its fragments are now dispersed in Athos, Kiew, Moscow (at two places), St. Petersburg,* Paris, and Turin, — and other testimonies by a certain Euthalius (or Euagrius) of Sulke ? Basil the Great (t 379) corrected a copy with his own liand : may it not be traced ? His younger brother, Gregory of Nys.sa, is the sole a.utliurily besides Marcion for that peculiar form of the second petition in the Lord's Prayer : i\6iTio rti B.yi.ov wi'evp.d. aov i(p' i^ptds Koi KaffapiaaTu ^/las. Ihiw did this creep into the codex 604 (of the li'th cent., in the British Museum), which exhibits 2724 variations from the Textus Receptus and 270 readings peculiar to itself? Has the last word been spoken about the origin of the Fcrrar grouji? Where are the accur- ate copies (iairoyiSaaixiva) or the ancient in Jerusalem to be sought for, dejiosited on the Holy Mount ((k Tuiv iv 'IfpotroXi'/iots TraXaiuJc dpTiypd(f)uii' tQiv iv t^ ayltp 6p(i dxoKdnivav), with which, according to their subscription, cod. A and some cursives nave been collated ?
We might go on asking such questions, — and that these questions do not belong to those which a fool asks, and which no wise man answers, may be exempliiied by the reading of the Ferrar group in Mt 1'" which WH, in their (lirst) edition did not tind worth mentioning ; and now there appears suddenly an old Syriac fragment from the far East, containing that reading, which was hitherto known only in .some Latin witnesses from the far West, and in those four solitaiy Greek MSS written probably in Cala ria towards the end of the Middle Ages, — a reading whicli seems to have some connexion with the very composition of the First Gospel.
' Criticism,' said Ph. Schaff, in his excellent Companion to the Greek Testament and the English Version (at the opening of the fifth chapter, which treats of the Nature and Object of Textual Criti" cism), — 'Criticism is a dry study.' Dry? Surely we do not know a study of more interest. It requires, it is true, as the same writer said, 'an unusual amount of patience and attention to the minutest details.' Yes, but then it will be re- warded. 'The smallest particle of gold,' said Bengel, in the connexion from which Westcott- Hort took the word with which they closed their task, ' is gold, but we must not allow that to pass as gold which has not been proved.'
' Codicibus emendiiiidis primitus debet invigilare sollertia eorum qui scripturas nosse desiderant, ut emendatis non emcndati cedant,' said Augustine (de Doctrina Christiana, ii. 14, 21). It is a satis- fa('tion that in the same country in which and from wliich the British and Foreign Bible Society cir- culated, for almost a century, more than a hundred thousand copies of the Textus Keceptus of Elzevir- Stephen- Erasmus, the most decided attempt has been made to fulfil the task inqiosed by these words of Augustine, to fulfil tlio cuiiimaiid of one greater than Augu.stiiie, — the word of St. Paul, ndvra Soki- ixdj^ere, ri Ka\iv Karix^Te (1 Th 5'-'), or of the Master Himself, though it is not recorded within the com- pass of our present New Testament : ylyeaSe Wki/hoi TpaTTfjTTai.
LtTKRATURK AND APDKNDA. — (1) On the history of the Printed Text, which seemed unnecessary hero, see WH.'J§ 15-18, 'J44-265 (Mill, Bentley, BenjjL-I, Seniler, Oriesboch. lUi^, Loctinianii, Tisohendorf, TiCKcllos) ; Scrivener-Miller^, ii. 177-24.S; r. .SchalT, Companion to the tJreek Tentammt and the KntjUth Version*, 1SU2; 8. P. Treffcllofl, Acc.uunt of the I'rinted Text o/ the Hrrek NT. ISM ; Nestle, Introdxiction, I. iiji. 1-27; E. Reuss, liihiifithi'cii S'ovi Testavifnti tiro'd, citiits eai lionet omne« . . . fjool'iiiot Tcperiri potuerunl coiiei/it ditjcsteit tittutravit, Bruns- vitfio, ls72.t
* One leaf at St Petersburg is no longer extant, but Its oob- tonts may bo read by the mirror on the opposite page, on which it is iiiipresse<1.
t Justice must be done At least in a footnote to the edition (not mentioned by Sorlvener or Nestle) of Ed. Harwood
740 1£XT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
(2) On the MSS see the Literature quoted in Introd. pp. 30, 32, t.g. Oh. F. yitterley, Praxis in Manusaiptt of the Greek Testa- mtnt. The mechanical a}ul literary processes involved in their toritiiuj and preservation. With table of MSS and thirteen facsimile plates, New York 11898).— On the Autographs add the statement that according to the Ada Joannis (ed. Zahn) the Apostle dictated hia Gospel to Prochorus in two days and six hours, to be written on parchment.— K. Lake, Text o/ the New Testament (Oxford Church Text-Books), 1900; II. Lundberg, Kya Testaiiientets text, Lund, 1SS9. — Facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts in the British Mttiram, edited by F. G. Kenyon, London, luOl, fol., cf. the same author's Handbook to the Textual Crit icism of tlie HT, London, 1901 ; John W. Burgon, The Last Twelve Verses o/ the Gospel according to St. .Mark, vimlicated against recent critical objectors and established. With tac- eimiles of codex K and codex L, 0x1. and Lond. 1871.
On cod. D. See on the Italian origin of codex Bezat, K. Lake and F. E. Brightman (JThSt, i. 441, 446, 464) ; J. R. Harris, The Annotators oj the Codex Beza, London, 1901. The reasons which make ajjainst the theory of Blass, that D presened for Acts a first recension, are said (Expos. Times, xiii. 96) to be besv Bummed up in an appendix to the new edition (19Q0)of Jlr. Page's Acts (Mocmillan).