To estimate the value of any reading it is necessary to con- sider the relations to each other of the authorities which support it. Inthe Epistle to the Romans, as elsewhere in the New Testa- ment, these authorities tend to fall into groups. Thus 8B form one; DEFG a second; and NACLP a third. SB form what Westcott and Hort describe as “neutral” authorities; DEFG are « Western”; SACLP include what they call “Alexandrian,” but are not identical with it. Sanday and Headlam, after giving an account of the authorities for the text, define the “ specific character- istics of the textual apparatus of Romans’”’ as these: (i.) the general inferiority in boldness and originality of the Western text; (ii.) the fact that there is a distinct Western element in B, which therefore when it is combined with authorities of the Western type is dimin- ished in value; (iii.) the consequent rise in importance of the group NAC; (iv.) the existence of a few scattered readings either of B alone or of B in combination with one or two other authorities which have considerable intrinsic probability, and may be right. By a little practice on the readings for which the authority is given in the apparatus criticus, the student can familiarise himself with the facts, and exercise his own judgment on them.
In the notes, Winer means Moulton’s edition of Winer’s Grammar; W. and Ἡ. stands for Westcott and Hort; S. and H. for Sanday and Headlam’s Commentary on Romans.
ΠΑΥΛΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑαΑΠΟΣΤΟΔΟΥΤ