J A well-known instance is the reading rfc^i^i In On 16", which is found in all our MSS of © (for rxtt^t, not 6«^iif, as Melanchthon put in his edition of 1645), presupposed already by Philo (the same insertion of ^ is illustrated by Codex F, spell- ing i9^«-4.«> for the thirf i««4«» in On 49^il ; see Sw.'s edition, p. 807) ; compare also his etymologj; of YSttfH (On 16i<) = i. ««»».t, which presupposes B«iw«, a reading actually found in 7 MSS of 0. including the Lucianic ones, and in the Coptic version.
} On other questiniis connected with the Bible of JosephuB, •ee below, p. 44(i« note ". „ „ ,. . „.„, „„„ ,.
II See on this passage A. D. Loman (in ThT vil. [18,31 233 ; he Biahea to read, i.Vi i»» »«x'''»'«'' ^- '■ ^- ""f- """ *" ^'^1'^ "■*" »•>) and Oikonomos (iv. 4<iO ; be proposes r«x.u<i< »<>•> muiuxnf
before the invention of the printing-press. (2) These dangers were increased in the case of works which were frequently copied and used not only privately but also in public service. (3) (5 is not an original te.xt, but a translation, or rather a series of translations, and therefore much more exposed to alterations than an original text; for every reader possessed of some knowledge of Hebrew, or of a dirterent exegetical tradition from that embodied in ©, might change his text (cf. the changes introduced in many MSS of the OT from the quotations in the NT, e.g. in Ps 13' from Ro 3'"'"). (4) If the situation was bad enough before, it became worse when other Greek versions of the OT, especially those of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, appeared and began to influence iS. At last a comparison of ffi with l?l and the versions just named was carried out systemati- cally by Origen ; but what appeared to him a safe- guard against the calamity that threatened the text turned out — not by his fault, but by that of later ignorance and laziness — the worst aggra- vation of it.
Continuing the passage quoted above, Origen goes on to say —
r^v fjLit cur i> riit ittrtypoL^us rri< IlsJltcietr Ai«0>^««lf iia^*nt^9, dtoO iiierrts, tSfiofMt iecretrt/en, Xfitnrifiitt ^frr,ffa)Mt1 rtttt X*iwa*t iiditririi ' Tai, yitp af^^at>^cu.itatt *atp» voic •' ii* r^» Ta»» «rTi- ypafait iia^tmiet, rrv xfiirtf VMr^ffctfMItt etv* rwv ^*twah ixZccian T* wtxi»t ixti*eu< t^Aafdecav' tuti ntat fiit i^Aiffe^^ttt I* rai '1:^^- jx^ fivj KUf^*et, Ml ro^pt^rrtt eti/reL ircifnt ripil^iit, rifit it v-iT urrtp.ffxv* TpoctSr.XiCfAt*, t*tL S^Ao, r OTj fir, Kii/iLt*tt xetpit T»IS 0 ix rin \oi^Si IJE^orfAi, Fuuj$ii*^ ru ' ^^pxiK^ vp»fftli*ixaf^>' xai i ftit ^ouy.ofjLt*oi vpor.f<iu airo:, ^ it rpaffKcmu r* rtttZTtt, « p«vAiTaj ftp4 rrit ir«/s«3o3;*)f tti/rii, ri f^n wtiYirif,
We can sympathize \vith his joy (Beov iMvTm) at having found this criterion, thougli he used it, according to our Wew, in the wrong direction. It is of lesser weight that he simply took the Hebrew MSS which were at his disposal, and the Greek versions that agreed with them, for the original text. Whence he got the former we are not in- formed,* though we hear something about his intercourse with a Jewish Patriarch called Julius (Hillel?);t but he acted on a more dangerous principle when he took what agreed with ^ or the other versions for the true text of G, instead of what differed from them. J Animated by this
firinciple, and instigated, it would appear, and lelped by his iprfoSiuimi^, Ambrosius,§ he under-
• Eus, (HE vi. 16) writes : TtretOrwi 3i ti^r.yir* rS '{Iptyttti rvf fliiWf Xoy^r et^njxpi0aiLtitn iiirxrie «< ««' rr,t '^Spxlix yX^Tvmt ixLut6t7», r/r( VI irxcic Toif 'louieutir QtptiAitxf xpttrer^tvf eti/rttt 'E^pxttt^ ffTUXl'O'^ ypx^xt xrr,put iit»> v*ir.rxa-Oxt, xux>tZetu Cl rke T*» iripv* rxpx Toiii'E^itpir.K«i''rx tx; iipec;^ ypx^xi iip/Mr^tw- MTw* ixiaffUf, Mxj Titxi iitpat rxpit r'xt xxStjUx^tvfUtxf ipfx,ntlimt i»aAA«TTOwffoef, rxf 'AjewAtfw xxi ^fjUAXX'v xxi t^tahorianes, tftvpUf, itt »ix •Ty vxtSt9 t* T,i«» fM>x^' r*r rxXxt XavSatioCffXi XP^'*" *** ^i( xiix*tvfx< wponyxytt.
t Jerome, .^Ipof. adv. Rv/. 1. ii. (from the SO To^t of Origen in Is), and Montfaucon, Bexapla prael. pp. 21, 79. Origen refers elsewhere to instructions he received from the Jewiab side : for instance, from a Jewish convert (in Jer. 20, Horn. 20, Op. iii. 178). Nor do we know where he got his Greek text. It differs sometimes very strangely from that of bis predecessor Clement.
X Comp. the significant Mwn in the scholion belonging to Origen's edition of Proverbe as published in Tischendorfs Xotitia edit, codicit Sinaitici, p. 76, arid by Oikonomos (rtpi nn #' iv, 903) ; trMt «i i3t)jii wpcrxtifreu frrtit, tflrw »i,m tx4>tT» tvn ru^ rait A«(«7f ipu.r,tvTa7( »vrt i, t^ 'E^pxixi.^x^x txpk M^wf r^f #'• XXI 'efC4( M xfftptrxt irporxttrrxt pnroit, oitrjn i» fuw^ r«* *F.^pxix^ xxl Te7f XMTt'it ipf*JK'tt/Txit ifip**T*, 1, it T«jf •' tixiri,
V-ith the third axiom of Lagarde (A nmerkunpm rtir griechischen Ubertetzxtiuj der I'rovertnen, Ibu'S, p. 3 =}l\tthcilungen, i. 21): ' Wenn sich zwei Lesarten nebeueinander findeu, von deoen die eine den JIasoretischen Text ausdriickt, die andre nur atia einer von ihm abweichenden Urschrift erkliirt werden kann, BO ist die leutere fur ur«prunglich lu halten.'
8 Eua. (HE vi. 18); 'E» T*i.rft, xai ' AfA,ip4rit, rk riit OCxi.U' ritau epirir xiptfta*! -rptt Tr,; ifirc ' Qpiytnotft rptff^tiHptirr,( xXrdlixf lAfyrvwV, xxi tiffxt uwi parrot xxrxt/yxs^tU riir iiatttxt r*> r^e lKX>.r,riMm3^l ifiSi^olixs wpcrrlSirxt >.iy*i. 2S._*E€ 'uuitmt ii ami 'fiptytui rif tit rxt tfli«< ypxfxt vTtiMt:f*x*wf iyiurt xpx'it, ' A^ 0p»ficu tit rx uxXirrx xxptpuj^fnt xi/ri, iM/pixH 'irxit •yt wpvratwmt turxlf iix X«>«> nxi wxpaxXy^ftait xur* t**t*', xkXx mxi x^*i9ttxf rmif «■"» iri»»l»>'»» X'f^'"'- »»t'0-/"«*" r*^ '^•' 'A"*"* S ••"'•