CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ENGLISH COLL,ECTION THK GIKT OK JAMES MORGAN HART PROFESSOK OK ENGUSH a.wH-qis DATE DUE PRINTED (N U.S.A. 3 1924 092 355 118 8 Cornell University Library The original of this bool< is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240923551 1 A PLAIN INTRODUCTION CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 0;«;fera HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY C fry. % iL-cCij h. /L^ A PLAIN INTRODUCTION TO THE CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT FOR THE USE OF BIBLICAL STUDENTS BY THE LATE FREDERICK HENRY AMBROSE SCRIVENER M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. PREBENDARY OF EXETER, VICAR OF HENDON FOURTH EDITION, EDITED BY THE REV. EDWARD MILLER, M.A. FORMERLY FELLOW AND TUTOR OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD VOL. II £onbon GEORGE BELL & SONS, York Street, Covent Garden AND NEW YORK: 66 Fifth Avenue CAMBRIDGE: Deighton Bell & Co. 1894 e.v. ft.s^'49ls" In templo Dei offert unusquisque quod potest: alii aurum, argentum, et lapides pretiosos : alii byssum et purpuram et coccum offerunt et hyacinthum. Nobiscum bene agitur, si obtulerlmus pelles et caprarum pilos. Et tamen Apostolus contemtibiliora nostra magis necessaria judicat. HiERONYMi Prologus Galeaius. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGK ANCIENT TEESIONS 1 CHAPTER II. SYEIAC VEESIONS 6 1. The Peshitto. 2. The Curetonian. 3. The Harkleian or Philox- enian. 4. The Palestinian or Jerusalem. 5. The Karkaphensian or Syriac Massorah. Parallel Renderings. CHAPTER III. LATIN VEESIONS . • . .41 1. Old Latin—Old Latin Manuscripts. 2. Vulgate —^Vulgate Manu- scripts. CHAPTER IV. B&TPTIAN pE COPTIC VEESIONS 91 1. Coptic Versions and Dialects. 2. Bohairio Version—Manuscripts. 3. Sahidic (or Thebaic) Version—Manuscripts. 4. Fayoumic. 5. Middle- Egyptian or Lower Sahidic. 6. Akhmimic, CHAPTER V. THE OTHEE VEESIONS OT' THE NEW TESTAMENT . .145 1. Gothic. 2. Armenian. 3. Ethiopic. 4. Georgian. 5. Slavonic. 6. Arabic. 7. Anglo-Saxon. 8. Prankish. 9. Persic. CHAPTER VI. QUOTATIONS EEOM THE FATHEES 167 Value of Patristic testimony ; list of Ecclesiastical writers. CHAPTER VII. EABLY FEINTED EDITIONS 175 1. Complutensian Polyglott. 2. Erasmus. 3. Aldus. 4. Stephen. 5. Beza. 6. Elzevir. ; Vi CONTENTS. CHAPTEK VII {continued). PAQE CEITICAL EDITIONS ......• 196 T. D. 1. Stephen. 2. Couroelles. 3. Pell. 4. Mill. 5. G. D. M. (Gerhard von Masstricht). 6. Bentley. 7. Mace. 8. Bengel. 9. J. J. Seholz. Wetstein. 10. Matthaei —Alter. 11. Birch. 12. Grieabach. 13. 14. Lachmann. 15. Tischendorf. 16. Tregelles. 17. Westcott and Hort. 18. Revisers' text. CHAPTER VIII. INTEENAL EVIDENCE 244 Seven Canons. CHAPTEK IX. HISTORY OF THE TEXT ........ 257 Second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries ; theories of Recensions. CHAPTER X. RECENT VIEWS OF COMPARATIVE CEITICISM 274 Nature of comparative criticism ; School of Lachmann unsound Horfs theory examined and condemned ; true principles. APPENDIX. Illustrative passages 302 CHAPTER XI, CHARACTER OF THE DIALECT OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT . 312 CHAPTER XII. APPLICATION OP PRINCIPLES TO SELECT PASSAGES: First Series, gospels ........ 321 Second Series, acts ........ 368 Third Series. ST. patjl ....... 379 Fourth Series, catholic epistles . .397 Fifth Series, apocalypse 409 appendix a. syriac lectionaeies 413 B. additional . „ BOHAIEIC manuscripts . .414 INDEX I. OP passages treated 417 INDEX II. OF subjects 419 ADDENDA ET COEEIGENDA. Page 167, 1. 16. I am oonvineed that it is only just measure to a book, which from a strong prejudice is not known nearly as much amongst Textualists as its great merit deserves, to draw more attention to ' The Revision Revised ' by the late Dean Burgon. Those who have really studied it, to whichever school they belong, know how it teems with suggestion all through its striking pages. The present book owes a vast debt to him. P. 248, 11. 8, 9 from bottom, /or Sir Edmund Beckett read Lord Grimthorpe. Some remains upon sacred Greek MSS. by Dr. Scrivener have been just published under the name of ' Adversaria Critica Sacra,' Cambridge : Uni- versity Press. Reference has been made in this edition to some of the proof- sheets which were sent to the Editor. Vol. I. Appendix A. INTRODUCTION TO THE CRITICISM OF THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. CHAPTER I. ANCIENT VEESIONS. 1. 'PHE facts stated in the preceding volume have led us to believe that no extant manuscript of the Greek Testament yet discovered is older than the fourth century, and that those written as early as the sixth century are both few in number, and (with one notable exception) contain but incomplete por- , tions, for the most part very small portions, of the sacred volume. When to these considerations we add the well- known circumstance that the most ancient codices vary widely and perpetually from the commonly received text and from each other, it becomes desirable for us to obtain, if possible, some evidence as to the character of those copies of the New Tes- tament which were used by the primitive Christians in times anterior to the date of the most venerable now preserved. Such sources of information, though of a more indirect and precarious kind than manuscripts of the original can supply, are open to us in the Versions of Holy Scripture, made at the remotest period in the history of the Church, for the use of VOL. II. B ; 2 ANCIENT VERSIONS. com- believers whose native tongue was not Greek. After the the New Testament, it is evident position of the writings of ^ were that the Church was in possession of Sacred Books which members, of the utmost value, both to those who were already real and in the conversion of such as had not yet come to the knowledge of the Faith. The nearness of Syria to Judea, and the the growth of the Church at Antioch and Damascus in earliest days, must have produced a demand for a rendering condition of most into the Syriac languages ; and the bilingual of the Eoman Empire must have entailed a constant desire amongst vast multitudes to read in their own tongue a veri- fication of the truths taught them. Accordingly translations, certainly of the New and probably also of the Old Testament, were executed not later than the second century in the Syriac and Latin languages, and, so far as their present state enables us to judge of the documents from which they were rendered, they represent to us a modification of the inspired text which existed within a century of the death of the Apostles. Later on, the influence of Alexandria opened the districts to the south and gave birth to the Coptic versions. And about the time of the acceptance of the Christian Keligion by the Empire a further impetus was given, and the Vulgate and the Gothic and Ethiopic versions were soon made, followed by others according as the demand arose. Lideed, the fact that versions as a class go much further back than MSS., constitutes one of the chiefest points of their impor- tance in Textual Criticism ; since the range of the ancient versions may be roughly estimated as reaching from the second to the tenth century, whereas the period of extant MSS. did not com- mence till the fourth century was well advanced, and were con- tinued into the sixteenth. Their respective ages, too, are actually known, and do not rest upon probabilities, as in the first kind of evidence. They are also generally authorized translations, made either by a body of men, or by one eminent authority whose work was adopted amongst the people for whose use the Holy Scriptures had been translated. And they probably repre- sented, either many MSS., or a small body of accepted MSS. On the other hand, versions as evidence are not without their special drawbacks. It may be found as difficult to arrive at the primitive text of a version, as of the Greek original itself — ANCIENT VERSIONS. / 3 whether from variations in the different copies, or from suspi- cions of subsequent correction. Besides this, some are secondary- versions, being derived not from the Greek, but from some ver- sion of the Greek. Again, some are ' sense-translations ^,' rather than word-renderings, and it is in many cases difficult to infer their real verdict. Of course, none but an expert, such as Dr. S. C. Malan, or the Several revisers of the succeeding chapters of this edition, can pronounce upon the character of the verdict of a version in question. It will be seen then that versions by themselves cannot be taken to establish any' reading, because manuscripts are necessarily first authorities, and there is no lack of abundance in such testimony. Yet they confirm, or help to decide, the con- clusions or the leanings of manuscriptal evidence : and taken in connexion with other witnesses, they have much independent force, varying of course according to the character of the version or versions, and the nature and extent of their agreement. In this respect they possess great importance. The experience of recent years has shown that it is mis- leading to construct classes of versions in regard to their relative importance. Fuller knowledge casts aside, and often with contumely, such adventitious helps. Eeaders are there- fore referred for information upon each version to the chapter or section which is devoted to it, and are recommended to gather their apprehensions of the several values of those versions from the facts recorded therein, and from use of them in the various passages of Holy Scripture where they are cited. But the following is a list of the chief versions of the New Testament which were made before the introduction of printing, and a few handposts are inserted here and there for elementary guidance in the study of them : I.