The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels Part 24

The eternal G.o.dhead of CHRIST was the mark at which, in the earliest age of all, Satan persistently aimed his most envenomed shafts. St. John, in many a well-known place, notices this; begins and ends his Gospel by proclaiming our Saviour's Eternal G.o.dhead(502); denounces as "deceivers,"

"liars," and "antichrists," the heretical teachers of his own day who denied this(503);-which shews that their malice was in full activity before the end of the first century of our era; ere yet, in fact, the echoes of the Divine Voice had entirely died out of the memory of very ancient men. These Gnostics found something singularly apt for their purpose in a famous place of the Gospel, where the blessed Speaker seems to disclaim for Himself the attribute of "goodness,"-in fact seems to distinguish between Himself and G.o.d. Allusion is made to an incident recorded with remarkable sameness of expression by St. Matthew (xix. 16, 17), St. Mark (x. 17, 18) and St. Luke (xviii. 18, 19), concerning a certain rich young Ruler. This man is declared by all three to have approached our LORD with one and the same question,-to have prefaced it with one and the same glozing address, "_Good_ Master!"-and to have been checked by the object of his adulation with one and the same reproof;-"Why dost thou [who takest me for an ordinary mortal like thyself(504)] call me _good_? No one is good [essentially good(505)] save one," that is "G.o.d."

... See, said some old teachers, fastening blindly on the letter,-He disclaims being good: ascribes goodness exclusively to the Father: separates Himself from very and eternal G.o.d(506).... The place was accordingly eagerly fastened on by the enemies of the Gospel(507): while, to vindicate the Divine utterance against the purpose to which it was freely perverted, and to establish its true meaning, is found to have been the endeavour of each of the most ill.u.s.trious of the Fathers in turn.

Their pious eloquence would fill a volume(508). Gregory of Nyssa devotes to this subject the eleventh book of his treatise against Eunomius(509).

In order to emphasize this impious as well as shallow gloss the heretic Valentinus (A.D. 120),-with his disciples, Heracleon and Ptolemaeus, the Marcosians, the Naa.s.senes, Marcion (A.D. 150), and the rest of the Gnostic crew,-not only subst.i.tuted "One is good" for "No one is good but one,"-but evidently made it a great point besides to introduce the name of the FATHER, either in place of, or else in addition to, the name of "G.o.d(510)." So plausible a depravation of the text was unsuspiciously adopted by not a few of the orthodox. It is found in Justin Martyr(511),-in pseudo-Tatian(512),-in the Clementine homilies(513). And many who, like Clemens Alex.,-Origen,-the Dialogus,-and pseudo-Tatian (in five places), are careful to retain the Evangelical phrase "No one is good but one [that is] G.o.d,"-even they are observed to conclude the sentence with the heretical addition "THE FATHER(514)." I am not of course denying that the expression is theologically correct: but only am requesting the reader to note that, on the present occasion, it is clearly inadmissible; seeing that it was no part of our Saviour's purpose, as Didymus, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theodoret point out, to reveal Himself to such an one as the rich young ruler in His own essential relation to the Eternal Father(515),-to proclaim in short, in this chance way, the great mystery of the G.o.dhead: but only (as the ancients are fond of pointing out) to reprove the man for his fulsomeness in addressing one of his fellows (as he supposed) as "good(516)." In the meantime, the extent to which the appendix under discussion prevails in the Patristic writings is a singular ill.u.s.tration of the success with which, within 60 or 70 years of its coming into being, the text of Scripture was a.s.sailed; and the calamitous depravation to which it was liable. Surprising as well as grievous to relate, in every recent critical recension of the Greek text of St.

Matthew's Gospel, the first four words of the heretical gloss (e?? ?st?? ?

??a???) have been already subst.i.tuted for the seven words before found there (??de?? ??a??? e? ? e??, ? Te??); and (more grievous still) now, at the end of 1700 years, an effort is being made to establish this unauthorized formula in our English Bibles also. This is done, be it observed, in opposition to the following torrent of ancient testimony:-viz., in the second century, the Pes.h.i.+tto Version,-Justin Martyr(517),-ps.-Tatian (5 times)(518),-Clemens Alex. (twice)(519):-in the third century, the Sahidic Version,-ps.-Dionysius Areopag.(520):-in the fourth century, Eusebius (3 times)(521), Macarius Magnes (4 times)(522),-Basil(523),-Chrysostom(524):-Athanasius(525),-Gregory Nyss.

(3 times)(526),-and Didymus apparently (twice)(527):-in the fifth century, Cod. C,-Augustine in many places(528),-Cyril Alex.(529),-and Theodoret (8 times)(530):-in the sixth century, Antiochus mon.(531),-the _Opus imperf._(532)-with the Harkleian and the Ethiopic Version. ... When to these 21 authorities have been added _all the known copies_, except six of dissentients,-an amount of ancient evidence has been adduced which must be held to be altogether decisive of a question like the present(533).

For what, after all, is the proper proof of the genuineness of any reading, but the prevailing consent of Copies, Fathers, Versions? This fundamental truth, strangely overlooked in these last days, remains unshaken. For if the universal consent of Copies, when sustained by a free appeal to antiquity, is not to be held definitive,-what in the world is?

Were the subject less solemn there would be something diverting in the _navete_ of the marginal note of the revisers of 1881,-"Some ancient authorities read ... 'None is good save one [even] G.o.d.' " How many "ancient authorities" did the Revisers suppose exhibit anything else?

But all this, however interesting and instructive, would have attracted little attention were it not for the far more serious corruption of the Sacred Text, which has next to be considered. The point to be attended to is, that at the very remote period of which we are speaking, it appears that certain of the Orthodox,-with the best intentions doubtless, but with misguided zeal,-in order to counteract the pernicious teaching which the enemies of Christianity elicited from this place of Scripture, deliberately falsified the inspired record(534). Availing themselves of a slight peculiarity in St. Matthew's way of exhibiting the words of the young Ruler,-(namely, "What _good thing_ shall I do,")-they turned our LORD'S reply, "Why callest thou me good?" in the first Gospel, into this,-"_Why askest thou me concerning the good?_" The ensuing formula which the heretics had devised,-"_One there is that is good_," with some words of appendix concerning G.o.d the Father, as already explained,-gave them no offence, because it occasioned them no difficulty. It even suited their purpose better than the words which they displaced. On the other hand, they did not fail to perceive that the epithet "good," "Good Master," if suffered to remain in the text, would witness inconveniently against them, by suggesting our LORD'S actual reply,-viz. "Why callest thou me good?" Accordingly, in an evil hour, they proceeded further to erase the word ??a?? from their copies. It is a significant circ.u.mstance that the four uncial Codexes (B?DL) which exclusively exhibit t? e ???t??

pe?? t?? ??a???; are exclusively the four which omit the epithet ??a??.

The subsequent history of this growth of error might have been foreseen.

Scarcely had the pa.s.sage been pieced together than it began to shew symptoms of disintegration; and in the course of a few centuries, it had so effectually disappeared, that tokens of it here and there are only to be found in a few of the earliest doc.u.ments. First, the epithet (??a??) was too firmly rooted to admit of a sentence of perpetual banishment from the text. Besides retaining its place in every known copy of the Gospels except eight(535), it survives to this hour in a vast majority of the most ancient doc.u.ments. Thus, ??a?? is found in Justin Martyr(536) and in ps.-Tatian(537):-in the remains of the Marcosian(538),-and of the Naa.s.sene(539) Gnostics;-as well as in the Pes.h.i.+tto,-and in the Old Latin versions:-in the Sahidic,-and the Bohairic version,-besides in the Clementine Homilies(540), in Cureton and Lewis,-and in the Vulgate:-in Origen(541),-in Athanasius(542),-and in Basil(543),-and in Cyril of Jerusalem(544):-in Ephraem Syrus(545), and in Gregory of Nyssa(546): in Macarius Magnes(547),-and in Chrysostom(548):-in Juvencus(549),-Hilary(550),-Gaudentius(551),-Jerome(552),-and Augustine(553);-lastly in Vigilius Tapsensis(554):-in Cyril Alex.(555),-in Theodoret(556),-in Cod. C,-in the Harkleian Version,-and in the _Opus imperfectum_(557). So that, at the end of 1700 years, 6 witnesses of the second century,-3 of the third,-14 of the fourth,-4 of the fifth,-2 of the sixth, come back from all parts of Christendom to denounce the liberty taken by the ancients, and to witness to the genuineness of the traditional text.

So much then,-(1) For the unauthorized omission of ??a??, and-(2) For the heretical subst.i.tution of e?? ?st?? ? ??a??? in the room of ??de?? ??a???

e? ? e?? ? Te??. We have still to inquire after the fate of the most conspicuous fabrication of the three: viz.-(3) The subst.i.tution of ?? e ???t?? pe?? t?? ??a???; for t? e ???e?? ??a???; What support do the earliest witnesses lend to the inquiry,-"_Why askest thou me concerning the good_?" ... That patent perversion of the obvious purport of our Saviour's address, I answer, is disallowed by Justin Martyr(558) (A.D.

140),-by the Marcosians(559),-and the Naa.s.senes(560) (A.D. 150),-by the Clementine homilies(561),-and ps.-Tatian(562) (third century);-by the Pes.h.i.+tto and the Thebaic version;-by Macarius Magnes(563),-Athanasius(564),-and Basil(565);-by Hilary(566),-Gregory of Nyssa(567);-by Chrysostom(568),-by Cyril Alex.(569),-by Theodoret(570),-by the _Opus imperfectum_(571),-by the Harkleian,-and the Armenian versions.

I have produced 18 witnesses,-4 belonging to the second century: 3 to the third: 6 to the fourth: 5 to the fifth. Moreover they come from every part of ancient Christendom. Such an amount of evidence, it must be again declared, is absolutely decisive of a question of this nature. Whether men care more for Antiquity or for Variety of testimony; whether Respectability of witnesses or vastly preponderating Numbers, more impresses the imagination,-they must needs admit that the door is here closed against further debate. The traditional text of St. Matt. xix. 16, 17 is certainly genuine, and must be allowed to stand unmolested.

For it is high time to inquire,-What, after all, is the evidence producible on the other side? The exhibition of the text, I answer, which recommends itself so strongly to my opponents that they have thrust it bodily into the Gospel, is found in its entirety only with that little band of witnesses which have already so often come before us; and always with false testimony. I am saying that Origen(572) in the third century,-Codd. B-? in the fourth,-Cod. D in the fifth,-Cod. L in the eighth,-besides a couple of cursive Codexes (Evann. 1 and 22),-are literally the whole of the producible evidence for the Revisers' text in its entirety. Not that even these seven so-called consentient witnesses are in complete accord among themselves. On the contrary. The discrepancy between them is perpetual. A collation of them with the traditional text follows:-

?a? ?d?? e?? p??se???? e?pe? (D [_not_ Orig. B?L] ?e?e?) a?t? (B? [_not_ Orig. DL] a?t? e?pe), ??das?a?e a?a?e (Orig. B?DL-a?a?e) t? a?a??? p???s?

(?L [_not_ Orig. BD] p???sa?) ??a e?? (Orig. BD [_not_ ?L] s??) ????

a?????? (Orig. 664b ?L [_not_ Orig. 664a BD] ???? a?????? ????????s?); ?

de e?pe? a?t?, ?? e ?e?e?? a?a??? (Orig. 664-5 B?DL t? e e??ta? [Orig.

666b epe??ta?] pe?? t?? (Orig. 664c D [_not_ Orig. 665c 666b B?L]-t??) a?a???); ??de?? a?a??? e? ? e?? ? Te?? (B?DL e?? est?? ? (D [_not_ Orig.

B?L]-?) a?a???).

Can it be possibly reasonable to avow that such an amount of discrepancy between witnesses which claim to be consentient, inspires confidence rather than distrust in every one of them?

The reader is next to be told that there survive, as might have been expected, traces in sundry quarters of this threefold ancient fraud (as it seems to be rather than blunder);-as in Justin(573), and the Marcosian(574), and Naa.s.sene heretics(575); the Latin Versions(576); the Bohairic(577); the Cureton and Lewis(578); pseudo-Dionysius(579), the Clementine homilies(580) and Eusebius(581); Cyril Alex.(582) and Antiochus the monk(583) (A.D. 614); Hilary(584), Jerome(585), and Augustine(586); besides in Evann. 479 and 604, and Evst. 5. But the point to be attended to is, that not one of the foregoing authorities sanctions the text which Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, W.-Hort, and the Revisers of 1881 unanimously adopt. This first. And next, that no sooner are these sixteen witnesses fairly confronted, than they set about hopelessly contradicting one another: so that it fares with them as it fared with the Philistines in the days of Saul:-"Behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture(587)." This will become best understood by the reader if he will allow "(I)," to represent the _omission_ of the epithet ??a??:-"(II)," the _subst.i.tution_ of t? e ???t?? pe?? t?? ??a???:-and "(III)," the _subst.i.tution_ of e?? ?st?? ?

??a??? with or without appendix. For it will appear that,-

(_a_) Evan. 479 and Evst. 5, though they witness _in favour of_ (I), yet witness _against_ (II) and (III):-and that,

(_b_) The Latin and the Bohairic Versions, with Jerome and Evan. 604, though they witness _in favour of_ (II) and (III), yet witness against (I).

Note, that Cureton and Lewis do the same: but then the Cureton stultifies itself by omitting from the introductory inquiry the underlined and clearly indispensable word,-"What _good_ [thing] must I do?" The same peculiarity is exhibited by the Thebaic Version and by Cyril of Jer.(588) Now this is simply fatal to the testimony of Cureton's Syr. concerning "(II),"-seeing that, without it, the proposed reply cannot have been spoken.-It appears further that,

(_c_) Augustine, though he witnesses in favour of (II), yet witnesses against both (I) and (III):-and that,

(_d_) Hilary, though he witnesses in favour of (III), and yields uncertain testimony concerning (I), yet witnesses against (II):-and that,

(_e_) Justin M. (in one place) and the Marcosian and Naa.s.sene heretics, together with the Clementine homilies, though they witness in favour of (III), yet witness against (I) and (II):-and that,

(_f_) ps.-Dionysius, Eusebius, and Antiochus mon. (A.D. 614), though they witness in favour of (II), yet witness against (III).

(_g_) Cyril also, though he delivers uncertain testimony concerning (I) and (II), yet witnesses against (III).

The plain fact is that the place before us exhibits every chief characteristic of a clumsy fabrication. No sooner had it with perverse ingenuity been pieced together, than the process of disintegration set in.

The spurious phrases t? e ???t?? pe?? t?? ??a???, and e?? ?st?? ??a???, having no lawful dwelling-place of their own, strayed out of the first Gospel into the third as soon as they were invented. Cureton in St. Luke xviii. 19 has both phrases, Lewis neither,-Marcion, in his heretical recension of St. Luke's Gospel (A.D. 150), besides the followers of Arius, adopt the latter(589). "The key of the whole position," as Scrivener points out, "is the epithet '_good_' before 'Master' in ver. 16: for if this be genuine, the only pertinent answer is contained in the Received Text(590)." Precisely so: and it has been proved to be genuine by an amount of continuous attestation which is absolutely overwhelming. We just now a.n.a.lyzed the inconsistent testimony of sixteen ancient authorities; and found that only the two cursive copies favour the omission of ??a??, while nine of the oldest witnesses are for retaining it. Concerning the expression t? e ???t?? pe?? t?? ??a???, these inconsistent witnesses are evenly divided,-seven being for it, seven against it. All, in fact, is error, confusion, discord, the instant we get outside the traditional text.

The reason of all this contrariety has been a.s.signed already. Before Christianity was a hundred years old, two opposite evil influences were at work here: one, heretical-which resulted in (III): the other, orthodox,-which resulted in (II) and (I). These influences, proceeding from opposite camps, were the cause that copies got independently propagated of two archetypes. But the Church, in her corporate capacity, has declined to know anything of either. She has been careful all down the ages that the genuine reading shall be rehea.r.s.ed in every a.s.sembly of the faithful on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost; and behold, at this hour it is attested by every copy in the world-except that little handful of fabricated doc.u.ments, which it has been the craze of the last fifty years to cry up as the only authentic witnesses to the truth of Scripture, viz.

Codd. B?DL and Origen. Now, as to the first two of these, Dr. Scrivener has p.r.o.nounced(591) that (B?), "subsequent investigations have brought to light so close a relation as to render it impossible to regard them as independent witnesses;" while every page of the Gospel bears emphatic witness to the fact that Codd. B?DL are, as has been said, the depositaries of a hopelessly depraved text.

But how about Origen? He, in A.D. 250, commenting on the present place of St. Matthew's Gospel, has a great deal to say concerning the grievously corrupt condition of the copies hereabouts. Now, the copies he speaks of must have been older, by at least 100 years, than either Cod. B or Cod. ?.

He makes this admission casually in the course of some remarks which afford a fair sample of his critical method and therefore deserve attention:-He infers from Rom. xiii. 9 that if the rich young ruler really did "love his neighbour as himself," which, according to the three Evangelists, he virtually said he did(592), he was perfect(593)! Yet our Saviour's rejoinder to him is,-"_If_ thou wilt be perfect," go and do such and such things. Having thus invented a difficulty where none exists, Origen proposes, as a way out of it, to regard the precept (in St. Matt.

xix. 20,-"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself") as an unauthorized accretion to the Text,-the work of some tasteless scribe(594). The reasonableness of suspecting its genuineness (he says) is heightened by the fact that neither in St. Mark's nor yet in St. Luke's parallel narrative, are the words found about "loving one's neighbour as oneself."

As if that were not rather a reason for presuming it to be genuine! To be sure (proceeds Origen) it would be monstrous to regard these words, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," as an interpolation, were it not for the existence of so many other discrepancies hereabouts. The copies of St.

Matthew are in fact all at strife among themselves. And so are the copies of the other Gospels. Vast indeed, and with this he concludes, is the discrepancy in St. Matthew(595): whether it has proceeded from the carelessness of the scribes;-or from criminal audacity on the part of correctors of Scripture;-or whether, lastly, it has been the result of licentiousness on the part of those who, pretending to "correct" the text, have added or omitted according to their own individual caprice(596).

Now all this is very instructive. Here is the most famous Critic of antiquity estimating the genuineness of a clause in the Gospel, not by the amount of external attestation which it enjoys, but by his own self-evolved fancies concerning it. As a matter of fact, no extant copy, Father, or Version is without the clause under discussion. By proposing therefore that it shall be regarded as spurious, Origen does but convict himself of rashness and incompetency. But when this same Critic,-who, by his own shewing, has had the evil hap to alight on a collection of singularly corrupt doc.u.ments,-proceeds to handle a text of Scripture which has demonstrably had a calamitous history from the first days of the Gospel until now;-two inconvenient questions force themselves on our attention:-The first,-What confidence can be reposed in his judgement? The second-What is there to conciliate our esteem for the particular Codex from which he happens to quote? On the other hand, the reader has been already shewn by a more open appeal to antiquity than has ever before been attempted, that the reading of St. Matt. xix. 16, 17 which is exclusively found in B?DL and the copy from which Origen quotes, is deficient in external attestation.

Now, when it is considered that B? 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 ? were derived;-what, I say, if it shall some day come to be generally admitted, that 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 ident.i.ty 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 ?, 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 t? e ???t?? pe?? t?? ??a????-for Eusebius differs from Origen and Jerome in proceeding with the traditional text ??de?? ??a??? e? ? e??: while Jerome and even Origen concur with the traditional text in recognizing the epithet ??a??,-a circ.u.mstance which, as already explained, may be regarded as fatal to the formula t? e ???t?? ?.t.?. 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 subst.i.tuted 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 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 t? ??a???,-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 G.o.d." 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 G.o.d'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 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 ???????e??? ?ef??a??? 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 pa.s.sage(602)." Tischendorf made this the subject of a separate dissertation in 1840(603). Tregelles, who discusses it at great length(604), informs us that he even "relies on this one pa.s.sage 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 dest.i.tute of Variety,-we claim that the traditional reading shall stand.

APPENDIX IV. ST. MARK I. 1.

St. Mark's Gospel opens as follows:-"The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, THE SON OF G.o.d." The significancy of the announcement is apparent when the opening of St. Matthew's Gospel is considered,-"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David." Surely if there be a clause in the Gospel which carries on its front the evidence of its genuineness, it is this(606). But in fact the words are found in every known copy but three (?, 28, 255); in all the Versions; in many Fathers. The evidence in its favour is therefore overwhelming. Yet it has of late become the fas.h.i.+on to call in question the clause-???? t?? Te??. Westcott and Hort shut up the words in brackets. Tischendorf ejects them from the text. The Revisers brand them with suspicion. High time is it to ascertain how much of doubt really attaches to the clause which has been thus a.s.sailed.

Tischendorf relies on the testimony of ten ancient Fathers, whom he quotes in the following order,-Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Origen, Basil, t.i.tus, Serapion, Cyril of Jerusalem, Severia.n.u.s, Victorinus, Jerome. But the learned critic has to be reminded (1) that _pro hac vice_, Origen, Serapion, t.i.tus, Basil, Victorinus and Cyril of Jerusalem are not six fathers, but only one. Next (2), that Epiphanius delivers no testimony whatever on the point in dispute. Next (3), that Jerome(607) is rather to be reckoned with the upholders, than the impugners, of the disputed clause: while (4) Irenaeus and Severia.n.u.s bear emphatic witness in its favour. All this quite changes the aspect of the Patristic testimony. The scanty residuum of hostile evidence proves to be Origen and three Codexes,-of which two are cursives. I proceed to shew that the facts are as I have stated them.

As we might expect, the true author of all the mischief was Origen. At the outset of his commentary on St. John, he writes with reference to St. Mark i. 1,-"Either the entire Old Testament (represented by John Baptist) is here spoken of as 'the beginning' of the New; or else, only the end of it (which John quotes) is so spoken of, on account of this linking on of the New Testament to the Old. For Mark says,-'The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger, &c. The voice of one, &c.' I can but wonder therefore at those heretics,"-he means the followers of Basilides, Valentinus, Cerdon, Marcion, and the rest of the Gnostic crew,-"who attribute the two Testaments to two different G.o.ds; seeing that this very place sufficiently refutes them. For how can John be 'the beginning of the Gospel,' if, as they pretend, he belongs to another G.o.d, and does not recognize the divinity of the New Testament?" Presently,-"In ill.u.s.tration of the former way of taking the pa.s.sage, viz. that John stands for the entire Old Testament, I will quote what is found in the Acts [viii. 35] 'Beginning at the same Scripture of Isaiah, He was brought as a lamb, &c., Philip preached to the eunuch the Lord Jesus.' How could Philip, beginning at the prophet, preach unto him Jesus, unless Isaiah be some part of 'the beginning of the Gospel(608)?' " From the day that Origen wrote those memorable words [A.D. 230], an appeal to St. Mark i. 1-3 became one of the commonplaces of Theological controversy. St. Mark's a.s.sertion that the voices of the ancient Prophets, were "the beginning of the Gospel"-of whom John Baptist was a.s.sumed to be the symbol,-was habitually cast in the teeth of the Manichaeans.

On such occasions, not only Origen's reasoning, but often Origen's mutilated text was reproduced. The heretics in question, though they rejected the Law, professed to hold fast the Gospel. "But" (says Serapion) "they do not understand the Gospel; for they do not receive the beginning of it:-'The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet(609).' " What the author of this curt statement meant, is explained by t.i.tus of Bostra, who exhibits the quotation word for word as Serapion, following Origen, had exhibited it before him; and adding that St. Mark in this way "connects the Gospel with the Law; recognizing the Law as the beginning of the Gospel(610)." How does this prove that either Serapion or t.i.tus disallowed the words ???? t?? Te??? The simple fact is that they are both reproducing Origen: and besides availing themselves of his argument, are content to adopt the method of quotation with which he enforces it.