It would be quite foreign to our present design, to attempt to notice all
the editions of the New Testament in Greek which have appeared in the
course of the last three centuries and a half, nor would a large volume
suffice for such a labour. We will limit our attention, therefore, to
those early editions which have contributed to form our commonly received
text, and to such others of more recent date as not only exhibit a revised
text, but contain an accession of fresh critical materials for its more
complete emendation(148).
Since the Latin or “Mazarin” Bible, printed between 1452 and 1456, was the
first production of the new-born printing-press (_see_ above, p. 61), and
the Jews had published the Hebrew Bible in 1488, we must impute it to the
general ignorance of Greek among divines in Western Europe, that although
the two songs, _Magnificat_ and _Benedictus_ (Luke i), were annexed to a
Greek Psalter which appeared first at Milan in 1481, without a printer’s
name; next at Venice in 1486, being edited by a Greek; again at Venice
from the press of Aldus in 1496 or 1497: and although the first six
chapters of St. John’s Gospel were published at Venice by Aldus Manutius
in 1504, and John vi. 1-14 at Tübingen in 1514, yet the first _printed_
edition of the whole in N. T. the original is that contained in—
1. THE COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOTT(149) (6 vols., folio), the munificent
design of Francis Ximenes de Cisneros [1437-1517], Cardinal Archbishop of
Toledo, and Regent of Castile (1506-1517). This truly eminent person, six
years of whose humble youth were spent in a dungeon through the caprice of
one of his predecessors in the Primacy of Spain, experienced what we have
seen so conspicuously illustrated in other instances, that long
imprisonment ripens the intellect which it fails to extinguish. Entering
the Franciscan order in 1482, he carried the ascetic habit of his
profession to the throne of Toledo and the palace of his sovereign.
Becoming in 1492 Confessor to Queen Isabella the Catholic, and Primate
three years later, he devoted to pure charity or to public purposes the
enormous revenues of his see; founding the University at Alcalá de Henares
in New Castile, where he had gone to school, and defraying the cost of an
expedition which as Regent he led to Oran against the Moors. In 1502 he
conceived the plan of the first Polyglott Bible, to celebrate the birth of
him who afterwards became the Emperor Charles V, and gathered in his
University of Alcalá (_Complutum_) as many manuscripts as he could
procure, with men he deemed equal to the task, of whom James Lopez de
Stunica (subsequently known for his controversy with Erasmus) was the
principal: others being Æ. Antonio of Lebrixa, Demetrius Ducas of Crete,
and Ferdinand of Valladolid (_Pintianus_). The whole outlay of Cardinal
Ximenes on the Polyglott is stated to have exceeded 50,000 ducats or about
£23,000, a vast sum in those days:—but his yearly income as Primate was
four times as great. The first volume printed, Tom. v, contains the New
Testament in two parallel columns, Greek and Latin, the latter being that
modification of the Vulgate then current: the colophon on the last page of
the Apocalypse states that it was completed January 10, 1514, the printer
being Arnald William de Brocario. Tom. vi, comprising a Lexicon, indices,
&c., bears date March 17, 1515; Tom. i-iv of the Old Testament and
Apocrypha, 1517 (Tom. iv dated July 10), on November 8 of which year the
Cardinal died, full of honours and good deeds. This event must have
retarded the publication of the whole, since Pope Leo’s licence was not
granted until March 22, 1520, and Erasmus did not see the book before
1522. As not more than six hundred copies were printed, this Polyglott
must from the first have been scarce and dear, and is not always met with
in Public Libraries.
The Apocryphal books, like the N. T., are of course given only in two
languages; in the Old Testament the Latin Vulgate holds the chief place in
the middle, between the Hebrew and the Septuagint Greek(150). The Greek
type in the other volumes is of the common character, with the usual
breathings and accents; in the fifth, or New Testament volume, it is quite
different, being modelled after the fashion of manuscripts of about the
thirteenth century, very bold and elegant (_see_ Plate x, No. 26), without
breathings, and accentuated according to a system defended and explained
in a bilingual preface πρὸς τοὺς ἐντευξομένους, but never heard of before
or since: monosyllables have no accent, while in other words the _tone_
syllable receives the acute, the grave and circumflex being discarded. The
Latin is in a noble church-character, references are made from the one
text to the other by means of small letters, and where in either column
there is a void space, in consequence of words omitted or otherwise, it is
filled up by such curves as are seen in the bottom line of our specimen.
The foreign matter in this volume consists of the short Preface in Latin
and Greek, Eusebius Carpiano (but without the canons), Jerome’s letter to
Damasus, with the ordinary Latin Prologues and Arguments before each book.
St. Paul’s Epistles precede the Acts, as in Codd. א, 61, 69, 90, &c. and
before them stand the ἀποδημία παύλου, Euthalii περὶ χρόνων, the ordinary
ὑποθέσεις to all the twenty-one Epistles (grouped together), with
Theodoret’s _prologues_ subjoined to thirteen of the ὑποθέσεις. By the
side of the Latin text are numerous parallel passages, and there are also
five marginal notes (on Matt. vi. 13; 1 Cor. xiii. 3; xv. 31; 51; 1 John
v. 7, 8). The only divisions are the common Latin chapters, subdivided by
the letters A, B, C, D, &c. Copies of laudatory verses(151), an
interpretation of Proper Names, and a Greek Lexicon of the N. T., close
the volume.
It has long been debated among critics, what manuscripts were used by the
Complutensian editors, especially in the N. T. Ximenes is reported to have
spent 4,000 ducats in the purchase of such manuscripts; in the Preface to
the N. T. we are assured that “non quevis exemplaria impressioni huic
archetypa fuisse: sed antiquissima emendatissimaque: ac tante preterea
vetustatis, ut fidem eis abrogare nefas videatur: Que sanctissimus in
Christo pater et dominus noster Leo decimus pontifex maximus, huic
instituto favere cupiens ex apostolica bibliotheca educta misit....” Yet
these last expressions can hardly refer to the N. T., inasmuch as Leo X
was not elected Pope till March 11, 1513, and the N. T. was _completed_
Jan. 10 of the very next year(152). Add to this that Vercellone, whose
services to sacred literature have been spoken of above, brought to light
the fact that only two manuscripts are recorded as having been sent to the
Cardinal from the Vatican in the first year of Leo, and neither of them
(Vat. 330, 346) contained any part of the N. T.(153) The only one of the
Complutensian codices specified by Stunica, the Cod. Rhodiensis (Act. 52),
has entirely disappeared, and from a Catalogue of the thirty volumes of
Biblical manuscripts once in the library at Alcalà, but now at Madrid,
communicated in 1846 by Don José Gutierrez, the Librarian, we find that
they consist exclusively of Latin and Hebrew books, with the exception of
two which contain portions of the Septuagint in Greek(154). Thus we seem
cut off from all hope of obtaining direct information as to the age,
character, and present locality of the materials employed for the Greek
text of this edition.
It is obvious, however, that in the course of twelve years (1502-14),
Ximenes may have obtained _transcripts_ of codices he did not himself
possess, and since some of the more remarkable readings of the
Complutensian are found in but one or two manuscripts (e.g. Luke i. 64 in
Codd. 140, 251; ii. 22 in Cod. 76), such copies should of course be
narrowly watched. We have pointed out above the resemblance that Siedel’s
codex (Act. 42, Paul. 48, Apoc. 13) bears to this edition: so too Cod. 4
of the Gospels. Mill first noticed its affinity to Laud. 2 or Evan. 51,
Act. 32, Paul. 38 (Evan. 51), and though this is somewhat remote in the
Gospels, throughout the Acts and Epistles it is close and
indubitable(155). We see, therefore, no cause for believing that either
Cod. B, or any manuscript much resembling it in character, or any other
document of high antiquity or first-rate importance, was employed by the
editors of this Polyglott. The text it exhibits does not widely differ
from that of most codices written from the tenth century downwards.
That it was corrupted from the parallel Latin version was contended by
Wetstein and others on very insufficient grounds. Even the Latinism
βεελζεβούβ Matt. x. 25, seems a mere inadvertence, and is corrected
immediately afterwards (xii. 24, 27), as well as in the four other places
wherein the word is used. We need not deny that 1 John v. 7, 8 was
interpolated, and probably translated from the Vulgate; and a few other
cases have a suspicious look (Rom. xvi. 5; 2 Cor. v. 10; vi. 15; and
especially Gal. iii. 19); the articles too are employed as if they were
unfamiliar to the editor (e.g. Acts xxi. 4; 8): yet we must emphatically
deny that on the whole the Latin Vulgate had an appreciable effect upon
the Greek. This last point had been demonstrated to the satisfaction of
Michaelis and of Marsh by Goeze(156), in whose short tract many readings
of Cod. Laud. 2 are also examined. In the more exact collation of the N.
T., which we have made with the common text (Elzevir 1624), and which
appeared in the first edition of the present work, out of 2,780 places in
all, wherein the Complutensian edition differs from that of Elzevir (viz.
1,046 in the Gospels, 578 in the Pauline Epistles, 542 in the Acts and
Catholic Epistles, 614 in the Apocalypse), in no less than 849 the Latin
is at variance with the Greek; in the majority of the rest the difference
cannot be expressed in another language. Since the Complutensian N. T.
could only have been published from manuscripts, it deserves more minute
examination than it has received from Mill or Wetstein; and it were much
to be desired that minute collations could be made of several other early
editions, especially the whole five of Erasmus.
Since this Polyglott has been said to be very inaccurately
printed, it is necessary to state that we have noted just fifty
pure errors of the press; in one place, moreover (Heb. vii. 3),
part of the ninth Euthalian κεφάλαιον (εν ω ότι και του αβραάμ
προετιμήθη) has crept into the text. All the usual peculiarities
observable in later manuscripts are here, e.g. 224 itacisms
(chiefly ω for ο, η for ει, ει for ι, υ for η, οι for ει, and vice
versâ); thirty-two instances of ν ἐφελκυστικόν, or the
superabundant ν, before a consonant; fifteen cases of the hiatus
for the lack of ν before a vowel; ουτως is sometimes found before
a consonant, but ουτω sixty-eight times; ουκ and ουχ are
interchanged twelve times. The following peculiarities, found in
many manuscripts, and here retained, may show that the grammatical
forms of the Greek were not yet settled among scholars; παρήνγελεν
Mark vi. 8; διάγγελε Luke ix. 60; καταγγέλειν Acts iv. 2;
διαγγέλων Acts xxi. 26; καταγγέλων 1 Cor. ii. 1; παραγγέλω 1 Cor.
vii. 10; αναγγέλλων 2 Cor. vii. 7; παραγγέλομεν 2 Thess. iii. 4;
παράγγελε 1 Tim. iv. 11; v. 7; vi. 17. The augment is omitted nine
times (Matt. xi. 17; Acts vii. 42; xxvi. 32; Rom. i. 2; Gal. ii.
13; 1 Tim. vi. 10; 2 Tim. i. 16; Apoc. iv. 8; xii. 17); the
reduplication twice (John xi. 52; 1 Cor. xi. 5); μέλλω and μέλει
are confounded, Mark iv. 38; Acts xviii. 17; Apoc. iii. 2; xii. 4.
Other anomalous forms (some of them would be called Alexandrian)
are παμπόλου Mark viii. 1; νηρέαν Rom. xvi. 15; εξαιρείτε 1 Cor.
v. 13; αποκτένει 2 Cor. iii. 6, _passim_; στιχούμεν Gal. v. 25;
είπα Heb. iii. 10; ευράμενος _ibid._ ix. 12; απεσχέσθαι 1 Pet. ii.
11; καταλειπόντες 2 Pet. ii. 15; περιβαλλείται Apoc. iii. 5;
δειγνύντος _ibid._ xxii. 8. The stops are placed carelessly in the
Greek, being (.), (,), rarely (·), never (;). In the Latin the
stops are pretty regular, but the abbreviations very numerous,
even such purely arbitrary forms as _xps_ for _Christus_. In the
Greek σ often stands at the end of a word for ς, ï and often ü or
_υ_ are set at the beginning of syllables: there are no instances
of ι _ascript_ or _subscript_, and no capital letters except at
the beginning of a chapter, when they are often flourished. The
following forms are also derived from the general practice of
manuscripts, and occur perpetually: απάρτι, απάρχης, δαν (for δ᾽
ἂν), ειμή, εξαυτής, επιτοαυτό, εφόσον, εωσότου, καίτοιγε,
καθημέραν, κατιδίαν, κατόναρ, μεθήμων, μέντοι, ουμή, τουτέστι; and
for the most part διαπαντός, διατί, διατούτο, είτις, ουκέτι.
Sometimes the preposition and its case make but a single word, as
παραφύσιν, and once we find ευποιήσαι, Vulg. _benefacere_ (Mark
xiv. 7).
The Complutensian text has been followed in the main by only a few later
editions, chiefly by Chr. Plantin’s Antwerp Polyglott (1569-72)(157).
2. ERASMUS’ NEW TESTAMENT was by six years the earlier published, though
it was printed two years later than the Complutensian. Its editor, both in
character and fortunes, presents a striking contrast with Ximenes; yet
what he lacked of the Castilian’s firmness he more than atoned for by his
true love of learning, and the cheerfulness of spirit that struggled
patiently, if not boldly, with adversity. Desiderius Erasmus (ἐράσμιος,
i.e. Gerald) was born at Rotterdam in 1465, or, perhaps, a year or two
later, the illegitimate son of reputable and (but for that sin) of
virtuous parents. Soon left an orphan, he was forced to take reluctantly
the minor orders, and entered the priesthood in 1492. Thenceforward his
was the hard life of a solitary and wandering man of letters, earning a
precarious subsistence from booksellers or pupils(158), now learning Greek
at Oxford (but αὐτοδίδακτος)(159), now teaching it at Cambridge (1510);
losing by his reckless wit the friends his vast erudition had won;
restless and unfrugal, perhaps, yet always labouring faithfully and with
diligence. He was in England when John Froben, a celebrated publisher at
Basle, moved by the report of the forthcoming Spanish Bible and eager to
forestall it, made application to Erasmus, through a common friend, to
undertake immediately an edition of the N. T.: “se daturum pollicetur,
quantum alius quisquam,” is the argument employed. This proposal was sent
on April 17, 1515, years before which time Erasmus had prepared numerous
annotations to illustrate a revised Latin version he had long projected.
On September 11 it was yet unsettled whether this, improved version should
stand by the Greek in a parallel column (the plan actually adopted), or be
printed separately: yet the colophon at the end of Erasmus’ first edition,
a large folio of 1,027 pages in all, is dated February, 1516; the end of
the Annotations, March 1, 1516; Erasmus’ dedication to Leo X, Feb. 1,
1516; and Froben’s Preface, full of joyful hope and honest pride in the
friendship of the first of living authors, Feb. 24, 1516. Well might
Erasmus, who had besides other literary engagements to occupy his time,
declare subsequently that the volume “praecipitatum fuit verius quam
editum;” yet both on the title-page, and in his dedication to the Pope, he
allows himself to employ widely different language(160). When we read the
assurance he addressed to Leo, “Novum ut vocant testamentum universum ad
Graecae originis fidem recognovimus, idque non temere neque levi opera,
sed adhibitis in consilium compluribus utriusque linguae codicibus, nec
iis sane quibuslibet, sed vetustissimis simul et emendatissimis,” it is
almost painful to be obliged to remember that a portion of ten months at
the utmost could have been devoted to his task by Erasmus; while the only
manuscripts he can be imagined to have constantly used are Codd. Evan. 2,
Act. Paul. 2 and Paul. 7, with occasional reference to Evan. Act. Paul. 1
and Act. Paul. 4 (all still at Basle) for the remainder of the New
Testament, to which add Apoc. 1, now happily recovered, alone for the
Apocalypse. All these, excepting Evan. Act. Paul. 1, were neither ancient
nor particularly valuable, and of Cod. 1 he professed to make but small
account(161). As Apoc. 1 was mutilated in the last six verses, Erasmus
turned these into Greek from the Latin; and some portions of his self-made
version, which are found (however some editors may speak vaguely) _in no
one known Greek manuscript whatever_, still cleave to our received
text(162). Besides this scanty roll, however, he not rarely refers in his
Annotations to other manuscripts he had seen in the course of his travels
(e.g. on Heb. i. 3; Apoc. i. 4; viii. 13), yet too indistinctly for his
allusions to be of much use to critics. Some such readings, as alleged by
him, have not been found elsewhere (e.g. Acts xxiv. 23; Rom. xii. 20), and
may have been cited loosely from distant recollection (comp. Col. iii. 3;
Heb. iv. 12; 2 Pet. iii. 1; Apoc. ii. 18).
When Ximenes, in the last year of his life, was shown Erasmus’ edition
which had thus got the start of his own, and his editor, Stunica, sought
to depreciate it, the noble old man replied, “would God that all the
Lord’s people were prophets! produce better, if thou canst; condemn not
the industry of another(163).” His generous confidence in his own work was
not misplaced. He had many advantages over the poor scholar and the
enterprising printer of Basle, and had not let them pass unimproved. The
typographical errors of the Complutensian Greek have been stated; Erasmus’
first edition is in that respect the most faulty book I know.
Oecolampadius, or John Hausschein of Basle [1482-1531], afterwards of some
note as a disputer with Luther on the Sacramentarian controversy, had
undertaken this department for him; and was glad enough to serve under
such a chief; but Froben’s hot haste gave him little leisure to do his
part. No less than 501 _itacisms_ are imported from the manuscripts into
his printed text, and the ν ἐφελκυστικόν is perpetually used with verbs,
before a consonant beginning the next word. We must, however, impute it to
design that ι _subscript_, which is elsewhere placed pretty correctly, is
here set under η in the plural of the subjunctive mood active, but not in
the singular (e.g. James ii. ἐπιβλέψῃτε, εἴπῃτε _bis_, but ver. 2 εἰσέλθη
_bis_). With regard to the text, the difference between the two editions
is very wide in the Apocalypse, the text of the Complutensian being
decidedly preferable; elsewhere they resemble each other more closely, and
while we fully admit the error of Stunica and his colleagues in
translating from the Latin version into Greek, 1 John v. 7, 8, it would
appear that Erasmus has elsewhere acted in the same manner, not merely in
cases which for the moment admitted no choice, but in places where no such
necessity existed: thus in Acts ix. 5, 6, the words from σκληρόν to πρὸς
αὐτόν are interpolated from the Vulgate, partly by the help of Acts
xxvi(164).
Erasmus died at Basle in 1536, having lived to publish four editions
besides that of 1516. The second has enlarged annotations, and very truly
bears on its title the statement “multo quam antehac diligentius ab Er.
Rot. recognitum;” for a large portion of the misprints, and not a few
readings of the first edition, are herein corrected, the latter chiefly on
the authority of a fresh codex, Evan. Act. Paul. 3; The colophon to the
Apocalypse is dated 1518, Froben’s Epistle to the reader, Feb. 5, 1519. In
this edition ι _subscript_ is for the most part set right; _Carp._, _Eus.
t._, κεφ. _t._, τίτλοι, _Am._, _Eus._ are added in the Gospels; Dorotheus’
“Lives of the Four Evangelists” (_see_ Act. 89) stood before St. Matthew
in 1516; but now the longer “Lives” by Sophronius, with Theophylact’s
“Prologues,” are set before each Gospel. Κεφάλαια (not the Euthalian) are
given in both editions in Rom. 1, 2 Corinth. only, but the Latin chapters
are represented in the margin throughout, with the subdivisions A, B, C,
D. Of these two editions put together 3,300 copies were printed. The third
edition (1522) is chiefly remarkable for its insertion of 1 John v. 7, 8
in the Greek text(165), under the circumstances described above, Vol. I.
p. 200, in consequence of Erasmus’ controversy with Stunica and H.
Standish, Bp. of St. Asaph (d. 1534), and with a much weaker antagonist,
Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, who objected to his omission of
a passage which no Greek codex was then known to contain. This edition
again was said to be “tertio jam ac diligentius ... recognitum,” and
contains also “Capita argumentorum contra morosos quosdam ac indoctos,”
which he subsequently found reason to enlarge. The fourth edition (dated
March, 1527) contains the text in three parallel columns, the Greek, the
Latin Vulgate, and Erasmus’ recension of it. He had seen the Complutensian
Polyglott in 1522, shortly after the publication of his third edition, and
had now the good sense to avail himself of its aid in the improvement of
the text, especially in the Apocalypse, wherein he amended from it at
least ninety readings. His last edition of 1535 once more discarded the
Latin Vulgate, and differs very little from the fourth as regards the
text(166).
A minute collation of all Erasmus’ editions is a desideratum we may one
day come to see supplied. The present writer hopes soon to publish a full
comparison of his first and second editions with the Complutensian
text(167), as also with that of Stephen 1550, of Beza 1565, and of Elzevir
1624. All who have followed Mill over any portion of the vast field he
endeavoured to occupy, will feel certain that his statements respecting
their divergences are much below the truth: such as they are, we repeat
them for want of more accurate information. He estimates that Erasmus’
second edition contains 330 changes from the first for the better, seventy
for the worse (N. T., Proleg. § 1134); that the third differs from the
second in 118 places (_ibid._ § 1138)(168); the fourth from the third in
106 or 113 places, ninety being those from the Apocalypse just spoken of
(_ibid._ § 1141)(169). The fifth he alleges to differ from the fourth only
four times, so far as he noticed (_ibid._ § 1150): but we meet with as
many variations in St. James’ Epistle alone(170).
3. In 1518 appeared the Graeca Biblia at Venice, from the celebrated press
of Aldus: the work professes to be grounded on a collation of many most
ancient copies(171). However true this must be with regard to the Old
Testament, which was now published in Greek for the first time, Aldus
follows the first edition of Erasmus so closely in the New as to reproduce
his very errors of the press (Mill, N. T., Proleg. § 1122), even those
which Oecolampadius had corrected in the list of errata; though Aldus is
stated to differ from Erasmus in about 200 places, for the better or
worse(172). If this edition was really revised by means of manuscripts
(Cod. 131) rather than by mere conjecture, we know not what they were, or
how far intelligently employed.
Another edition out of the many which now began to swarm, wherein the
testimony of manuscripts is believed to have been followed, is that of
Simon Colinaeus, Paris, 1534, in which the text is an eclectic mixture of
the Complutensian and Erasmian(173). Mill states (Proleg. § 1144) that in
about 150 places Colinaeus deserts them both, and that his variations are
usually supported by the evidence of known codices (Evan. 119, 120 at
Paris, and Steph. ια᾽, i.e. Act. 8, Paul. 10, have been suggested), though
a few still remain which may perhaps be deemed conjectural. Wetstein (N.
T., Proleg. vol. i. p. 142) thinks that for Bogard’s Paris edition of 1543
with various readings Evan. 120 or Steph. ιδ᾽ might have been used, but
his own references hardly favour that notion.
4. The editions of Robert Stephen (Estienne), mainly by reason of their
exquisite beauty, have exercised a far wider influence than these, and
Stephen’s third or folio edition of 1550 is by many regarded as the
received or standard text. This eminent and resolute man [1503-59], “whose
Biblical work taken altogether had perhaps more influence than that of any
other single man in the sixteenth century(174),” early commenced his
useful career as a printer at Paris, and, having incurred the enmity of
the Doctors of the Sorbonne for his editions of the Latin Vulgate, was yet
protected and patronised by Francis I [d. 1547] and his son Henry II. It
was from the Royal Press that his three principal editions of the Greek N.
T. were issued, the fourth and last being published in 1551 at Geneva, to
which town he finally withdrew the next year, and made public profession
of the Protestant opinions which had long been gathering strength in his
mind. The editions of 1546, 1549 are small 12mo in size, most elegantly
printed with type cast at the expense of Francis: the opening words of the
Preface common to both, “_O mirificam_ Regis nostri optimi et
praestantissimi principis liberalitatem...” have given them the name by
which they are known among connoisseurs. Erasmus and his services to
sacred learning Stephen does not so much as name, nor indeed did he as yet
adopt him for a model: he speaks of “codices ipsa vetustatis specie pene
adorandos” which he had met with in the King’s Library, by which, he
boldly adds, “ita hunc nostrum recensuimus, ut nullam omnino literam secus
esse pateremur quam plures, iique meliores libri, tanquam testes,
comprobarent.” The Complutensian, as he admits, assisted him greatly, and
he notes its close connexion with the readings of his manuscripts(175).
Mill assures us (Proleg. § 1220) that Stephen’s first and second editions
differ but in sixty-seven places. My own collation of the two books gives
139 cases of divergence in the text, twenty-eight in punctuation. They
differ jointly from the third edition 334 times in the text, twenty-seven
in punctuation. In the Apocalypse the first and second editions are close
to the text of Erasmus, differing from each other but in eleven places,
while the third edition follows the Complutensian or other authorities
against the first in sixty-one places. In the folio or third edition of
1550 the various readings of the codices, obscurely referred to in the
Preface to that of 1546, are entered in the margin. This fine volume
(bearing on its title-page, in honour of Henry II, the inscription Βασιλεῖ
τ᾽ ἀγαθῷ, κρατερῷ τ᾽ αἰχμητῇ) derives much importance from its being the
earliest ever published with critical apparatus. In the Preface or Epistle
to the Reader, written after the example of the Complutensian editors both
in Greek and Latin, his authorities are declared to be sixteen; viz. α’,
the Spanish Polyglott; β’, which we have already discussed (_above_, p.
124, _note_ 3), γ᾽, δ᾽, ε᾽ ϛ᾽, ζ᾽, η᾽, ι᾽, ιε᾽ taken from King Henry II’s
Library; the rest (i.e. θ᾽, ια᾽, ιβ᾽, ιγ᾽, ιδ᾽, ιϛ᾽) are those ἂ αὐτοὶ
πανταχόθεν συνηθροίσαμεν, or, as the Latin runs, “quae undique corrogare
licuit:” these, of course, were not necessarily his own, one at least
(ιγ᾽, Act. 9, Paul. 11) we are sure was not. Although Robert Stephen
professed to have collated the whole sixteen for his two previous
editions, and that too ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν ἐπιμελέστατα, this part of his work
is now known to be due to his son Henry [1528-98], who in 1546 was only
eighteen years old (Wetstein, N. T., Proleg., vol. i. pp. 143-4). The
degree of accuracy attained in this collation may be estimated from the
single instance of the Complutensian, a book printed in very clear type,
widely circulated, and highly valued by Stephen himself. Deducting mere
_errata_, itacisms, and such like, it differs from his third edition in
more than 2,300 places, of which (including cases where π. or πάντες
stands for _all_ his copies) it is cited correctly 554 times (viz. 164 in
the Gospels, ninety-four in St. Paul, seventy-six in the Acts and Catholic
Epistles, 220 in the Apocalypse), and falsely no less than fifty-six
times, again including errors from a too general use of πάντες(176). I
would not say with some that these authorities stand in the margin more
for parade than use, yet the text is perpetually at variance with the
majority of them, and in 119 places with them all(177). If we trust
ourselves once more to the guidance of Mill (Proleg. § 1228), the folio of
1550 departs from its smaller predecessors of 1546, 1549, in 284
readings(178), chiefly to adopt the text of Erasmus’ fifth edition, though
even now the Complutensian is occasionally preferred (e.g. εὐλογήσας Matt.
xxvi. 26), most often in the Apocalypse, and that with very good reason.
Of his other fifteen authorities, ια᾽ (= Act. 8) and ιϛ᾽ (= Apoc. 3) have
never been identified, but were among the six in private hands: β᾽
certainly is Cod. D or Bezae; the learned have tried, and on the whole
successfully, to recognize the remainder, especially those in the Royal
(or Imperial, or National) Library at Paris. In that great collection Le
Long has satisfied us that γ᾽ is probably Evan. 4; δ᾽ is certainly Evan.
5; ε᾽ Evan. 6; ϛ᾽ Evan. 7; η᾽ Evan. L; ζ᾽ he rightly believed to be Evan.
8 (above, p. 191, note); ι᾽ appears to be Act. 7. Of those in the
possession of individuals in Stephen’s time, Bp. Marsh (who in his
“Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis,” 1795, was led to examine this subject
very carefully) has proved that ιγ᾽ is Act. 9; Wetstein thought θ᾽ was
Evan. 38 (which however see); Scholz seems to approve of Wetstein’s
conjecture which Griesbach doubted (N. T., Proleg., Sect. 1. p. xxxviii),
that ιβ᾽ is Evan. 9: Griesbach rightly considers ιδ᾽ to be Evan. 120; ιε᾽
was seen by Le Long to be Act. 10: these last four are now in the Royal
Library. It has proved the more difficult to settle them, as Robert
Stephen did not even print all the materials that Henry had gathered; many
of whose various readings were published subsequently by Beza(179) from
the collator’s own manuscript, which itself must have been very defective.
With all its faults, however, the edition of 1550 was a foundation on
which others might hereafter build, and was unquestionably of great use in
directing the attention of students to the authorities on which alone the
true text of Scripture is based. This standard edition contains the
following supplementary matter besides the Epistle to the reader:
Chrysostom’s Hom. I in S. Matthaeum (then first published): _Carp._, _Eus.
t._: Πίναξ μαρτυριῶν of O. T. passages cited in the N. T. being (1)
literal, (2) virtual: seventy-two Hexameter lines, headed Ερρικος ο
Ρωβερτου Στεφανου, φιλοθεω παντι: _prol._ by Theophylact following “Lives”
by Sophronius and Dorotheus of Tyre, with κεφ. _t._ before each Gospel:
τίτλ., κεφ., _Am._, _Eus._ Before the Acts stand Ἀποδημία Παύλου and
Euthalius περὶ τῶν χρόνων, κεφ. _t._ Before the Epistles is a new
title-page. Chrysostom’s _prol._ on the Pauline Epistles begins the new
volume. Each separate Epistle has prefixed _prol._ (chiefly by Theodoret)
and κεφ. _t._ The Acts and Epistles have κεφ., but the Apocalypse no prol.
or κεφ., except the ordinary Latin chapters, which are given throughout
the N. T., subdivided by letters.
R. Stephen’s smaller edition (16mo), published in 1551 at Geneva, though
that name is not on the title-page, is said to contain the Greek Text of
1550 almost unchanged(180), set between the Vulgate and Erasmus’ Latin
versions. In this volume we first find our present division of the N. T.
into verses: “triste lumen,” as Reuss calls it (p. 58), “nec posthac
extinguendum.”
5. Theodore de Bèze [1519-1605], a native of Vezelai in the Nivernois,
after a licentious youth, resigned his ecclesiastical preferments at the
age of twenty-nine to retire with the wife of his early choice to Geneva,
that little city to which the genius of one man has given so prominent a
place in the history of the sixteenth century. His noble birth and
knowledge of the world, aided by the impression produced at the Conference
at Poissy (1561) by his eloquence and learning, easily gained for Beza the
chief place among the French Reformed on the death of their teacher Calvin
in 1564. Of his services in connexion with the two Codd. D we have already
spoken: he himself put forth at intervals, besides his own elegant Latin
version published in 1556, ten editions of the N. T. (viz. four in folio
in the years 1565, 1582, 1588, 1598, and six in octavo in 1565, 1567,
1580, 1591, 1604, and 1611), the Latin Vulgate, and Annotations(181). A
better commentator perhaps than a critic, but most conspicuous as the
earnest leader of a religious party, Beza neither sought very anxiously
after fresh materials for correcting the text, nor made any great use of
what were ready at hand, namely, his own two great codices, the papers of
Henry Stephen, and Tremellius’ Latin version of the Peshitto. All his
editions vary somewhat from Stephen and from each other, yet there is no
material difference between any of them(182). He exhibits a tendency, not
the less blameworthy because his extreme theological views would tempt him
thereto, towards choosing that reading out of several which might best
suit his own preconceived opinions. Thus in Luke ii. 22 he adopts (and our
Authorized English version condescends to follow his judgement) τοῦ
καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῆς from the Complutensian, for which he could have known of
no manuscript authority whatever: _ejus_ of the Vulgate would most
naturally be rendered by αὐτοῦ (_see_ Campbell in loc.). Wetstein
calculates that Beza’s text differs from Stephen’s in some fifty places
(an estimate we shall find below the mark), and that either in his
translation or his Annotations he departs from Stephen’s Greek text in 150
passages (Wetst. N. T., Proleg., Tom. ii. p. 7).
6. The brothers Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir set up a printing-press at
Leyden, which maintained its reputation for elegance and correctness
throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century. One of their
minute editions, so much prized by bibliomanists, was a Greek Testament,
24mo, 1624, alleging on the title-page (there is no Preface whatever) to
be ex _Regiis aliisque optimis editionibus cum curâ expressum_: by
_Regiis_, we presume, Stephen’s editions are meant, and especially that of
1550. The supposed accuracy (for which its good name is not quite
deserved) and the great neatness of this little book procured for it much
popularity. When the edition was exhausted, a second appeared in 1633,
having the verses broken up into separate sentences, instead of their
numbers being indicated in the margin, as in 1624. In the Preface it seems
to allude to Beza’s N. T., without directly naming him: “Ex regiis ac
_ceteris editionibus_, quae maxime ac prae ceteris nunc omnibus
probantur.” To this edition is prefixed, as in 1624, a table of quotations
(πίναξ μαρτυριῶν) from the Old Testament, to which are now added tables of
the κεφάλαια of the Gospels, ἔκθεσις κεφαλαίων of the Acts and all the
Epistles. Of the person entrusted with its superintendence we know
nothing; nearly all his readings are found either in Stephen’s or Beza’s
N. T. (he leans to the latter in preference(183)); but he speaks of the
edition of 1624 as that “omnibus acceptam;” and boldly states, with a
confidence which no doubt helped on its own accomplishment, “textum ergo
habes nunc ab omnibus receptum, in quo nihil immutatum aut corruptum
damus.” His other profession, that of superior correctness, is also a
little premature: “ut si quae vel minutissimae in nostro, aut in iis, quos
secuti sumus libris, superessent mendae, cum judicio ac cura tollerentur.”
Although some of the worst misprints of the edition of 1624 are amended in
that of 1633 (Matt. vi. 34; Acts xxvii. 13; 1 Cor. x. 10; Col. ii. 13; 1
Thess. ii. 17; Heb. viii. 9; 2 Pet. i. 7), others just as gross are
retained (Acts ix. 3; Rom. vii. 2; xiii. 5; 1 Cor. xii. 23; xiii. 3; 2
Cor. iv. 4; v. 19; viii. 8; Heb. xii. 9; Apoc. iii. 12; vii. 7; xviii.
16), to which much be added a few peculiar to itself (e.g. Mark iii. 10;
Rom. xv. 3; 1 Cor. ix. 2; 2 Cor. i. 11; vi. 16; Col. i. 7; iv. 7; Apoc.
xxii. 3): ἐθύθη in 1 Cor. v. 7 should not be reckoned as an erratum, since
it was adopted designedly by Beza, and after him by both the Elzevir
editions. Of real various readings between the two Elzevirs we mark but
seven or eight instances (in six of which that of 1633 follows the
Complutensian); viz. Mark iv. 18; viii. 24; Luke xi. 33; xii. 20; John
iii. 6 _bis_; 2 Tim. i. 12; iv. 51(184); Apoc. xvi. 5: and in 2 Pet. i. 1
(as also in ed. 1641) ἡμῶν is omitted after σωτῆρος(185).
Since Stephen’s edition of 1550 and that of the Elzevirs have been taken
as the standard or _Received_ text(186), the former chiefly in England,
the latter on the Continent, and inasmuch as nearly all collated
manuscripts have been compared with one or the other of these, it becomes
absolutely necessary to know the precise points in which they differ from
each other, even to the minutest errors of the press. Mill (N. T.,
Proleg., 1307) observed but twelve such variations; Tischendorf gives a
catalogue of 150 (N. T., Proleg., p. lxxxv, seventh edition). For the
first edition of the present work a list of 287 was drawn up, which, it is
hoped, will soon be reprinted, in a more convenient shape, in a volume now
in preparation(187).
The Science of Sacred Textual Criticism was built up in successive
Critical Editions of the Greek Testament, and to a brief description of
those this chapter will be devoted. It will not include therefore any
notice of editions like that of Valpy, or of Bloomfield, or Alford, or
Wordsworth, in which the textual treatment did not assume prominence or
involve advancement in this province. Still less is there space for such a
list of general editions of the New Testament as the very valuable one
compiled by Dr. Isaac H. Hall, and found in Schaffs “Companion to the New
Testament,” to which notice has been already directed. The progress of
Textual Science has involved two chief stages; the first, in which all
evidence was accepted and registered, and the second, when a selection was
made and the rest either partially or totally disregarded. Lachmann was
the leader in the second stage, of which to some extent Griesbach was the
pioneer. It is evident that in the future a return must be made, as has
been already advocated by many, to the principles of the first stage(188).
1. R. Stephen was the first to bring together any considerable body of
manuscript evidence, however negligently or capriciously he may have
applied it to the emendation of the sacred text. A succession of English
scholars was now ready to follow him in the same path, the only direct and
sure one in criticism; and for about eighty years our countrymen
maintained the foremost place in this important branch of Biblical
learning. Their van was led by Brian Walton [1600-61], afterwards Bishop
of Chester, who published in 1657 the London Polyglott, which he had
planned twelve years before, as at once the solace and meet employment of
himself and a worthy band of colleagues during that sad season when
Christ’s Church in England was for a while trodden in the dust, and its
ministers languished in silence and deep poverty. The fifth of his huge
folios was devoted to the New Testament in six languages, viz. Stephen’s
Greek text of 1550(189), the Peshitto-Syriac, the Latin Vulgate, the
Ethiopic, Arabic, and (in the Gospels only) the Persic. The exclusively
critical apparatus, with which alone we are concerned, consists of the
readings of Cod. A set at the foot of the Greek text, and, in the sixth or
supplementary volume, of Lucas Brugensis’ notes on various readings of the
Gospels in Greek and Latin; of those given by the Louvain divines in their
edition of the Vulgate (Walton, Polygl., Tom. vi. No. xvii); and
especially of a collation of sixteen authorities, whereof all but three,
viz. Nos. 1, 15, 16(190), had never been used before (Walton, Tom. vi. No.
xvi). These various readings had been gathered by the care and diligence
of Archbishop Ussher [1580-1656], then living in studious and devout
retirement near London(191). They are as follows:—(1) _Steph._ the sixteen
copies extracted from Stephen’s margin: (2) _Cant._ or Evan. D: (3)
_Clar._ or Paul. D: (4) _Gon._ or Evan. 59: (5) _Em._ or Evan. 64, and
also Act. 53: (6) _Goog._ or Evan. 62: (7) _Mont._ or Evan. 61: (8) _Lin._
or Evan. 56, and also Act. 33: (9) _Magd._ 1 or Evan. 57: (10) _Magd._ 2
or Paul. 42: (11) _Nov._ 1 or Evan. 58: (12) _Nov._ 2 or Act. 36: (13)
_Bodl._ 1 or Evan. 47: (14) _Trit._ or _Bodl._ 2, Evan. 96: (15) _March.
Veles._, the Velesian readings, described above, Vol. i. p. 209: (16)
_Bib. Wech._, the Wechelian readings, which deserve no more regard than
the Velesian. They were derived from the margin of a Bible printed at
Frankfort, 1597, by the heirs of And. Wechel. It is indifferent whether
they be referred to Francis Junius or F. Sylburg as editors, since all the
readings in the New Testament are found in Stephen’s margin, or in the
early editions.
Walton was thus enabled to publish very extensive additions to the
existing stock of materials. That he did not try by their means to form
thus early a corrected text, is not at all to be regretted; the time for
that attempt was not yet arrived. He cannot, however, be absolved from the
charge to which R. Stephen had been before amenable, of suppressing a
large portion of the collations which had been sent him. The Rev. C. B.
Scott, Head Master of Westminster School, found in the Library of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge, the readings of Codd. D. 59, 61, 62, prepared for
Walton (Dobbin, Cod. Montfort., Introd. p. 21), which Mill had access to,
and in his N. T. made good use of, as well as of Ussher’s other papers
(Mill, Proleg. § 1505).
2. Steph. Curcellaeus or Courcelles published his N. T. at Amsterdam in
1658, before he had seen Walton’s Polyglott. The peculiar merit of his
book arises from his marginal collection of parallel texts, which are more
copious than those of his predecessors, yet not too many for convenient
use: later editors have been thankful to take them as a basis for their
own(192). There are many various readings(193) (some from two or three
fresh manuscripts) at the foot of each page, or thrown into an appendix,
mingled with certain rash conjectures which betray a Socinian bias: but
since the authorities are not cited for each separate reading, these
critical labours were as good as wasted(194).
3. A more important step in advance was taken in the Greek Testament in
8vo, issued from the Oxford University Press in 1675. This elegant volume
(whose Greek text is mainly that of Elzevir 1633(195)) was superintended
by John Fell [1625-86], Dean of Christ Church, soon afterwards Bishop of
Oxford, the biographer of saint-like Hammond, himself one of the most
learned and munificent, if not quite the most popular Prelate, of that
golden age of the English Church, in whose behalf Anthony à Wood
designates him “the most zealous man of his time.” His brief yet
interesting Preface not only discusses the causes of various
readings(196), and describes the materials used for his edition, but
touches on that weak and ignorant prejudice which had been already raised
against the collection of such variations in the text of Scripture; and
that too sometimes by persons like John Owen(197) the Puritan, intrusive
Dean of Christ Church under Cromwell, who, but that we are loth to doubt
his integrity, would hardly be deemed a victim of the panic he sought to
spread. In reply to all objectors the Bishop pleads the comparative
insignificance of the change produced by various readings in the general
sense of Holy Writ, and especially urges that God hath dealt so
bountifully with His people “ut necessaria quaeque et ad salutis summam
facientia in S. literis saepius repeterentur; ita ut si forte quidpiam
minus commode alicubi expressum, id damnum aliunde reparari possit”
(Praef. p. 1). On this assurance we may well rest in peace. This edition
is more valuable for the impulse it gave to subsequent investigators than
for the richness of its own stores of fresh materials, although it is
stated on the title-page to be derived “_ex plus_ 100 _MSS. Codicibus_.”
Patristic testimony, as we have seen, Bishop Fell rather undervalued: the
use of versions he clearly perceived, yet of those at that time available,
he only attends to the Gothic and Coptic as revised by Marshall: his list
of manuscripts hitherto untouched is very scanty. To those used by Walton
we can add only _R_, the Barberini readings, then just published (_see_ p.
210); _B_, twelve Bodleian codices “quorum plerique intacti prius,” in
no-wise described, and cited only by the number of them which may
countenance each variation; _U_, the two Ussher manuscripts Evan. 63, 64
as collated by H. Dodwell; _P_, three copies from the Library of Petavius
(Act. 38, 39, 40); _Ge._, another from St. Germains (Paul. E): the
readings of the last four were furnished by Joh. Gachon. Yet this slight
volume (for so we must needs regard it) was the legitimate parent of one
of the noblest works in the whole range of Biblical literature, of which
we shall speak next.
4. NOVUM TESTAMENTUM GRAECUM of Dr. John Mill, Oxford, 1707, in folio.
This able and laborious critic, born in 1645, quitted his native village
in Westmoreland at sixteen for Queen’s College, Oxford, of which society
he became a Fellow, and was conspicuous there both as a scholar and as a
ready extemporary preacher. In 1685 his College appointed him Principal of
its affiliated Hall, St. Edmund, so honourably distinguished for the
Biblical studies of its members; but Mill had by that time made good
progress in his Greek Testament, on which he gladly spent the last thirty
years of his life, dying suddenly in 1707, a fortnight after its
publication. His attention was first called to the subject by his friend,
Dr. Edward Bernard, the Savilian Professor at Oxford, whom he vividly
represents as setting before him an outline of the work, and encouraging
him to attempt its accomplishment. “Vides, Amice mi, opus ... omnium, mihi
crede, longè dignissimum, cui in hoc aetatis tuae flore, robur animi tui,
vigilias ac studia, liberaliter impendas” (Proleg. § 1417). Ignorant as
yet both of the magnitude and difficulty of his task, Mill boldly
undertook it about 1677, and his efforts soon obtained the countenance of
Bishop Fell, who promised to defray the expense of printing, and, mindful
of the frailty of life, urged him to go to press before his papers were
quite ready to meet the public eye. When about twenty-four chapters of St.
Matthew had been completed, Bishop Fell died prematurely in 1686, and the
book seems to have languished for many following years from lack of means,
though the editor was busy all the while in gathering and arranging his
materials, especially for the Prolegomena, which well deserve to be called
“marmore perenniora.” As late as 1704 John Sharp [1644-1714], Archbishop
of York, whose remonstrances to Queen Anne some years subsequently
hindered the ribald wit that wrote “A Tale of a Tub” from polluting the
episcopal throne of an English see, obtained from her for Mill a stall at
Canterbury, and the royal command to prosecute his New Testament
forthwith. The preferment came just in time. Three years afterwards the
volume was given to the Christian world, and its author’s course was
already finished: his life’s work well ended, he had entered upon his
rest. He was spared the pain of reading the unfair attack alike on his
book and its subject by our eminent Commentator, Daniel Whitby (“Examen
Variantium Lectionum,” 1710), and of witnessing the unscrupulous use of
Whitby’s arguments made by the sceptic Anthony Collins in his “Discourse
of Free Thinking,” 1713.
Dr. Mill’s services to Biblical criticism surpass in extent and value
those rendered by any other, except perhaps one or two men of our own
time. A large proportion of his care and pains, as we have seen already,
was bestowed on the Fathers and ancient writers of every description who
have used or cited Scripture. The versions are usually considered his
weakest point, although he first accorded to the Vulgate and to its
prototype the Old Latin the importance they deserve. His knowledge of
Syriac was rather slight, and for the other Eastern tongues, if he was not
more ignorant than his successors, he had not discovered how little Latin
translations of the Ethiopic, &c., can be trusted. As a collator of
manuscripts the list subjoined will bear full testimony to his industry:
without seeking to repeat details we have entered into before under the
Cursive MSS., it is right to state that he either himself re-examined, or
otherwise represented more fully and exactly, the codices that had been
previously used for the London Polyglott and the Oxford N. T. of 1675.
Still it would be wrong to dissemble the fact that Mill’s style of
collation is not such as the strictness of modern scholarship demands. He
seldom notices at all such various readings as arise from the
transposition of words, the insertion or omission of the Greek article,
from homoeoteleuta, or itacisms, or from manifest errors of the pen; while
in respect to general accuracy he is as much inferior to those who have
trod in his steps, as he rises above Stephen and Ussher, or the persons
employed by Walton and Fell. It has been my fortune to collate not a few
manuscripts after this great critic, and I have elsewhere been obliged to
notice these plain facts, I would fain trust in no disparaging temper.
During the many years that Mill’s N. T. has been my daily companion, my
reverence for that diligent and earnest man has been constantly growing:
the principles of internal evidence which guided his choice between
conflicting authorities were simple (as indeed they ought to be), but
applied with rare judgement, sagacity, and moderation: his zeal was
unflagging, his treatment of his sacred subject deeply reverential. Of the
criticism of the New Testament in the hands of Dr. John Mill it may be
said, that he found the edifice of wood, and left it marble.
The following Catalogue of the manuscripts known to Mill exhibits the
abridged form in which he cites them, together with the more usual
notation, whereby they are described in this work, and will tend, it is
believed, to facilitate the use of Mill’s N. T.
_Alex._ Cod. A
_Barb._ Evan. 112 (Wetstein)
_Baroc._ Act. 23
_B._ 1 Evan. E
_B._ 2 Act. 2
_B._ 3 Act. 4
_Bodl._ 1 Evan. 45
_Bodl._ 2 Evan. 46
_Bodl._ 3 Evst. 5
_Bodl._ 4 Evst. 18
_Bodl._ 5 Evst. 19
_Bodl._ 6 Evan. 47
_Bodl._ 7 Evan. 48
_Bu._ Evan. 70
_Cant._ Evan. Act. D
_Cant._ 2 Act. 24
_Cant._ 3 Act. 53
_Clar._ Paul. D
_Colb._ 1 Evan. 27
_Colb._ 2 Evan. 28
_Colb._ 3 Evan. 29
_Colb._ 4 Evan. 30, 31
_Colb._ 5 Evan. 32
_Colb._ 6 Act. 13
_Colb._ 7 Paul. 17
_Colb._ 8 Evan. 33
_Colb._ 9 = Colb. 1
_Colb._ 10 = Colb. 2
_Colb._ 11 = Colb. 1
_Cov._ 1 Evan. 65
_Cov._ 2 Act. 25
_Cov._ 3 Act. 26
_Cov._ 4 Act. 27
_Cov._ 5 _Sin._ Act. 28
_Cypr._ Evan. K
_Em._ _see_ Evan. 64
_Eph._ Evan. 71
_Gal._ Evan. 66
_Ger._ Paul. E
_Genev._ Act. 29
_Go._ Evan. 62
_Gon._ Evan. 59
_Hunt._ 1 Act. 30
_Hunt._ 2 Evan. 67
_L._ Evan. 69
_Laud._ 1 Evan. 50
_Laud._ 2 Evan. 51
_Laud_. 3 Act. E
_Laud_. 4 Evst. 20
_Laud_. 5 Evan. 52
_Lin_. Evan. 56
_Lin_. 2 Act. 33
_Lu_. Act. 21
_M_. 1 Evan. 60
_M_. 2 Evst. 4
_Magd_. 1 Evan. 57
_Magd_. 2 Paul. 42
_Med_. Evan. 42
_Mont_. Evan. 61
_N_. 1 Evan. 58
_N_. 1 Act. 36
_N_. 2 Act. 37
_Per_. Evan. 91
_Pet_. 1 Act. 38
_Pet_. 2 Act. 39
_Pet_. 3 Act. 40
_Roe_. 1 Evan. 49
_Roe_. 2 Paul. 47
_Seld_. 1 Evan. 53
_Seld_. 2 Evan. 54
_Seld_. 3 Evan. 55
_Seld_. 4 Evst. 21
_Seld_. 5 Evst. 22
_Steph. codices_ XVI. _videas_ pp. 190-191
_Trin_. Apost. 3
_Trit_. Evan. 96
_Vat_. Cod. B
_Vel_. Evan. 111 (Wetstein)
_Vien_. Evan. 76
_Usser_. 1 Evan. 63
_Usser_. 2 Evan. 64
_Wheel_. 1 Evan. 68
_Wheel_. 2 Evan. 95
_Wheel_. 3 Evst. 3
_Wech. videas_ p. 191
Mill merely drew from other sources _Barb._, _Steph._, _Vel._, _Wech._;
the copies deposited abroad (B 1-3, _Clar._, _Colb._ 1-11, _Cypr._,
_Genev._, _Med._, _Per._, _Pet._ 1-3, _Vat. Vien._), and _Trin._ or Apost.
3 he only knew from readings sent to him; all the rest, not being included
in Walton’s list, and several of them also, he collated for himself.
The Prolegomena of Mill, divided into three parts—(1) on the Canon of the
New Testament; (2) on the History of the Text, including the quotations of
the Fathers and the early editions; and (3) on the plan and contents of
his own work,—though by this time too far behind the present state of
knowledge to bear reprinting, comprise a monument of learning such as the
world has seldom seen, and contain much information the student will not
even now easily find elsewhere. Although Mill perpetually pronounces his
judgement on the character of disputed readings(198), especially in his
Prolegomena, which were printed long after some portions of the body of
the work, yet he only aims at reproducing Stephen’s text of 1550, though
in a few places he departs from it, whether by accident or design(199).
In 1710 Ludolph Kuster, a Westphalian, republished Mill’s Greek Testament,
in folio, at Amsterdam and Rotterdam (or with a new title page, Leipsic,
1723, Amsterdam, 1746), arranging in its proper place the matter cast by
Mill into his Appendix, as having reached him too late to stand in his
critical notes, and adding to those notes the readings of twelve fresh
manuscripts, one collated by Kuster himself, which he describes in a
Preface well worth reading. Nine of these codices collated by, or under,
the Abbé de Louvois are in the Royal Library at Paris (viz. _Paris._ 1,
which is Evan. 285; _Paris._ 2 = Evan. M; _Paris._ 3 = Evan. 9; _Paris._ 4
= Evan. 11; _Paris._ 5 = Evan. 119; _Paris._ 6 = Evan. 13; _Paris._ 7 =
Evan. 14; _Paris._ 8 = Evan. 15; _Paris._ 9 = the great Cod. C): but
_Lips._ = Evan. 78 was collated by Boerner; _Seidel._ = Act. 42 by
Westermann; Boerner. = Paul. G by Kuster himself. He keeps his own notes
separate from Mill’s by prefixing and affixing the marks [symbol],
[symbol], and his collations both of his own codices and of early editions
will be found more complete than his predecessor’s.
5. In the next year after Kuster’s Mill (1711), appeared at Amsterdam,
from the press of the Wetsteins, a small N. T., 8vo, containing all the
critical matter of the Oxford edition of 1675, a collation of one Vienna
manuscript (_Caes._ = Evan. 76), 43 canons “secundum quos variantes
lectiones N. T. examinandae,” and discussions upon them, with other
matter, especially parallel texts, forming a convenient manual, the whole
by G. D. T. M. D., which being interpreted means Gerhard de Trajecto Mosae
Doctor, this Gerhard von Mästricht being a Syndic of Bremen. The text is
Fell’s, except in Apoc. iii. 12, where the portentous erratum λαῷ for ναῷ
of Stephen is corrected. A second and somewhat improved edition was
published in 1735, but ere that date the book must have become quite
superseded.
6. We have to return to England once more, where the criticism of the New
Testament had engrossed the attention of RICHARD BENTLEY [1662-1742],
whose elevation to the enviable post of Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge, in 1699, was a just recognition of his supremacy in the English
world of letters. As early as 1691 he had felt a keen interest in sacred
criticism, and in his “Epistola ad Johannem Millium” had urged that
editor, in language fraught with eloquence and native vigour, to hasten on
the work (whose accomplishment was eventually left to others) of
publishing side by side on the opened leaf Codd. A, D (_Bezae_), D
(_Clarom._), E (_Laud._). For many years afterwards Bentley’s laurels were
won on other fields, and it was not till his friend was dead, and his
admirable labours were exposed to the obloquy of opponents (some honest
though unwise, others hating Mill because they hated the Scriptures which
he sought to illustrate), that our Aristarchus exerted his giant strength
to crush the infidel and to put the ignorant to silence. In his “Remarks
upon a late Discourse of Free Thinking in a letter to F[rancis] H[are]
D.D. by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis,” 1713, Bentley displayed that intimate
familiarity with the whole subject of various readings, their causes,
extent, and consequences, which has rendered this occasional treatise more
truly valued (as it was far more important) than the world-renowned
“Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris” itself. As his years were now
hastening on and the evening of life was beginning to draw nigh, it was
seemly that the first scholar of his age should seek for his rare
abilities an employment more entirely suited to his sacred office than
even the most successful cultivation of classical learning; and so, about
this time, he came to project what he henceforth regarded as his greatest
effort, an edition of the Greek New Testament. In 1716 we find him in
conference with J. J. Wetstein, then very young, and seeking his aid in
procuring collations. In the same year he addressed his memorable “Letter”
to Wm. Wake [1657-1737], Archbishop of Canterbury, whose own mind was full
of the subject, wherein he explains, with characteristic energy and
precision, the principles on which he proposed to execute his great
scheme. As these principles must be reviewed afterwards, we will but touch
upon them now. His theory was built upon the notion that the oldest
manuscripts of the Greek original and of Jerome’s Latin version resemble
each other so marvellously, even in the very order of the words, that by
this agreement he could restore the text as it stood in the fourth
century, “so that there shall not be twenty words, or even particles,
difference.” “By taking two thousand errors out of the Pope’s [i.e. the
Clementine] Vulgate, and as many out of the Protestant Pope Stephen’s
[1550], I can set out an edition of each in columns, without using any
book under nine hundred years old, that shall so exactly agree word for
word, and, what at first amazed me, order for order, that no two tallies,
nor two indentures, can agree better(200).” In 1720, some progress having
been made in the task of collation, chiefly at Paris, by John Walker,
Fellow of Trinity, who was designated by Bentley “overseer and corrector
of the press,” but proved in fact a great deal more; Bentley published his
Proposals for Printing(201), a work which “he consecrates, as a κειμήλιων,
a κτῆμα ἐσαεί, a _charter_, a _magna charta_, to the whole Christian
Church; to last when all the ancient MSS. here quoted may be lost and
extinguished.” Alas for the emptiness of human anticipations! Of this
noble design, projected by one of the most diligent, by one of the most
highly gifted men our dear mother Cambridge ever nourished, nothing now
remains but a few scattered notices in treatises on Textual Criticism, and
large undigested stores of various readings and random observations,
accumulated in his College Library; papers which no real student ever
glanced through, but with a heart saddened—almost sickened—at the sight of
so much labour lost(202). The specimen chapter (Apocalypse xxii) which
accompanied his Proposals shows clearly how little had yet been done
towards arranging the materials that had been collected; codices are cited
there, and in many of his loose notes, not separately and by name, as in
Mill’s volume, but mostly as “Anglicus unus, tres codd. veterrimi, Gall.
quatuor, Germ. unus,” &c., in the rough fashion of the Oxford N. T. of
1675(203).
It has been often alleged that Bentley seems to have worked but little on
the Greek Testament after 1729: that his attention was diverted by his
editions of Paradise Lost (1732) and of Manilius (1739), by his Homeric
studies and College litigation, until he was overtaken by a paralytic
stroke in 1739, and died in his eighty-first year in 1742. Walker’s
collations of cursive manuscripts at Christ Church (Evan. 506), however,
obviously made for Bentley’s use, bear the date of 1732(204), and a closer
examination of his papers, bequeathed in 1786 by his nephew Richard
Bentley to Trinity College, shows that much more progress had been made by
him than has been usually supposed. Besides full collations of the uncial
Codd. AD (Gospels and Acts), of Cod. F (his θ) and G of St. Paul, of
Arundel 547 (Evst. 257) executed by Bentley himself, of Codd. B and C by
others at his cost, three volumes are found there full of critical
materials, which have been described by Mr. Ellis, and digested by Dr.
Westcott. One of these (B. xvii. 5) I was allowed by the Master and
Seniors to study at leisure at home. It is a folio edition of the N. T.,
Greek and Latin (Paris, ap. Claud. Sonnium, 1628, the Greek text being
that of Elzevir 1624), whose margin and spaces between the lines are
filled with various readings in Bentley’s hand, but not all of them
necessarily the results of his own labour, collected out of ten Greek and
thirty Latin manuscripts. The Greek are all cursives save Evst. 5, and his
connexion with them has been referred to above under the Cursive MSS. They
are
Evan. 51 (γ),
Evan. 54 (κ),
Evan. 60 (ε),
Evan. 113 (θ?),
Evan. 440 (ο),
Evan. 507 (τ),
Evan. 508 (δ),
Act. 23 (χ),
Apoc. 28 (κ),
Evst. 5 (α).
The Latin copies, which alone are described by Bentley in the fly-leaves
of the volume, may not be as easily identified, but some of them are of
great value, and are described above in Chap. III. These are
_chad._ (ξ),
_dunelm._ (Κ),
_harl._3 (Μ),
_lind._ (η),
_mac-regol_ (χ),
_oxon._ (Σ),
_oxon._ (Paul. χ),
_seld._ (Act. χ),
_vall._,
Westcott adds _harl._4 (Η).