Chapter VIII. Alexandria and Caesarea.
§ 1. Alexandrian Readings, and the Alexandrian School.
What is the real truth about the existence of an Alexandrian Text? Are there, or are there not, sufficient elements of an Alexandrian character, and of Alexandrian or Egyptian origin, to constitute a Text of the Holy Gospels to be designated by that name?
So thought Griesbach, who conceived Origen to be the standard of the Alexandrian text. Hort, who appears to have attributed to his Neutral text much of the native products of Alexandria[182], speaks more of readings than of text. The question must be decided upon the evidence of the case, which shall now be in the main produced.
The Fathers or ancient writers who may be classed as Alexandrian in the period under consideration are the following:—
| Traditional. | Neologian. | |
| Heracleon | 1 | 7 |
| Clement of Alexandria | 82 | 72 |
| Dionysius of Alexandria | 12 | 5 |
| Theognosius | 0 | 1 |
| Peter of Alexandria | 7 | 8 |
| Arius | 2 | 1 |
| Athanasius (c. Arianos) | 57 | 56 |
| —— | —— | |
| 161 | 150 |
Under the thirty places already examined, Clement, the most important of these writers, witnesses 8 times for the Traditional reading and 14 times for the Neologian. Origen, who in his earlier years was a leader of this school, testifies 44 and 27 times respectively in the order stated.
The Version which was most closely connected with Lower Egypt was the Bohairic, and under the same thirty passages gives the ensuing evidence:—
1. Matt. i. 25. Omits. One MS. says the Greek has “her first-born son”.