CAUSES OF CORRUPTION CHIEFLY INTENTIONAL.
III. Attraction.
§ 1.
There exist not a few corrupt Readings,--and they have imposed largely
on many critics,--which, strange to relate, have arisen from nothing
else but the proneness of words standing side by side in a sentence to
be attracted into a likeness of ending,--whether in respect of
grammatical form or of sound; whereby sometimes the sense is made to
suffer grievously,--sometimes entirely to disappear. Let this be called
the error of Attraction. The phenomena of 'Assimilation' are entirely
distinct. A somewhat gross instance, which however has imposed on
learned critics, is furnished by the Revised Text and Version of St.
John vi. 71 and xiii. 26.
'Judas Iscariot' is a combination of appellatives with which every
Christian ear is even awfully familiar. The expression [Greek: Ioudas
Iskariôtês] is found in St. Matt. x. 4 and xxvi. 14: in St. Mark iii. 19
and xiv. 10: in St. Luke vi. 16, and in xxii. 31 with the express
statement added that Judas was so 'surnamed.' So far happily we are all
agreed. St. John's invariable practice is to designate the traitor, whom
he names four times, as 'Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon;'--jealous
doubtless for the honour of his brother Apostle, 'Jude ([Greek: Ioudas])
the brother of James[228]': and resolved that there shall be no mistake
about the traitor's identity. Who does not at once recall the
Evangelist's striking parenthesis in St. John xiv. 22,--'Judas (not
Iscariot)'? Accordingly, in St. John xiii. 2 the Revisers present us
with 'Judas Iscariot, Simon's son': and even in St. John xii. 4 they are
content to read 'Judas Iscariot.' But in the two places of St. John's
Gospel which remain to be noticed, viz. vi. 71 and xiii. 26, instead of
'Judas Iscariot the son of Simon' the Revisers require us henceforth to
read, 'Judas the son of Simon Iscariot.' And _why_? Only, I answer,
because--in place of [Greek: Ioudan Simônos IskariôTÊN] (in vi. 71) and
[Greek: Iouda Simônos IskariôTÊ] (in xiii. 26)--a little handful of
copies substitute on both occasions [Greek: IskariôTOU]. Need I go on?
Nothing else has evidently happened but that, through the oscitancy of
some very early scribe, the [Greek: IskariôTÊN], [Greek: IskariôTÊ],
have been attracted into concord with the immediately preceding genitive
[Greek: SImôNOS] ... So transparent a blunder would have scarcely
deserved a passing remark at our hands had it been suffered to
remain,--where such _bêtises_ are the rule and not the exception,--viz.
in the columns of Codexes B and [Symbol: Aleph]. But strange to say, not
only have the Revisers adopted this corrupt reading in the two passages
already mentioned, but they have not let so much as a hint fall that any
alteration whatsoever has been made by them in the inspired Text.
§ 2.
Another and a far graver case of 'Attraction' is found in Acts xx. 24.
St. Paul, in his address to the elders of Ephesus, refers to the
discouragements he has had to encounter. 'But none of these things move
me,' he grandly exclaims, 'neither count I my life dear unto myself, so
that I might finish my course with joy.' The Greek for this begins
[Greek: all' oudenos logon poioumai]: where some second or third century
copyist (misled by the preceding genitive) in place of [Greek: logoN]
writes [Greek: logoU]; with what calamitous consequence, has been found
largely explained elsewhere[229]. Happily, the error survives only in
Codd. B and C: and their character is already known by the readers of
this book and the Companion Volume. So much has been elsewhere offered
on this subject that I shall say no more about it here: but proceed to
present my reader with another and more famous instance of attraction.
St. Paul in a certain place (2 Cor. iii. 3) tells the Corinthians, in
allusion to the language of Exodus xxxi. 12, xxxiv. 1, that they are an
epistle not written on '_stony tables_ ([Greek: en plaxi lithinais]),'
but on '_fleshy tables_ of the heart ([Greek: en plaxi kardias
sarkinais]).' The one proper proof that this is what St. Paul actually
wrote, is not only (1) That the Copies largely preponderate in favour of
so exhibiting the place: but (2) That the Versions, with the single
exception of 'that abject slave of manuscripts the Philoxenian [or
Harkleian] Syriac,' are all on the same side: and lastly (3) That the
Fathers are as nearly as possible unanimous. Let the evidence for
[Greek: kardias] (unknown to Tischendorf and the rest) be produced in
detail:--
In the second century, Irenaeus[230],--the Old Latin,--the Peshitto.
In the third century, Origen seven times[231],--the Coptic version.
In the fourth century, the
Dialogus[232],--Didymus[233],--Basil[234],--Gregory Nyss.[235],--Marcus
the Monk[236],--Chrysostom in two places[237],--Nilus[238],--the
Vulgate,--and the Gothic versions.
In the fifth century, Cyril[239],--Isidorus[240],--Theodoret[241],--the
Armenian--and the Ethiopic versions.
In the seventh century, Victor, Bp. of Carthage addressing Theodorus
P.[242]
In the eighth century, J. Damascene[243] ... Besides, of the Latins,
Hilary[244],--Ambrose[245],--Optatus[246],--Jerome[247],--
Tichonius[248],--Augustine thirteen times[249],--Fulgentius[250], and
others[251] ... If this be not overwhelming evidence, may I be told what
_is_[252]?
But then it so happens that--attracted by the two datives between which
[Greek: kardias] stands, and tempted by the consequent jingle, a
surprising number of copies are found to exhibit the 'perfectly absurd'
and 'wholly unnatural reading[253],' [Greek: plaxi kardiAIS sarkinAIS].
And because (as might have been expected from their character)
A[254]B[Symbol: Aleph]CD[255] are all five of the number,--Lachmann,
Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort, one and all adopt and
advocate the awkward blunder[256]. [Greek: Kardiais] is also adopted by
the Revisers of 1881 without so much as a hint let fall in the margin
that the evidence is overwhelmingly against themselves and in favour of
the traditional Text of the Authorized Version[257].
FOOTNOTES:
[228] St. Luke vi. 16; Acts i. 13; St. Jude 1.
[229] Above, pp. 28-31.
[230] 753 _int_.
[231] ii. 843 c. Also _int_ ii. 96, 303; iv. 419, 489, 529, 558.
[232] _Ap_. Orig. i. 866 a,--interesting and emphatic testimony.
[233] Cord. Cat. in Ps. i. 272.
[234] i. 161 e. Cord. Cat. in Ps. i. 844.
[235] i. 682 ([Greek: ouk en plaxi lithinais ... all' en tô tês kardias
pyxiô]).
[236] Galland. viii. 40 b.
[237] vii. 2: x. 475.
[238] i. 29.
[239] i. 8: ii. 504: v^{2}. 65. (Aubert prints [Greek: kardias
sarkinês]. The published Concilia (iii. 140) exhibits [Greek: kardias
sarkinais]. Pusey, finding in one of his MSS. [Greek: all' en plaxi
kardias lithinais] (sic), prints [Greek: kardias sarkinais].) _Ap_. Mai,
iii. 89, 90.
[240] 299.
[241] iii. 302.
[242] Concil. vi. 154.
[243] ii. 129.
[244] 344.
[245] i. 762: ii. 668, 1380.
[246] Galland. v. 505.
[247] vi. 609.
[248] Galland. viii. 742 dis.
[249] i. 672: ii. 49: iii^{1}. 472, 560: iv. 1302: v. 743-4: viii. 311:
x. 98, 101, 104, 107, 110.
[250] Galland. xi. 248.
[251] Ps.-Ambrose, ii. 176.
[252] Yet strange to say, Tischendorf claims the support of Didymus and
Theodoret for [Greek: kardiais], on the ground that in the course of
their expository remarks they contrast [Greek: kardiai sarkinai] (or
[Greek: logikai]) with [Greek: plakes lithinai]: as if it were not the
word [Greek: plaxi] which alone occasions difficulty. Again, Tischendorf
enumerates Cod. E (Paul) among his authorities. Had he then forgotten
that E is '_nothing better than a transcript of Cod. D_ (Claromontanus),
made by some ignorant person'? that 'the Greek _is manifestly
worthless_, and that it should long since have been removed from the
list of authorities'? [Scrivener's Introd., 4th edit., i. 177. See also
Traditional Text, p. 65, and note. Tischendorf is frequently inaccurate
in his references to the fathers.]
[253] Scrivener's Introd. ii. 254.
[254] A in the Epistles differs from A in the Gospels.
[255] Besides GLP and the following cursives,--29, 30, 44, 45, 46, 47,
48, 55, 74, 104, 106, 109, 112, 113, 115, 137, 219, 221, 238, 252, 255,
257, 262, 277.
[256] That I may not be accused of suppressing what is to be said on the
other side, let it be here added that the sum of the adverse evidence
(besides the testimony of many MSS.) is the Harkleian version:--the
doubtful testimony of Eusebius (for, though Valerius reads [Greek:
kardias], the MSS. largely preponderate which read [Greek: kardiais] in
H. E. Mart. Pal. cxiii. § 6. See Burton's ed. p. 637):--Cyril in one
place, as explained above:--and lastly, a quotation from Chrysostom on
the Maccabees, given in Cramer's Catena, vii. 595 ([Greek: en plaxi
kardiais sarkinais]), which reappears at the end of eight lines without
the word [Greek: plaxi].
[257] [The papers on Assimilation and Attraction were left by the Dean
in the same portfolio. No doubt he would have separated them, if he had
lived to complete his work, and amplified his treatment of the latter,
for the materials under that head were scanty.--For 2 Cor. iii. 3, see
also a note of my own to p. 65 of The Traditional Text.]