are affixed to this (sc. the thirty-fourth) Canon, to the imme diately preceding Reading, and from that Canon, or those Canons, deduce the value of that Reading.1
The author rightly calls this a Monitum. It is not a Canon.
35. Transcribers have frequently wished to express some thing more clearly than it stands in the Received Text. Such readings must not be too hastily adopted. This error has very often occurred. These should generally be considered as glosses.
This Canon is by far the most excellent ; but our author has neglected to employ it, where it was most wanted, e.g. Mark vii. 2, and Acts x. 21 ; xxiii. 9 : nay, he has too often adduced the op posite Canon 26, instead of it, as in Matt. iv. 12, and Mark xii. 32. Greek copyists have often interpolated 'o'lytovc and other words, especially at the beginning of an ecclesiastical lection. There is much weight in what Reineccius2 says, in the preface to his tetraglott3 New Testament, — " The great importance of the matter in hand demands the utmost attention and circumspec tion, lest any of the words of God should be rejected amongst the scholia of men, or any of these words of men be circulated, as the words of God." And dangerous as it is to take away, it is still more dangerous to add anything, as I have shown in my Apparatus, Part I., section 21 (Ed. ii. p. 17) : wherefore I consider it essential to inculcate also this, — " A bland facility of style, adopted by many transcribers, but those only of modern
1 i.e., when this Canon is cited, such is the course to be pursued. See note on Canon 25. — (I. B.)
2 Christian Reineccius was born in Saxony, A.D. 1668. He studied at the Universities of Rostock and Leipsic. He afterwards became Rector of the Gymnasium and Councillor of the Consistory at Weissenfels. He died A.D. 1752. He was a man of great learning and wrote many works. — (I. B.)
s The full title of the work is — Biblia Sacra Quadrilinguia Veteris Testa ment! Hebraici, cum versionibus e regione positis, utpote versione Grseca LXX Interpretum ex codice manuscripto Alexandrino, a J. Ern. Grabio primum evulgata — Item versione Latina Sebast. Schmidii noviter revisa et textui Hebraeo accuratius accomodata, et Germanica beati Lutheri, ex ultima beati viri revisione et editione 1544-45, expressa. Adjectis textui Hebraeo Notis Masorethicis et Grsecae Versioni Lectionibus Codicis Vati- cani ; notis philologicis et exegeticis aliis, ut et summariis capitum ac locis parallels locupletissimis ornata. Accurante M. Christ. Reineccio. Lipsise, 1750. 3 vols. folio. Hartwell Home speaks of it in high terms. — (I. B.)