ACCIDENTAL CAUSES OF CORRUPTION.
II. Homoeoteleuton.
No one who finds the syllable [Greek: OI] recurring six times over in
about as many words,--e.g. [Greek: kai egeneto, hôs apêlthon ... OI
angelOI, kai OI anthrôpOI OI pOImenes eipon],--is surprised to learn
that MSS. of a certain type exhibit serious perturbation in that place.
Accordingly, BL[Symbol: Xi] leave out the words [Greek: kai hoi
anthrôpoi]; and in that mutilated form the modern critical editors are
contented to exhibit St. Luke ii. 15. One would have supposed that
Tischendorf's eyes would have been opened when he noticed that in his
own Codex ([Symbol: Aleph]) one word more ([Greek: hoi]) is
dropped,--whereby nonsense is made of the passage (viz. [Greek: hoi
angeloi poimenes]). Self-evident it is that a line with a 'like ending'
has been omitted by the copyist of some very early codex of St. Luke's
Gospel; which either read,--
[Greek: OI ANGELOI] } {[Greek: OI ANGELOI]
[[Greek: KAI OI A[=NO]I OI]] } or else {[[Greek: KAI OI A[=NO]I]]
[Greek: POIMENES] } {[Greek: OI POIMENES]
Another such place is found in St. John vi. 11. The Evangelist certainly
described the act of our Saviour on a famous occasion in the well-known
words,--[Greek: kai eucharistêsas]
[Greek: diedôke
tois [mathêtais,
oi de mathêtai
tois] anakeimenois.]
The one sufficient proof that St. John did so write, being the testimony
of the MSS. Moreover, we are expressly assured by St. Matthew (xiv. 19),
St. Mark (vi. 41), and St. Luke (ix. 16), that our Saviour's act was
performed in this way. It is clear however that some scribe has suffered
his eye to wander from [Greek: tois] in l. 2 to [Greek: tois] in l.
4,--whereby St. John is made to say that our Saviour himself distributed
to the 5000. The blunder is a very ancient one; for it has crept into
the Syriac, Bohairic, and Gothic versions, besides many copies of the
Old Latin; and has established itself in the Vulgate. Moreover some good
Fathers (beginning with Origen) so quote the place. But such evidence is
unavailing to support [Symbol: Aleph]ABL[Symbol: Pi], the early reading
of [Symbol: Aleph] being also contradicted by the fourth hand in the
seventh century against the great cloud of witnesses,--beginning with D
and including twelve other uncials, beside the body of the cursives, the
Ethiopic and two copies of the Old Latin, as well as Cyril Alex.
Indeed, there does not exist a source of error which has proved more
fatal to the transcribers of MSS. than the proximity of identical, or
nearly identical, combinations of letters. And because these are
generally met with in the final syllables of words, the error referred
to is familiarly known by a Greek name which denotes 'likeness of
ending' (Homoeoteleuton). The eye of a scribe on reverting from his copy
to the original before him is of necessity apt sometimes to alight on
the same word, or what looks like the same word, a little lower down.
The consequence is obvious. All that should have come in between gets
omitted, or sometimes duplicated.
It is obvious, that however inconvenient it may prove to find oneself in
this way defrauded of five, ten, twenty, perhaps thirty words, no very
serious consequence for the most part ensues. Nevertheless, the result
is often sheer nonsense. When this is the case, it is loyally admitted
by all. A single example may stand for a hundred. [In St. John vi. 55,
that most careless of careless transcripts, the Sinaitic [Symbol:
Aleph], omits on a most sacred subject seven words, and the result
hardly admits of being characterized. Let the reader judge for himself.
The passage stands thus:--[Greek: hê gar sarx mou alêthôs esti brôsis,
kai to haima mou alêthôs esti posis]. The transcriber of [Symbol: Aleph]
by a very easy mistake let his eye pass from one [Greek: alêthôs] to
another, and characteristically enough the various correctors allowed
the error to remain till it was removed in the seventh century, though
the error issued in nothing less than 'My Flesh is drink indeed.' Could
that MS. have undergone the test of frequent use?]
But it requires very little familiarity with the subject to be aware
that occasions must inevitably be even of frequent occurrence when the
result is calamitous, and even perplexing, in the extreme. The writings
of Apostles and Evangelists, the Discourses of our Divine Lord Himself,
abound in short formulae; and the intervening matter on such occasions
is constantly an integral sentence, which occasionally may be discovered
from its context without evident injury to the general meaning of the
place. Thus [ver. 14 in St. Matt, xxiii. was omitted in an early age,
owing to the recurrence of [Greek: ouai hymin] at the beginning, by some
copyists, and the error was repeated in the Old Latin versions. It
passed to Egypt, as some of the Bohairic copies, the Sahidic, and Origen
testify. The Vulgate is not quite consistent: and of course [Symbol:
Aleph]BDLZ, a concord of bad witnesses especially in St. Matthew, follow
suit, in company with the Armenian, the Lewis, and five or more
cursives, enough to make the more emphatic the condemnation by the main
body of them. Besides the verdict of the cursives, thirteen uncials (as
against five) including [Symbol: Phi] and [Symbol: Sigma], the Peshitto,
Harkleian, Ethiopic, Arabian, some MSS. of the Vulgate, with Origen
(iii. 838 (only in Lat.)); Chrysostom (vii. 707 (_bis_); ix. 755); Opus
Imperf. 185 (_bis_); 186 (_bis_); John Damascene (ii. 517); Theophylact
(i. 124); Hilary (89; 725); Jerome (iv. 276; v. 52; vi. 138: vii. 185)].
Worst of all, it will sometimes of necessity happen that such an
omission took place at an exceedingly remote period; (for there have
been careless scribes in every age:) and in consequence the error is
pretty sure to have propagated itself widely. It is observed to exist
(suppose) in several of the known copies; and if,--as very often is the
case,--it is discoverable in two or more of the 'old uncials,' all hope
of its easy extirpation is at an end. Instead of being loyally
recognized as a blunder,--which it clearly is,--it is forthwith charged
upon the Apostle or Evangelist as the case may be. In other words, it is
taken for granted that the clause in dispute can have had no place in
the sacred autograph. It is henceforth treated as an unauthorized
accretion to the text. Quite idle henceforth becomes the appeal to the
ninety-nine copies out of a hundred which contain the missing words. I
proceed to give an instance of my meaning.
Our Saviour, having declared (St. Matt. xix. 9) that whosoever putteth
away his wife [Greek: ei mê epi porneia, kai gamêsê allên,
moichatai],--adds [Greek: kai ho apolelymenên gamêsas moichatai]. Those
five words are not found in Codd. [Symbol: Aleph]DLS, nor in several
copies of the Old Latin nor in some copies of the Bohairic, and the
Sahidic. Tischendorf and Tregelles accordingly reject them.
And yet it is perfectly certain that the words are genuine. Those
thirty-one letters probably formed three lines in the oldest copies of
all. Hence they are observed to exist in the Syriac (Peshitto, Harkleian
and Jerusalem), the Vulgate, some copies of the Old Latin, the Armenian,
and the Ethiopic, besides at least seventeen uncials (including
B[Symbol: Phi][Symbol: Sigma]), and the vast majority of the cursives.
So that there can be no question of the genuineness of the clause.
A somewhat graver instance of omission resulting from precisely the same
cause meets us a little further on in the same Gospel. The threefold
recurrence of [Greek: tôn] in the expression [Greek: TÔN psichiôn TÔN
piptonTÔN] (St. Luke xvi. 21), has (naturally enough) resulted in the
dropping of the words [Greek: psichiôn tôn] out of some copies.
Unhappily the sense is not destroyed by the omission. We are not
surprised therefore to discover that the words are wanting in--[Symbol:
Aleph]BL: or to find that [Symbol: Aleph]BL are supported here by copies
of the Old Latin, and (as usual) by the Egyptian versions, nor by
Clemens Alex.[50] and the author of the Dialogus[51]. Jerome, on the
other hand, condemns the Latin reading, and the Syriac Versions are
observed to approve of Jerome's verdict, as well as the Gothic. But what
settles the question is the fact that every known Greek MS., except
those three, witnesses against the omission: besides Ambrose[52],
Jerome[53], Eusebius[54] Alex., Gregory[55] Naz., Asterius[56],
Basil[57], Ephraim[58] Syr., Chrysostom[59], and Cyril[60] of
Alexandria. Perplexing it is notwithstanding to discover, and
distressing to have to record, that all the recent Editors of the
Gospels are more or less agreed in abolishing 'the crumbs which fell
from the rich man's table.'
[The foregoing instances afford specimens of the influence of accidental
causes upon the transmission from age to age of the Text of the Gospels.
Before the sense of the exact expressions of the Written Word was
impressed upon the mind of the Church,--when the Canon was not
definitely acknowledged, and the halo of antiquity had not yet gathered
round writings which had been recently composed,--severe accuracy was
not to be expected. Errors would be sure to arise, especially from
accident, and early ancestors would be certain to have a numerous
progeny; besides that evil would increase, and slight deviations would
give rise in the course of natural development to serious and perplexing
corruptions.
In the next chapter, other kinds of accidental causes will come under
consideration.]
FOOTNOTES:
[50] P. 232.
[51] _Ap._ Orig. i. 827.
[52] Ambrose i. 659, 1473, 1491:--places which shew how insecure would
be an inference drawn from i. 543 and 665.
[53] Hieron. v. 966; vi. 969.
[54] _Ap._ Mai ii. 516, 520.
[55] i. 370.
[56] P. 12.
[57] ii. 169.
[58] ii. 142.
[59] i. 715, 720; ii. 662 (_bis_) 764; vii. 779.
[60] v^{2}. 149 (luc. text, 524).