The remaining Versions are of less importance in the ascertainment of the
sacred text. But some of them have recently received more attention in the
general widening of research, and in becoming better known have
strengthened their claims to recognition and value. Three of them, at all
events, date from the period of the oldest manuscripts of the New
Testament now known to be in existence. And the presence amongst us of
eminent scholars acquainted with them renders reference to them more easy
than it was a few years ago.
Nevertheless, some are of slight service to the critic, being secondary
versions, and as such becoming handmaids, not of the Greek, but of some
other version translated from the Greek.
In the account of these versions, the Editor of this edition is indebted
for most valuable assistance to Mr. F. C. Conybeare, late Fellow of
University College, Oxford, who has re-written the sections on the
Armenian and Georgian versions; to Professor Margoliouth, who has also
re-written those on the Ethiopic and Arabic; to the Rev. Llewellyn J. M.
Bebb, Fellow of Brasenose College, who has re-written the account of the
Slavonic; and to Dr. James W. Bright, Assistant-Professor of English
Philology in the John Hopkins University, who has contributed what is
known on the Anglo-Saxon Version.
(1) The Gothic Version (Goth.).
The history of the Goths, who from the wilds of Scandinavia overran the
fairest regions of Europe, has been traced by the master-hand of Gibbon
(Decline and Fall, Chapters x, xxvi, xxxi, &c.), and needs not here be
repeated. While the nation was yet seated in Moesia, Ulphilas or Wulfilas
[318-388], a Cappadocian, who succeeded their first Bishop Theophilus in
A.D. 348, though himself an Arian and a teacher of that subtil heresy to
his adopted countrymen, became their benefactor, by translating both the
Old(118) and New Testament into the Gothic, a dialect of the great
Teutonic stock of languages, having previously invented or adapted an
alphabet expressly for their use. There can be no question, from internal
evidence, that the Old Testament was rendered from the Septuagint, the New
from the Greek original(119): but the existing manuscripts testify to some
corruption from Latin sources, very naturally arising during the
occupation of Italy by the Goths in the fifth century. These venerable
documents are principally three, or rather may be treated under two MSS.
and one group.
1. CODEX ARGENTEUS, the most precious treasure of the University
of Upsal, in the mother-country of the Gothic tribes. It appears
to be the same copy as Ant. Morillon saw at Werden in Westphalia
towards the end of the sixteenth century, and was taken by the
Swedes at the siege of Prague in 1648. Queen Christina gave it to
her librarian, Isaac Vossius, and from him it was very rightly
purchased about 1662 by the Swedish nation and deposited at Upsal.
This superb codex contains fragments of the Gospels (in the
Western order, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark) on 187 leaves, 4to (out
of 330), of purple vellum; the bold, uncial, Gothic letters being
in silver, sometimes in gold, of course much faded, and so regular
that some have imagined, though erroneously, that they were
impressed with a stamp. The date assigned to it is the fifth or
early in the sixth century, although the several words are
divided, and some various readings stand in the margin _primâ
manu_.
2. Codex Carolinus, described above for Codd. PQ, and for the Old
Latin _gue_, contains in Gothic about forty verses of the Epistle
to the Romans, first published by Knittel, 1762.
3. Codices Ambrosiani, or palimpsest fragments of five
manuscripts, apparently like Cod. Carolinus, from Bobbio, and of
about the same date, discovered by Mai in 1817 in the Ambrosian
Library at Milan, and published by him and Count C. O. Castiglione
(Ulphilæ Partium Ineditarum ... Specimen, in five parts, Milan,
1819, 1820, 1834, 1835, 1839). The last-named manuscripts are
minutely described and illustrated by a rude facsimile in Horne’s
“Introduction,” and after him in Tregelles’ “Horne,” vol. iv. pp.
304-7. They consist of (1) a portion of St. Paul’s Epistles, under
Homilies of Gregory the Great (viii); (2) portions of St. Paul,
under Jerome on Isaiah (viii or ix); (3) parts of the Old
Testament, under Plautus and part of Seneca; (4) under four pages
of St. John in Latin part of St. Matt. xxvi, xxvii. The fifth
fragment consists of Acts of the Council of Chalcedon with no
extracts from the Bible. Mai refers some of the Gothic writing to
the sixth century and some as far back as the fourth or beginning
of the fifth. Unlike the Codex Argenteus (at least if we trust Dr.
E. D. Clarke’s facsimile of the latter), the words in Mai’s
palimpsests are continuous: they contain parts of Esther, Nehemiah
(apparently no portion of the books of Kings), a few passages of
the Gospels, and much of St. Paul(120). H. F. Massmann (Ulfilas,
Stuttgart, 1855-57) also added from an exposition a few verses of
St. John, and there are fragments at Vienna and Rome(121).
These fragments (for such they still must be called)(122), in spite of the
influence of the Latin, approach nearer to the received text, in respect
of their readings, than the Egyptian or one or two other versions of about
the same age; and from their similarity in language to the Teutonic have
been much studied in Germany. The fullest and best edition of the whole
collected, with a grammar and lexicon, is by H. C. von der Gabelentz and
J. Loebe (Ulfilas Vet. et N. Testamenti versionis Gothicae fragmenta quae
supersunt, Leipsic, 1836-46, viz. vol. i. Text, 1836; Pars ii. Glossarium,
1843; Pars ii. Grammatik, 1846), and of the Codex Argenteus singly that of
And. Uppstrom (with a good facsimile), Upsal, 1854. This scholar published
separately in 1857 ten leaves of the manuscript which had been stolen
between 1821 and 1834, and were restored through him by the penitent thief
on his death-bed. The Gothic Gospels, however, had been cited as early as
1675 in Fell’s N. T., and more fully in Mill’s, through Francis Junius’
edition (with Marshall’s critical notes), which was printed at Dort in
1665, from Derrer’s accurate transcript of the Upsal manuscript, made in
or about 1655, when it was in Isaac Vossius’ possession. Other editions of
the Codex Argenteus were published by G. Stiernhielm in 1671 for the
College of Antiquaries at Stockholm; by E. Lye at the Clarendon Press in
1750 from the revision of Eric Benzel, Archbishop of Upsal; and (with the
addition of the fragments in the Codex Carolinus) by Jo. Ihre in 1763, and
by J. C. Zahn in 1805. And also the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels in
parallel columns with the Versions of Wycliffe and Tyndale, London, 1865,
and Ulfila, oder die Gotische Bibel (N. T.), E. Bernhardt, Halle, 1875,
and St. Mark with a grammatical commentary, R. Müller and H. Hoeppe, 1881,
and Skeat, Gospel of St. Mark in Gothic, Clarendon Press, 1882.
(2) The Armenian Version.
The existing Armenian version is a recension made shortly after the
Council of Ephesus of a still earlier version, which was based in part
upon a Syriac, in part upon a Greek original. This latest recension was
made according to “accurate and reliable copies” of the Greek Bible,
which, along with the Canons of the Council of Ephesus, were brought from
Constantinople about the year 433. One would naturally wish for more
details than the above brief statement contains; yet it is all that one
can definitely infer from the history of the version as related by three
nearly contemporary writers, whose accounts we now subjoin, namely,
Koriun, Lazar of Pharpi, and Moses Khorenatzi.
Koriun(123) in his life of St. Mesrop (written between 441 and 452 A.D.)
relates as follows:—
In the fifth year of the reign of Vramshapho [i.e. about 397 A.D.], St.
Mesrop was first in Edessa, then in Amid, lastly in Samosata, busy all the
time about his discovery of the Armenian characters(124). In Samosata,
where he was received with great respect by the clergy and bishop, Mesrop
met with a Greek scribe, Hrofanos (? Rufinus), in conjunction with whom,
and with the help of two pupils named John and Joseph, he undertook a
translation of the Bible. They began—and this is noteworthy—with the book
of the Proverbs of Solomon; Hrofanos or Rufinus writing down the
translation with his own hand. Mesrop next visited the Bishop of the
Syrians, who congratulated him on his work. He then returned to Nor
Chalach, or new city, as Valarshapat was called by the Romans, in the
sixth year of Vramshapho’s reign, A.D. 398. At a later time, Koriun, the
writer, was himself sent with Eznik to Constantinople, apparently in quest
of books to translate; for they returned with a _sure_ copy of the
Scriptures, with works of the Fathers, and with the canons of the Councils
of Nice and Ephesus. “Now St. Sahak had long before translated the
collection of Church books from Greek into Armenian, as well as much true
wisdom of the holy Patriarchs. But he now resumed, and taking with the
help of Eznik the former translations made hurriedly and offhand, he
confirmed them by the help of the true copies now brought, and they
translated much commentary on the books.” The above is the gist of what
Koriun has to tell us, though he mentions that scholars were sent to
Edessa to translate and bring back the works of the Fathers. Why Mesrop
began with the Book of Proverbs, whether he translated more than that, and
from which language, we do not learn from Koriun. Lazar of Pharpi(125),
who wrote in the last half of the sixth century, is our next authority. He
states that up to the last decade of the fourth century, the offices of
religion were still read in Greater Armenia in Syriac, a language which
the people did not understand. The edicts of the kings of Armenia were
also written out in Syriac or Greek characters. But as soon as the
Armenian alphabet was discovered, St. Sahak—who was patriarch 390-428 A.D.
and an expert in Greek—set himself, in response to the patriotic
exhortations of St. Mesrop, of Vramshapho the king, and of the clergy and
nobles, to translate the Holy Scriptures. He states that St. Sahak’s
version comprised the whole of the Old and New Testaments, and was made
from Greek.
Moses of Chorene, bk. iii. ch. 36 ff., copies, confuses, and adds to
Koriun’s account. A little before 370 A.D. the Persians overran Armenia,
and Meroujah, their leader, burned all the books he could find in the
country, proscribed the study of the Greek language, and enacted penalties
against any who should speak it or translate from it. At that time, adds
Moses, the offices of the church were performed in Greek, because the
Armenian alphabet did not yet exist. On the death of Theodosius (Jan. 395
A.D.) there was a partition of Armenia between his successor Arcadius and
the king of Persia, by which the latter took undisputed possession of the
eastern provinces, including the basin of Ararat, in which lay the new
religious centre Valarshapat or Edschmiadzin, the νέα πόλις of the Romans.
The new Mesropic alphabet was at first used only in Persian Armenia; for,
says Moses, in the parts dependent on the Greeks, all writing had to be in
Greek characters, Syriac being forbidden. As soon as Mesrop had elaborated
his alphabet with the aid of Hrophanos, he betook himself to the work of
translation; and with the aid of his pupils John and Joseph, translated
the entire twenty-two authentic books along with the New Testament, taking
care to begin with the Book of Proverbs. About the year 406 he returned to
Armenia, and found St. Sahak engaged in translating the Syriac Bible. He
hints that Sahak would have preferred a Greek original, if Meroujah had
not burned all the Greek books nearly thirty years before. This perhaps
implies that the version, on which Mesrop had been engaged in Samosata,
was made from Greek. Nor is that unlikely; for Rufinus, who helped him,
was a Greek, and we learn from Koriun that there were Armenians in Edessa
studying both Greek and Syriac. We read in bk. iii. ch. 60 of the History
of Moses, about missions sent to Edessa and Byzantium in order to the
translation of the works of the Fathers, but we hear nothing more
expressly touching the Version of the Bible, save this, that after the
Council of Ephesus, Sahak and Mesrop, then in Ashtishat in Taron, received
from Byzantium, as aforesaid, the canons of the council recently held,
along with accurate copies of the Greek Bible. On receipt of these, Sahak
and Mesrop translated afresh what had already been translated, and were
zealous in recasting the text. But they were not, it seems, after all,
satisfied with their work, and sent Moses to Alexandria to learn the
“beautiful tongue” (i.e. Greek), with a view to a more accurate
articulation and division (of the Armenian scriptures).
The above summary exhausts the evidence of Moses of Khorene(126). It would
appear therefrom that the Bible was translated twice into Armenian before
the end of the fourth century; by Mesrop from Greek, and by Sahak from
Syriac. The circumstance that Mesrop in Samosata began with the Proverbs
of Solomon raises a suspicion that the earlier books had already been
rendered, when and by whom is unknown. Certainly the reasons given by
Koriun and by Moses for Mesrop beginning with Proverbs are insufficient.
Moses again in stating that Sahak rendered the entire Bible from Syriac
contradicts both Koriun and Lazar. Are we to infer that Sahak and Mesrop
after 430 A.D. retranslated according to the Constantinople Bibles what
they had already translated from Syriac, and also it would seem from a
presumably less perfect Greek text? Anyhow it is unlikely that they would
wholly sacrifice their own work, and we should therefore expect to find in
the Armenian version a mixture of texts, namely of some old Syriac text,
which must have been in vogue as late as 380, of some older Greek text
supplied in Edessa or Samosata, and of the Constantinopolitan texts; which
last may well have been among the fifty splendid copies which had been
prepared under the order of Constantine by Eusebius a century before. If,
and how far, these different elements enter into the Version can only be
determined by a careful analysis of its readings. It may be that in some
MSS. there lurks more of the unrevised text than in others(127). The
entire history is an apt illustration of that political see-saw between
the Roman and the Persian powers which went on in Armenia during the
fourth and fifth centuries, and out of which the patriotic vigour and
devotion of St. Mesrop and St. Sahak carved at last a truly national
Armenian Church, with an independent life and literature of its own.
The Armenian Version was collated for Robert Holmes’ edition of the
Septuagint, though not with desirable accuracy nor from the oldest MSS.
For example, the Codex Arm. 3 of the Pentateuch, which Holmes declares,
_teste Adlero_, to be of the year 1063, is but an eighteenth century
codex. The collation of the New Testament in the eighth edition of
Tischendorf’s N. T. is accurate so far as it goes, but is far from being
exhaustive or based on a consensus of the oldest MSS. Old codices of the
Armenian Gospels are very common, and the present writer knows of as many
as eight, none of them later than the year A.D. 1000; of four of these he
has complete collations. The rest of the N. T. is only found in codices of
the whole Bible, which are rare and always written in minuscules, never in
uncials as are the Gospels. He knows of no copies of the whole Bible older
than the twelfth century.
Two further questions call for brief answer:—1. Have we the Armenian
version as it left the hands of the fifth century translators 2. Did the
fifth century version comprise the whole of the Old and New Testament?
In regard to the first question, it must be admitted as probable that
changes were subsequently made, at least in the New Testament, in the way
both of omission and addition; e.g. in St. Luke xxii. 44, out of four very
early uncial codices collated by the writer, the words: ἐγένετο δὲ ὁ ἱδρῶς
αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ θρόμβοι αἵματος καταβαίνοντες ἐπι τὴν γῆν, are found only in
one, and that one the earliest, being dated 902 A.D. The words which
precede ὤφθη δ—ὲπροσηύχετο are omitted in all four of them. We may infer
that ver. 44 was in the original version, and was omitted from the three
codices for doctrinal reasons. The additions made to the text after the
fifth century are easier to detect; because they only come in some MSS.
and not in others, and also because there is so much discrepancy of
readings between those codices which add them, that they are at once seen
to be lacunas supplied by different hands. This is the case, for example,
with the end of St. Mark’s Gospel, which only comes in one of the four
codices mentioned, namely in the oldest Edschmiadzin Codex, under the
heading “of the Elder Ariston,” which may refer to Aristion, teacher of
Papias, or to Ariston of Pella. The case is the same with the episode of
the woman taken in adultery. For the settlement of such points there is
wanted a careful collation of the oldest codices.
In answer to the other question we may state, without entering into the
proof of it, that the fifth century version included all the books of the
Old and New Testament save the third book of Ezra, Esther, Tobit, Judith,
Wisdom of Solomon, and perhaps the Maccabees. For as we read in Elisaeus
that Vartan Mamikonean in the middle of the fifth century inspired his
troops to deeds of valour against the Persians by reading to them the Book
of Maccabees, we may fairly infer that that also was already then
rendered. It may be added that the Psalms were rendered for church use
prior to the rest of the Bible, and were translated afresh by Mesrop and
his disciples; also that the Book of Revelations was translated twice. The
double translation of both these books is a fact which can be traced in
various MSS.
One other point must be noticed. From the history of Moses of Chorene, it
is not clear what were the imperfections of the Armenian version, to
remedy which Moses was sent to Alexandria. We cannot suppose that Mesrop
and Sahak and Eznik, and the other doctors who had already translated the
Greek codices brought from Byzantium, were incompetent Greek scholars. The
object therefore of Moses’ voyage to Alexandria was probably that he might
add to the Armenian text the Sections of Ammonius, and also the asterisks
and obeli of Origen’s Hexaplaric copy(128). The Ammonian Sections are
found in all Armenian New Testaments, and in some copies of the Bible the
Origenian marks as well; for instance, in Codex 3270 of the Bibliotheca
Vindobonensis. There is no evidence that the Armenians ever used a version
of Tatian’s Diatessaron.
The following is a list—not exhaustive—of the oldest known codices of the
Armenian Gospels, or “Avetaran”:—
1. In the Library of the Lazareffski Institute in Moscow, written
in large uncials on parchment, dated in the year 336 of the
Armenian era = A.D. 887. Size, 37.75 × 28 cent.; 229 folios.
2. In the Library of the Mechitarists in the island of San Lazaro,
in Venice, an uncial codex, on parchment, written in the year 351
of the Armenian era = A.D. 902.
3. In the same Library, on parchment, in large uncials, dated
1006.
4. In the same Library, in large uncials, on parchment, undated,
but evidently older than No. 2.
5. In the Patriarchal Library of Edschmiadzin in Russian Armenia,
No. 222 of the printed catalogue of Jacob Kareneantz (Tiflis,
1863). This book is bound in ivory covers, carved, as it would
seem, in the Ravennese style in the fifth or sixth century. In
large uncials, on parchment, written A.D. 989.
6. In the same Library is No. 223, an uncially written parchment
codex. The earliest of the colophons dates from A.D. 1260 and is
in majuscule, but the codex itself seems to be at least two
centuries and a half earlier.
7. In the same Library, No. 229, written in miniscule, on
parchment, A.D. 1035.
8, 9. In the same Library, Nos. 224, 225, in large uncials, on
parchment, presumably as old as the eleventh century, but undated.
10. In Tiflis, in an Armenian church. In large uncials, on
parchment. Undated, but certainly prior to A.D. 1000.
11. In the Library of the British Museum, in large uncials, on
parchment, undated. Probably of the ninth century, but not after
the tenth, according to Dr. Baronean, author of the British Museum
Catalogue.
12. In Karin or Erzeroum, in large uncials, on parchment. Dated
A.D. 986.
13. In the Library of the Fathers of St. Anthony, in
Constantinople. Dated A.D. 960.
14. In the island monastery of Sevan, on the lake of that name in
Russian Armenia. In large uncials, on parchment. Written during
primacy of Vahan, _circa_ A.D. 966.
15. In uncials, on parchment; written in Macedonia, under the
Emperor Basil, A.D. 1011. (Carékin, Catalogue des Traductions,
omits to specify in what library.)
16. Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Codex Armenus VII contains
the Four Gospels. Codex Bombyc, litteris uncialibus scriptus.
17. In the same Library, Cod. Arm. VIII. Membranaceus, litteris
uncialibus scriptus.
(3) The Ethiopic Version (Eth.).
The Ethiopic translation of the Bible is assigned by Guidi to the end of
the fifth, or beginning of the sixth century, the time at which
Christianity became the dominant religion in Abyssinia. That religion
after a period of decadence began to flourish again in the twelfth
century, but in dependence on the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The two
principal classes of Ethiopic Biblical MSS. are connected with these
periods respectively; the first class being derived from the Greek text
before, and the latter after the Alexandrian recension. The corrections,
however, vary in different copies, and appear to be the result of
desultory rather than of systematic alteration. The MSS. of the Ethiopic
N. T. are rarely complete; ordinarily the Gospels, the Epistles of St.
Paul, and the Catholic Epistles with the Acts and the Apocalypse
constitute separate volumes. The oldest copy of the Gospels would seem to
be no. 32 of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, written in the reign of
Yekūnō Amlāk; whereas MS. 33 of the same collection represents the later
text. Examples of the different recensions are given by Guidi, Atti della
R. Academia dei Lincei: Classe di scienze morali &c., iv. 1888, from whom
most of the above statements are taken.
Copies of the N. T., especially of the Gospels, are to be found in most
collections of Ethiopic MSS.; _see_ especially Wright, Ethiopic MSS. of
the British Museum, pp. 23-39, and Zotenberg, Catalogue des MSS.
Éthiopiens de la Bibliothèque Nationale (nos. 32-48; in the preface to
this latter work a list of other collections are given); also Dillmann,
Abessinische Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin (no. 20,
the four Gospels; 21, the Gospel of St. John); D’Abbadie, Catalogue
Raisonné de MSS. Éthiopiens (Paris, 1859; nos. 2, 47, 82, 95, 112, 173,
the four Gospels; no. 119, St. Paul’s Epistles; no. 164, Catholic Epp.,
Apoc., and Acts); Dillmann, Catalogus MSS. Aethiop. in Bibliotheca
Bodleiana, nos. 10-15; Fr. Müller, Aethiop. Handschriften der K. K.
Hofbibliothek in Wien (Z. D. M. G., xvi. p. 554, no. v, the Gospels; no.
vi, St. John’s Gospel); “Bulletin Scientifique de S. Pétersbourg,” ii. 302
(account of a MS. of the Gospels in the Asiatic Institute at St.
Petersburg), iii. 148 (account of a MS. of the four Gospels, bearing the
date 78 = 1426 A.D., in the Public Library at St. Petersburg, and another
of St. John’s Gospel).
The Ethiopic N. T. was first printed in Rome, 1548, cum epistola Pauli ad
Hebraeos tantum, cum concordantiis Evangelistarum Eusebii et numeratione
omnium verborum eorundem. Quae omnia curavit Fr. Petrus Ethyops auxilio
priorum sedente Paulo iii. Pont. Max. et Claudio illius regni imperatore
(edition of Tasfā Sion). The remaining thirteen Epistles of St. Paul were
printed in 1549. This edition was reproduced in the London Polyglott.
Another was issued by T. P. Platt (for the Bible Society) in 1830,
reprinted 1844 and 1874. These editions are based on MSS. containing mixed
recensions, and are therefore of no critical value.
(4) The Georgian Version (Georg.).
The Church of the Iberians was founded during the reign of Constantine
according to tradition; though, if we consider how intimate and frequent
had been from a much earlier period their intercourse with the Greeks, we
may safely infer that the seeds of Christianity had been long before sown
among them. There is no certain evidence of the date at which they
translated the Scriptures; but it is probable that their version of the
New Testament was made in the fifth and sixth centuries; and that it was
made from a Greek text the most perfunctory examination suffices to prove.
According to Armenian historians of the fifth century, St. Mesrop, at the
same time that he invented the Armenian characters and made the Armenian
version for his own countrymen, fulfilled the same service for the
Georgians also. In this tradition, however, the Georgians do not concur;
and, no doubt, rightly, seeing that their ancient alphabet and their
version are alike independent of the Armenian. It is said by some native
Georgian scholars that before the tenth century a revision was made of
their version, in order to make it more complete.
The present writer knows of no manuscript of the entire Bible in Europe
except at Mount Athos, where there is one reputed to be of the tenth
century. Others are preserved in the Convents of the Holy Cross at
Jerusalem, and of Mount Sinai. In the Vatican Library there is a codex of
the New Testament, neatly written on parchment in majuscule, parts of
which the present writer has collated with the printed text. This codex is
at least as old as the thirteenth century, and in the collations below is
referred to as _a_. Beside this codex the writer has examined in the
Georgian Library at Tiflis three very ancient codices of the Gospels,
written in uncials on parchment. These books were smaller in size than
are, as a rule, the copies of the Gospels used in Eastern Churches.
Of the accompanying collations, nos. i-iv are made from them, and the
passages collated were photographed by the present writer. These
photographs, which represent the originals on a reduced scale, have been
deposited by him in the Bodleian Library for the inspection of the
curious. The text referred to as _b_ is probably of the tenth century or
earlier; the one referred to as _c_ cannot be much later than the
eleventh, while that indicated by _d_ must belong to the twelfth, and is
the most beautifully written of them.
The Bible was not printed in Georgian until the year 1743 at Moscow in
large folio. It is a rare volume, and has never been reprinted. The
character is that called ecclesiastical or priestly majuscule, which
differs wholly from the civil characters and can, as a rule, be read by
the priests only. The New Testament and Psalms have been reprinted at
various times from this original edition, both in priestly and civil
characters, and of the latter kind very good and cheap copies can be
obtained at the British and Foreign Bible Society, printed, however, at
Tiflis. It is said that the edition of 1743 was conformed to the Slavonic
version of the Bible; and if this were true, it would, of course, impair
its value for critical purposes. Of this statement, however, the writer’s
collations, so far as they go, afford no proof. Such variations as there
are between the printed edition and the manuscript texts are notified in
these collations. The point, however, could easily be settled by a
thorough comparison of the printed text with the Slavonic.
The MSS. of Tiflis include the last verses of Mark, and the Vatican MS.
contains the narrative of the woman taken in adultery, but places it after
ver. 44, instead of after ver. 52 of the seventh chapter of John. The
printed edition places it after ver. 52, and this uncertainty as to where
to insert the narrative, in itself indicates that it is a later
interpolation. The printed text also contains the text about the three
witnesses; but it is pieced into the context in an awkward and
ungrammatical way; and whether it is in any MS. the writer cannot say. The
following all too brief collations prove that the printed text fairly
represents the MSS.; from which, indeed, it differs very little except in
its more modern orthography. It is certain, however, that the most ancient
MSS. of this version must be collated and a critical text of it prepared,
before it can be quite reliably used as an early witness to the Greek text
in regard to any particular points. Where the earliest Greek authorities
waver as to the particles by which the parts of the narrative shall be
connected—some, e.g. giving καί, others δέ, others οὖν—the Georgian
constantly passes abruptly to the new matter without any connecting
particle at all—and this, although as a language Georgian is richer in
such connecting particles than is Greek. This peculiarity of the version,
which is also shared by the old Armenian version, seems to prove that it
was made from a primitive text, in which editors had not yet begun to
smooth away the sudden transitions.
(5) The Slavonic Version (Slav.(129)).
This version of the Bible is ascribed to Cyril and Methodius, who lived at
the end of the ninth century. It is uncertain, however, how much of the
New Testament was translated at that date, and how much was the work of a
later time. The manuscripts of the version exist in two characters called
Glagolitic and Cyrillic: of these it is now generally agreed that the
former is the earlier. In considering the version from the point of view
of the textual criticism of the New Testament, we need not deal with its
later history except in so far as that throws light on its original form.
The chief points to which reference will be made will be (i) the different
Manuscripts in which the version exists, with their distinctive
characteristics, and the evidence they afford as to the earliest form—the
_Urtext_—of the version, and (ii) the Greek text presupposed by the
version in the form in which we have it.
It will be convenient to divide the New Testament into three component
parts, (i) the Gospels, (ii) the Acts and Epistles, or the _Apostol_ as it
is called in Slavonic, (iii) the Apocalypse. There can be little doubt
that the Gospels were the earliest part to be translated or that this
translation was made for liturgical purposes. This last point explains the
great preponderance of MSS. of the version in which the Gospels are
arranged in the form of a lectionary(130).
Amongst the earliest manuscripts of the Gospels are the Codex
Zographensis, Codex Marianus, and the Codex Assemanicus. The two first
Jagić ascribes to the tenth or eleventh century. All these are written for
the most part in the Glagolitic character. Besides these, mention must be
made of the Ostromir Codex, written in Cyrillic characters, by Gregory, a
deacon at Novgorod, and dating from the year 1056-7. In considering the
distinctive characteristics of these manuscripts of the version, the first
point to notice is that they each preserve certain dialectical forms and
expressions by which their place of origin and to some extent their date
can be determined. Thus Miklosich regards the Codex Zographensis and Codex
Assemanicus as preserving Bulgarico-Slovenish forms, the Ostromir Codex as
representative of Russo-Slovenish, and so on. It is mainly in these
particulars that the manuscripts differ, though there are also other
differences by means of which it has been determined that some Codices,
especially those in the Glagolitic character, preserve the version in a
more original form than others, as for example the Ostromir Codex. These
differences consist(131), (i) in orthography, (ii) in the fact that the
later forms of the version translate Greek words left untranslated in the
older forms, (iii) in the substitution of later and easier words for
archaisms. It may also be noted that alterations are more numerous, as
might be expected, in copies of the Gospels made for liturgical purposes
than in other copies.
The same remarks would be true of the second part of the Bible, the
_Apostol_. This is pointed out by Voskresenski in the book to which
reference has been made, but which is known to the writer of these lines
only from a review. A very careful examination of the text of the
“Apostol,” based on the manuscripts of the Synodal Library, is made by
Gorski and Nevostruiev in the work referred to above, pp. 292 ff.
Oblak has examined the Slavonic version of the Apocalypse, of which the
manuscripts are fewer and later. The earliest manuscript is ascribed to
the thirteenth century, but the textual corruption which it exhibits in
comparison with other manuscripts requires that the version which it
embodies should be referred at least to the twelfth century. We do indeed
find a quotation of the Apocalypse (ix. 14) as early as the Isbornik of
Sviatoslav of the year 1073, but in a form so different from the MSS. of
the version now extant, that we must regard it as a quotation from memory.
The MSS. have many small variations, sometimes merely dialectical,
sometimes based on a different Greek text. They also show marks in places
of having been corrected with the help of the Latin. But in spite of all
their variations Oblak believes that all the manuscripts are to be
referred to one common translation made from a Greek text of the
Constantinopolitan type, which has been here and there corrupted by
Western influence.
It may be noted in conclusion that the earliest dated complete manuscript
of the Gospels is dated 1144, the earliest manuscript of the whole Bible,
A.D. 1499, and that the earliest printed edition is the famous Ostrog
Bible of 1581.
It remains to say something of the Greek text underlying the Slavonic
version, for this is the special point of view from which the versions are
being here considered. The instances will all be taken from the Gospels,
though others might have been added from those collected by Gorski. In the
first place it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that for
critical purposes a modern edition of the version will be found
insufficient. The following are cases(132) where the edition published by
the British and Foreign Bible Society, probably based on the Textus
Receptus, is misleading as to the real original reading of the version. In
St. Matt. xi. 2 Codd. Assem., Zograph., Ostrom., all imply the reading
διά, the modern edition δύο: in St. John i. 28 the MSS. have Bethany, the
edition Bethabara; in St. John vii. 39 the MSS. insert, the edition omits,
δεδομένον; in St. Matt. xxv. 2 the MSS. put μωραί before φρόνιμοι, the
edition inverts the order. The Ostromir Codex presents a later form of the
version, and so we find instances where the other two MSS., just referred
to, preserve what is probably a better reading. Thus in St. Luke ii. 3
they have οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ, the Ostromir Ἰωσὴφ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ; in St.
John ix. 8 they have προσαίτης, it has τυφλός; in St. John xix. 14 they
have τρίτη, it reads ἕκτη; in St. John xxi. 15 they have ἀρνία, it has
πρόβατα. Again there are cases where one MS. of the version stands alone.
Thus Codex Zogr. stands alone, as against Assem. and Ostrom., in omitting
St. Luke xiv. 24, and inserting δευτεροπρώτῳ in St. Luke vi. 1. Again in
the choice of Slavonic words for the same Greek original, Cod. Zogr. will
agree with Codex Assem. against Codex Ostrom., though where the Codex
Assemanicus is freer in its rendering, the Ostromir Codex and Codex
Zographensis agree. Sometimes again the Codex Zographensis is alone in
curious readings which seem to be conflations of the texts found in the
other two manuscripts, or based on a conflate Greek text.
This version and the various manuscripts which contain it have received
most attention from Slavonic philologists engaged in examining the
earliest monuments of their language; but the readings which have been
given will be enough to show that it does not deserve to be dismissed, as
summarily as has been sometimes the case, from the number of those
versions which have a value for purposes of the Textual Criticism of the
New Testament.
(6) The Arabic Version (Arab.).
Arabic versions (Arab.) are many, though of the slightest possible
critical importance; their literary history, therefore, need not be traced
with much minuteness. A notice is quoted from Bar-hebraeus (Assemani,
Bibl. Or., ii. 335) to the effect that John, Patriarch of the Monophysites
from 631-640, translated the “Gospel” from Syriac into Arabic; and some
scholars have believed in the existence of a pre-Mohammedan version of
parts at least of the New Testament on other grounds; from such a version
(written in the “Hebrew” character) in the opinion of Sprenger (Das Leben
und die Lehre Muhammads, i. 131) come the verses of St. John’s Gospel (xv.
23-27, xvi. 1), cited by Ibn Ishaq (ob. 768) in his “Life of Mohammed”
(ed. Wüstenfeld, i. 150)(133). These verses are evidently translated from
the (Jerusalem?) Syriac; but the translation of the Gospel, from the
Syriac into Arabic, existing in a Leipzig MS. brought by Tischendorf from
the East and described at length by Gildemeister (De evangeliis in
Arabicum e simplici Syriaco translatis, Bonn, 1865) is shown by internal
evidence to be posterior to Islam (pp. 30 sq.). The Arabic versions of the
Gospel existing in MS. are divided by Guidi (Atti della R. Academia dei
Lincei, classe di scienze morali &c., 1888, 1-30) into five sorts: (1)
those made directly from the Greek; (2) made directly or corrected from
the Peshitto; (3) made directly or corrected from the Coptic; (4) MSS. of
two distinct eclectic recensions made in the Alexandrian Patriarchate in
the thirteenth century; (5) MSS. (chiefly derived from the Syriac) which
are distinguished by their style; being in rhymed prose or elegant Arabic.
MSS. of the first sort can all, he says, be traced to the convent of St.
Saba near Jerusalem, and are preceded by the lives of its founders, St.
Eutimius and St. Saba; the version they contain is to be ascribed to the
time of the Caliph Mamun (ninth century). Of the MSS. of class 4, one set
represents a recension made by Ibn El-Assāl, circ. 1250; while another
represents a less elaborate recension made shortly afterwards, in which
the passages omitted in the other were restored, while marginal notes
recorded their omission in other versions. Versions of the fifth class
were made in the tenth, fourteenth, and seventeenth centuries. A list of
MSS. containing the different recensions of all these classes is given by
Guidi, _l. c._, pp. 30-33.
The printed texts all represent varieties of the second eclectic recension
of class 4, of which five editions are enumerated by Gildemeister(_l. c._,
pp. 42, 3, and iv). 1. Roman edition of the Gospels from the Medicean
Press, 1591 (ar.r), edited by J. Baptista Raymundi, some copies having a
Latin translation by Antonius Sionita. The MS. on which this edition was
based is unknown. 2. Edition of Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624), Leyden, 1616,
containing the whole New Testament (ar.e). This edition was based on the
Leyden MS., Scaliger 217, written in Egypt in the year of the Martyrs 1059
(A.D. 1342-3); two other manuscripts also employed by Erpenius for the
Gospels are now in the Cambridge University Library (G. 5. 33, and G. 5.
27, written A.D. 1285). A third MS. employed for this edition was in the
Carshunic character. The Acts and Pauline Epistles, the Epistles of St.
James, St. Peter 1 and St. John 1 in this edition are translated from the
Peshitto; the remaining Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse are from some
other source; the latter shows some remarkable agreement with the
Memphitic (Hug, Einleitung in das N. T., pp. 433-5). 3. Edition of the
whole N. T. in the Paris Polyglott (ar.p), 1645, reprinted with little
alteration in the London Polyglott (1657). Gildemeister, _l. c._, proves
against Lagarde (_l. c._, xi) that this recension in the Gospels is not an
interpolated reprint of the Roman edition, but is based on a MS. similar
to Paris Anc. f. 27 (of A.D. 1619) and Coisl. 239 (new Suppl. Ar. 27)
described by Scholz, “Bibl. Krit. Reise,” pp. 56, 58. The Acts, Epistles,
and Apocalypse follow the Greek, but are by another translator. 4. Edition
of the whole N. T. in the Carshunic character (Rome, 1703), edited by
Faustus Naironus, for the use of the Maronites, from a MS. brought from
Cyprus, reprinted Paris, 1827; the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse
represent the same version as that of Erpenius, but in a different
recension. 5. Edition of the four Gospels from a Vienna MS. (previously
described by S. C. Storr, Dissertatio inauguralis critica de evangeliis
Arabicis, Tübingen, 1875, p. 17 sq.), by P. de Lagarde (Die vier
Evangelien Arabisch, Leipzig, 1864). The MS. contains various readings
from the Coptic, Syriac, and Latin (according to Lagarde, Gildemeister
more naturally renders rūmī by Greek). The editor has prefixed a table of
variants between his text and that of Erpenius, but regards the relation
of the former to the original as involving questions too complicated for
immediate discussion (p. xxxi).
Extracts from MSS. of Arabic versions in French and Italian libraries are
given by J. M. A. Scholz, Biblisch-Kritische Reise, Leipzig and Sorau,
1823; a description of several others, some of great antiquity, is to be
found in Tischendorf’s “Anecdota Sacra et Profana,” pp. 70-73 (2nd ed.);
and Professor Rendel Harris, in “Biblical Fragments from Sinai”
(Cambridge, 1890) has published a facsimile of a fragment of an Arabic
version from a bilingual MS. of the ninth century; the version whence it
is derived agrees with none of those that have been published, and was
probably older than any of them.
The repeated revision and correction which these translations have
undergone (Gildemeister, _l. c._, 1-3), while they give evidence of the
industry and zeal of the Arabic-speaking Christians, have made scholars
despair of employing them for critical purposes; “they rather serve,” says
Gildemeister, “to illustrate the history of biblical and Christian
studies.”
(7) The Anglo-Saxon Version (Sax.).
There is but one known version of the four Gospels (the only portion of
the N. T. that was translated into A.-S.); this version was made, probably
in the South-West of England at or near Bath, in the last quarter of the
tenth century. It is preserved in four MSS.: (Corp.) Corpus Christi Coll.
Camb. MS. 140; (B) Bodleian Lib. MS. 441; (C) Cotton MS. Otho C. I
(seriously injured by fire), and (A) Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Ii. 2. 11. Of
these the first three may be dated, in round number, about the year 1000;
the fourth (A) belongs to the following half-century. The Bodl. Lib. has
also recently acquired a fragment of four leaves of St. John’s Gospel,
which agrees closely with A. [Published by Napier in “Archiv f. n.
Sprachen,” vol. lxxxvii. p. 255 f.]
It may also be mentioned that there are in the Brit. Mus. two additional
copies of this version (Bibl. Reg. MS. I. A. xiv, and Hatton MS. 38).
These belong to a period after the Conquest and have no critical value,
for the first is copied from B, and the second is copied from the first.
This version is based upon a type of the Vulgate MSS. that has not yet
been definitely determined. Old Latin readings make it certain that the
original MS. was of the mixed type.
Next in importance to this version are the two following Latin MSS. of the
four Gospels, with an interlinear Anglo-Saxon gloss. (1) MS. Nero D. 4
(the Lindisfarne MS., also known as the Durham Book). The Latin was
written by Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne 698-721; the interlinear gloss
being about two and a half centuries later, made near Durham about the
year 950. (2) The Rushworth MS. (Bodl. Lib. Auct. D. ii. 19). The Latin
was written by the scribe Macregol, probably in the eighth century. The
gloss, by the scribes Farman and Owun, is referred to the latter half of
the tenth century. These two Latin texts differ but slightly; they are
also of the Vulgate types.
All the MSS. that have now been mentioned are published in one volume (of
four parts) by Professor W. W. Skeat: “The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon,
Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions, synoptically arranged, with
collations exhibiting all the readings of all the MSS.; together with the
Early Latin Version as contained in the Lindisfarne MS.; collated with the
Latin Version in the Rushworth MS. Cambridge: University Press,
1871-1887.” Dr. James W. Bright has published an edition of St. Luke’s
Gospel of the A.-S. Version, Oxford, 1892, and has in preparation a
critical edition of the entire Version [which has been published
recently]. The earlier editions of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels are by
Archbishop Parker, 1571; Dr. Marshall (rector of Lincoln College), 1665;
Benjamin Thorpe, 1842; Dr. Joseph Bosworth, 1865.
(8) The Frankish Version (Fr.).
A Frankish version of St. Matthew, from a manuscript of the ninth century
at St. Gall, in the Frankish dialect of the Teutonic, was published by J.
A. Schmeller in 1827. Tischendorf (N. T., Proleg., p. 225) thinks it
worthy of examination, but does not state whether it was translated from
the Greek or Latin: the latter supposition is the more probable.
(9) Persic Versions (Pers.).
Persic versions of the Gospels only, in print, are two: (1) one in
Walton’s Polyglott (pers.p) with a Latin version by Samuel Clarke (which
C. A. Bode thought it worth his while to reconstruct, Helmstedt, 1750-51,
with a learned Preface), obviously made from the Peshitto Syriac, which
the Persians had long used (“yet often so paraphrastic as to claim a
character of its own,” Malan, _ubi supra_, p. xi), “interprete Symone F.
Joseph Taurinensi,” and taken from a single manuscript belonging to E.
Pocock(134), _probably_ dated A.D. 1341. This version may prove of some
use in restoring the text of the Peshitto. (2) The second, though
apparently modern [xiv?] was made from the Greek (pers.w). Its publication
was commenced in 1652 by Abraham Wheelocke, Professor of Arabic and
Anglo-Saxon and University Librarian at Cambridge, at the expense of Sir
Th. Adams, the generous and loyal alderman of London. The basis (as
appears from the volume itself) was an Oxford codex (probably Laud. A. 96
of the old notation), which Wheelocke, in his elaborate notes at the end
of each chapter, compared with Pocock’s and with a third manuscript at
Cambridge (Gg. v. 26), dated 1014 of the Hegira (A.D. 1607). On
Wheelocke’s death in 1653 only 108 pages (to Matt, xviii. 6) were printed,
but his whole text and Latin version being found ready for the press, the
book was published with a second title-page, dated London, 1657, and a
short Preface by an anonymous editor (said to be one Pierson), who in lieu
of Wheelocke’s notes, which break off after Matt. xvii., appended a simple
collation of the Pocock manuscript from that place. The Persians have
older versions, parts of both Testaments, still unpublished. There is
another copy of the Persian Gospels at Cambridge, which once belonged to
Archbishop Bancroft, and was brought from Lambeth in 1646, but was not
restored in 1662 with the other books belonging to the Lambeth Library.