Part 2 (2/2)

Attention is therefore invited to a case of attraction in Acts xx. 24.

It is but the change of a single letter ([Greek: logoU] for [Greek: logoN]), yet has that minute deflection from the truth led to a complete mangling of the most affecting perhaps of St. Paul's utterances. I refer to the famous words [Greek: all' oudenos logon poioumai, oude echo ten psuchen mou timian emauto, hos teleiosai ton dromon mou meta charas]: excellently, because idiomatically, rendered by our Translators of 1611,--'But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.'

For [Greek: oudenos loGON], (the accusative after [Greek: poioumai]), some one having subst.i.tuted [Greek: oudenos loGOU],--a reading which survives to this hour in B and C[31],--it became necessary to find something else for the verb to govern. [Greek: Ten psychen] was at hand, but [Greek: oude echo] stood in the way. [Greek: Oude echo] must therefore go[32]; and go it did,--as B, C, and [Symbol: Aleph] remain to attest. [Greek: Timian] should have gone also, if the sentence was to be made translatable; but [Greek: timian] was left behind[33]. The authors of ancient embroilments of the text were sad bunglers. In the meantime, Cod. [Symbol: Aleph] inadvertently retained St. Luke's word, [Greek: LOGON]; and because [Symbol: Aleph] here follows B in every other respect, it exhibits a text which is simply unintelligible[34].

Now the second clause of the sentence, viz. the words [Greek: oude echo ten psychen mou timian emauto], may on no account be surrendered. It is indeed beyond the reach of suspicion, being found in Codd. A, D, E, H, L, P, 13, 31,--in fact in every known copy of the Acts, except the discordant [Symbol: Aleph]BC. The clause in question is further witnessed to by the Vulgate[35],--by the Harkleian[36],--by Basil[37],--by Chrysostom[38],--by Cyril[39],--by Euthalius[40],--and by the interpolator of Ignatius[41]. What are we to think of our guides (Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers) who have nevertheless surrendered the Traditional Text and presented us instead with what Dr. Field,--who is indeed a Master in Israel,--describes as the impossible [Greek: all' oudenos logou poioumai ten psychen timian emauto][42]?

The words of the last-named eminent scholar on the reading just cited are so valuable in themselves, and are observed to be so often in point, that they shall find place here:--'Modern Critics,' he says, 'in deference to the authority of the older MSS., and to certain critical canons which prescribe that preference should be given to the shorter and more difficult reading over the longer and easier one, have decided that the T.R. in this pa.s.sage is to be replaced by that which is contained in those older MSS.

'In regard to the difficulty of this reading, that term seems hardly applicable to the present case. A difficult reading is one which presents something apparently incongruous in the sense, or anomalous in the construction, which an ignorant or half-learned copyist would endeavour, by the use of such critical faculty as he possessed, to remove; but which a true critic is able, by probable explanation, and a comparison of similar cases, to defend against all such fancied improvements. In the reading before us, [Greek: all' oudenos logou poioumai ten psychen timian emauto], it is the construction, and not the sense, which is in question; and this is not simply difficult, but impossible. There is really no way of getting over it; it baffles novices and experts alike[43].' When will men believe that a reading vouched for by only B[Symbol: Aleph]C is safe to be a fabrication[44]?

But at least when Copies and Fathers combine, as here they do, against those three copies, what can justify critics in upholding a text which carries on its face its own condemnation?

-- 3.

We now come to the inattention of those long-since-forgotten Ist or IInd century scribes who, beguiled by the similarity of the letters [Greek: EN] and [Greek: AN] (in the expression [Greek: ENANthropois eudokia], St. Luke ii. 14), left out the preposition. An unintelligible clause was the consequence, as has been explained above (p. 21): which some one next sought to remedy by adding to [Greek: eudokia] the sign of the genitive ([Greek: S]). Thus the Old Latin translations were made.

That this is the true history of a blunder which the latest Editors of the New Testament have mistaken for genuine Gospel, is I submit certain[45]. Most Latin copies (except 14[46]) exhibit 'pax hominibus bonae voluntatis,' as well as many Latin Fathers[47]. On the other hand, the preposition [Greek: EN] is retained in every known Greek copy of St.

Luke without exception, while the reading [Greek: eudokias] is absolutely limited to the four uncials AB[Symbol: Aleph]D. The witness of antiquity on this head is thus overwhelming and decisive.

-- 4.

In other cases the source, the very progress of a blunder,--is discoverable. Thus whereas St. Mark (in xv. 6) certainly wrote [Greek: hena desmion], [Greek: ONPER etounto], the scribe of [Symbol: Delta], who evidently derived his text from an earlier copy in uncial letters is found to have divided the Evangelist's syllables wrongly, and to exhibit in this place [Greek: ON.PEReTOUNTO]. The consequence might have been predicted. [Symbol: Aleph]AB transform this into [Greek: ON PAReTOUNTO]: which accordingly is the reading adopted by Tischendorf and by Westcott and Hort.

Whenever in fact the final syllable of one word can possibly be mistaken for the first syllable of the next, or _vice versa_, it is safe sooner or later to have misled somebody. Thus, we are not at all surprised to find St. Mark's [Greek: ha parelabon] (vii. 4) transformed into [Greek: haper elabon], but only by B.

[Another startling instance of the same phenomenon is supplied by the subst.i.tution in St. Mark vi. 22 of [Greek: tes thygatros autou Herodiados] for [Greek: tes thygatros autes tes Herodiados]. Here a first copyist left out [Greek: tes] as being a repet.i.tion of the last syllable of [Greek: autes], and afterwards a second attempted to improve the Greek by putting the masculine p.r.o.noun for the feminine ([Greek: AUTOU] for [Greek: AUTeS]). The consequence was hardly to have been foreseen.]

Strange to say it results in the following monstrous figment:--that the fruit of Herod's incestuous connexion with Herodias had been a daughter, who was also named Herodias; and that she,--the King's own daughter,--was the immodest one[48] who came in and danced before him, 'his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee,' as they sat at the birthday banquet. Probability, natural feeling, the obvious requirements of the narrative, History itself--, for Josephus expressly informs us that 'Salome,' not 'Herodias,' was the name of Herodias'

daughter[49],--all reclaim loudly against such a perversion of the truth. But what ought to be in itself conclusive, what in fact settles the question, is the testimony of the MSS.,--of which only seven ([Symbol: Aleph]BDL[Symbol: Delta] with two cursive copies) can be found to exhibit this strange mistake. Accordingly the reading [Greek: AUTOU]

is rejected by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf and Alford.

It has nevertheless found favour with Dr. Hort; and it has even been thrust into the margin of the revised Text of our Authorized Version, as a reading having some probability.

This is indeed an instructive instance of the effect of accidental errors--another proof that [Symbol: Aleph]BDL cannot be trusted.

Sufficiently obvious are the steps whereby the present erroneous reading was brought to perfection. The immediate proximity in MSS. of the selfsame combination of letters is observed invariably to result in a various reading. [Greek: AUTeSTeS] was safe to part with its second [Greek: TeS] on the first opportunity, and the definitive article ([Greek: tes]) once lost, the subst.i.tution of [Greek: AUTOU] for [Greek: AUTeS] is just such a mistake as a copyist with ill-directed intelligence would be sure to fall into if he were bestowing sufficient attention on the subject to be aware that the person spoken of in verses 20 and 21 is Herod the King.

[This recurrence of identical or similar syllables near together was a frequent source of error. Copying has always a tendency to become mechanical: and when the mind of the copyist sank to sleep in his monotonous toil, as well as if it became too active, the sacred Text suffered more or less, and so even a trifling mistake might be the seed of serious depravation.]

-- 5.

Another interesting and instructive instance of error originating in sheer accident, is supplied by the reading in certain MSS. of St. Mark viii. 1. That the Evangelist wrote [Greek: pampollou ochlou] 'the mult.i.tude being very great,' is certain. This is the reading of all the uncials but eight, of all the cursives but fifteen. But instead of this, it has been proposed that we should read, 'when there was again a great mult.i.tude,' the plain fact being that some ancient scribe mistook, as he easily might, the less usual compound word for what was to himself a far more familiar expression: i.e. he mistook [Greek: PAMPOLLOU] for [Greek: PALIN POLLOU].

This blunder must date from the second century, for 'iterum' is met with in the Old Latin as well as in the Vulgate, the Gothic, the Bohairic, and some other versions. On the other hand, it is against 'every true principle of Textual Criticism' (as Dr. Tregelles would say), that the more difficult expression should be abandoned for the easier, when forty-nine out of every fifty MSS. are observed to uphold it; when the oldest version of all, the Syriac, is on the same side; when the source of the mistake is patent; and when the rarer word is observed to be in St. Mark's peculiar manner. There could be in fact no hesitation on this subject, if the opposition had not been headed by those notorious false witnesses [Symbol: Aleph]BDL, which it is just now the fas.h.i.+on to uphold at all hazards. They happen to be supported on this occasion by GMN[Symbol: Delta] and fifteen cursives: while two other cursives look both ways and exhibit [Greek: palin pampollou].

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