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the order of the subjects there discussed ; by which critics may, if they please, be invited to a more full discussion of the matters of which we have there spoken, as the truth shall require : but the last of those subjects will lead us to a much more pleasing contemplation, that of interpretation .
I. Many persons confine their critical investigations within the limits of this one passage ; or at any rate wish to commence them with this passage. They act as though any one should begin the study of Geometry with squaring the circle. Such persons scarcely find ground on which to stand ; but he who has penetrated through other intricacies, will be able to find a wTay here also, and to -set at rest the minds of others, as far as they are teachable. Here it is only by changing the course that the harbour is gained : the pre- sent passage requires a peculiar method of treatment.
II. Not a few of those, w7ho rightly and religiously defend this very expression, are too eager in seeking out and employing sup- ports even of such a kind as have no strength. That has occurred to a distinguished man, Leonard Twells, whose miscellaneous pro- duction Wolf has translated from English into Latin, and with a few corrections, has put forth on this passage, pp. 300—313. I read and attentively considered Twells before the publication of my Appa- ratus : Wherefore, when I proceeded with more of self-distrust than
words added in the margin by a recent hand. 4. Cod. Ottobonianus 298, in the Vatican, a Greek and Latin MS. of the 15th century, in which the Greek is a mere accompaniment of the Latin, and is quite peculiar (ex. gr. *to tov ovpocuoti). The words were first edited in Greek by the Complut. Editors, 1514, a.d. ; and then by Erasmus, not until his third Ed., 1522, a.d. And so, through Stephens and the Elzevirs, the Rec. Text has adopted them. All the old Versions, as well as Greek MSS., reject them. The oldest copy of the Latin Vulg. contain- ing them is Wizanburgensis, 99, of the 8th century : also the codex in the monastery of H. Trinity of Cava, near Naples, of the 8th century : also Cod. Toletanus: also Cod. Demidovianus of the 12th century. But Cod. Amiatinus and the oldest MSS. of the Vulg. omit them. All the Greek Fathers omit them.
A Schoxium, quoted in Matthiei, seems to me to account for the origin of the words, which probably did not arise from fraud : oi rpeig Ss sLrsi/ otpaevixag, on ovy.fi oA« rocvnz. rqg rptxtiog, “ He uses rpeig in the Masculine , because these things ( the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are symbols of the Trinity.” This also is plainly the reference of Cyprian, 196, “ De Patre et Filio et Spiritu Sancto Scriptum est, Et hi tres unum sunt.” There is plainly in the genuine words, which use rps't g in the masc., though the antecedents to which it refers are neuter, some mystery or symbol ; and that the Trinity was the truth meant, seems not an unnatural inference. The more recent Latin Vulg. embodied in the text what was probably a marginal comment, made not without reason. — E.