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121. Udvruv) Some add, vpuv and upijv.1 2 Wolf will not have the last word up fa, which is found in many manuscripts , and in all the published editions , omitted. How ready the copyists were to insert the particle Amen in Doxologies and clauses containing a prayer, since it is usually found in such situations, appears from almost all the books of the New Testament, at the close, and from the annota- tion of Wolf on App. i. 18, where almost all the copyists have absurdly inserted upvjv, One copyist who omits it, is of more value than ten who add it at their own pleasure. See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage [ where the relation in which Wolf stood to Bengel is distinctly set forth at large]. Now, if any one should write out at full length such a text, for instance of the Apocalypse, as many per- sons prefer at the present day, he will have a reading which is full, intelligible, tinged with parallelism, that is, interpolated, and almost everywhere made up of the fewest and most recent authorities, which, when compared with the editions, would not much differ from the text published by H. Stephens and the Elzevirs. My recension also, in the margin, indeed, is sometimes deprived of the greater number of authorities ; but this happens in those places which were less fre- quently quoted by the Fathers : nor, however, is it without the support of competent authorities, whose antiquity , together with the exegetical arguments natural to the text itself, makes up for the deficiency in number. With the exception of such passages (for they are to be treated for a while by way of exception), my text in its whole tenor approaches the copies which are by far the most numerous, spread out from the times of John to all ages and countries, whether you look to the Greek manuscripts, or the versions, and espe- cially to the noted Italian Version, or to the fathers, Irenceus , Hip- polytus , Origen , Athanasius , Andreas , Tertullian , Cyprian , Jerome , Pri?nasius , etc. : bound to follow no edition entirely, and yet seldom compelled to betake itself to manuscripts only. The reading is for the most part brief ; and where there was a manifold variety, it takes a middle course : it everywhere retains its ancient and austere, that is, its natural character. Of what kind this was, Wolf has discovered, as I think, in the Supplements to his Curse (if he has advanced to this point), and has yielded to the truth more plainly ascertained. He
1 20. epxopou ruyf, I come quickly) Thus Jesus speaks ; John, both afterwards and before, says, Conic. These coincide at the one moment. So Ps. xxvii. 8, My heart says, {seek ye my face:) Thy face do I seek. — V. g.
2 So A. Amiat. MS. of Vulg. omits vpuv, but adds the ’ Apyju. B adds tuv uyiau, and the ’ Apiju ; Rec. Text, vpuv. dpr,v. — E.