Part 15 (2/2)

Nothing else has evidently happened but that, through the oscitancy of some very early scribe, the [Greek: IskarioTeN], [Greek: IskarioTe], have been attracted into concord with the immediately preceding genitive [Greek: SImoNOS] ... So transparent a blunder would have scarcely deserved a pa.s.sing remark at our hands had it been suffered to remain,--where such _betises_ are the rule and not the exception,--viz.

in the columns of Codexes B and [Symbol: Aleph]. But strange to say, not only have the Revisers adopted this corrupt reading in the two pa.s.sages already mentioned, but they have not let so much as a hint fall that any alteration whatsoever has been made by them in the inspired Text.

-- 2.

Another and a far graver case of 'Attraction' is found in Acts xx. 24.

St. Paul, in his address to the elders of Ephesus, refers to the discouragements he has had to encounter. 'But none of these things move me,' he grandly exclaims, 'neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.' The Greek for this begins [Greek: all' oudenos logon poioumai]: where some second or third century copyist (misled by the preceding genitive) in place of [Greek: logoN]

writes [Greek: logoU]; with what calamitous consequence, has been found largely explained elsewhere[229]. Happily, the error survives only in Codd. B and C: and their character is already known by the readers of this book and the Companion Volume. So much has been elsewhere offered on this subject that I shall say no more about it here: but proceed to present my reader with another and more famous instance of attraction.

St. Paul in a certain place (2 Cor. iii. 3) tells the Corinthians, in allusion to the language of Exodus x.x.xi. 12, x.x.xiv. 1, that they are an epistle not written on '_stony tables_ ([Greek: en plaxi lithinais]),'

but on '_fleshy tables_ of the heart ([Greek: en plaxi kardias sarkinais]).' The one proper proof that this is what St. Paul actually wrote, is not only (1) That the Copies largely preponderate in favour of so exhibiting the place: but (2) That the Versions, with the single exception of 'that abject slave of ma.n.u.scripts the Philoxenian [or Harkleian] Syriac,' are all on the same side: and lastly (3) That the Fathers are as nearly as possible unanimous. Let the evidence for [Greek: kardias] (unknown to Tischendorf and the rest) be produced in detail:--

In the second century, Irenaeus[230],--the Old Latin,--the Pes.h.i.+tto.

In the third century, Origen seven times[231],--the Coptic version.

In the fourth century, the Dialogus[232],--Didymus[233],--Basil[234],--Gregory Nyss.[235],--Marcus the Monk[236],--Chrysostom in two places[237],--Nilus[238],--the Vulgate,--and the Gothic versions.

In the fifth century, Cyril[239],--Isidorus[240],--Theodoret[241],--the Armenian--and the Ethiopic versions.

In the seventh century, Victor, Bp. of Carthage addressing Theodorus P.[242]

In the eighth century, J. Damascene[243] ... Besides, of the Latins, Hilary[244],--Ambrose[245],--Optatus[246],--Jerome[247],-- Tichonius[248],--Augustine thirteen times[249],--Fulgentius[250], and others[251] ... If this be not overwhelming evidence, may I be told what _is_[252]?

But then it so happens that--attracted by the two datives between which [Greek: kardias] stands, and tempted by the consequent jingle, a surprising number of copies are found to exhibit the 'perfectly absurd'

and 'wholly unnatural reading[253],' [Greek: plaxi kardiAIS sarkinAIS].

And because (as might have been expected from their character) A[254]B[Symbol: Aleph]CD[255] are all five of the number,--Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort, one and all adopt and advocate the awkward blunder[256]. [Greek: Kardiais] is also adopted by the Revisers of 1881 without so much as a hint let fall in the margin that the evidence is overwhelmingly against themselves and in favour of the traditional Text of the Authorized Version[257].

FOOTNOTES:

[228] St. Luke vi. 16; Acts i. 13; St. Jude 1.

[229] Above, pp. 28-31.

[230] 753 _int_.

[231] ii. 843 c. Also _int_ ii. 96, 303; iv. 419, 489, 529, 558.

[232] _Ap_. Orig. i. 866 a,--interesting and emphatic testimony.

[233] Cord. Cat. in Ps. i. 272.

[234] i. 161 e. Cord. Cat. in Ps. i. 844.

[235] i. 682 ([Greek: ouk en plaxi lithinais ... all' en to tes kardias pyxio]).

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