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THE
CAUSES OF THE CORRUPTION
OF THE
TRADITIONAL TEXT
OF THE
HOLY GOSPELS
BEING THE SEQUEL TO
_THE TRADITIONAL TEXT OF THE HOLY GOSPELS_
BY THE LATE
JOHN WILLIAM BURGON, B. D.
DEAN OF CHICHESTER
ARRANGED, COMPLETED, AND EDITED
BY
EDWARD MILLER, M. A.
WYKEHAMICAL PREBENDARY OF CHICHESTER
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO.
1896.
'Tenet ecclesia nostra, tenuitque semper firmam illam et immotam
Tertulliani regulam "Id verius quod prius, id prius quod ab initio." Quo
propius ad veritatis fontem accedimus, eo purior decurrit Catholicae
doctrinae rivus.'
Cave's _Proleg._ p. xliv.
'Interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona, et ambulate in
ea.'--Jerem. vi. 16.
'In summa, si constat id verius quod prius, id prius quod ab initio, id
ab initio quod ab Apostolis; pariter utique constabit, id esse ab
Apostolis traditum, quod apud Ecclesias Apostolorum fuerit
sacrosanctum.'--Tertull. _adv. Marc._ l. iv. c. 5.
PREFACE
The reception given by the learned world to the First Volume of this
work, as expressed hitherto in smaller reviews and notices, has on the
whole been decidedly far from discouraging. All have had some word of
encomium on our efforts. Many have accorded praise and signified their
agreement, sometimes with unquestionable ability. Some have pronounced
adverse opinions with considerable candour and courtesy. Others in
opposing have employed arguments so weak and even irrelevant to the real
question at issue, as to suggest that there is not after all so much as
I anticipated to advance against our case. Longer examinations of this
important matter are doubtless impending, with all the interest
attaching to them and the judgements involved: but I beg now to offer my
acknowledgements for all the words of encouragement that have been
uttered.
Something however must be said in reply to an attack made in the
_Guardian_ newspaper on May 20, because it represents in the main the
position occupied by some members of an existing School. I do not linger
over an offhand stricture upon my 'adhesion to the extravagant claim of
a second-century origin for the Peshitto,' because I am content with the
companionship of some of the very first Syriac scholars, and with the
teaching given in an unanswered article in the _Church Quarterly Review_
for April, 1895. Nor except in passing do I remark upon a fanciful
censure of my account of the use of papyrus in MSS. before the tenth
century--as to which the reviewer is evidently not versed in information
recently collected, and described for example in Sir E. Maunde
Thompson's Greek and Latin Palaeography, or in Mr. F. G. Kenyon's Our
Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, and in an article in the just
mentioned Review which appeared in October, 1894. These observations and
a large number of inaccuracies shew that he was at the least not posted
up to date. But what will be thought, when attention is drawn to the
fact that in a question whether a singular set of quotations from the
early Fathers refer to a passage in St. Matthew or the parallel one in
St. Luke, the peculiar characteristic of St. Matthew--'them that
persecute you'--is put out of sight, and both passages (taking the
lengthened reading of St. Matthew) are represented as having equally
only four clauses? And again, when quotations going on to the succeeding
verse in St. Matthew (v. 45) are stated dogmatically to have been
wrongly referred by me to that Evangelist? But as to the details of this
point in dispute, I beg to refer our readers to pp. 144-153 of the
present volume. The reviewer appears also to be entirely unacquainted
with the history of the phrase [Greek: monogenês Theos] in St. John i.
18, which, as may be read on pp. 215-218, was introduced by heretics and
harmonized with Arian tenets, and was rejected on the other side. That
some orthodox churchmen fell into the trap, and like those who in these
days are not aware of the pedigree and use of the phrase, employed it
even for good purposes, is only an instance of a strange phenomenon. We
must not be led only by first impressions as to what is to be taken for
the genuine words of the Gospels. Even if phrases or passages make for
orthodoxy, to accept them if condemned by evidence and history is to
alight upon the quicksands of conjecture.
A curious instance of a fate like this has been supplied by a critic in
the _Athenaeum_, who, when contrasting Dean Burgon's style of writing
with mine to my discredit, quotes a passage of some length as the Dean's
which was really written by me. Surely the principle upheld by our
opponents, that much more importance than we allow should be attributed
to the 'Internal evidence of Readings and Documents,' might have saved
him from error upon a piece of composition which characteristically
proclaimed its own origin. At all events, after this undesigned support,
I am the less inclined to retire from our vantage ground.
But it is gratifying on all accounts to say now, that such
interpolations as in the companion volume I was obliged frequently to
supply in order to fill up gaps in the several MSS. and in integral
portions of the treatise, which through their very frequency would have
there made square brackets unpleasant to our readers, are not required
so often in this part of the work. Accordingly, except in instances of
pure editing or in simple bringing up to date, my own additions or
insertions have been so marked off. It will doubtless afford great
satisfaction to others as well as the admirers of the Dean to know what
was really his own writing: and though some of the MSS., especially
towards the end of the volume, were not left as he would have prepared
them for the press if his life had been prolonged, yet much of the book
will afford, on what he regarded as the chief study of his life,
excellent examples of his style, so vigorously fresh and so happy in
idiomatic and lucid expression.
But the Introduction, and Appendix II on 'Conflation' and the 'Neutral
Text,' have been necessarily contributed by me. I am anxious to invite
attention particularly to the latter essay, because it has been composed
upon request, and also because--unless it contains some extraordinary
mistake--it exhibits to a degree which has amazed me the baselessness of
Dr. Hort's theory.
The manner in which the Dean prepared piecemeal for his book, and the
large number of fragments in which he left his materials, as has been
detailed in the Preface to the former volume, have necessarily produced
an amount of repetition which I deplore. To have avoided it entirely,
some of the MSS. must have been rewritten. But in one instance I
discovered when it was too late that after searching for, and finding
with difficulty and treating, an example which had not been supplied, I
had forestalled a subsequent examination of the same passage from his
abler hand. However I hope that in nearly all, if not all cases, each
treatment involves some new contribution to the question discussed; and
that our readers will kindly make allowance for the perplexity which
such an assemblage of separate papers could not but entail.
My thanks are again due to the Rev. G. H. Gwilliam, B.D., Fellow of
Hertford College, for much advice and suggestion, which he is so capable
of giving, and for his valuable care in looking through all the first
proofs of this volume; to 'M. W.,' Dean Burgon's indefatigable
secretary, who in a pure labour of love copied out the text of the MSS.
before and after his death; also to the zealous printers at the
Clarendon Press, for help in unravelling intricacies still remaining in
them.
This treatise is now commended to the fair and candid consideration of
readers and reviewers. The latter body of men should remember that there
was perhaps never a time when reviewers were themselves reviewed by many
intelligent readers more than they are at present. I cannot hope that
all that we have advanced will be finally adopted, though my opinion is
unfaltering as resting in my belief upon the Rock; still less do I
imagine that errors may not be discovered in our work. But I trust that
under Divine Blessing some not unimportant contribution has been made
towards the establishment upon sound principles of the reverent
criticism of the Text of the New Testament. And I am sure that, as to
the Dean's part in it, this trust will be ultimately justified.
EDWARD MILLER.
9 Bradmore Road, Oxford:
_Sept._ 2, 1896.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
The Traditional Text--established by evidence--especially before St.
Chrysostom--corruption--early rise of it--Galilee of the
Gentiles--Syrio-Low-Latin source--various causes and forms of
corruption. pp. 1-9
CHAPTER I.
General Corruption.
§ 1. Modern re-editing--difference between the New Testament and other
books--immense number of copies--ordinary causes of error--Doctrinal
causes. § 2. Elimination of weakly attested readings--nature of inquiry.
§ 3. Smaller blemishes in MSS. unimportant except when constant. § 4.
Most mistakes arose from inadvertency: many from unfortunate design. pp.
10-23
CHAPTER II.
Accidental Causes of Corruption. I. Pure Accident.
§ 1. St. John x. 29. § 2. Smaller instances, and Acts xx. 24. § 3. St.
Luke ii. 14. § 4. St. Mark xv. 6; vii. 4; vi. 22. § 5. St. Mark viii. 1;
vii. 14--St. John xiii. 37. pp. 24-35
CHAPTER III.
Accidental Causes of Corruption. II. Homoeoteleuton.
St. Luke ii. 15--St. John vi. 11; vi. 55--St. Matt. xxiii. 14; xix.
9--St. Luke xvi. 21. pp. 36-41
CHAPTER IV.
Accidental Causes of Corruption. III. From Writing in Uncials.
§ 1. St. John iv. 35-36. § 2. St. Luke xv. 17--St. John v. 44. § 3. Acts
xxvii. 14--St. John iv. 15--St. Luke xvii. 37--St. Matt. xxii. 23--and
other passages. § 4. St. John v. 4--St. Luke xxiii. 11--St. Matt. iv.
23. § 5. 2 St. Peter i. 31--Heb. vii. 1. § 6. St. Matt. xxvii. 17. pp.
42-55
CHAPTER V.
Accidental Causes of Corruption. IV. Itacism.
§ 1. Various passages--St. John xii. 1, 2; 41. § 2. Rev. i. 5--Other
passages--St. Mark vii. 19. § 3. St. Mark iv. 8. § 4. Titus ii. 5. pp.
56-66
CHAPTER VI.
Accidental Causes of Corruption. V. Liturgical Influence.
§ 1. Lectionaries of the Church--Liturgical influence--Antiquity of the
Lectionary System. § 2. St. John xiv. 1--Acts iii. 1--Last Twelve Verses
of St. Mark. § 3. St. Luke vii. 31; ix. 1--Other passages. § 4. St. Mark
xv. 28. § 5. Acts iii. 1--St. Matt. xiii. 44; xvii. 23. § 6. St. Matt
vi. 13 (doxology in the Lord's Prayer). pp. 67-88
CHAPTER VII.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. I. Harmonistic Influence.
§ 1. St. Mark xvi. 9. § 2. St. Luke xxiv. 1--other examples. § 3.
Chiefly intentional--Diatessarons--St. Matt. xvii. 25, 26--Harmonized
narratives--Other examples. pp. 89-99
CHAPTER VIII.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. II. Assimilation.
§ 1. Transfer from one Gospel to another. § 2. Not entirely
intentional--Various passages. § 3. St. John xvi. 16. § 4. St. John
xiii. 21-25. § 5. St. Mark i. 1, 2--Other examples--St. Matt. xii. 10
(St. Luke xiv. 3)--and others. § 6. St. Mark vi. 11. § 7. St. Mark xiv.
70. pp. 100-122
CHAPTER IX.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. III. Attraction.
§ 1. St. John vi. 71 and xiii. 26. § 2. Acts xx. 24--2 Cor. iii. 3. pp.
123-127
CHAPTER X.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. IV. Omission.
§ 1. Omissions a class of their own--Exemplified from the Last Twelve
Verses of St. Mark--Omission the besetting fault of transcribers. § 2.
The _onus probandi_ rests upon omitters. § 3. St Luke vi. 1; and other
omissions. § 4. St. Matt. xxi. 44. § 5. St. Matt. xv. 8. § 6. St. Matt.
v. 44--Reply to the Reviewer in the _Guardian_. § 7. Shorter Omissions.
pp. 128-156
CHAPTER XI.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. V. Transposition.
§ 1. St. Mark i. 5; ii. 3--Other instances. § 2. St. Luke xiii. 9; xxiv.
7. § 3. Other examples--St. John v. 27--Transpositions often petty, but
frequent.
VI. Substitution.
§ 4. If taken with Modifications, a large class--Various instances. pp.
164-165
VII. Addition.
§ 5. The smallest of the four--St. Luke vi. 4--St. Matt. xx. 28. § 6.
St. Matt. viii. 13; xxiv. 36--St. Mark iii. 16--Other examples. pp.
166-171
CHAPTER XII.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. VIII. Glosses.
§ 1. Not so numerous as has been supposed--St. Matt. xiii. 36--St. Mark
vii. 3. § 2. St. Luke ix. 23. § 3. St. John vi. 15; xiii. 24; xx.
18--St. Matt. xxiv. 31. § 4. St. John xviii. 14--St. Mark vi. 11. § 5.
St. Mark xiv. 41--St. John ix. 22. § 6. St. John xii. 7. § 7. St. John
xvii. 4. § 8. St. Luke i. 66. § 9. St. Luke v. 7--Acts xx. 4. pp.
172-190
CHAPTER XIII.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. IX. Corruption by Heretics.
§ 1. This class very evident--Began in the earliest times--Appeal to
what is earlier still--Condemned in all ages and countries. § 2. The
earliest depravers of the Text--Tatian's Diatessaron. § 3. Gnostics--St.
John i. 3-4. § 4. St. John x. 14, 15. § 5. Doctrinal--Matrimony--St.
Matt i. 19. pp. 191-210
CHAPTER XIV.
Causes of Corruption Chiefly Intentional. X. Corruption by the Orthodox.
§ 1. St. Luke xix. 41; ii. 40. § 2. St. John viii. 40; and i. 18. § 3. 1
Cor. xv. 47. § 4. St. John iii. 13. § 5. St. Luke ix. 54-56. pp. 211-231
APPENDIX I.
Pericope de Adultera. pp. 233-265
APPENDIX II.
Dr. Hort's Theory of Conflation and the
Neutral Text. pp. 266-286
Index of Subjects. pp. 287-288
Index of Passages of the New Testament Discussed. pp. 289-290
THE CAUSES OF THE
CORRUPTION OF THE TRADITIONAL TEXT
OF THE HOLY GOSPELS.
INTRODUCTION.
In the companion volume to this, the Traditional Text, that is, the Text
of the Gospels which is the resultant of all the evidence faithfully and
exhaustively presented and estimated according to the best procedure of
the courts of law, has been traced back to the earliest ages in the
existence of those sacred writings. We have shewn, that on the one hand,
amidst the unprecedented advantages afforded by modern conditions of
life for collecting all the evidence bearing upon the subject, the
Traditional Text must be found, not in a mere transcript, but in a
laborious revision of the Received Text; and that on the other hand it
must, as far as we can judge, differ but slightly from the Text now
generally in vogue, which has been generally received during the last
two and a half centuries.
The strength of the position of the Traditional Text lies in its being
logically deducible and to be deduced from all the varied evidence which
the case supplies, when it has been sifted, proved, passed, weighed,
compared, compounded, and contrasted with dissentient testimony. The
contrast is indeed great in almost all instances upon which controversy
has gathered. On one side the vast mass of authorities is assembled: on
the other stands a small group. Not inconsiderable is the advantage
possessed by that group, as regards numerous students who do not look
beneath the surface, in the general witness in their favour borne by the
two oldest MSS. of the Gospels in existence. That advantage however
shrinks into nothing under the light of rigid examination. The claim for
the Text in them made at the Semiarian period was rejected when
Semiarianism in all its phases fell into permanent disfavour. And the
argument advanced by Dr. Hort that the Traditional Text was a new Text
formed by successive recensions has been refuted upon examination of the
verdict of the Fathers in the first four centuries, and of the early
Syriac and Latin Versions. Besides all this, those two manuscripts have
been traced to a local source in the library of Caesarea. And on the
other hand a Catholic origin of the Traditional Text found on later
vellum manuscripts has been discovered in the manuscripts of papyrus
which existed all over the Roman Empire, unless it was in Asia, and were
to some degree in use even as late as the ninth century; before and
during the employment of vellum in the Caesarean school, and in
localities where it was used in imitation of the mode of writing books
which was brought well-nigh to perfection in that city.
It is evident that the turning-point of the controversy between
ourselves and the Neologian school must lie in the centuries before St.
Chrysostom. If, as Dr. Hort maintains, the Traditional Text not only
gained supremacy at that era but did not exist in the early ages, then
our contention is vain. That Text can be Traditional only if it goes
back without break or intermission to the original autographs, because
if through break or intermission it ceased or failed to exist, it loses
the essential feature of genuine tradition. On the other hand, if it is
proved to reach back in unbroken line to the time of the Evangelists, or
to a period as near to them as surviving testimony can prove, then Dr.
Hort's theory of a 'Syrian' text formed by recension or otherwise just
as evidently falls to the ground. Following mainly upon the lines drawn
by Dean Burgon, though in a divergence of my own devising, I claim to
have proved Dr. Hort to have been conspicuously wrong, and our
maintenance of the Traditional Text in unbroken succession to be
eminently right. The school opposed to us must disprove our arguments,
not by discrediting the testimony of the Fathers to whom all Textual
Critics have appealed including Dr. Hort, but by demonstrating if they
can that the Traditional Text is not recognized by them, or they must
yield eventually to us[1].
In this volume, the other half of the subject will be discussed. Instead
of exploring the genuine Text, we shall treat of the corruptions of it,
and shall track error in its ten thousand forms to a few sources or
heads. The origination of the pure Text in the inspired writings of the
Evangelists will thus be vindicated anew by the evident paternity of
deflections from it discoverable in the natural defects or iniquities of
men. Corruption will the more shew itself in true colours:--
Quinquaginta atris immanis hiatibus hydra[2]:
and it will not so readily be mistaken for genuineness, when the real
history is unfolded, and the mistakes are accounted for. It seems clear
that corruption arose in the very earliest age. As soon as the Gospel
was preached, the incapacity of human nature for preserving accuracy
until long years of intimate acquaintance have bred familiarity must
have asserted itself in constant distortion more or less of the sacred
stories, as they were told and retold amongst Christians one to another
whether in writing or in oral transmission. Mistakes would inevitably
arise from the universal tendency to mix error with truth which Virgil
has so powerfully depicted in his description of 'Fame':--
Tam ficti pravique tenax, quam nuntia veri[3].
And as soon as inaccuracy had done its baleful work, a spirit of
infidelity and of hostility either to the essentials or the details of
the new religion must have impelled such as were either imperfect
Christians, or no Christians at all, to corrupt the sacred stories.
Thus it appears that errors crept in at the very first commencement of
the life of the Church. This is a matter so interesting and so important
in the history of corruption, that I must venture to place it again
before our readers.
Why was Galilee chosen before Judea and Jerusalem as the chief scene of
our Lord's Life and Ministry, at least as regards the time spent there?
Partly, no doubt, because the Galileans were more likely than the other
inhabitants of Palestine to receive Him. But there was as I venture to
think also another very special reason.
'Galilee of the nations' or 'the Gentiles,' not only had a mixed
population[4] and a provincial dialect[5], but lay contiguous to the
rest of Palestine on the one side, and on others to two districts in
which Greek was largely spoken, namely, Decapolis and the parts of Tyre
and Sidon, and also to the large country of Syria. Our Lord laid
foundations for a natural growth in these parts of the Christian
religion after His death almost independent as it seems of the centre of
the Church at Jerusalem. Hence His crossings of the lake, His miracles
on the other side, His retirement in that little understood episode in
His life when He shrank from persecution[6], and remained secretly in
the parts of Tyre and Sidon, about the coasts of Decapolis, on the
shores of the lake, and in the towns of Caesarea Philippi, where the
traces of His footsteps are even now indicated by tradition[7]. His
success amongst these outlying populations is proved by the unique
assemblage of the crowds of 5000 and 4000 men besides women and
children. What wonder then if the Church sprang up at Damascus, and
suddenly as if without notice displayed such strength as to draw
persecution upon it! In the same way the Words of life appear to have
passed throughout Syria over congenial soil, and Antioch became the
haven whence the first great missionaries went out for the conversion of
the world. Such were not only St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Barnabas, but
also as is not unreasonable to infer many of that assemblage of
Christians at Rome whom St. Paul enumerates to our surprise in the last
chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. Many no doubt were friends whom
the Apostle of the Gentiles had met in Greece and elsewhere: but there
are reasons to shew that some at least of them, such as Andronicus and
Junias or Junia[8] and Herodion, may probably have passed along the
stream of commerce that flowed between Antioch and Rome[9], and that
this interconnexion between the queen city of the empire and the
emporium of the East may in great measure account for the number of
names well known to the apostle, and for the then flourishing condition
of the Church which they adorned.
It has been shewn in our first volume that, as is well known to all
students of Textual Criticism, the chief amount of corruption is to be
found in what is termed the Western Text; and that the corruption of the
West is so closely akin to the corruption which is found in Syriac
remains, that practically they are included under one head of
classification. What is the reason of this phenomenon? It is evidently
derived from the close commercial alliance which subsisted between Syria
and Italy. That is to say, the corruption produced in Syria made its way
over into Italy, and there in many instances gathered fresh
contributions. For there is reason to suppose, that it first arose in
Syria.
We have seen how the Church grew of itself there without regular
teaching from Jerusalem in the first beginnings, or any regular
supervision exercised by the Apostles. In fact, as far as the Syrian
believers in Christ at first consisted of Gentiles, they must perforce
have been regarded as being outside of the covenant of promise. Yet
there must have been many who revered the stories told about our Lord,
and felt extreme interest and delight in them. The story of King Abgar
illustrates the history: but amongst those who actually heard our Lord
preach there must have been very many, probably a majority, who were
uneducated. They would easily learn from the Jews, because the Aramaic
dialects spoken by Hebrews and Syrians did not greatly differ the one
from the other. What difference there was, would not so much hinder the
spread of the stories, as tend to introduce alien forms of speech and
synonymous words, and so to hinder absolute accuracy from being
maintained. Much time must necessarily have elapsed, before such
familiarity with the genuine accounts of our Lord's sayings and doings
grew up, as would prevent mistakes being made and disseminated in
telling or in writing.
The Gospels were certainly not written till some thirty years after the
Ascension. More careful examination seems to place them later rather
than earlier. For myself, I should suggest that the three first were not
published long before the year 70 A.D. at the earliest; and that St.
Matthew's Gospel was written at Pella during the siege of Jerusalem
amidst Greek surroundings, and in face of the necessity caused by new
conditions of life that Greek should become the ecclesiastical language.
The Gospels would thus be the authorized versions in their entirety of
the stories constituting the Life of our Lord; and corruption must have
come into existence, before the antidote was found in complete documents
accepted and commissioned by the authorities in the Church.
I must again remark with much emphasis that the foregoing suggestions
are offered to account for what may now be regarded as a fact, viz., the
connexion between the Western Text, as it is called, and Syriac remains
in regard to corruption in the text of the Gospels and of the Acts of
the Apostles. If that corruption arose at the very first spread of
Christianity, before the record of our Lord's Life had assumed permanent
shape in the Four Gospels, all is easy. Such corruption, inasmuch as it
beset the oral and written stories which were afterwards incorporated in
the Gospels, would creep into the authorized narrations, and would
vitiate them till it was ultimately cast out towards the end of the
fourth and in the succeeding centuries. Starting from the very
beginning, and gaining additions in the several ways described in this
volume by Dean Burgon, it would possess such vigour as to impress itself
on Low-Latin manuscripts and even on parts of the better Latin ones,
perhaps on Tatian's Diatessaron, on the Curetonian and Lewis manuscripts
of the fifth century, on the Codex Bezae of the sixth; also on the
Vatican and the Sinaitic of the fourth, on the Dublin Palimpsest of St.
Matthew of the sixth, on the Codex Regius or L of the eighth, on the St.
Gall MS. of the ninth in St. Mark, on the Codex Zacynthius of the eighth
in St. Luke, and a few others. We on our side admit that the corruption
is old even though the manuscripts enshrining it do not date very far
back, and cannot always prove their ancestry. And it is in this
admission that I venture to think there is an opening for a meeting of
opinions which have been hitherto opposed.
In the following treatise, the causes of corruption are divided into (I)
such as proceeded from Accident, and (II) those which were Intentional.
Under the former class we find (1) those which were involved in pure
Accident, or (2) in what is termed Homoeoteleuton where lines or
sentences ended with the same word or the same syllable, or (3) such as
arose in writing from Uncial letters, or (4) in the confusion of vowels
and diphthongs which is called Itacism, or (5) in Liturgical Influence.
The remaining instances may be conveniently classed as Intentional, not
because in all cases there was a settled determination to alter the
text, for such if any was often of the faintest character, but because
some sort of design was to a greater or less degree embedded in most of
them. Such causes were (1) Harmonistic Influence, (2) Assimilation, (3)
Attraction; such instances too in their main character were (4)
Omissions, (5) Transpositions, (6) Substitutions, (7) Additions, (8)
Glosses, (9) Corruption by Heretics, (10) Corruption by Orthodox.
This dissection of the mass of corruption, or as perhaps it may be
better termed, this classification made by Dean Burgon of the numerous
causes which are found to have been at work from time to time, appears
to me to be most interesting to the inquirer into the hidden history of
the Text of the Gospels, because by revealing the influences which have
been at work it sheds light upon the entire controversy, and often
enables the student to see clearly how and why certain passages around
which dispute has gathered are really corrupt. Indeed, the vast and
mysterious ogre called corruption assumes shape and form under the acute
penetration and the deft handling of the Dean, whose great knowledge of
the subject and orderly treatment of puzzling details is still more
commended by his interesting style of writing. As far as has been
possible, I have let him in the sequel, except for such clerical
corrections as were required from time to time and have been much fewer
than his facile pen would have made, speak entirely for himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It must be always borne in mind, that it is not enough for the
purpose of the other side to shew that the Traditional Text was in a
minority as regards attestation. They must prove that it was nowhere in
the earliest ages, if they are to establish their position that it was
made in the third and fourth centuries. Traditional Text of the Holy
Gospels, p. 95.
[2]
'A hydra in her direful shape,
With fifty darkling throats agape.'--
Altered from Conington's version, Aen. vi. 576.
[3]
'How oft soe'er the truth she tell,
What's false and wrong she loves too well.'--
Altered from Conington, Aen. iv. 188.
[4] Strabo, xvi, enumerates amongst its inhabitants Egyptians, Arabians,
and Phoenicians.
[5] Studia Biblica, i. 50-55. Dr. Neubauer, On the Dialects spoken in
Palestine in the time of Christ.
[6] Isaac Williams, On the Study of the Gospels, 341-352.
[7] My devoted Syrian friend, Miss Helanie Baroody, told me during her
stay in England that a village is pointed out as having been traversed
by our Lord on His way from Caesarea Philippi to Mount Hermon.
[8] It is hardly improbable that these two eminent Christians were some
of those whom St Paul found at Antioch when St. Barnabas brought him
there, and thus came to know intimately as fellow-workers ([Greek:
episêmoi en tois apostolois, oi kai pro emou gegonasin en Christô]).
Most of the names in Rom. xvi are either Greek or Hebrew.
[9]
'Jam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes
Et _linguam_ et mores ... vexit.'
--Juv. Sat. iii. 62-3.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL CORRUPTION.
§ 1.
We hear sometimes scholars complain, and with a certain show of reason,
that it is discreditable to us as a Church not to have long since put
forth by authority a revised Greek Text of the New Testament. The chief
writers of antiquity, say they, have been of late years re-edited by the
aid of the best Manuscripts. Why should not the Scriptures enjoy the
same advantage? Men who so speak evidently misunderstand the question.
They assume that the case of the Scriptures and that of other ancient
writings are similar.
Such remonstrances are commonly followed up by statements like the
following:--That the received Text is that of Erasmus:--that it was
constructed in haste, and without skill:--that it is based on a very
few, and those bad Manuscripts:--that it belongs to an age when scarcely
any of our present critical helps were available, and when the Science
of Textual Criticism was unknown. To listen to these advocates for
Revision, you would almost suppose that it fared with the Gospel at this
instant as it had fared with the original Copy of the Law for many years
until the days of King Josiah[10].
Yielding to no one in my desire to see the Greek of the New Testament
judiciously revised, I freely avow that recent events have convinced me,
and I suppose they have convinced the public also, that we have not
among us the men to conduct such an undertaking. Better a thousand times
in my judgement to leave things as they are, than to risk having the
stamp of authority set upon such an unfortunate production as that which
appeared on the 17th May, 1881, and which claims at this instant to
represent the combined learning of the Church, the chief Sects, and the
Socinian[11] body.
Now if the meaning of those who desire to see the commonly received text
of the New Testament made absolutely faultless, were something of this
kind:--That they are impatient for the collation of the copies which
have become known to us within the last two centuries, and which amount
already in all to upwards of three thousand: that they are bent on
procuring that the ancient Versions shall be re-edited;--and would hail
with delight the announcement that a band of scholars had combined to
index every place of Scripture quoted by any of the Fathers:--if this
were meant, we should all be entirely at one; especially if we could
further gather from the programme that a fixed intention was cherished
of abiding by the result of such an appeal to ancient evidence. But
unfortunately something entirely different is in contemplation.
Now I am bent on calling attention to certain features of the problem
which have very generally escaped attention. It does not seem to be
understood that the Scriptures of the New Testament stand on an entirely
different footing from every other ancient writing which can be named. A
few plain remarks ought to bring this fact, for a fact it is, home to
every thoughtful person. And the result will be that men will approach
the subject with more caution,--with doubts and misgivings,--with a
fixed determination to be on their guard against any form of plausible
influence. Their prejudices they will scatter to the winds. At every
step they will insist on proof.
In the first place, then, let it be observed that the New Testament
Scriptures are wholly without a parallel in respect of their having been
so frequently multiplied from the very first. They are by consequence
contained at this day in an extravagantly large number of copies
[probably, if reckoned under the six classes of Gospels, Acts and
Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse, Evangelistaries, and
Apostolos, exceeding the number of four thousand]. There is nothing like
this, or at all approaching to it, in the case of any profane writing
that can be named[12].
And the very necessity for multiplying copies,--a necessity which has
made itself felt in every age and in every clime,--has perforce resulted
in an immense number of variants. Words have been inevitably
dropped,--vowels have been inadvertently confounded by copyists more or
less competent:--and the meaning of Scripture in countless places has
suffered to a surprising degree in consequence. This first.
But then further, the Scriptures for the very reason because they were
known to be the Word of God became a mark for the shafts of Satan from
the beginning. They were by consequence as eagerly solicited by
heretical teachers on the one hand, as they were hotly defended by the
orthodox on the other. Alike from friends and from foes therefore, they
are known to have experienced injury, and that in the earliest age of
all. Nothing of the kind can be predicated of any other ancient
writings. This consideration alone should suggest a severe exercise of
judicial impartiality, in the handling of ancient evidence of whatever
sort.
For I request it may be observed that I have not said--and I certainly
do not mean--that the Scriptures themselves have been permanently
corrupted either by friend or foe. Error was fitful and uncertain, and
was contradicted by other error: besides that it sank eventually before
a manifold witness to the truth. Nevertheless, certain manuscripts
belonging to a few small groups--particular copies of a
Version--individual Fathers or Doctors of the Church,--these do, to the
present hour, bear traces incontestably of ancient mischief.
But what goes before is not nearly all. The fourfold structure of the
Gospel has lent itself to a certain kind of licentious handling--of
which in other ancient writings we have no experience. One critical
owner of a Codex considered himself at liberty to assimilate the
narratives: another to correct them in order to bring them into (what
seemed to himself) greater harmony. Brevity is found to have been a
paramount object with some, and Transposition to have amounted to a
passion with others. Conjectural Criticism was evidently practised
largely: and almost with as little felicity as when Bentley held the
pen. Lastly, there can be no question that there was a certain school of
Critics who considered themselves competent to improve the style of the
Holy Ghost throughout. [And before the members of the Church had gained
a familiar acquaintance with the words of the New Testament, blunders
continually crept into the text of more or less heinous importance.] All
this, which was chiefly done during the second and third centuries,
introduces an element of difficulty in the handling of ancient evidence
which can never be safely neglected: and will make a thoughtful man
suspicious of every various reading which comes in his way, especially
if it is attended with but slender attestation. [It has been already
shewn in the companion volume] that the names of the Codexes chiefly
vitiated in this sort prove to be B[Symbol: Aleph]CDL; of the
Versions,--the two Coptic, the Curetonian, and certain specimens of the
Old Latin; of the Fathers,--Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and to some
extent Eusebius.
Add to all that goes before the peculiar subject-matter of the New
Testament Scriptures, and it will become abundantly plain why they
should have been liable to a series of assaults which make it reasonable
that they should now at last be approached by ourselves as no other
ancient writings are, or can be. The nature of God,--His Being and
Attributes:--the history of Man's Redemption:--the soul's eternal
destiny:--the mysteries of the unseen world:--concerning these and every
other similar high doctrinal subject, the sacred writings alone speak
with a voice of absolute authority. And surely by this time enough has
been said to explain why these Scriptures should have been made a
battle-field during some centuries, and especially in the fourth; and
having thus been made the subject of strenuous contention, that copies
of them should exhibit to this hour traces of those many adverse
influences. I say it for the last time,--of all such causes of
depravation the Greek Poets, Tragedians, Philosophers, Historians,
neither knew nor could know anything. And it thus plainly appears that
the Textual Criticism of the New Testament is to be handled by ourselves
in an entirely different spirit from that of any other book.
§ 2.
I wish now to investigate the causes of the corruption of the Text of
the New Testament. I do not entitle the present a discussion of 'Various
Readings,' because I consider that expression to be incorrect and
misleading[13]. Freely allowing that the term 'variae lectiones,' for
lack of a better, may be allowed to stand on the Critic's page, I yet
think it necessary even a second time to call attention to the
impropriety which attends its use. Thus Codex B differs from the
commonly received Text of Scripture in the Gospels alone in 7578 places;
of which no less than 2877 are instances of omission. In fact omissions
constitute by far the larger number of what are commonly called 'Various
Readings.' How then can those be called 'various readings' which are
really not readings at all? How, for example, can that be said to be a
'various reading' of St. Mark xvi. 9-20, which consists in the
circumstance that the last 12 verses are left out by two MSS.?
Again,--How can it be called a 'various reading' of St. John xxi. 25, to
bring the Gospel abruptly to a close, as Tischendorf does, at v. 24?
These are really nothing else but indications either of a mutilated or
else an interpolated text. And the question to be resolved is,--On which
side does the corruption lie? and, How did it originate?
Waiving this however, the term is objectionable on other grounds. It is
to beg the whole question to assume that every irregularity in the text
of Scripture is a 'various reading.' The very expression carries with it
an assertion of importance; at least it implies a claim to
consideration. Even might it be thought that, because it is termed a
'various reading,' therefore a critic is entitled to call in question
the commonly received text. Whereas, nine divergences out of ten are of
no manner of significance and are entitled to no manner of
consideration, as every one must see at a glance who will attend to the
matter ever so little. 'Various readings' in fact is a term which
belongs of right to the criticism of the text of profane authors: and,
like many other notions which have been imported from the same region
into this department of inquiry, it only tends to confuse and perplex
the judgement.
No variety in the Text of Scripture can properly be called a 'various
reading,' of which it may be safely declared that it never has been, and
never will be, read. In the case of profane authors, where the MSS. are
for the most part exceedingly few, almost every plausible substitution
of one word for another, if really entitled to alteration, is looked
upon as a various reading of the text. But in the Gospels, of which the
copies are so numerous as has been said, the case is far otherwise. We
are there able to convince ourselves in a moment that the supposed
'various reading' is nothing else but an instance of licentiousness or
inattention on the part of a previous scribe or scribes, and we can
afford to neglect it accordingly[14]. It follows therefore,--and this is
the point to which I desire to bring the reader and to urge upon his
consideration,--that the number of 'various readings' in the New
Testament properly so called has been greatly exaggerated. They are, in
reality, exceedingly few in number; and it is to be expected that, as
sound (sacred) Criticism advances, and principles are established, and
conclusions recognized, instead of becoming multiplied they will become
fewer and fewer, and at last will entirely disappear. We cannot afford
to go on disputing for ever; and what is declared by common consent to
be untenable ought to be no longer reckoned. That only in short, as I
venture to think, deserves the name of a Various Reading which comes to
us so respectably recommended as to be entitled to our sincere
consideration and respect; or, better still, which is of such a kind as
to inspire some degree of reasonable suspicion that after all it may
prove to be the true way of exhibiting the text.
The inquiry therefore on which we are about to engage, grows naturally
out of the considerations which have been already offered. We propose to
ascertain, as far as is practicable at the end of so many hundred years,
in what way these many strange corruptions of the text have arisen. Very
often we shall only have to inquire how it has come to pass that the
text exhibits signs of perturbation at a certain place. Such
disquisitions as those which follow, let it never be forgotten, have no
place in reviewing any other text than that of the New Testament,
because a few plain principles would suffice to solve every difficulty.
The less usual word mistaken for the word of more frequent
occurrence;--clerical carelessness;--a gloss finding its way from the
margin into the text;--- such explanations as these would probably in
other cases suffice to account for every ascertained corruption of the
text. But it is far otherwise here, as I propose to make fully apparent
by and by. Various disturbing influences have been at work for a great
many years, of which secular productions know absolutely nothing, nor
indeed can know.
The importance of such an inquiry will become apparent as we proceed;
but it may be convenient that I should call attention to the matter
briefly at the outset. It frequently happens that the one remaining plea
of many critics for adopting readings of a certain kind, is the
inexplicable nature of the phenomena which these readings exhibit. 'How
will you possibly account for such a reading as the present,' (say
they,) 'if it be not authentic?' Or they say nothing, but leave it to be
inferred that the reading they adopt,--in spite of its intrinsic
improbability, in spite also of the slender amount of evidence on which
it rests,--must needs be accepted as true. They lose sight of the
correlative difficulty:--How comes it to pass that the rest of the
copies read the place otherwise? On all such occasions it is impossible
to overestimate the importance of detecting the particular cause which
has brought about, or which at least will fully account for, this
depravation. When this has been done, it is hardly too much to say that
a case presents itself like as when a pasteboard mask has been torn
away, and the ghost is discovered with a broad grin on his face behind
it.
The discussion on which I now enter is then on the Causes of the various
Corruptions of the Text. [The reader shall be shewn with illustrations
to what particular source they are to be severally ascribed. When
representative passages have been thus labelled, and the causes are seen
in operation, he will be able to pierce the mystery, and all the better
to winnow the evil from among the good.]
§ 3.
When I take into my hands an ancient copy of the Gospels, I expect that
it will exhibit sundry inaccuracies and imperfections: and I am never
disappointed in my expectation. The discovery however creates no
uneasiness, so long as the phenomena evolved are of a certain kind and
range within easily definable limits. Thus:--
1. Whatever belongs to peculiarities of spelling or fashions of writing,
I can afford to disregard. For example, it is clearly consistent with
perfect good faith, that a scribe should spell [Greek: krabatton][15] in
several different ways: that he should write [Greek: outô] for [Greek:
outôs], or the contrary: that he should add or omit what grammarians
call the [Greek: n ephelkystikon]. The questions really touched by
irregularities such as these concern the date and country where the MS.
was produced; not by any means the honesty or animus of the copyist. The
man fell into the method which was natural to him, or which he found
prevailing around him; and that was all. 'Itacisms' therefore, as they
are called, of whatever kind,--by which is meant the interchange of such
vowels and diphthongs as [Greek: i-ei, ai-e, ê-i, ê-oi-u, o-ô,
ê-ei],--need excite no uneasiness. It is true that these variations may
occasionally result in very considerable inconvenience: for it will
sometimes happen that a different reading is the consequence. But the
copyist may have done his work in perfect good faith for all that. It is
not he who is responsible for the perplexity he occasions me, but the
language and the imperfect customs amidst which he wrote.
2. In like
manner the reduplication of syllables, words, clauses, sentences, is
consistent with entire sincerity of purpose on the part of the copyist.
This inaccuracy is often to be deplored; inasmuch as a reduplicated
syllable often really affects the sense. But for the most part nothing
worse ensues than that the page is disfigured with errata.
3. So, on the other hand,--the occasional omission of words, whether few
or many,--especially that passing from one line to the corresponding
place in a subsequent line, which generally results from the proximity
of a similar ending,--is a purely venial offence. It is an evidence of
carelessness, but it proves nothing worse.
4. Then further,--slight inversions, especially of ordinary words; or
the adoption of some more obvious and familiar collocation of particles
in a sentence; or again, the occasional substitution of one common word
for another, as [Greek: eipe] for [Greek: elege], [Greek: phônêsan] for
[Greek: kraxan], and the like;--need not provoke resentment. It is an
indication, we are willing to hope, of nothing worse than slovenliness
on the part of the writer or the group or succession of writers.
5. I will add that besides the substitution of one word for another,
cases frequently occur, where even the introduction into the text of one
or more words which cannot be thought to have stood in the original
autograph of the Evangelist, need create no offence. It is often
possible to account for their presence in a strictly legitimate way.
But it is high time to point out, that irregularities which fall under
these last heads are only tolerable within narrow limits, and always
require careful watching; for they may easily become excessive or even
betray an animus; and in either case they pass at once into quite a
different category. From cases of excusable oscitancy they degenerate,
either into instances of inexcusable licentiousness, or else into cases
of downright fraud.
6. Thus, if it be observed in the case of a Codex (_a_) that entire
sentences or significant clauses are habitually omitted:--(_b_) that
again and again in the course of the same page the phraseology of the
Evangelist has upon clear evidence been seriously tampered with: and
(_c_) that interpolations here and there occur which will not admit of
loyal interpretation:--we cannot but learn to regard with habitual
distrust the Codex in which all these notes are found combined. It is as
when a witness, whom we suspected of nothing worse than a bad memory or
a random tongue or a lively imagination, has been at last convicted of
deliberate suppression of parts of his evidence, misrepresentation of
facts,--in fact, deliberate falsehood.
7. But now suppose the case of a MS. in which words or clauses are
clearly omitted with design; where expressions are withheld which are
confessedly harsh or critically difficult,--whole sentences or parts of
them which have a known controversial bearing;--Suppose further that the
same MS. abounds in worthless paraphrase, and contains apocryphal
additions throughout:--What are we to think of our guide then? There can
be but one opinion on the subject. From habitually trusting, we shall
entertain inveterate distrust. We have ascertained his character. We
thought he was a faithful witness, but we now find from experience of
his transgressions that we have fallen into bad company. His witness may
be false no less than true: confidence is at an end.
§ 4.
It may be regarded as certain that most of the aberrations discoverable
in Codexes of the Sacred Text have arisen in the first instance from the
merest inadvertency of the scribes. That such was the case in a vast
number of cases is in fact demonstrable. [Inaccuracy in the apprehension
of the Divine Word, which in the earliest ages was imperfectly
understood, and ignorance of Greek in primitive Latin translators, were
prolific sources of error. The influence of Lectionaries, in which Holy
Scripture was cut up into separate Lections either with or without an
introduction, remained with habitual hearers, and led them off in
copying to paths which had become familiar. Acquaintance with
'Harmonies' or Diatessarons caused copyists insensibly to assimilate one
Gospel to another. And doctrinal predilections, as in the case of those
who belonged to the Origenistic school, were the source of lapsing into
expressions which were not the _verba ipsissima_ of Holy Writ. In such
cases, when the inadvertency was genuine and was unmingled with any
overt design, it is much to be noted that the error seldom propagated
itself extensively.]
But next, well-meant endeavours must have been made at a very early
period 'to rectify' ([Greek: diorthoun]) the text thus unintentionally
corrupted; and so, what began in inadvertence is sometimes found in the
end to exhibit traces of design, and often becomes in a high degree
perplexing. Thus, to cite a favourite example, it is clear to me that in
the earliest age of all (A.D. 100?) some copyist of St. Luke ii. 14
(call him X) inadvertently omitted the second [Greek: en] in the Angelic
Hymn. Now if the persons (call them Y and Z) whose business it became in
turn to reproduce the early copy thus inadvertently depraved, had but
been content both of them to transcribe exactly what they saw before
them, the error of their immediate predecessor (X) must infallibly have
speedily been detected, remedied, and forgotten,--simply because, as
every one must have seen as well as Y and Z, it was impossible to
translate the sentence which results,--[Greek: epi gês eirênê anthrôpois
eudokia]. Reference would have been made to any other copy of the third
Gospel, and together with the omitted preposition ([Greek: en]) sense
would have been restored to the passage. But unhappily one of the two
supposed Copyists being a learned grammarian who had no other copy at
hand to refer to, undertook, good man that he was, _proprio Marte_ to
force a meaning into the manifestly corrupted text of the copy before
him: and he did it by affixing to [Greek: eudokia] the sign of the
genitive case ([Greek: s]). Unhappy effort of misplaced skill! That copy
[or those copies] became the immediate progenitor [or progenitors] of a
large family,--from which all the Latin copies are descended; whereby it
comes to pass that Latin Christendom sings the Hymn 'Gloria in excelsis'
incorrectly to the present hour, and may possibly sing it incorrectly to
the end of time. The error committed by that same venerable Copyist
survives in the four oldest copies of the passage extant, B* and
[Symbol: Aleph]*, A and D,--though happily in no others,--in the Old
Latin, Vulgate, and Gothic, alone of Versions; in Irenaeus and Origen
(who contradict themselves), and in the Latin Fathers. All the Greek
authorities, with the few exceptions just recorded, of which A and D are
the only consistent witnesses, unite in condemning the evident
blunder[16].
I once hoped that it might be possible to refer all the Corruptions of
the Text of Scripture to ordinary causes: as, careless transcription,--
divers accidents,--misplaced critical assiduity,--doctrinal
animus,--small acts of unpardonable licence.
But increased attention and enlarged acquaintance with the subject, have
convinced me that by far the larger number of the omissions of such
Codexes as [Symbol: Aleph]BLD must needs be due to quite a different
cause. These MSS. omit so many words, phrases, sentences, verses of
Scripture,--that it is altogether incredible that the proximity of like
endings can have much to do with the matter. Inadvertency may be made to
bear the blame of some omissions: it cannot bear the blame of shrewd and
significant omissions of clauses, which invariably leave the sense
complete. A systematic and perpetual mutilation of the inspired Text
must needs be the result of design, not of accident[17].
[It will be seen therefore that the causes of the Corruptions of the
Text class themselves under two main heads, viz. (I.) Those which arose
from Inadvertency, and (II.) Those which took their origin in Design.]
FOOTNOTES:
[10] 2 Kings xxii. 8 = 2 Chron. xxxiv. 15.
[11] [This name is used for want of a better. Churchmen are Unitarians
as well as Trinitarians. The two names in combination express our Faith.
We dare not alienate either of them.]
[12] See The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels (Burgon and Miller),
p. 21, note 1.
[13] See Traditional Text, chapter ii, § 6, p. 33.
[14] [Perhaps this point may be cleared by dividing readings into two
classes, viz. (1) such as really have strong evidence for their support,
and require examination before we can be certain that they are corrupt;
and (2) those which afford no doubt as to their being destitute of
foundation, and are only interesting as specimens of the modes in which
error was sometimes introduced. Evidently, the latter class are not
'various' at all.]
[15] [I.e. generally [Greek: krabatton], or else [Greek: krabaton], or
even [Greek: krabakton]; seldom found as [Greek: krabbatton], or spelt
in the corrupt form [Greek: krabbaton].]
[16] I am inclined to believe that in the age immediately succeeding
that of the Apostles, some person or persons of great influence and
authority executed a Revision of the N.T. and gave the world the result
of such labours in a 'corrected Text.' The guiding principle seems to
have been to seek to _abridge_ the Text, to lop off whatever seemed
redundant, or which might in any way be spared, and to eliminate from
one Gospel whatever expressions occurred elsewhere in another Gospel.
Clauses which slightly obscured the speaker's meaning; or which seemed
to hang loose at the end of a sentence; or which introduced a
consideration of difficulty:--words which interfered with the easy flow
of a sentence:--every thing of this kind such a personage seems to have
held himself free to discard. But what is more serious, passages which
occasioned some difficulty, as the _pericope de adultera_; physical
perplexity, as the troubling of the water; spiritual revulsion, as the
agony in the garden:--all these the reviser or revisers seem to have
judged it safest simply to eliminate. It is difficult to understand how
any persons in their senses could have so acted by the sacred deposit;
but it does not seem improbable that at some very remote period there
were found some who did act in some such way. Let it be observed,
however, that unlike some critics I do not base my real argument upon
what appears to me to be a not unlikely supposition.
[17] [Unless it be referred to the two converging streams of corruption,
as described in The Traditional Text.]