CAUSES OF CORRUPTION CHIEFLY INTENTIONAL.
V. Transposition, VI. Substitution, and VII. Addition.
§ 1.
One of the most prolific sources of Corrupt Readings, is Transposition,
or the arbitrary inversion of the order of the sacred words,--generally
in the subordinate clauses of a sentence. The extent to which this
prevails in Codexes of the type of B[Symbol: Aleph]CD passes belief. It
is not merely the occasional writing of [Greek: tauta panta] for [Greek:
panta tauta],--or [Greek: ho laos outos] for [Greek: outos ho laos], to
which allusion is now made: for if that were all, the phenomenon would
admit of loyal explanation and excuse. But what I speak of is a
systematic putting to wrong of the inspired words throughout the entire
Codex; an operation which was evidently regarded in certain quarters as
a lawful exercise of critical ingenuity,--perhaps was looked upon as an
elegant expedient to be adopted for improving the style of the original
without materially interfering with the sense.
Let me before going further lay before the reader a few specimens of
Transposition.
Take for example St. Mark i. 5,--[Greek: kai ebaptizonto pantes],--is
unreasonably turned into [Greek: pantes kai ebaptizonto]; whereby the
meaning of the Evangelical record becomes changed, for [Greek: pantes]
is now made to agree with [Greek: Hierosolumitai], and the Evangelist is
represented as making the very strong assertion that _all_ the people of
Jerusalem came to St. John and were baptized. This is the private
property of BDL[Symbol: Delta].
And sometimes I find short clauses added which I prefer to ascribe to
the misplaced critical assiduity of ancient Critics. Confessedly
spurious, these accretions to the genuine text often bear traces of
pious intelligence, and occasionally of considerable ability. I do not
suppose that they 'crept in' from the margin: but that they were
inserted by men who entirely failed to realize the wrongness of what
they did,--the mischievous consequences which might possibly ensue from
their well-meant endeavours to improve the work of the Holy Ghost.
[Take again St. Mark ii. 3, in which the order in [Greek: pros auton
paralytikon pherontes],--is changed by [Symbol: Aleph]BL into [Greek:
pherontes pros auton paralytikon]. A few words are needed to explain to
those who have not carefully examined the passage the effect of this
apparently slight alteration. Our Lord was in a house at Capernaum with
a thick crowd of people around Him: there was no room even at the door.
Whilst He was there teaching, a company of people come to Him ([Greek:
erchontai pros auton]), four of the party carrying a paralytic on a bed.
When they arrive at the house, a few of the company, enough to represent
the whole, force their way in and reach Him: but on looking back they
see that the rest are unable to bring the paralytic near to Him ([Greek:
prosengisai autô][338]). Upon which they all go out and uncover the
roof, take up the sick man on his bed, and the rest of the familiar
story unfolds itself. Some officious scribe wished to remove all
antiquity arising from the separation of [Greek: paralytikon] from
[Greek: airomenon] which agrees with it, and transposed [Greek:
pherontes] to the verb it is attached to, thus clumsily excluding the
exquisite hint, clear enough to those who can read between the lines,
that in the ineffectual attempt to bring in the paralytic only some of
the company reached our Lord's Presence. Of course the scribe in
question found followers in [Symbol: Aleph]BL.]
It will be seen therefore that some cases of transposition are of a kind
which is without excuse and inadmissible. Such transposition consists in
drawing back a word which occurs further on, but is thus introduced into
a new context, and gives a new sense. It seems to be assumed that since
the words are all there, so long as they be preserved, their exact
collocation is of no moment. Transpositions of that kind, to speak
plainly, are important only as affording conclusive proof that such
copies as B[Symbol: Aleph]D preserve a text which has undergone a sort
of critical treatment which is so obviously indefensible that the
Codexes themselves, however interesting as monuments of a primitive
age,--however valuable commercially and to be prized by learned and
unlearned alike for their unique importance,--are yet to be prized
chiefly as beacon-lights preserved by a watchful Providence to warn
every voyaging bark against making shipwreck on a shore already strewn
with wrecks[339].
Transposition may sometimes be as conveniently illustrated in English as
in Greek. St. Luke relates (Acts ii. 45, 46) that the first believers
sold their goods 'and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And
they, continuing daily,' &c. For this, Cod. D reads, 'and parted them
daily to all men as every man had need. And they continued in the
temple.'
§ 2.
It is difficult to divine for what possible reason most of these
transpositions were made. On countless occasions they do not in the
least affect the sense. Often, they are incapable of being idiomatically
represented, in English. Generally speaking, they are of no manner of
importance, except as tokens of the licence which was claimed by
disciples, as I suspect, of the Alexandrian school [or exercised
unintentionally by careless or ignorant Western copyists]. But there
arise occasions when we cannot afford to be so trifled with. An
important change in the meaning of a sentence is sometimes effected by
transposing its clauses; and on one occasion, as I venture to think, the
prophetic intention of the Speaker is obscured in consequence. I allude
to St. Luke xiii. 9, where under the figure of a barren fig-tree, our
Lord hints at what is to befall the Jewish people, because in the fourth
year of His Ministry it remained unfruitful. 'Lo, these three years,'
(saith He to the dresser of His Vineyard), 'come I seeking fruit on this
fig-tree, and find none; cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?'
'Spare it for this year also' (is the rejoinder), 'and if it bear
fruit,--well: but if not, next year thou shalt cut it down.' But on the
strength of [Symbol: Aleph]BLT^{w}, some recent Critics would have us
read,--'And if it bear fruit next year,--well: but if not, thou shalt
cut it down':--which clearly would add a year to the season of the
probation of the Jewish race. The limit assigned in the genuine text is
the fourth year: in the corrupt text of [Symbol: Aleph]BLT^{w}, two bad
Cursives, and the two chief Egyptian versions, this period becomes
extended to the fifth.
To reason about such transpositions of words, a wearisome proceeding at
best, soon degenerates into the veriest trifling. Sometimes, the order
of the words is really immaterial to the sense. Even when a different
shade of meaning is the result of a different collocation, that will
seem the better order to one man which seems not to be so to another.
The best order of course is that which most accurately exhibits the
Author's precise shade of meaning: but of this the Author is probably
the only competent judge. On our side, an appeal to actual evidence is
obviously the only resource: since in no other way can we reasonably
expect to ascertain what was the order of the words in the original
document. And surely such an appeal can be attended with only one
result: viz. the unconditional rejection of the peculiar and often
varying order advocated by the very few Codexes,--a cordial acceptance
of the order exhibited by every document in the world besides.
I will content myself with inviting attention to one or two samples of
my meaning. It has been made a question whether St. Luke (xxiv. 7)
wrote,--[Greek: legôn, Hoti dei ton huion tou anthrôpou paradothênai],
as all the MSS. in the world but four, all the Versions, and all the
available Fathers'[340] evidence from A.D. 150 downwards attest: or
whether he wrote,--[Greek: legôn ton huion tou anthrôpou hoti dei
paradothênai], as [Symbol: Aleph]BCL,--and those four documents
only--would have us believe? [The point which first strikes a scholar is
that there is in this reading a familiar classicism which is alien to
the style of the Gospels, and which may be a symptom of an attempt on
the part of some early critic who was seeking to bring them into
agreement with ancient Greek models.] But surely also it is even obvious
that the correspondence of those four Codexes in such a particular as
this must needs be the result of their having derived the reading from
one and the same original. On the contrary, the agreement of all the
rest in a trifling matter of detail like the present can be accounted
for in only one way, viz., by presuming that they also have all been
derived through various lines of descent from a single document: but
_that_ document the autograph of the Evangelist. [For the great number
and variety of them necessitates their having been derived through
various lines of descent. Indeed, they must have the notes of number,
variety, as well as continuity, and weight also.]
§ 3.
On countless occasions doubtless, it is very difficult--perhaps
impossible--to determine, apart from external evidence, which
collocation of two or more words is the true one, whether e.g. [Greek:
echei zôên] for instance or [Greek: zôên echei][341],--[Greek: êgerthê
eutheôs] or [Greek: eutheôs êgerthê][342],--[Greek: chôlous,
typhlous]--or [Greek: typhlous, chôlous][343],--shall be preferred. The
burden of proof rests evidently with innovators on Traditional use.
Obvious at the same time is it to foresee that if a man sits down before
the Gospel with the deliberate intention of improving the style of the
Evangelists by transposing their words on an average of seven (B), eight
([Symbol: Aleph]), or twelve (D) times in every page, he is safe to
convict himself of folly in repeated instances, long before he has
reached the end of his task. Thus, when the scribe of [Symbol: Aleph],
in place of [Greek: exousian edôken autô kai krisin poiein][344],
presents us with [Greek: kai krisin edôken autô exousian poiein], we
hesitate not to say that he has written nonsense[345]. And when BD
instead of [Greek: eisi tines tôn ôde hestêkotôn] exhibit [Greek: eise
tôn ôde tôn hestêkotôn], we cannot but conclude that the credit of those
two MSS. must be so far lowered in the eyes of every one who with true
appreciation of the niceties of Greek scholarship observes what has been
done.
[This characteristic of the old uncials is now commended to the
attention of students, who will find in the folios of those documents
plenty of instances for examination. Most of the cases of Transposition
are petty enough, whilst some, as the specimens already presented to the
reader indicate, constitute blots not favourable to the general
reputation of the copies on which they are found. Indeed, they are so
frequent that they have grown to be a very habit, and must have
propagated themselves. For it is in this secondary character rather than
in any first intention, so to speak, that Transpositions, together with
Omissions and Substitutions and Additions, have become to some extent
independent causes of corruption. Originally produced by other forces,
they have acquired a power of extension in themselves.
It is hoped that the passages already quoted may be found sufficient to
exhibit the character of the large class of instances in which the pure
Text of the original Autographs has been corrupted by Transposition.
That it has been so corrupted, is proved by the evidence which is
generally overpowering in each case. There has clearly been much
intentional perversion: carelessness also and ignorance of Greek
combined with inveterate inaccuracy, characteristics especially of
Western corruption as may be seen in Codex D and the Old Latin versions,
must have had their due share in the evil work. The result has been
found in constant slurs upon the sacred pages, lessening the beauty and
often perverting the sense,--a source of sorrow to the keen scholar and
reverent Christian, and reiterated indignity done in wantonness or
heedlessness to the pure and easy flow of the Holy Books.]
§ 4.
[All the Corruption in the Sacred Text may be classed under four heads,
viz. Omission, Transposition, Substitution, and Addition. We are
entirely aware that, in the arrangement adopted in this Volume for
purposes of convenience, Scientific Method has been neglected. The
inevitable result must be that passages are capable of being classed
under more heads than one. But Logical exactness is of less practical
value than a complete and suitable treatment of the corrupted passages
that actually occur in the four Gospels.
It seems therefore needless to supply with a scrupulousness that might
bore our readers a disquisition upon Substitution which has not forced
itself into a place amongst Dean Burgon's papers, although it is found
in a fragmentary plan of this part of the treatise. Substituted forms or
words or phrases, such as [Greek: OS] ([Greek: hos]) for [Greek: THS]
([Greek: Theos])[346] [Greek: êporei] for [Greek: epoiei] (St. Mark vi.
20), or [Greek: ouk oidate dokimazein] for [Greek: dokimazete] (St. Luke
xii. 56), have their own special causes of substitution, and are
naturally and best considered under the cause which in each case gave
them birth.
Yet the class of Substitutions is a large one, if Modifications, as they
well may be, are added to it[347]. It will be readily concluded that
some substitutions are serious, some of less importance, and many
trivial. Of the more important class, the reading of [Greek:
hamartêmatos] for [Greek: kriseôs] (St. Mark iii. 29) which the Revisers
have adopted in compliance with [Symbol: Aleph]BL[Symbol: Delta] and
three Cursives, is a specimen. It is true that D reads [Greek:
hamartias] supported by the first corrector of C, and three of the
Ferrar group (13, 69, 346): and that the change adopted is supported by
the Old Latin versions except f, the Vulgate, Bohairic, Armenian,
Gothic, Lewis, and Saxon. But the opposition which favours [Greek:
kriseôs] is made up of A, C under the first reading and the second
correction, [Symbol: Phi][Symbol: Sigma] and eleven other Uncials, the
great bulk of the Cursives, f, Peshitto, and Harkleian, and is superior
in strength. The internal evidence is also in favour of the Traditional
reading, both as regards the usage of [Greek: enochos], and the natural
meaning given by [Greek: kriseôs]. [Greek: Hamartêmatos] has clearly
crept in from ver. 28. Other instances of Substitution may be found in
the well-known St. Luke xxiii. 45 ([Greek: tou hêliou eklipontos]), St.
Matt. xi. 27 ([Greek: boulêtai apokalypsai]), St. Matt. xxvii. 34
([Greek: oinon] for [Greek: oxos]), St. Mark i. 2 ([Greek: Hêsaia] for
[Greek: tois prophêtais]), St. John i. 18 ([Greek: ho Monogenês Theos]
being a substitution made by heretics for [Greek: ho Monogenês Huios]),
St. Mark vii. 31 ([Greek: dia Sidônos] for [Greek: kai Sidônos]). These
instances may perhaps suffice: many more may suggest themselves to
intelligent readers. Though most are trivial, their cumulative force is
extremely formidable. Many of these changes arose from various causes
which are described in many other places in this book.]
§ 5.
[The smallest of the four Classes, which upon a pure survey of the
outward form divide among themselves the surface of the entire field of
Corruption, is that of Additions[348]. And the reason of their smallness
of number is discoverable at once. Whilst it is but too easy for scribes
or those who have a love of criticism to omit words and passages under
all circumstances, or even to vary the order, or to use another word or
form instead of the right one, to insert anything into the sacred Text
which does not proclaim too glaringly its own unfitness--in a word, to
invent happily--is plainly a matter of much greater difficulty.
Therefore to increase the Class of Insertions or Additions or
Interpolations, so that it should exceed the Class of Omissions, is to
go counter to the natural action of human forces. There is no difficulty
in leaving out large numbers of the Sacred Words: but there is much
difficulty in placing in the midst of them human words, possessed of
such a character and clothed in such an uniform, as not to betray to
keen observation their earthly origin.
A few examples will set this truth in clearer light. It is remarkable
that efforts at interpolation occur most copiously amongst the books of
those who are least fitted to make them. We naturally look amongst the
representatives of the Western school where Greek was less understood
than in the East where Greek acumen was imperfectly represented by Latin
activity, and where translation into Latin and retranslation into Greek
was a prolific cause of corruption. Take then the following passage from
the Codex D (St. Luke vi. 4):--
'On the same day He beheld a certain man working on the sabbath, and
said to him, "Man, blessed art thou if thou knowest what thou doest; but
if thou knowest not, thou art cursed and a transgressor of the law."'
And another from the Curetonian Syriac (St. Matt. xx. 28), which occurs
under a worse form in D.
'But seek ye from little to become greater, and not from greater to
become less. When ye are invited to supper in a house, sit not down in
the best place, lest some one come who is more honourable than thou, and
the lord of the supper say to thee, "Go down below," and thou be ashamed
in the presence of them that have sat down. But if thou sit down in the
lower place, and one who is inferior to thee come in, the lord also of
the supper will say to thee, "Come near, and come up, and sit down," and
thou shalt have greater honour in the presence of them that have sat
down.'
Who does not see that there is in these two passages no real 'ring of
genuineness'?
Take next some instances of lesser insertions.]
§ 6.
Conspicuous beyond all things in the Centurion of Capernaum (St. Matt.
viii. 13) was his faith. It occasioned wonder even in the Son of Man. Do
we not, in the significant statement, that when they who had been sent
returned to the house, 'they found the servant whole that had been
sick[349],' recognize by implication the assurance that the Centurion,
because he needed no such confirmation of his belief, went _not_ with
them; but enjoyed the twofold blessedness of remaining with Christ, and
of believing without seeing? I think so. Be this however as it may,
[Symbol: Aleph]CEMUX besides about fifty cursives, append to St. Matt.
viii. 13 the clearly apocryphal statement, 'And the Centurion returning
to his house in that same hour found the servant whole.' It does not
improve the matter to find that Eusebius[350], besides the Harkleian and
the Ethiopic versions, recognize the same appendix. We are thankful,
that no one yet has been found to advocate the adoption of this patent
accretion to the inspired text. Its origin is not far to seek. I presume
it was inserted in order to give a kind of finish to the story[351].
[Another and that a most remarkable Addition may be found in St. Matt.
xxiv. 36, into which the words [Greek: oude ho Huios], 'neither the Son'
have been transferred from St. Mark xiii. 32 in compliance with a wholly
insufficient body of authorities. Lachmann was the leader in this
proceeding, and he has been followed by Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort,
and the Revisers. The latter body add in their margin, 'Many
authorities, some ancient, omit _neither the Son_.' How inadequate to
the facts of the case this description is, will be seen when the
authorities are enumerated. But first of those who have been regarded by
the majority of the Revisers as the disposers of their decision,
according to the information supplied by Tischendorf.
They are (_a_) of Uncials [Symbol: Aleph] (in the first reading and as
re-corrected in the seventh century) BD; (_b_) five Cursives (for a
present of 346 may be freely made to Tischendorf); (_c_) ten Old Latin
copies also the Aureus (Words.), some of the Vulgate (four according to
Wordsworth), the Palestinian, Ethiopic, Armenian; (_d_) Origen (Lat.
iii. 874), Hilary (733^{a}), Cyril Alex. (Mai Nova Pp. Bibliotheca,
481), Ambrose (i. 1478^{f}). But Irenaeus (Lat. i. 386), Cyril (Zach.
800), Chrysostom (ad locum) seem to quote from St. Mark. So too, as
Tischendorf admits, Amphilochius.
On the other hand we have, (_a_) the chief corrector of [Symbol:
Aleph](c^{a})[Symbol: Phi][Symbol: Sigma] with thirteen other Uncials
and the Greek MSS. of Adamantius and Pierius mentioned by Jerome[352];
(_b_) all the Cursives, as far as is known (except the aforenamed);
(_c_) the Vulgate, with the Peshitto, Harkletan, Lewis, Bohairic, and
the Sahidic; (_d_) Jerome (in the place just now quoted), St. Basil who
contrasts the text of St. Matthew with that of St. Mark, Didymus, who is
also express in declaring that the three words in dispute are not found
in St. Matthew (Trin. 195), St. John Damascene (ii. 346), Apollonius
Philosophus (Galland. ix. 247), Euthymius Zigabenus (in loc), Paulinus
(iii. 12), St. Ambrose (ii. 656^{a}), and Anastasius Sinaita (Migne,
lxxxix. 941).
Theophylact (i. 133), Hesychius Presb. (Migne, lxiii. 142) Eusebius
(Galland. ix. 580), Facundus Herm. (Galland. xi. 782), Athanasius (ii.
660), quote the words as from the Gospel without reference, and may
therefore refer to St. Mark. Phoebadius (Galland. v. 251), though quoted
against the Addition by Tischendorf, is doubtful.
On which side the balance of evidence inclines, our readers will judge.
But at least they cannot surely justify the assertion made by the
majority of the Revisers, that the Addition is opposed only by 'many
authorities, some ancient,' or at any rate that this is a fair and
adequate description of the evidence opposed to their decision.
An instance occurs in St. Mark iii. 16 which illustrates the
carelessness and tastelessness of the handful of authorities to which it
pleases many critics to attribute ruling authority. In the fourteenth
verse, it had been already stated that our Lord 'ordained twelve,'
[Greek: kai epoiêse dôdeka]; but because [Symbol: Aleph]B[Symbol: Delta]
and C (which was corrected in the ninth century with a MS. of the
Ethiopic) reiterate these words two verses further on, Tischendorf with
Westcott and Hort assume that it is necessary to repeat what has been so
recently told. Meanwhile eighteen other uncials (including A[Symbol:
Phi][Symbol: Sigma] and the third hand of C); nearly all the Cursives;
the Old Latin, Vulgate, Peshitto, Lewis, Harkleian, Gothic, Armenian,
and the other MSS. of the Ethiopic omit them. It is plainly unnecessary
to strengthen such an opposition by researches in the pages of the
Fathers.
Explanation has been already given, how the introductions to Lections,
and other Liturgical formulae, have been added by insertion to the Text
in various places. Thus [Greek: ho Iêsous] has often been inserted, and
in some places remains wrongly (in the opinion of Dean Burgon) in the
pages of the Received Text. The three most important additions to the
Received Text occur, as Dean Burgon thought, in St. Matt. vi. 18, where
[Greek: en tô phanerô] has crept in from v. 6 against the testimony of a
large majority both of Uncial and of Cursive MSS.: in St. Matt. xxv. 13,
where the clause [Greek: en hê ho huios tou anthrôpou erchetai] seemed
to him to be condemned by a superior weight of authority: and in St.
Matt. xxvii. 35, where the quotation ([Greek: hina plêrôthê ... ebalon
klêron]) must be taken for similar reasons to have been originally a
gloss.]
FOOTNOTES:
[338] [Greek: prosengisai] is transitive here, like [Greek: engizô] in
Gen. xlviii. 10, 13: 2 Kings iv. 6: Isaiah xlvi. 13.
[339] The following are the numbers of Transpositions supplied by B,
[Symbol: Aleph], and D in the Gospels:--B, 2,098: [Symbol: Aleph],
2,299: D, 3,471. See Revision Revised, pp. 12, 13.
[340] Marcion (Epiph. i. 317): Eusebius (Mai, iv. 266): Epiphanius (i.
348): Cyril (Mai, ii. 438): John Thess. (Gall. xiii. 188).
[341] St. John v. 26, in [Symbol: Aleph]
[342] St. Mark ii. 12, in D.
[343] St. Luke xiv. 13, in [Symbol: Aleph]B.
[344] St. John v. 27.
[345] 'Nec aliter' (says Tischendorf) 'Tertull.' (Prax. 21),--'_et
judicium dedit illi facere in potestate_.' But this (begging the learned
critic's pardon) is quite a different thing.
[346] See the very learned, ingenious, and satisfactory disquisition in
The Revision Revised, pp. 424-501.
[347] The numbers are:--
B, substitutions, 935; modifications, 1,132; total, 2,067.
[Symbol: Aleph], " 1,114; " 1,265; " 2,379.
D, " 2,121; " 1,772; " 3,893.
Revision Revised, pp. 12, 13.
[348] B has 536 words added in the Gospels: [Symbol: Aleph], 839: D,
2,213. Revision Revised, pp. 12, 13. The interpolations of D are
notorious.
[349] St. Luke vii. 10.
[350] Theoph. p. 212.
[351] An opposite fate, strange to say, has attended a short clause in
the same narrative, which however is even worse authenticated. Instead
of [Greek: oude en tô Israêl tosautên pistin euron] (St. Matt. viii.
10), we are invited henceforth to read [Greek: par' oudeni tosautên
pistin en tô Israêl euron];--a tame and tasteless gloss, witnessed to by
only B, and five cursives,--but having no other effect, if it should
chance to be inserted, than to mar and obscure the Divine utterance.
For when our Saviour declares 'Not even in Israel have I found so great
faith,' He is clearly contrasting this proficiency of an earnest Gentile
against whatever of a like nature He had experienced in His dealing with
the Jewish people; and declaring the result. He is contrasting Jacob's
descendants, the heirs of so many lofty privileges, with this Gentile
soldier: their spiritual attainments with his; and assigning the palm to
him. Substitute 'With no one in Israel have I found so great faith,' and
the contrast disappears. Nothing else is predicated but a greater
measure of faith in one man than in any other. The author of this feeble
attempt to improve upon St. Matthew's Gospel is found to have also tried
his hand on the parallel place in St. Luke, but with even inferior
success: for there his misdirected efforts survive only in certain
copies of the Old Latin. Ambrose notices his officiousness, remarking
that it yields an intelligible sense; but that, 'juxta Graecos,' the
place is to be read differently (i. 1376.)
It is notorious that a few copies of the Old Latin (Augustine _once_
(iv. 322), though he quotes the place nearly twenty times in the usual
way) and the Egyptian versions exhibit the same depravation. Cyril
habitually employed an Evangelium which was disfigured in the same way
(iii. 833, also Opp. v. 544, ed. Pusey.). But are we out of such
materials as these to set about reconstructing the text of Scripture?
[352] 'In quibusdam Latinis codicibus additum est, _neque Filius_: quum
in Graecis, et maxime Adamantii et Pierii exemplaribus hoc non habeatur
adscriptum. Sed quia in nonnullis legitur, disserendum videtur.' Hier.
vii. 199 a. 'Gaudet Arius et Eunomius, quasi ignorantia magistri gloria
discipulorum sit, et dicunt:--"Non potest aequalis esse qui novit et qui
ignorat."' Ibid. 6.
In vi. 919, we may quote from St. Mark.