CAUSES OF CORRUPTION CHIEFLY INTENTIONAL.
I. Harmonistic Influence.
[It must not be imagined that all the causes of the depravation of the
text of Holy Scripture were instinctive, and that mistakes arose solely
because scribes were overcome by personal infirmity, or were
unconsciously the victims of surrounding circumstances. There was often
more design and method in their error. They, or those who directed them,
wished sometimes to correct and improve the copy or copies before them.
And indeed occasionally they desired to make the Holy Scriptures witness
to their own peculiar belief. Or they had their ideas of taste, and did
not scruple to alter passages to suit what they fancied was their
enlightened judgement.
Thus we can trace a tendency to bring the Four Records into one
harmonious narrative, or at least to excise or vary statements in one
Gospel which appeared to conflict with parallel statements in another.
Or else, some Evangelical Diatessaron, or Harmony, or combined narrative
now forgotten, exercised an influence over them, and whether consciously
or not,--since it is difficult always to keep designed and unintentional
mistakes apart, and we must not be supposed to aim at scientific
exactness in the arrangement adopted in this analysis,--induced them to
adopt alterations of the pure Text.
We now advance to some instances which will severally and conjointly
explain themselves.]
§ 1.
Nothing can be more exquisitely precise than St. John's way of
describing an incident to which St. Mark (xvi. 9) only refers; viz. our
Lord's appearance to Mary Magdalene,--the first of His appearances after
His Resurrection. The reason is discoverable for every word the
Evangelist uses:--its form and collocation. Both St. Luke (xxiv. 3) and
previously St. Mark (xvi. 5) expressly stated that the women who visited
the Sepulchre on the first Easter morning, 'after they had entered in'
([Greek: eiselthousai]), saw the Angels. St John explains that at that
time Mary was not with them. She had separated herself from their
company;--had gone in quest of Simon Peter and 'the other disciple.'
When the women, their visit ended, had in turn departed from the
Sepulchre, she was left in the garden alone. 'Mary was standing [with
her face] _towards the sepulchre_ weeping,--_outside_[173].'
All this, singular to relate, was completely misunderstood by the
critics of the two first centuries. Not only did they identify the
incident recorded in St. John xx. 11, 12 with St. Mark xv. 5 and St.
Luke xxiv. 3, 4, from which, as we have seen, the first-named Evangelist
is careful to distinguish it;--not only did they further identify both
places with St. Matt, xxviii. 2, 3[174], from which they are clearly
separate;--but they considered themselves at liberty to tamper with the
inspired text in order to bring it into harmony with their own
convictions. Some of them accordingly altered [Greek: pros to mnêmeion]
into [Greek: pros tô mnêmeiô] (which is just as ambiguous in Greek as
'_at_ the sepulchre' in English[175]), and [Greek: exô] they boldly
erased. It is thus that Codex A exhibits the text. But in fact this
depravation must have begun at a very remote period and prevailed to an
extraordinary extent: for it disfigures the best copies of the Old
Latin, (the Syriac being doubtful): a memorable circumstance truly, and
in a high degree suggestive. Codex B, to be sure, reads [Greek:
heistêkei pros tô mnêmeiô, exô klaiousa],--merely transposing (with many
other authorities) the last two words. But then Codex B substitutes
[Greek: elthousai] for [Greek: eiselthousai] in St. Mark xvi. 5, in
order that the second Evangelist may not seem to contradict St. Matt,
xxviii. 2, 3. So that, according to this view of the matter, the Angelic
appearance was outside the sepulchre[176]. Codex [Symbol: Aleph], on the
contrary, is thorough. Not content with omitting [Greek: exô],--(as in
the next verse it leaves out [Greek: duo], in order to prevent St. John
xx. 12 from seeming to contradict St. Matt. xxviii. 2, 3, and St. Mark
xvi. 5),--it stands alone in reading [Greek: EN tô mnêmeiô]. (C and D
are lost here.) When will men learn that these 'old uncials' are _ignes
fatui_,--not beacon lights; and admit that the texts which they exhibit
are not only inconsistent but corrupt?
There is no reason for distrusting the received reading of the present
place in any particular. True, that most of the uncials and many of the
cursives read [Greek: pros tô mnêmeiô]: but so did neither
Chrysostom[177] nor Cyril[178] read the place. And if the Evangelist
himself had so written, is it credible that a majority of the copies
would have forsaken the easier and more obvious, in order to exhibit the
less usual and even slightly difficult expression? Many, by writing
[Greek: pros tô mnêmeiô], betray themselves; for they retain a sure
token that the accusative ought to end the sentence. I am not concerned
however just now to discuss these matters of detail. I am only bent on
illustrating how fatal to the purity of the Text of the Gospels has been
the desire of critics, who did not understand those divine compositions,
to bring them into enforced agreement with one another. The sectional
system of Eusebius, I suspect, is not so much the cause as the
consequence of the ancient and inveterate misapprehensions which
prevailed in respect of the history of the Resurrection. It is time
however to proceed.
§ 2.
Those writers who overlook the corruptions which the text has actually
experienced through a mistaken solicitude on the part of ancient critics
to reconcile what seemed to them the conflicting statements of different
Evangelists, are frequently observed to attribute to this kind of
officiousness expressions which are unquestionably portions of the
genuine text. Thus, there is a general consensus amongst critics of the
destructive school to omit the words [Greek: kai tines syn autais] from
St. Luke xxiv. 1. Their only plea is the testimony of [Symbol: Aleph]BCL
and certain of the Latin copies,--a conjunction of authorities which,
when they stand alone, we have already observed to bear invariably false
witness. Indeed, before we proceed to examine the evidence, we discover
that those four words of St. Luke are even required in this place. For
St. Matthew (xxvii. 61), and St. Mark after him (xv. 47), had distinctly
specified two women as witnesses of how and where our Lord's body was
laid. Now they were the same women apparently who prepared the spices
and ointment and hastened therewith at break of day to the sepulchre.
Had we therefore only St. Matthew's Gospel we should have assumed that
'the ointment-bearers,' for so the ancients called them, were but two
(St. Matt. xxviii. 1). That they were at least three, even St. Mark
shews by adding to their number Salome (xvi. 1). But in fact their
company consisted of more than four; as St. Luke explains when he states
that it was the same little band of holy women who had accompanied our
Saviour out of Galilee (xxiii. 55, cf. viii. 2). In anticipation
therefore of what he will have to relate in ver. 10, he says in ver. 1,
'and certain with them.'
But how, I shall be asked, would you explain the omission of these words
which to yourself seem necessary? And after insisting that one is never
bound to explain how the text of any particular passage came to be
corrupted, I answer, that these words were originally ejected from the
text in order to bring St. Luke's statement into harmony with that of
the first Evangelist, who mentions none but Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of James and Joses. The proof is that four of the same Latin
copies which are for the omission of [Greek: kai tines syn autais] are
observed to begin St. Luke xxiii. 55 as follows,--[Greek:
katakolouthêsasai de DUO gynaikes]. The same fabricated reading is found
in D. It exists also in the Codex which Eusebius employed when he wrote
his Demonstratio Evangelica. Instead therefore of wearying the reader
with the evidence, which is simply overwhelming, for letting the text
alone, I shall content myself with inviting him to notice that the
tables have been unexpectedly turned on our opponents. There is indeed
found to have been a corruption of the text hereabouts, and of the words
just now under discussion; but it belongs to an exceedingly remote age;
and happily the record of it survives at this day only in [Symbol:
Aleph]BCDL and certain of the Old Latin copies. Calamitous however it
is, that what the Church has long since deliberately refused to part
with should, at the end of so many centuries, by Lachmann and Tregelles
and Tischendorf, by Alford and Westcott and Hort, be resolutely thrust
out of place; and indeed excluded from the Sacred Text by a majority of
the Revisers.
[A very interesting instance of such Harmonistic Influence may be found
in the substitution of 'wine' ([Greek: oinon]) for vinegar ([Greek:
oxos]), respecting which the details are given in the second Appendix to
the Traditional Text.]
[Observe yet another instance of harmonizing propensities in the Ancient
Church.]
In St. Luke's Gospel iv. 1-13, no less than six copies of the Old Latin
versions (b c f g^{1} l q) besides Ambrose (Com. St. Luke, 1340), are
observed to transpose the second and third temptations; introducing
verses 9-12 between verses 4 and 5; in order to make the history of the
Temptation as given by St. Luke correspond with the account given by St.
Matthew.
The scribe of the Vercelli Codex (a) was about to do the same thing; but
he checked himself when he had got as far as 'the pinnacle of the
temple,'--which he seems to have thought as good a scene for the third
temptation as 'a high mountain,' and so left it.
§ 3.
A favourite, and certainly a plausible, method of accounting for the
presence of unauthorized matter in MSS. is to suggest that, in the first
instance, it probably existed only in the shape of a marginal gloss,
which through the inadvertence of the scribes, in process of time, found
its way into the sacred text. That in this way some depravations of
Scripture may possibly have arisen, would hardly I presume be doubted.
But I suspect that the hypothesis is generally a wholly mistaken one;
having been imported into this subject-matter (like many other notions
which are quite out of place here), from the region of the
Classics,--where (as we know) the phenomenon is even common. Especially
is this hypothesis resorted to (I believe) in order to explain those
instances of assimilation which are so frequently to be met with in
Codd. B and [Symbol: Aleph].
Another favourite way of accounting for instances of assimilation, is by
taking for granted that the scribe was thinking of the parallel or the
cognate place. And certainly (as before) there is no denying that just
as the familiar language of a parallel place in another Gospel presents
itself unbidden to the memory of a reader, so may it have struck a
copyist also with sufficient vividness to persuade him to write, not the
words which he saw before him, but the words which he remembered. All
this is certainly possible.
But I strongly incline to the suspicion that this is not by any means
the right way to explain the phenomena under discussion. I am of opinion
that such depravations of the text were in the first instance
intentional. I do not mean that they were introduced with any sinister
motive. My meaning is that [there was a desire to remove obscurities, or
to reconcile incongruous passages, or generally to improve the style of
the authors, and thus to add to the merits of the sacred writings,
instead of detracting from them. Such a mode of dealing with the holy
deposit evinced no doubt a failure in the part of those who adopted it
to understand the nature of the trust committed to the Church, just as
similar action at the present day does in the case of such as load the
New Testament with 'various readings,' and illustrate it as they imagine
with what are really insinuations of doubt, in the way that they prepare
an edition of the classics for the purpose of enlarging and sharpening
the minds of youthful students. There was intention, and the intention
was good: but it was none the less productive of corruption.]
I suspect that if we ever obtain access to a specimen of those connected
Gospel narratives called Diatessarons, which are known to have existed
anciently in the Church, we shall be furnished with a clue to a problem
which at present is shrouded in obscurity,--and concerning the solution
of which, with such instruments of criticism as we at present possess,
we can do little else but conjecture. I allude to those many occasions
on which the oldest documents extant, in narrating some incident which
really presents no special difficulty, are observed to diverge into
hopeless variety of expression. An example of the thing referred to will
best explain my meaning. Take then the incident of our Lord's paying
tribute,--set down in St. Matt. xvii. 25, 26.
The received text exhibits,--'And when he [Peter] had entered ([Greek:
hote eisêlthen]) into the house, Jesus was beforehand with him, saying,
What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do earthly kings take toll or
tribute? of their sons or of strangers?' Here, for [Greek: hote
eisêlthen], Codex B (but no other uncial) substitutes [Greek: elthonta]:
Codex [Symbol: Aleph] (but no other) [Greek: eiselthonta]: Codex D (but
no other) [Greek: eiselthonti]: Codex C (but no other) [Greek: hote
êlthon]: while a fifth lost copy certainly contained [Greek:
eiselthontôn]; and a sixth, [Greek: elthontôn autôn]. A very fair
specimen this, be it remarked in passing, of the _concordia discors_
which prevails in the most ancient uncial copies[179]. How is all this
discrepancy to be accounted for?
The Evangelist proceeds,--'Peter saith unto Him ([Greek: Legei autô ho
Petros]), Of strangers.' These four words C retains, but continues--'Now
when he had said, Of strangers' ([Greek: Eipontos de autou, apo tôn
allotriôn]);--which unauthorized clause, all but the word [Greek:
autou], is found also in [Symbol: Aleph], but in no other uncial. On the
other hand, for [Greek: Legei autô ho Petros], [Symbol: Aleph] (alone of
uncials) substitutes [Greek: Ho de ephê]: and B (also alone of uncials)
substitutes [Greek: Eipontos de],--and then proceeds exactly like the
received text: while D merely omits [Greek: ho Petros]. Again I
ask,--How is all this discrepancy to be explained[180]?
As already hinted, I suspect that it was occasioned in the first
instance by the prevalence of harmonized Gospel narratives. In no more
loyal way can I account for the perplexing phenomenon already described,
which is of perpetual recurrence in such documents as Codexes B[Symbol:
Aleph]D, Cureton's Syriac, and copies of the Old Latin version. It is
well known that at a very remote period some eminent persons occupied
themselves in constructing such exhibitions of the Evangelical history:
and further, that these productions enjoyed great favour, and were in
general use. As for their contents,--the notion we form to ourselves of
a Diatessaron, is that it aspired to be a weaving of the fourfold Gospel
into one continuous narrative: and we suspect that in accomplishing this
object, the writer was by no means scrupulous about retaining the
precise words of the inspired original. He held himself at liberty, on
the contrary, (_a_) to omit what seemed to himself superfluous clauses:
(_b_) to introduce new incidents: (_c_) to supply picturesque details:
(_d_) to give a new turn to the expression: (_e_) to vary the
construction at pleasure: (_f_) even slightly to paraphrase. Compiled
after some such fashion as I have been describing, at a time too when
the preciousness of the inspired documents seems to have been but
imperfectly apprehended,--the works I speak of, recommended by their
graphic interest, and sanctioned by a mighty name, must have imposed
upon ordinary readers. Incautious owners of Codexes must have
transferred without scruple certain unauthorized readings to the margins
of their own copies. A calamitous partiality for the fabricated document
may have prevailed with some for whom copies were executed. Above all,
it is to be inferred that licentious and rash Editors of
Scripture,--among whom Origen may be regarded as a prime offender,--must
have deliberately introduced into their recensions many an unauthorized
gloss, and so given it an extended circulation.
Not that we would imply that permanent mischief has resulted to the
Deposit from the vagaries of individuals in the earliest age. The Divine
Author of Scripture hath abundantly provided for the safety of His Word
written. In the multitude of copies,--in Lectionaries,--in Versions,--in
citations by the Fathers, a sufficient safeguard against error hath been
erected. But then, of these multitudinous sources of protection we must
not be slow to avail ourselves impartially. The prejudice which would
erect Codexes B and [Symbol: Aleph] into an authority for the text of
the New Testament from which there shall be no appeal:--the
superstitious reverence which has grown up for one little cluster of
authorities, to the disparagement of all other evidence wheresoever
found; this, which is for ever landing critics in results which are
simply irrational and untenable, must be unconditionally abandoned, if
any real progress is to be made in this department of inquiry. But when
this has been done, men will begin to open their eyes to the fact that
the little handful of documents recently so much in favour, are, on the
contrary, the only surviving witnesses to corruptions of the Text which
the Church in her corporate capacity has long since deliberately
rejected. But to proceed.
[From the Diatessaron of Tatian and similar attempts to harmonize the
Gospels, corruption of a serious nature has ensued in some well-known
places, such as the transference of the piercing of the Lord's side from
St. John xix. 34 to St. Matt. xxvii. 49[181], and the omission of the
words 'and of an honeycomb' ([Greek: kai apo tou melissiou
kêriou][182]).]
Hence also, in Cureton's Syriac[183], the _patch-work_ supplement to St.
Matt. xxi. 9: viz.:--[Greek: polloi de] (St. Mark xi. 8) [Greek:
exêlthon eis hypantêsin autou. kai] (St. John xii. 13) [Greek: êrxanto
... chairontes ainein ton Theon ... peri pasôn hôn eidon] (St. Luke xix.
37). This self-evident fabrication, 'if it be not a part of the original
Aramaic of St. Matthew,' remarks Dr. Cureton, 'would appear to have been
supplied from the parallel passages of Luke and John conjointly.' How is
it that even a sense of humour did not preserve that eminent scholar
from hazarding the conjecture, that such a self-evident deflection of
his corrupt Syriac Codex from the course all but universally pursued is
a recovery of one more genuine utterance of the Holy Ghost?
FOOTNOTES:
[173] [Greek: Maria de heistêkei pros to mnêmeion klaiousa exô] (St.
John xx. 11). Comp. the expression [Greek: pros to phôs] in St. Luke
xxii. 56. Note, that the above is not offered as a revised translation;
but only to shew unlearned readers what the words of the original
exactly mean.
[174] Note, that in the sectional system of Eusebius _according to the
Greek_, the following places are brought together:--
(St. Matt. xxviii) (St. Mark xvi) (St. Luke xxiv) (St. John xx)
1-4. 2-5. 1-4. 1, 11, 12.
_According to the Syriac_:--
3, 4. 5. 3, 4, 5(1/2). 11, 12.
[175] Consider [Greek: ho de Petros heistêkei pros tê thyra exô] (St.
John xviii. 16). Has not this place, by the way, exerted an assimilating
influence over St. John xx. 11?
[176] Hesychius, _qu._ 51 (apud Cotelerii Eccl. Gr. Mon. iii. 43),
explains St. Mark's phrase [Greek: en tois dexiois] as follows:--[Greek:
dêlonoti tou exôterou spêlaiou].
[177] viii. 513.
[178] iv. 1079.
[179] Traditional Text, pp. 81-8.
[180] I am tempted to inquire,--By virtue of what verifying faculty do
Lachmann and Tregelles on the former occasion adopt the reading of
[Symbol: Aleph]; Tischendorf, Alford, W. and Hort, the reading of B? On
the second occasion, I venture to ask,--What enabled the Revisers, with
Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, to recognize in a
reading, which is the peculiar property of B, the genuine language of
the Holy Ghost? Is not a superstitious reverence for B and [Symbol:
Aleph] betraying for ever people into error?
[181] Revision Revised, p. 33.
[182] Traditional Text, Appendix I, pp. 244-252.
[183] The Lewis MS. is defective here.