between the three documents in question, there is much divergence. The Cerinthian heresy, which is spread much more widely over the Lewis Codex than its adherents like to acknowledge, is absent from the other two. The interpolations of the Curetonian are not adopted by the remaining members of the trio. The Diatessaron, as far as we can judge,—for we possess no copy either in Greek or in Syriac, but are obliged to depend upon two Arabic Versions edited recently by Agostino Ciasca, a Latin Translation of a commentary on it by Ephraem Syrus, and quotations made by Aphraates or Jacobus Nisibenus—, differs very largely from either. That there is some resemblance between the three we admit: and that the two Codexes are more or less made up from very early readings, which we hold to be corrupt, we do not deny. What we assert is, that it has never yet been proved that a regular Text in Syriac can be constructed out of these documents which would pass muster as the genuine Text of the Gospels; and that, especially in the light shed by the strangely heretical character of one of the leading associates, such a text, if composed, cannot with any probability have formed any stage in the transmission of the pure text of the original Version in Syriac to the pages of the Peshitto. If corruption existed in the earliest ages, so did purity. The Word of God could not have been dragged only through the mire.

We are thus driven to depend upon the leading historical facts of the case. What we do know without question is this:—About the year 170 a.d., Tatian who had sojourned [pg 133] for some time at Rome drew up his Diatessaron, which is found in the earlier half of the third century to have been read in Divine service at Edessa[162]. This work was current in some parts of Syria in the time of Eusebius[163], to which assertion some evidence is added by Epiphanius[164]. Rabbūla, bishop of Edessa, a.d. 412-435[165], ordered the presbyters and deacons of his diocese to provide copies of the distinct or Mĕpharrĕshe Gospels. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus near the Euphrates[166], writes in 453 a.d., that he had turned out about two hundred copies of Tatian's Diatessaron from his churches, and had put the Gospels of the four Evangelists in their place. These accounts are confirmed by the testimony of many subsequent writers, whose words together with those to which reference has just been made may be seen in Mr. Hamlyn Hill's book on the Diatessaron[167]. It must be added, that in the Curetonian we find “The Mĕpharrĕsha Gospel of Matthew[168],” and the Lewis Version is termed “The Gospel of the Mĕpharrĕshe four books”; and that they were written in the fifth century.