ACCIDENTAL CAUSES OF CORRUPTION.
V. Liturgical Influence.
§ 1.
There is one distinct class of evidence provided by Almighty God for the
conservation of the deposit in its integrity[145], which calls for
special notice in this place. The Lectionaries of the ancient Church
have not yet nearly enjoyed the attention they deserve, or the laborious
study which in order to render them practically available they
absolutely require. Scarcely any persons, in fact, except professed
critics, are at all acquainted with the contents of the very curious
documents alluded to: while collations of any of them which have been
hitherto effected are few indeed. I speak chiefly of the Books called
Evangelistaria (or Evangeliaria), in other words, the proper lessons
collected out of the Gospels, and transcribed into a separate volume.
Let me freely admit that I subjoin a few observations on this subject
with unfeigned diffidence; having had to teach myself throughout the
little I know;--and discovering in the end how very insufficient for my
purpose that little is. Properly handled, an adequate study of the
Lectionaries of the ancient Church would become the labour of a life. We
require exact collations of at least 100 of them. From such a practical
acquaintance with about a tenth of the extant copies some very
interesting results would infallibly be obtained[146].
As for the external appearance of these documents, it may be enough to
say that they range, like the mass of uncial and cursive copies, over a
space of about 700 years,--the oldest extant being of about the eighth
century, and the latest dating in the fifteenth. Rarely are any so old
as the former date,--or so recent as the last named. When they began to
be executed is not known; but much older copies than any which at
present exist must have perished through constant use: [for they are in
perfect order when we first become acquainted with them, and as a whole
they are remarkably consistent with one another]. They are almost
invariably written in double columns, and not unfrequently are
splendidly executed. The use of Uncial letters is observed to have been
retained in documents of this class to a later period than in the case
of the Evangelia, viz. down to the eleventh century. For the most part
they are furnished with a kind of musical notation executed in
vermilion; evidently intended to guide the reader in that peculiar
recitative which is still customary in the oriental Church.
In these books the Gospels always stand in the following order: St.
John: St. Matthew: St. Luke: St. Mark. The lessons are brief,--
resembling the Epistles and Gospels in our Book of Common Prayer.
They seem to me to fall into two classes: (_a_) Those which contain a
lesson for every day in the year: (_b_) Those which only contain
[lessons for fixed Festivals and] the Saturday-Sunday lessons ([Greek:
sabbatokyriakai]). We are reminded by this peculiarity that it was not
till a very late period in her history that the Eastern Church was able
to shake herself clear of the shadow of the old Jewish Sabbath[147]. [To
these Lectionaries Tables of the Lessons were often added, of a similar
character to those which we have in our Prayer-books. The Table of daily
Lessons went under the title of Synaxarion (or Eclogadion); and the
Table of the Lessons of immovable Festivals and Saints' days was styled
Menologion[148].]
Liturgical use has proved a fruitful source of textual perturbation.
Nothing less was to have been expected,--as every one must admit who has
examined ancient Evangelia with any degree of attention. For a period
before the custom arose of writing out the Ecclesiastical Lections in
the 'Evangelistaries,' and 'Apostolos,' it may be regarded as certain
that the practice generally prevailed of accommodating an ordinary copy,
whether of the Gospels or of the Epistles, to the requirements of the
Church. This continued to the last to be a favourite method with the
ancients[149]. Not only was it the invariable liturgical practice to
introduce an ecclesiastical lection with an ever-varying formula,--by
which means the holy Name is often found in MSS. where it has no proper
place,--but notes of time, &c., ['like the unique and indubitably
genuine word [Greek: deuteroprôtôi][150],' are omitted as carrying no
moral lesson, as well as longer passages like the case of the two verses
recounting the ministering Angel with the Agony and the Bloody
Sweat[151].
That Lessons from the New Testament were probably read in the assemblies
of the faithful according to a definite scheme, and on an established
system, at least as early as the fourth century, has been shewn to
follow from plain historical fact in the tenth chapter of the Twelve
Last Verses of St. Mark's Gospel, to which the reader is referred for
more detailed information. Cyril, at Jerusalem,--and by implication, his
namesake at Alexandria,--Chrysostom, at Antioch and at Constantinople,--
Augustine, in Africa,--all four expressly witness to the circumstance.
In other words, there is found to have been at least at that time fully
established throughout the Churches of Christendom a Lectionary, which
seems to have been essentially one and the same in the West and in the
East. That it must have been of even Apostolic antiquity may be inferred
from several considerations[152]. For example, Marcion, in A.D. 140,
would hardly have constructed an Evangelistarium and Apostolicon of his
own, as we learn from Epiphanius[153], if he had not been induced by the
Lectionary System prevailing around him to form a counterplan of
teaching upon the same model.]
§ 2.
Indeed, the high antiquity of the Church's Lectionary System is inferred
with certainty from many a textual phenomenon with which students of
Textual Science are familiar.
It may be helpful to a beginner if I introduce to his notice the class
of readings to be discussed in the present chapter, by inviting his
attention to the first words of the Gospel for St. Philip and St. James'
Day in our own English Book of Common Prayer,--'And Jesus said unto His
disciples.' Those words he sees at a glance are undeniably nothing else
but an Ecclesiastical accretion to the Gospel,--words which breed
offence in no quarter, and occasion error to none. They have
nevertheless stood prefixed to St. John xiv. 1 from an exceedingly
remote period; for, besides establishing themselves in every Lectionary
of the ancient Church[154], they are found in Cod. D[155],--in copies of
the Old Latin[156] as the Vercellensis, Corbeiensis, Aureus, Bezae,--and
in copies of the Vulgate. They may be of the second or third, they must
be as old as the fourth century. It is evident that it wants but a very
little for those words to have established their claim to a permanent
place in the Text. Readings just as slenderly supported have been
actually adopted before now[157].
I proceed to cite another instance; and here the success of an ordinary
case of Lectionary licence will be perceived to have been complete: for
besides recommending itself to Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, and
Westcott and Hort, the blunder in question has established itself in the
pages of the Revised Version. Reference is made to an alteration of the
Text occurring in certain copies of Acts iii. 1, which will be further
discussed below[158]. When it has been stated that these copies are
[Symbol: Aleph]ABCG,--the Vulgate,--the two Egyptian versions,--besides
the Armenian,--and the Ethiopic,--it will be admitted that the
Ecclesiastical practice which has resulted in so widespread a reading,
must be primitive indeed. To some persons such a formidable array of
evidence may seem conclusive in favour of any reading: but it can only
seem so to those who do not realize the weight of counter-testimony.
But by far the most considerable injury which has resulted to the Gospel
from this cause is the suspicion which has alighted in certain quarters
on the last twelve verses of the Gospel according to St. Mark. [Those
verses made up by themselves a complete Lection. The preceding Lection,
which was used on the Second Sunday after Easter, was closed with the
Liturgical note 'The End,' or [Greek: TO TELOS], occurring after the
eighth verse. What more probable, nay, more certain result could there
be, than that some scribe should mistake the end of the Lection for the
end of St. Mark's Gospel, if the last leaf should chance to have been
torn off, and should then transcribe no more[159]? How natural that St.
Mark should express himself in a more condensed and abrupt style than
usual. This of course is only put forward as an explanation, which
leaves the notion of another writer and a later date unnecessary. If it
can be improved upon, so much the better. Candid critics ought to study
Dean Burgon's elaborate chapter already referred to before rejecting
it.]
§ 3.
And there probably does not exist, in the whole compass of the Gospel, a
more interesting instance of this than is furnished by the words [Greek:
eipe de ho Kyrios], in St. Luke vii. 31. This is certainly derived from
the Lectionaries; being nothing else but the formula with which it was
customary to introduce the lection that begins at this place.
Accordingly, only one out of forty copies which have been consulted for
the purpose contains them. But the circumstance of interest remains to
be stated. When these four unauthorized words have been thus got rid of,
the important discovery is made that the two preceding verses (verses 28
and 29) must needs form a part of our Lord's discourse,--which it is
perceived flows on unbroken from v. 24 to v. 35. This has been seen
already by some[160], though denied by others. But the fact does not
admit of rational doubt; though it is certainly not as yet generally
known. It is not generally known, I mean, that the Church has recovered
a piece of knowledge with which she was once familiar[161], but which
for many centuries she has forgotten, viz. that thirty-two words which
she supposed to be those of the Evangelist are in reality those of her
Lord.
Indeed, when the expressions are considered, it is perceived that this
account of them must needs be the true one. Thus, we learn from the 24th
verse that our Saviour was at this time addressing 'the crowds' or
'multitudes.' But the four classes specified in verses 29, 30, cannot
reasonably be thought to be the Evangelist's analysis of those crowds.
In fact what is said of 'the Pharisees and Lawyers' in ver. 30 is
clearly not a remark made by the Evangelist on the reception which our
Saviour's words were receiving at the hands of his auditory; but our
Saviour's own statement of the reception which His Forerunner's
preaching had met with at the hands of the common people and the
publicans on the one hand,--the Pharisees and the Scribes on the other.
Hence the inferential particle [Greek: oun] in the 31st verse; and the
use in ver. 35 of the same verb ([Greek: edikaiôthê]) which the Divine
Speaker had employed in ver. 29: whereby He takes up His previous
statement while He applies and enforces it.
Another specimen of unauthorized accretion originating in the same way
is found a little farther on. In St. Luke ix. 1 ('And having called
together His twelve Disciples'), the words [Greek: mathêtas autou] are
confessedly spurious: being condemned by nearly every known cursive and
uncial. Their presence in the meantime is fully accounted for by the
adjacent rubrical direction how the lesson is to be introduced: viz. 'At
that time Jesus having called together His twelve Disciples.'
Accordingly we are not surprised to find the words [Greek: ho Iêsous]
also thrust into a few of the MSS.: though we are hardly prepared to
discover that the words of the Peshitto, besides the Latin and Cureton's
Syriac, are disfigured in the same way. The admirers of 'the old
uncials' will learn with interest that, instead of [Greek: mathêtas
autou], [Symbol: Aleph]C with LX[Symbol: Lambda][Symbol: Xi] and a
choice assortment of cursives exhibit [Greek: apostolous],--being
supported in this manifestly spurious reading by the best copies of the
Old Latin, the Vulgate, Gothic, Harkleian, Bohairic, and a few other
translations.
Indeed, it is surprising what a fertile source of corruption Liturgical
usage has proved. Every careful student of the Gospels remembers that
St. Matthew describes our Lord's first and second missionary journey in
very nearly the same words. The former place (iv. 23) ending [Greek: kai
pasan malakian en tô laô] used to conclude the lesson for the second
Sunday after Pentecost,--the latter (ix. 35) ending [Greek: kai pasan
malakian] occupies the same position in the Gospel for the seventh
Sunday. It will not seem strange to any one who considers the matter,
that [Greek: en tô laô] has in consequence not only found its way into
ix. 35, but has established itself there very firmly: and that from a
very early time. The spurious words are first met with in the Codex
Sinaiticus[162].
But sometimes corruptions of this class are really perplexing. Thus
[Symbol: Aleph] testifies to the existence of a short additional clause
([Greek: kai polloi êkolouthêsan autô]) at the end, as some critics say,
of the same 35th verse. Are we not rather to regard the words as the
beginning of ver. 36, and as being nothing else but the liturgical
introduction to the lection for the Twelve Apostles, which follows (ix.
36-x. 8), and whose Festival falls on the 30th June? Whatever its
origin, this confessedly spurious accretion to the Text, which exists
besides only in L and six cursive copies, must needs be of extraordinary
antiquity, being found in the two oldest copies of the Old Latin:--a
sufficient indication, by the way, of the utter insufficiency of such an
amount of evidence for the genuineness of any reading.
This is the reason why, in certain of the oldest documents accessible,
such a strange amount of discrepancy is discoverable in the text of the
first words of St. Luke x. 25 ([Greek: kai idou nomikos tis anestê,
ekpeirazôn aiton, kai legôn]). Many of the Latin copies preface this
with _et haec eo dicente_. Now, the established formula of the
lectionaries here is,--[Greek: nomikos tis prosêthen tô I.], which
explains why the Curetonian, the Lewis, with 33, 'the queen of the
cursives,' as their usual leader in aberrant readings is absurdly
styled, so read the place: while D, with one copy of the Old Latin,
stands alone in exhibiting,--[Greek: anestê de tis nomikos]. Four
Codexes ([Symbol: Aleph]BL[Symbol: Xi]) with the Curetonian omit the
second [Greek: kai] which is illegible in the Lewis. To read this place
in its purity you have to take up any ordinary cursive copy.
§ 4.
Take another instance. St. Mark xv. 28 has been hitherto read in all
Churches as follows:--'And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith,
"And He was numbered with the transgressors."' In these last days
however the discovery is announced that every word of this is an
unauthorized addition to the inspired text. Griesbach indeed only marks
the verse as probably spurious; while Tregelles is content to enclose it
in brackets. But Alford, Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, and the
Revisers eject the words [Greek: kai eplêrôthê hê graphê hê legousa, kai
meta anomôn elogisthê] from the text altogether. What can be the reason
for so extraordinary a proceeding?
Let us not be told by Schulz (Griesbach's latest editor) that 'the
quotation is not in Mark's manner; that the formula which introduces it
is John's: and that it seems to be a gloss taken from Luke xxii. 37.'
This is not criticism but dictation,--imagination, not argument. Men who
so write forget that they are assuming the very point which they are
called upon to prove.
Now it happens that all the Uncials but six and an immense majority of
the Cursive copies contain the words before us:--that besides these, the
Old Latin, the Syriac, the Vulgate, the Gothic and the Bohairic
versions, all concur in exhibiting them:--that the same words are
expressly recognized by the Sectional System of Eusebius;--having a
section ([Greek: sis] / [Greek: ê] i.e. 216/8) to themselves--which is
the weightiest sanction that Father had it in his power to give to words
of Scripture. So are they also recognized by the Syriac sectional system
(260/8), which is diverse from that of Eusebius and independent of it.
What then is to be set against such a weight of ancient evidence? The
fact that the following six Codexes are without this 28th verse,
[Symbol: Aleph]ABCDX, together with the Sahidic and Lewis. The notorious
Codex k (Bobiensis) is the only other ancient testimony producible; to
which Tischendorf adds 'about forty-five cursive copies.' Will it be
seriously pretended that this evidence for omitting ver. 28 from St.
Mark's Gospel can compete with the evidence for retaining it?
Let it not be once more insinuated that we set numbers before antiquity.
Codex D is of the sixth century; Cod. X not older than the ninth: and
not one of the four Codexes which remain is so old, within perhaps two
centuries, as either the Old Latin or the Peshitto versions. We have
Eusebius and Jerome's Vulgate as witnesses on the same side, besides the
Gothic version, which represents a Codex probably as old as either. To
these witnesses must be added Victor of Antioch, who commented on St.
Mark's Gospel before either A or C were written[163].
It will be not unreasonably asked by those who have learned to regard
whatever is found in B or [Symbol: Aleph] as oracular,--'But is it
credible that on a point like this such authorities as [Symbol:
Aleph]ABCD should all be in error?'
It is not only credible, I answer, but a circumstance of which we meet
with so many undeniable examples that it ceases to be even a matter of
surprise. On the other hand, what is to be thought of the credibility
that on a point like this all the ancient versions (except the Sahidic)
should have conspired to mislead mankind? And further, on what
intelligible principle is the consent of all the other uncials, and the
whole mass of cursives, to be explained, if this verse of Scripture be
indeed spurious?
I know that the rejoinder will be as follows:--'Yes, but if the ten
words in dispute really are part of the inspired verity, how is their
absence from the earliest Codexes to be accounted for?' Now it happens
that for once I am able to assign the reason. But I do so under protest,
for I insist that to point out the source of the mistakes in our oldest
Codexes is no part of a critic's business. It would not only prove an
endless, but also a hopeless task. This time, however, I am able to
explain.
If the reader will take the trouble to inquire at the Bibliothèque at
Paris for a Greek Codex numbered '71,' an Evangelium will be put into
his hands which differs from any that I ever met with in giving
singularly minute and full rubrical directions. At the end of St. Mark
xv. 27, he will read as follows:--'When thou readest the sixth Gospel of
the Passion,--also when thou readest the second Gospel of the Vigil of
Good Friday,--stop here: skip verse 28: then go on at verse 29.' The
inference from this is so obvious, that it would be to abuse the
reader's patience if I were to enlarge upon it, or even to draw it out
in detail. Very ancient indeed must the Lectionary practice in this
particular have been that it should leave so fatal a trace of its
operation in our four oldest Codexes: but _it has left it_[164]. The
explanation is evident, the verse is plainly genuine, and the Codexes
which leave it out are corrupt.
One word about the evidence of the cursive copies on this occasion.
Tischendorf says that 'about forty-five' of them are without this
precious verse of Scripture. I venture to say that the learned critic
would be puzzled to produce forty-five copies of the Gospels in which
this verse has no place. But in fact his very next statement (viz. that
about half of these are Lectionaries),--satisfactorily explains the
matter. Just so. From every Lectionary in the world, for the reason
already assigned, these words are away; as well as in every MS. which,
like B and [Symbol: Aleph], has been depraved by the influence of the
Lectionary practice.
And now I venture to ask,--What is to be thought of that Revision of our
Authorized Version which omits ver. 28 altogether; with a marginal
intimation that 'many ancient authorities insert it'? Would it not have
been the course of ordinary reverence,--I was going to say of truth and
fairness,--to leave the text unmolested: with a marginal memorandum that
just 'a very few ancient authorities leave it out'?
§ 5.
A gross depravation of the Text resulting from this cause, which
nevertheless has imposed on several critics, as has been already said,
is furnished by the first words of Acts iii. The most ancient witness
accessible, namely the Peshitto, confirms the usual reading of the
place, which is also the text of the cursives: viz. [Greek: Epi to auto
de Petros kai Iôannês k.t.l.] So the Harkleian and Bede. So Codex E.
The four oldest of the six available uncials conspire however in
representing the words which immediately precede in the following
unintelligible fashion:--[Greek: ho de Kyrios prosetithei tous
sôzomenous kath' hêmeran epi to auto. Petros de k.t.l.] How is it to be
thought that this strange and vapid presentment of the passage had its
beginning? It results, I answer, from the ecclesiastical practice of
beginning a fresh lection at the name of 'Peter,' prefaced by the usual
formula 'In those days.' It is accordingly usual to find the liturgical
word [Greek: archê]--indicative of the beginning of a lection,--thrust
in between [Greek: epi to auto de] and [Greek: Petros]. At a yet earlier
period I suppose some more effectual severance of the text was made in
that place, which unhappily misled some early scribe[165]. And so it
came to pass that in the first instance the place stood thus: [Greek: ho
de Kyrios prosetithei tous sôzomenous kath' hêmeran tê ekklêsia epi to
auto],--which was plainly intolerable.
What I am saying will commend itself to any unprejudiced reader when it
has been stated that Cod. D in this place actually reads as
follows:--[Greek: kathêmeran epi to auto en tê ekklêsia. En de tais
hêmerais tautais Petros k.t.l.]: the scribe with simplicity both giving
us the liturgical formula with which it was usual to introduce the
Gospel for the Friday after Easter, and permitting us to witness the
perplexity with which the evident surplusage of [Greek: tê ekklêsia epi
to auto] occasioned him. He inverts those two expressions and thrusts in
a preposition. How obvious it now was to solve the difficulty by getting
rid of [Greek: tê ekklêsia].
It does not help the adverse case to shew that the Vulgate as well as
the copy of Cyril of Alexandria are disfigured with the same corrupt
reading as [Symbol: Aleph]ABC. It does but prove how early and how
widespread is this depravation of the Text. But the indirect proof thus
afforded that the actual Lectionary System must needs date from a period
long anterior to our oldest Codexes is a far more important as well as a
more interesting inference. In the meantime I suspect that it was in
Western Christendom that this corruption of the text had its beginning:
for proof is not wanting that the expression [Greek: epi to auto] seemed
hard to the Latins[166].
Hence too the omission of [Greek: palin] from [Symbol: Aleph]BD (St.
Matt, xiii. 43). A glance at the place in an actual Codex[167] will
explain the matter to a novice better than a whole page of writing:--
[Greek: akouetô. telos]
[Greek: palin. archê. eipen o Kurios tên parabolên tautên.]
[Greek: Omoia estin k.t.l.]
The word [Greek: palin], because it stands between the end ([Greek:
telos]) of the lesson for the sixth Thursday and the beginning ([Greek:
archê]) of the first Friday after Pentecost, got left out [though every
one acquainted with Gospel MSS. knows that [Greek: archê] and [Greek:
telos] were often inserted in the text]. The second of these two lessons
begins with [Greek: homoia] [because [Greek: palin] at the beginning of
a lesson is not wanted]. Here then is a singular token of the antiquity
of the Lectionary System in the Churches of the East: as well as a proof
of the untrustworthy character of Codd. [Symbol: Aleph]BD. The discovery
that they are supported this time by copies of the Old Latin (a c e
ff^{1.2} g^{1.2} k l), Vulgate, Curetonian, Bohairic, Ethiopic, does but
further shew that such an amount of evidence in and by itself is wholly
insufficient to determine the text of Scripture.
When therefore I see Tischendorf, in the immediately preceding verse
(xiii. 43) on the sole authority of [Symbol: Aleph]B and a few Latin
copies, omitting the word [Greek: akouein],--and again in the present
verse on very similar authority (viz. [Symbol: Aleph]D, Old Latin,
Vulgate, Peshitto, Curetonian, Lewis, Bohairic, together with five
cursives of aberrant character) transposing the order of the words
[Greek: panta hosa echei pôlei],--I can but reflect on the utterly
insecure basis on which the Revisers and the school which they follow
would remodel the inspired Text.
It is precisely in this way and for the selfsame reason, that the clause
[Greek: kai elypêthêsan sphodra] (St. Matt. xvii. 23) comes to be
omitted in K and several other copies. The previous lesson ends at
[Greek: egerthêsetai],--the next lesson begins at [Greek: prosêlthon].
§ 6.
Indeed, the Ancient Liturgy of the Church has frequently exercised a
corrupting influence on the text of Scripture. Having elsewhere
considered St. Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer[168], I will in this
place discuss the genuineness of the doxology with which the Lord's
Prayer concludes in St. Matt. vi. 13[169],--[Greek: hoti sou estin hê
basileia kai hê dynamis kai hê doxa eis tous aiônas. amên],--words which
for 360 years have been rejected by critical writers as spurious,
notwithstanding St. Paul's unmistakable recognition of them in 2 Tim.
iv. 18,--which alone, one would have thought, should have sufficed to
preserve them from molestation.
The essential note of primitive antiquity at all events these fifteen
words enjoy in perfection, being met with in all copies of the
Peshitto:--and this is a far weightier consideration than the fact that
they are absent from most of the Latin copies. Even of these however
four (k f g^{1} q) recognize the doxology, which is also found in
Cureton's Syriac and the Sahidic version; the Gothic, the Ethiopic,
Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, Harkleian, Palestinian, Erpenius' Arabic,
and the Persian of Tawos; as well as in the [Greek: Didachê] (with
variations); Apostolical Constitutions (iii. 18-vii. 25 with
variations); in St. Ambrose (De Sacr. vi. 5. 24), Caesarius (Dial. i.
29). Chrysostom comments on the words without suspicion, and often
quotes them (In Orat. Dom., also see Hom. in Matt. xiv. 13): as does
Isidore of Pelusium (Ep. iv. 24). See also Opus Imperfectum (Hom. in
Matt. xiv), Theophylact on this place, and Euthymius Zigabenus (in Matt.
vi. 13 and C. Massal. Anath. 7). And yet their true claim to be accepted
as inspired is of course based on the consideration that they are found
in ninety-nine out of a hundred of the Greek copies, including [Symbol:
Phi] and [Symbol: Sigma] of the end of the fifth and beginning of the
sixth centuries. What then is the nature of the adverse evidence with
which they have to contend and which is supposed to be fatal to their
claims?
Four uncial MSS. ([Symbol: Aleph]BDZ), supported by five cursives of bad
character (1, 17 which gives [Greek: amên], 118, 130, 209), and, as we
have seen, all the Latin copies but four, omit these words; which, it is
accordingly assumed, must have found their way surreptitiously into the
text of all the other copies in existence. But let me ask,--Is it at all
likely, or rather is it any way credible, that in a matter like this,
all the MSS. in the world but nine should have become corrupted? No
hypothesis is needed to account for one more instance of omission in
copies which exhibit a mutilated text in every page. But how will men
pretend to explain an interpolation universal as the present; which may
be traced as far back as the second century; which has established
itself without appreciable variety of reading in all the MSS.; which has
therefore found its way from the earliest time into every part of
Christendom; is met with in all the Lectionaries, and in all the Greek
Liturgies; and has so effectually won the Church's confidence that to
this hour it forms part of the public and private devotions of the
faithful all over the world?
One and the same reply has been rendered to this inquiry ever since the
days of Erasmus. A note in the Complutensian Polyglott (1514) expresses
it with sufficient accuracy. 'In the Greek copies, after _And deliver us
from evil_, follows _For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, for ever_. But it is to be noted that in the Greek liturgy, after
the choir has said _And deliver us from evil_, it is the Priest who
responds as above: and those words, according to the Greeks, the priest
alone may pronounce. This makes it probable that the words in question
are no integral part of the Lord's Prayer: but that certain copyists
inserted them in error, supposing, from their use in the liturgy, that
they formed part of the text.' In other words, they represent that men's
ears had grown so fatally familiar with this formula from its habitual
use in the liturgy, that at last they assumed it to be part and parcel
of the Lord's Prayer. The same statement has been repeated ad nauseam by
ten generations of critics for 360 years. The words with which our
Saviour closed His pattern prayer are accordingly rejected as an
interpolation resulting from the liturgical practice of the primitive
Church. And this slipshod account of the matter is universally
acquiesced in by learned and unlearned readers alike at the present day.
From an examination of above fifty ancient oriental liturgies, it is
found then that though the utmost variety prevails among them, yet that
_not one_ of them exhibits the evangelical formula as it stands in St.
Matt. vi. 13; while in some instances the divergences of expression are
even extraordinary. Subjoined is what may perhaps be regarded as the
typical eucharistic formula, derived from the liturgy which passes as
Chrysostom's. Precisely the same form recurs in the office which is
called after the name of Basil: and it is essentially reproduced by
Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, and pseudo-Caesarius; while
something very like it is found to have been in use in more of the
Churches of the East.
'_For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory_, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost, now and always and _for ever_ and ever. _Amen_.'
But as every one sees at a glance, such a formula as the
foregoing,--with its ever-varying terminology of praise,--its constant
reference to the blessed Trinity,--its habitual [Greek: nun kai
aei],--and its invariable [Greek: eis tous aiônas tôn aiônôn], (which
must needs be of very high antiquity, for it is mentioned by
Irenaeus[170], and may be as old as 2 Tim. iv. 18 itself;)--the
doxology, I say, which formed part of the Church's liturgy, though
transcribed 10,000 times, could never by possibility have resulted in
the unvarying doxology found in MSS. of St. Matt. vi. 13,--'_For thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen._'
On the other hand, the inference from a careful survey of so many
Oriental liturgies is inevitable. The universal prevalence of a doxology
of some sort at the end of the Lord's Prayer; the general prefix 'for
thine'; the prevailing mention therein of 'the kingdom and the power and
the glory'; the invariable reference to Eternity:--all this constitutes
a weighty corroboration of the genuineness of the form in St. Matthew.
Eked out with a confession of faith in the Trinity, and otherwise
amplified as piety or zeal for doctrinal purity suggested, every
liturgical formula of the kind is clearly derivable from the form of
words in St. Matt. vi. 13. In no conceivable way, on the other hand,
could that briefer formula have resulted from the practice of the
ancient Church. The thing, I repeat, is simply impossible.
What need to point out in conclusion that the Church's peculiar method
of reciting the Lord's Prayer in the public liturgy does notwithstanding
supply the obvious and sufficient explanation of all the adverse
phenomena of the case? It was the invariable practice from the earliest
time for the Choir to break off at the words 'But deliver us from evil.'
They never pronounced the doxology. The doxology must for that reason
have been omitted by the critical owner of the archetypal copy of St.
Matthew from which nine extant Evangelia, Origen, and the Old Latin
version originally derived their text. This is the sum of the matter.
There can be no simpler solution of the alleged difficulty. That
Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose recognize no more of the Lord's Prayer than
they found in their Latin copies, cannot create surprise. The wonder
would have been if they did.
Much stress has been laid on the silence of certain of the Greek Fathers
concerning the doxology although they wrote expressly on the Lord's
Prayer; as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa[171], Cyril of Jerusalem, Maximus.
Those who have attended most to such subjects will however bear me most
ready witness, that it is never safe to draw inferences of the kind
proposed from the silence of the ancients. What if they regarded a
doxology, wherever found, as hardly a fitting subject for exegetical
comment? But however their silence is to be explained, it is at least
quite certain that the reason of it is not because their copies of St.
Matthew were unfurnished with the doxology. Does any one seriously
imagine that in A.D. 650, when Maximus wrote, Evangelia were, in this
respect, in a different state from what they are at present?
The sum of what has been offered may be thus briefly stated:--The
textual perturbation observable at St. Matt. vi. 13 is indeed due to a
liturgical cause, as the critics suppose. But then it is found that not
the great bulk of the Evangelia, but only Codd. [Symbol: Aleph]BDZ, 1,
17, 118, 130, 209, have been victims of the corrupting influence. As
usual, I say, it is the few, not the many copies, which have been led
astray. Let the doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer be therefore
allowed to retain its place in the text without further molestation. Let
no profane hands be any more laid on these fifteen precious words of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
There yet remains something to be said on the same subject for the
edification of studious readers; to whom the succeeding words are
specially commended. They are requested to keep their attention
sustained, until they have read what immediately follows.
The history of the rejection of these words is in a high degree
instructive. It dates from 1514, when the Complutensian editors, whilst
admitting that the words were found in their Greek copies, banished them
from the text solely in deference to the Latin version. In a marginal
annotation they started the hypothesis that the doxology is a liturgical
interpolation. But how is that possible, seeing that the doxology is
commented on by Chrysostom? 'We presume,' they say, 'that this
corruption of the original text must date from an antecedent period.'
The same adverse sentence, supported by the same hypothesis, was
reaffirmed by Erasmus, and on the same grounds; but in his edition of
the N.T. he suffered the doxology to stand. As the years have rolled
out, and Codexes DBZ[Symbol: Aleph] have successively come to light,
critics have waxed bolder and bolder in giving their verdict. First,
Grotius, Hammond, Walton; then Mill and Grabe; next Bengel, Wetstein,
Griesbach; lastly Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford,
Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers have denounced the precious words as
spurious.
But how does it appear that tract of time has strengthened the case
against the doxology? Since 1514, scholars have become acquainted with
the Peshitto version; which by its emphatic verdict, effectually
disposes of the evidence borne by all but three of the Old Latin copies.
The [Greek: Didachê] of the first or second century, the Sahidic version
of the third century, the Apostolic Constitutions (2), follow on the
same side. Next, in the fourth century come Chrysostom, Ambrose,
ps.-Caesarius, the Gothic version. After that Isidore, the Ethiopic,
Cureton's Syriac. The Harkleian, Armenian, Georgian, and other versions,
with Chrysostom (2), the Opus Imperfectum, Theophylact, and Euthymius
(2), bring up the rear[172]. Does any one really suppose that two
Codexes of the fourth century (B[Symbol: Aleph]), which are even
notorious for their many omissions and general accuracy, are any
adequate set-off against such an amount of ancient evidence? L and 33,
generally the firm allies of BD and the Vulgate, forsake them at St.
Matt. vi. 13: and dispose effectually of the adverse testimony of D and
Z, which are also balanced by [Symbol: Phi] and [Symbol: Sigma]. But at
this juncture the case for rejecting the doxology breaks down: and when
it is discovered that every other uncial and every other cursive in
existence may be appealed to in its support, and that the story of its
liturgical origin proves to be a myth,--what must be the verdict of an
impartial mind on a survey of the entire evidence?
The whole matter may be conveniently restated thus:--Liturgical use has
indeed been the cause of a depravation of the text at St. Matt. vi. 13;
but it proves on inquiry to be the very few MSS.,--not the very
many,--which have been depraved.
Nor is any one at liberty to appeal to a yet earlier period than is
attainable by existing liturgical evidence; and to suggest that then the
doxology used by the priest may have been the same with that which is
found in the ordinary text of St. Matthew's Gospel. This may have been
the case or it may not. Meanwhile, the hypothesis, which fell to the
ground when the statement on which it rested was disproved, is not now
to be built up again on a mere conjecture. But if the fact could be
ascertained,--and I am not at all concerned to deny that such a thing is
possible,--I should regard it only as confirmatory of the genuineness of
the doxology. For why should the liturgical employment of the last
fifteen words of the Lord's Prayer be thought to cast discredit on their
genuineness? In the meantime, the undoubted fact, that for an
indefinitely remote period the Lord's Prayer was not publicly recited by
the people further than 'But deliver us from evil,'--a doxology of some
sort being invariably added, but pronounced by the priest alone,--this
clearly ascertained fact is fully sufficient to account for a phenomenon
so ordinary [found indeed so commonly throughout St. Matthew, to say
nothing of occurrences in the other Gospels] as really not to require
particular explanation, viz. the omission of the last half of St.
Matthew vi. 13 from Codexes [Symbol: Aleph]BDZ.
FOOTNOTES:
[145] [I have retained this passage notwithstanding the objections made
in some quarters against similar passages in the companion volume,
because I think them neither valid, nor creditable to high intelligence,
or to due reverence.]
[146] [The Textual student will remember that besides the Lectionaries
of the Gospels mentioned here, of which about 1000 are known, there are
some 300 more of the Acts and Epistles, called by the name Apostolos.]
[147] ['It seems also a singular note of antiquity that the Sabbath and
the Sunday succeeding it do as it were cohere, and bear one appellation;
so that the week takes its name--_not_ from the Sunday with which it
commences, but--from the Saturday-and-Sunday with which it concludes.'
Twelve Verses, p. 194, where more particulars are given.]
[148] [For the contents of these Tables, see Scrivener's Plain
Introduction, 4th edition, vol. i. pp. 80-89.]
[149] See Scrivener's Plain Introduction, 4th edition, vol. i. pp.
56-65.
[150] Twelve Verses, p. 220. The MS. stops in the middle of a sentence.
[151] St. Luke xxii. 43, 44.
[152] In the absence of materials supplied by the Dean upon what was his
own special subject, I have thought best to extract the above sentences
from the Twelve Last Verses, p. 207. The next illustration is his own,
though in my words.
[153] i. 311.
[154] [Greek: eipen ho Kyrios tois heautou mathêtais; mê tarassesthô.]
[155] [Greek: kai eipen tois mathêtais autou]. The same Codex (D) also
prefixes to St. Luke xvi. 19 the Ecclesiastical formula--[Greek: eipen
de kai eteran parabolên].
[156] '_Et ait discipulis suis, non turbetur_.'
[157] E.g. the words [Greek: kai legei autois; eirênê hymin] have been
omitted by Tisch, and rejected by W.-Hort from St. Luke xxiv. 36 _on the
sole authority_ of D and five copies of the Old Latin. Again, on the
same sorry evidence, the words [Greek: proskynêsantes auton] have been
omitted or rejected by the same critics from St. Luke xxiv. 52. In both
instances the expressions are also branded with doubt in the R. V.
[158] Pp. 78-80.
[159] See Traditional Text, Appendix VII.
[160] Bp. C. Wordsworth. But Alford, Westcott and Hort, doubt it.
[161] Thus Codex [Symbol: Xi] actually interpolates at this place the
words--[Greek: ouketi ekeinois elegeto, alla tois mathêtais.] Tisch. _ad
loc_.
[162] Cyril Alex, (four times) and the Verona Codex (b), besides L and a
few other copies, even append the same familiar words to [Greek: kai
pasan malakian] in St. Matt. x. 1.
[163] Investigate Possinus, 345, 346, 348.
[164] It is surprising to find so great an expert as Griesbach in the
last year of his life so entirely misunderstanding this subject. See his
Comment. Crit. Part ii. p. 190. 'Nec ulla ... debuerint.'
[165] [Greek: tous sôzomenous kathêmeran en tê ekklêsia. epi to auto de
(TÊ S' TÊS DIAKINÊSIMOU) Petros kai Iôannês, k.t.l.] Addit. 16,184, fol.
152 _b_.
[166] Bede, Retr. 111. D (add. [Greek: hoi en t. ekkl.]). Brit. Mus.
Addit. 16, 184. fol. 152 _b._ Vulgate.
[167] So the place stands in Evan. 64. The liturgical notes are printed
in a smaller type, for distinction.
[168] The Revision Revised, 34-6.
[169] See The Traditional Text, p. 104.
[170] [Greek: alla kai hêmas epi tês Eucharistias legontas, 'eis tous
aiônas tôn aiônôn,' k.t.l.] Contra Haer. lib. i. c. 3.
[171] But the words of Gregory of Nyssa are doubtful. See Scrivener,
Introduction, ii. p. 325, note 1.
[172] See my Textual Guide, Appendix V. pp. 131-3 (G. Bell & Sons). I
have increased the Dean's list with a few additional authorities.