X. Text. — The Text is best preserved in cod. Vaticanus (B) ; it is very good also in cod. Siuaiticus (s or S), as well as in the fragments of cod. Ephra?mi rescriptus (C) ; it is less satis- factory in cod. Alexandrinus (A) and, with the exception of the excellent cod. 68, in 10 cursives. Swete (OT in Greek, vol. ii., C.imh. 1891, 2nd ed. 1897, pp. 604-643) uses B in gener:il as tlie basis of his text, but gives in footnotes all tlie variants of N (S), A, and C. O. F. Fritzsche in his Libri apocryphi V.T. grace, Lipsife, 1871, gives not only the variants of the above MSS but also those of cod. Venetus (HP 23), etc., as well as tho.se de- rived from the cursives and the Versions. W. J. Deane {The Book of WMom, Oxford, 1881) agrees almost entirely with Fritzsche. Noteworthy emendations are to be found in Grimm iij>. Fritzsche, in Grimm, Knf. exi'get. Hdb. zu den Apokr. 6" Lieforung (Lpzg. 1860), and in F. W. Farrar in ' Speaker's Com.' Apocryn/ia, i. (London, 1888) 403-534, as well as in H. Bois, E.isai sur lea origines de la philusophie jud6o - alexandrine (Toulouse, 1890), p. 378 f.
xi. Versions. — Of the Versions, the Vetus Latinus of Jerome was taken over unaltered into the Vulgate, in the Books of Sirach and Wisdom. The Latin text of the two Wisdoms from the cod. AmiatinuB was critically edited for the Wisdom of Solomon by de Lngarde in MittcUungcn, Bd. i. 24.3-284.— Of the Syriac Versions, the I'eshitta recension was publi.slied in de Lagarde's Lihri apoc. V.T. Syridce, Lips. 1861 ; another recension in Ceriani's edition of the cod. Ambros. .sajc. vi. (Milan, 187611.) ; cf. Nestle in Urtcxl u. Uhersetz- ungcn der Dibcl (a reprint of the art. in PRE'), p. 230 ; Kyssel in Kautzsch's Apokr. und Pseud- epigr. d. AT, i. 250-254. — On the Armenian literal Version, the so-called Meoliilar Bible, A'^enice, 1805, cf. Nestle, I.e. pp. 155-157 ; also PRE' iii. 79 on the special editions of the Wisdom of Solomon, from 1824 to 1854. — For recent English translations by Deane and Farrar see above. — The most recent German translation is that of C. Sieg- fried in Kautzsch's Apokr. und Pseude/iigr. d. AT, i. 476-507, with Introduction and short exejjetical notes. J. K. Zenner arranged the first section of the book (l'-6") in strophes and in verses of from 2 to 3 Btroi)hes, and published this in a German translation, with short exjilanatory notes in the /l-Khr. fur krilh. Theol. xxii. [1898] pp. 417-429. In an Appendix he adds Egyptian parallels to bh. 2 from Erman's translation (p. 430 f.).
LiTKRATCEE.— For references Bce Grimm, Bueh der Weuhrit (cf. Kg/, exfjet. Bdb. zu dm Apokr. d. AT), pp. 46, 46, and Farrar, I.e. pp. 422M23. Sec also W. J. Deane, The Book of Visilom, Oxford, 1881, pp. 42, 43 ; Z"Ckler, Apokryphm, 1891, pp. 300, aai ; Scbuier la PUB' L 6S2, and QJV* Ul. 883 tl.;
Ph. Thielmann, Bmcht iber dot mtammelu handtchri/tlidit Material zu einer krituchen Aus</ahe der taUin. t/bersetzungen biU. Backer d. AT, Munich, 1900, pp. 207-214. The lut- naiued author ban either personally or through others collated 30 MSS. Of these, 27 are complete, while the other 8 contain fr3),Tiient« of the Book of Wisdom. They belong to the 8th-10th centuries, and include Spanish, Anglo-Saxon, pre-Carlovingian Fretich, South German. Swiss. Italian texts, as well as tho Uil»le9 of Theodulf and Alcuin. In addition, he deals with excerpts from 33 MSS. This had been precede;! by Thielmann's studies, • uber den character der latein. Ubersetzung der Weisheit Salomonie,' etc., in Archiv fiir latein. Lexicofiraphie und Urammatik, \iU. (1893) 235 :;97. 601-661, ll. (1894) 247-244. According to Thielmann, the unily of the Latin text of Wisilom can be establiiihed ; see, further, ScbUrer in ThLZ, 1900,
No- !*■ 0. Siegfried.
WIST, WIT, WOT. WITTY.— The parts of the verb 'to wit' (Anglo- Sax. tcitan, Jliddle Eng. witen, ' to know ') were : Pres. tense ' I wot,' 'thou wotest,' 'he wot' or ' woteth ' ; plu. 'we witen'; past tense 'wiste'; past ptcp. 'wist'; inlin. ' to wit.'
Examples: /wof— Maiindeville, TVap^fs, 72, • I wot never, but God knoweth*; Knox, UUt. «7, 'I wot, and know surety by the Word of God ' ; Jn 11^2 Tind. * I wot that thou hearest me all wayes ' (where the tense should be past, Hut, Wye. ' I wiste,' Cran. and AV ' I knew," Rhem. ' I did know '). Thou watett— Jn 137 Tind. ' What I do, thou wotest not now, but thou sbalt knowe herafter.' Ue wot or u't)(('(A— Tiiidule, }izpo8. 60, *He that hatcth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and woteth not whither he goeth.' We, ye, they vriien (and later, as in AV, wot)—Pxer$ Plowman, li. 74 —
■ Witen all and witnessen that wonen here on earth That Meed is ymarried more for her richesse Than for holiness or hendcness, or for high kind : Falseness is fain of her, for he wot her rich.'
Wyclif uses ' they wyteth,' Works, iil. 107, ' Fader, forgeve hem this gjlt, for they wj'teth nought what they dooth.' Past tense, ot!s(«— Jn 1328 Wye. 'Noon of hem that saten at the mete wiste wherto he saide to hym*; Tindale has 'wyst,* Dt 34*^ ' No man wyst of his sepulchre unto this daye.' Past ptcp. wist — Mt 127 Tind. ' Wherfore yf ye had wist what this sayinge meneth ' ; Occleve '\a Skeat's Specimens, p. 22 —