x. 1. Instead of 70, B D, Tatian, the Syriac, and the Latin give 72. According to Zahn, the number has nothing to do with the Jewish enumeration of 70 Gentile nations, languages, or angels, nor the 70 members of the Sanhedrim, the 70 translators of the Old Testament, or with any other number 70. These 70 were not sent to the Gentiles, and Luke gives no hint of the allegorical significance of their number. Any such allegorizing was foreign both to himself and Theophilus, neither of whom was a Jew. See Einl., ii. 392.
xi. 2. On βαττολογεῖν ὡς οἱ λοιποί in D, see my Philologica Sacra, pp. 27-36.
xi. 3. There is a certain amount of probability in Zahn’s view that Marcion was led to insert σοῦ after ἄρτος ἐπιούσιος by thinking of John vi. 33 f., a passage which suggested itself to Origen also in this connection. See Zahn (GK., i. 677, ii. 471), who thinks it probable that Marcion interpreted the words in a spiritual sense (= supersubstantialis).
xi. 53. The text of D here displays several marked variations, which, however, do not affect the sense of the passage. Zahn sees in them the arbitrary alterations of a later time; but Weiss thinks that in some particulars they may preserve the original.
xii. 1. Marcion, seemingly, and Jerome omit πρῶτον, which is attested by most of the Old Latin witnesses, with the exception of b. See Zahn, GK., i. 692, ii. 474.
xii. 14. The words ἢ μεριστὴν were omitted by Marcion (Zahn, GK., i. 682). They are also wanting in the Sinai-Syriac (see Lewis, Some Pages).
xii. 38. The mention of the ἑσπερινὴ φυλακὴ by Marcion and other authorities is due, according to Zahn (GK., ii. 683; Einl., ii. 356), to the “magisterial consideration” that an orderly householder would not come home from the festivities after midnight or in the early hours of the morning, but at the latest in the first watch of the night, which was still called the evening. The reading is also found in Irenæus, but not in the Sinai-Syriac.
xii. 51. βαλεῖν (אַרְמֵא) is found here in Syrsin in place of ποιῆσαι (D e Syrcu), mittere (b l), δοῦναι (usual text). This is interesting in view of Marcion. See Zahn, GK., i. 604, ii. 476. Tertullian seems to have been mistaken in thinking that μάχαιραν was read in place of διαμερισμόν in this connection (machaeram quidem scriptum est. Sed Marcion emendat, quasi non et separatio opus sit machaerae).
xiii. 8. See above, p. 193 ff. Chase cites this passage as an indication of the laxity of transcription of which D was guilty in introducing what appears to be a common agricultural phrase. In Columella (De Re Rustica, xi. 3) we find “confecta bruma stercoratam terram inditam cophinis obserat.” Chase also cites from the manuscript notes of Hort the reference to Plutarch, Vita Pompeii, 48, αὐτοῦ δέ τις κοπρίων κόφινον κατὰ κεφαλῆς τοῦ Βύβλου κατεσκέδασε. Better than any words of mine are those of Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 346:—No one with any perception of the difference between naïve originality and a regularity due to liturgical, dogmatic, and stylistic considerations can fail to assent to the following propositions—viz., (1) as regards contents and form of expression β (i.e. the text of D and its associates) has preserved much original matter, which from the very first was peculiarly liable to alteration, and which was set aside by the learned revisers from the end of the third century onwards (Lucian, Hesychius, Pamphilus), etc.
xvi. 12. While the common text with Syrsin reads ὑμέτερον, for which B L have ἡμέτερον, Marcion alone supports 157 e i l in reading ἐμόν. How is this to be explained? Compare above, p. 211, and Zahn, GK., i. 682.
xvi. 19. Zahn denominates the introductory words found in D, εἶπεν δὲ καὶ ἑτέραν παραβολήν, “a liturgical gloss at the beginning of a pericope.” Blass, too, omits them from the β text.
xvi. 22, 23. א*, most Old Latin witnesses, and the Vulgate omit καί at the beginning of verse 23, and read ἐτάφη ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ. This conjunction of the words is attested by Tatian and Marcion. The Sinai-Syriac presupposes the form “was buried. And being in Hades he lifted up his eyes.” Attention may be drawn to the detailed notice of the different readings by Wordsworth and White. They say: Asyndeton in Johanne tolerabile, in Luca vix ferendum videtur.... Vix dubium est quin Lucas ipse scripserit καὶ ἐτάφη· καὶ ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ, sed καί secundum in antiquissimis codicibus ut nunc in א* casu omissum, ex conjectura tribus modis restitutum videtur, sc. καὶ ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ, et ἐν δὲ τῷ ᾅδῃ et ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ καὶ; quae lectiones omnes in codicibus Latinis referuntur, et tertiam ab Hieronymo ex traditione codicum suorum servatam magis quam ex ratione praelatam credimus. See Zahn, GK., i. 682, ii. 480.
xvii. 11. “In all likelihood μέσον, without the preposition, as given by D, is the original form. This was variously replaced by ἀναμέσον (Ferrar Group), which is not amiss, by διὰ μέσου (A X, etc.), which is not so good, and by διὰ μέσον (א B L), which is very bad.” Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 391. Compare, also (for μέσον), Jülicher, Gleichnisreden Jesu, ii. 516.
xvii. 21. Marcion inserts ἰδοὺ before ἐκεῖ, which Zahn holds to be original. Syrsin reads “here it is, or there it is,” and therefore apparently omits the first ἰδοὺ as well. See Lewis, Some Pages. Wordsworth and White omit Tischendorf’s g1. 2 from the authorities given by him in support of the omission of the second ecce.
xviii. 20. On the alterations made on the text here by the followers of Marcion, see Zahn, GK., i. 616, ii. 484.
xviii. 25. The evidence in support of the readings τρήματος and βελόνης is very strong (א B D L). The choice of the terms τρῆμα for τρύπημα or τρυμαλιά, and βελόνη for ῥαφίς, betrays the language of the physician. See The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Acts of the Apostles, Introduction, pp. 9-11; Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 427 f., 435 f.
xx. 35. With reference to this verse, Tertullian makes the following charge against the Marcionites: Nacti enim scripturae textum ita in legendo decurrerunt: “quos autem dignatus est deus illius aevi”; “illius aevi” “deo” adjungunt ... cum sic legi oporteat, “quos autem dignatus est,” ut facta hic distinctione post “deum” ad sequentia pertineat “illius aevi,” etc. Zahn insists, as against Ritschl, Hilgenfeld, and Volkmar, that this requires not only the insertion of ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ after καταξιωθέντες, but also the active voice instead of the passive, as though the Marcionites had read οὓς δὲ κατηξίωσεν ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου, τυχεῖν καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως. A similar change of construction occurs in Matt. xxv. 41, where it is quite certain that τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον is a correction of the stronger expression ὃ ἡτοίμασεν ὁ πατήρ μου, found in D, 1, 22, ten Old Latin manuscripts, and the earliest Fathers.
xxi. 30. The insertion of τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῶν may be but a trifling addition, intended to facilitate the sense (Zahn, GK., i. 682), at the same time it is an interesting question how it comes to be in D, 157, 572 (see above, p. 211). Wordsworth and White say that D here is “ex Latinis forsan correctus.” Syrsin agrees with Syrcu in inserting the words.
xxii. 16. For πληρωθῇ D reads καινὸν βρωθῇ. On this see my Philologica Sacra, p. 38, where it is suggested that these two readings are due to the confusion of כלה and אכל. This occurs several times in the Old Testament—e.g. 2 Chron. xxx. 22, where ויאבלו is represented in the LXX by συνετέλεσαν. But even apart from the question of a Hebrew foundation for the variant, I am inclined to regard καινὸν βρωθῇ as the original, and πληρωθῇ as the correction.
xxii. 16-21. The narrative of the Last Supper is extant in three forms. There is (1) the common text, (2) that exhibited by the two most important of the Old Latin witnesses (b, e), in which verse 16 is followed by 19a, after which come 17, 18, 21, so that 19b and 20 are wanting altogether. The text of Syrsin and Syrcu resembles this. There is further (3) the form exhibited by D and four Old Latins, which has the same order as (1), but omits verses 19b, 20. Zahn decides in favour of (2). See his Einleitung, ii. 357 ff. It is to be observed that the last discovered Syriac omits the nominatival clause τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐκχυνόμενον after τῷ αἵματί μου, which is the only member that seems to be derived, not from 1 Cor. xi. 24 f., but from Matthew and Mark, and that does not agree in construction with the rest. This confirms the supposition that these two verses are not part of the original text. See Westcott and Hort, Notes on Select Readings, p. 63 f.; Plummer, Commentary on St. Luke in the International Series (T. & T. Clark). Compare also the article by the latter in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (Lord’s Supper).
xxii. 36. On ἀράτω Basil the Great (d. 379) remarks: ἀράτω ἤτοι ἀρεῖ· οὕτω γὰρ καὶ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν ἀντιγράφων ἔχει ... ὡς μὴ εἶναι πρόσταγμα ἀλλὰ προφητείαν προλέγοντος τοῦ Κυρίου. At present D is quite alone in exhibiting the reading ἀρεῖ, which is worth noting in view of τὰ πολλὰ above.
xxii. 43, 44. These verses, with their mention of the Bloody Sweat and the Strengthening Angel, are omitted in A B R T, one Old Latin (f), the Bohairic, Sahidic, and Armenian versions, and the Sinai-Syriac. On the other hand, they are read by the Curetonian Syriac and the Peshitto, by the first and third hands of א (the second hand enclosed them in brackets and cancelled them by means of dots), by D, as also by most of the Old Latin witnesses and the Vulgate. In the Greek Lectionaries they are omitted at the place where one would naturally expect them, but are found in the text of Matthew xxvi., together with portions of John xiii., in the Liturgy for Holy Thursday. This explains their insertion after Matt. xxvi. 39 in the Ferrar Group, at least in 13, 69, 124. The first of these, moreover, repeats the first two words of verse 43 (ὤφθη δὲ) in Luke, but no more. The necessary inference is that these verses are no part of the original text of Luke. They go back, however, to a time when extra-canonical traditions from the Life and Passion of Jesus were in circulation either orally or in writing. Zahn holds that D here has preserved what Luke wrote.
xxiii. 2. Zahn (GK., i. 668) expressly points out that Marcion did not invent the additional words καὶ καταλύοντα τὸν νόμον καὶ τοὺς προφήτας, but found them in his exemplar. They occur in eight Old Latin and at least five Vulgate manuscripts, among which are four of the early codices collated by Wordsworth and White. One of them omits et prophetas, while some others have nostram after legem. Weiss takes no notice of this addition, nor of the further addition in verse 5 of the words ἀποστρέφοντα τὰς γυναῖκας καὶ τὰ τέκνα, supported by at least two Old Latin manuscripts, both of which add non enim baptizantur sicut et nos, while one of them exhibits the still further extension nec se mundant. If the addition were really made by Marcion, it would be all the more deserving of attention. The omission of the additional words in verse 2 is conceivably due to homoioteleuton, the eye of the scribe passing from καταλύοντα to κωλύοντα, In the case of verse 5, the mention of the women and children is quite consistent with what is said elsewhere in the narrative of the Passion, but the reference to baptism and purification is not so clear. Codex c has the singular baptizatur, but this is merely a clerical error.
xxiii. 34. The case of the First Word from the Cross is remarkable. This verse, containing the words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” is bracketed in א by an early corrector, and then restored; it is omitted by B without being replaced; it is inserted in D by a hand not earlier than the ninth century, and omitted by two Old Latin manuscripts, by two Bohairic codices, by the Sahidic version, and by the newly-discovered Sinai-Syriac. Is it possible to suppose that a Christian would have cancelled these words in a Bible manuscript like א, unless he had valid reasons for doing so in the tradition of the Gospel text? Zahn thinks they were omitted from D by mistake. On the Order of the Seven Words see my note in the Expository Times for June 1900, p. 423 f.
xxiii. 38. The notice of the three languages in which the Inscription on the Cross was written is taken from the text of John, and is read by all the Latin authorities with the single exception of codex Vercellensis (a). Syrsin is now to be added to the witnesses supporting the omission of the clause. Its use of the word בטקא reveals the ultimate affinity of this version with the Curetonian Syriac. The interpolation, as Zahn rightly asserts (GK., i. 675), points to the estimation in which John’s Gospel was held at an early date. Its insertion in Luke is undoubtedly erroneous.
xxiii. 43. The insertion of τῷ ἐπιπλήσσοντι in D, as well as the other variants found in this manuscript, viz. ἔλευσις, which is also read by D in Luke xxi. 7, and θάρσει, which is inserted by others in Luke viii. 48, is attributed by Zahn (Einleitung, ii. 356) to some preacher who sought in this way to contrast the penitent thief with his comrade. With the substantival expression ἔλευσις, compare δειπνοκλήτωρ exhibited by D in Matt. xx. 28. On the somewhat rare verb ἐπιπλήσσειν, compare the new edition of Origen, i. 5,8; also Clement Alex, (ed. Dindorf), i. 186, 188.
xxiii. 53. After κείμενος U, with a few minuscules, reads καὶ προσεκύλισεν λίθον μέγαν ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τοῦ μνημείου, while three Vulgate manuscripts have a similar addition et inposito eo inposuit monumento lapidem magnum. On the other hand D, with its Latin, reads καὶ θέντος (leg. τεθέντος) αὐτοῦ ἐπέθηκεν τῷ μνημείῳ λίθον ὃν μόγις εἴκοσι ἐκύλιον. The same thing is found in the Old Latin manuscript c, et cum positus esset in monumento, posuerunt lapidem quem vix viginti volvebant. The Sahidic and Ti exhibit a similar expansion of the text. In this addition, which Scrivener thought was “conceived somewhat in the Homeric spirit,” Harris detects a Latin hexameter which the scribe of Codex Bezae “deliberately incorporated into his text and then turned into Greek.” See his Study of Codex Bezae in Texts and Studies, ii. 1, 47-52. Chase, on the other hand, adduces Josephus, Bell. Jud., vi. 5, 3 (Syro-Latin Text, p. 62 ff.). Compare my Philologica Sacra, pp. 39, 58.
xxiv. 6. The reading ὅσα (D, c, Marcion, etc.) in place of ὡς is now attested also by the Sinai-Syriac.
xxiv. 32. In place of καιομένη (α text) and κεκαλυμμένη (D), Blass inserts βεβαρημένη in the β text on the authority of the old Syriac versions, the Armenian, and the Sahidic. But in the Syriac this last reading is due to a transcriptional error of יקיר for יקיד (see Blass himself, p. 120, and compare the variants מוקר and מוקד in Rahmani’s Testamentum D. N. Jesu Christi, p. 112, 6); and as the Armenian is derived from the Syriac, the only question becomes whether the Sahidic reading is due to the same error. Κεκαλυμμένη in D, which has hitherto baffled explanation, is shown to be a purely clerical error by comparison with Heb. xii. 18, where also κεκαυμένῳ becomes κεκαλυμμένῳ in the Greek of D and in Pseudo-Athan. 57.
xxiv. 34. For λέγοντας D reads λέγοντες, which is simply a clerical error arising easily from the influence of the Latin, which would be the same in either case. For the conclusions drawn from this reading by Resch, see his Aussercanonische Paralleltexte, iii. 779 f. Other examples of the same mistake (—ες for —ας) occur in Matt. xxii. 16; Acts vi. 11, xvi. 35; Rom. vi. 13. It is interesting to observe that Origen had Σίμωνος καὶ Κλεόπα (i. 184, ed. Koetschau).
xxiv. 37. Zahn (GK., i. 681) rejects the supposition that the reading φάντασμα for πνεῦμα was coined by Marcion and taken from a Marcionite Bible into D. That he is right in doing so appears from Chase, who shows that φάντασμα here is the same as δαιμόνιον ἀσώματον in Ignatius (Ad Smyrnaeos, iii. 2). See my Philologica Sacra, p. 25. The Semitic equivalent of φάντασμα as well as of δαιμόνιον is שֵׁאד, שִׁאדָא,[273] which is used in both the earlier Syriac versions, the Curetonian and the Lewis, to represent φάντασμα in Matt. xiv. 26 and Mark vi. 49. I find that שאדא is used for πνεῦμα in the translation of Eusebius (Eccles. Hist., v. 16, ed. Wright-Maclean, p. 289).
xxiv. 39. All the authorities agree in saying that Marcion omitted the words ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ ἴδετε, while Tertullian and Epiphanius state that he also omitted σάρκας καὶ. See Zahn, GK., ii. 495, who adds that “the longer clause—i.e. ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ ἴδετε—is also omitted by D, it (with the exception of Colbertinus), vg, but not Syrcu, as Tischendorf wrongly states.” This however is a misapprehension. The om in Tischendorf refers only to με after ψηλαφήσατε. This is omitted by Syrcu as well as by D and also by Syrsin. It would be more exact to say, however, that the καὶ before ἴδετε is also omitted by Syrcu. Moreover, Syrsin agrees with Syrcu in reading ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι αὐτός after ἴδετε.
The subscription of certain minuscules states that Luke’s Gospel was written fifteen years after the Ascension. Some say εἰς Ἀλεξανδρείαν τὴν μεγάλην, others ἐv Ῥώμῃ, while one says very strangely, ἐv τῇ Ἀττικῇ τῆς Βοιωταίας, “for Theophilus, who became bishop after divine baptism.” Λ, 262, 300 also contain here the notice of careful collation. The chapter enumeration in these manuscripts is not the same, being 342, 349, and 345 respectively.
John.
In this Gospel the attention of textual critics was long confined to the passage vii. 53-viii. 11. They failed to observe that in other places there are clauses and whole verses whose omission or interpolation has to be investigated in connection with vii. 53 ff., as, for example, iv. 9, v. 3, 4, and that interesting questions of textual criticism are raised in other parts of the book as well.
Chapter xxi., which the last two verses of the preceding chapter clearly show to be an Appendix, is equally well attested by all the authorities, while the omission of xx. 31 by the first hand of G is just one of those unaccountable phenomena which make their appearance so frequently in the domain of textual criticism. The same thing is probably to be said of the omission in א of the last verse of chapter xxi. Tischendorf was of opinion that this last verse in א, together with the concluding ornament and subscription, was not by the same hand (A) as had written the Gospel of John, but by another (D) who had acted as corrector, and had written part of the Apocrypha and six leaves of the New Testament. Tregelles, on the other hand, who examined the passage in Tischendorf’s presence, thought the difference was due simply to the scribe having taken a fresh dip of the ink: that at all events the scribe who wrote the Gospel (A) did not intend it to conclude with verse 24, otherwise he would have added a concluding ornament and subscription as in the case of Matthew and Luke. The verse is found in all the other manuscripts and versions with which we are acquainted, and the question with regard to א is interesting only from the fact that a few manuscripts do contain a scholium to the effect that the verse is an addition (προσθήκη) inserted in the margin (ἔξωθεν) by one of the scholars (τινὸς τῶν φιλοπόνων),[274] and afterwards incorporated in the text by another without the knowledge of the former (καταγέντος (?) δὲ ἔσωθεν ἀγνοίᾳ τυχὸν τοῦ πρώτου γραφέως ὑπό τινος τῶν παλαιῶν μέν, οὐκ ἀκριβῶν δέ, καὶ μέρος τῆς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου γραφῆς γενόμενον). This entire note, however, is evidently no more than an inference drawn from the contents of the verse, as the Syriac Commentary of Theodore shows. See further, Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 495, and the reference to the Commentary of Ishodad in Sachau’s Verzeichnis der syrischen Handschriften in Berlin, p. 307.
With respect to the pericope adulteræ, on the other hand, we may be quite certain that it did not originally stand in the position it now occupies (vii. 53-viii. 11), nor indeed in John’s Gospel at all, although the decision of the Holy Office of the 13th February 1897, which was confirmed by the Pope two days later, obliges Catholic exegetes to hold it as genuine. It is omitted in a great many manuscripts and versions—e.g. in א B L T. A and C are defective here, but the amount of space shows that they could not have contained it. It is omitted in the Syriac and Egyptian versions, in the Armenian and the Gothic, in some Old Latin codices, and in the earliest of the Greek and Latin Fathers. On the other hand it is found in all the manuscripts of Jerome and in Codex D, which is the only one of the earlier Greek manuscripts to contain it. In some minuscules and later Armenian manuscripts it stands at the end of the fourth Gospel, where now Westcott and Hort put it. In minuscule 225, written in the year 1192, it follows vii. 36; in the Georgian version it comes after vii. 44; while in the Ferrar Group—i.e. in minuscules 13, 69, 124, 346, 556—it is inserted after Luke xxi. 38. Its insertion after vii. 36 is probably the result of an accidental error. In the Greek Lectionaries the liturgy for Whitsunday begins at verse 37 and extends to verse 52, followed by viii. 12, so that the pericope was, by mistake, inserted before instead of after this lection. Its position in the Georgian version is the more remarkable, seeing that in the Old Latin Codex b, which contained the pericope by the first hand, the entire passage from vii. 44-viii. 12 has been erased. As a probable explanation of its position in the Ferrar Group after Luke xxi. 38, it has been suggested that the scribe inserted it there owing to the resemblance between Luke xxi. 37 and John viii. 1, and also between Luke xxi. 38 (ὤρθριζε) and John viii. 2 (ὄρθρου). Harris thinks that its proper place is in John between chapters v. and vi., because reference is made in v. 45, 46 to the Mosaic Law, which is also mentioned in viii. 5.
But the remarkable thing is that here again the text of D differs in a conspicuous manner from that of the other witnesses. In viii. 2 the words καὶ καθίσας ἐδίδασκεν αὐτούς are wanting: in verse 4 we meet the sentence ἐκπειράζοντες αὐτὸν οἱ ἱερεῖς ἵνα ἔχωσιν κατηγορίαν αὐτοῦ, which does not come till after verse 5 in the other text: for μοιχείᾳ D has ἁμαρτίᾳ: in verse 5 it reads, Μωυσῆς δὲ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ἐκέλευσεν τὰς τοιαύτας λιθάζειν, for which the other text has ἐν δὲ τῷ νόμῳ Μωσῆς ἐνετείλατο τὰς τοιαύτας λιθοβολεῖσθαι: in verse 11, D has ὕπαγε where the other text has πορεύου. Now, if two persons got such an easy sentence as “Moses in the Law commanded to stone such” to translate from Latin, Hebrew, or any other language into Greek, one of them might quite well use κελεύειν and λιθάζειν, and the other ἐντέλλεσθαι and λιθοβολεῖν. And so the question is suggested whether the two forms in which the text exists were not derived from different sources, that of D, e.g., from its Latin. But on closer examination the latter supposition is seen to be impossible. For the Latin corresponding to ἔχωσιν κατηγορίαν αὐτοῦ is “haberent accusare eum,” showing that the Latin translator read κατηγορεῖν in his original,[275] and for ὥστε πάντας ἐξελθεῖν he has “uti omnes exire,” where again the infinitive speaks for the priority of the Greek. On the other hand, it is to be observed that, according to Eusebius (Eccles. Hist., iii. c. 39, sub fin.), Papias knew and recorded an incident περὶ γυναικὸς ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις διαβληθείσης ἐπὶ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἣν τὸ καθ’ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγέλιον περιέχει. So that the Gospel according to the Hebrews (i.e. the Palestinian Jewish Christians) contained a narrative similar to this, we may say quite confidently, contained this narrative. From that Gospel it was taken and inserted in some manuscripts after Luke xxi., in others after John vii. By the time of Augustine it was so widely propagated in the Latin that he thought it had been removed from certain manuscripts by people of weak faith, or rather by enemies of the true faith, “credo metuentes peccandi immunitatem dari mulieribus suis.” The pericope is no part of John’s Gospel, though it belongs to the oldest stock of evangelic tradition. On the question whether it may not originally have stood between Mark xii. 17 and xii. 18, and so between Luke xx. 26 and xx. 27, see Holtzmann in the ThLz., 1898, col. 536 f. Vide supra, p. 66.
i. 5. Zahn raises the question what word Ephraem found in his copy of the Diatessaron corresponding to κατέλαβε, seeing he gives vicit. In this connection I might (with the proviso that the reading may be more easily explained from the Armenian) point out that the Syriac word תשתלט corresponds to καταλαβέτωσαν in Sirach xxiii. 6. This stands elsewhere for ἄρχω, δεσπόζω, ἐξουσιάζω, κατακυριεύω, κυριεύω, κρατῶ. כבשׁ also frequently represents the Greek καταλαμβάνειν. The Sinai-Syriac for John i. 5 is unfortunately lost.
i. 13. The reading ὃς ... ἐγεννήθη is, so far as is known at present, attested by Latin witnesses only, “qui natus est.” But as Zahn is careful to point out (Einl., ii. 518), it did not originate on Latin soil, for Justin presupposes it, and, moreover, Irenæus constantly applies the passage to the Incarnation, while the Valentinians, who had the usual text, were accused by Tertullian of falsification. And it is not proved that the two last-mentioned used anything but a Greek Bible.
i. 17. According to early testimony, this verse, so frequently quoted since the time of Ritschl, once ran: “The Law was given by Moses, but its truth came by Jesus.” See Zahn, Forsch., i. 121, 248.
i. 18. Zahn agrees with Hort in holding that the originality of the reading μονογενὴς θεὸς (without the article) is established. See Westcott and Hort, Notes on Select Readings; Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 544, 557; Westcott, Commentary on John, in loco. It may be mentioned here that Codex Monacensis of Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of John has ὁ/μονογενὴς υἱός/θεός with ὁ and υἱός both written above the line in a later hand. This gave rise in the Codex Regius to the reading ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς θεός.
i. 28. Is it βηθαβαρά or βηθανίᾳ? The former is exhibited by the Sinai-Syriac, the Curetonian, and the margin of the Harklean, and the latter by the other three Syriac, and the Arabic Diatessaron. With regard to the former, is it the case, as is supposed by many, that it is due simply to a conjecture of Origen, and that Syrcu and Syrsin took it from him? According to Zahn (GK., i. 406), Hilgenfeld pointed in this direction in the ZfwTh., 1883, 119. See also Lagrange, Origène, la critique textuelle et la tradition topographique (Revue Biblique, iv., 1895, pp. 501-524). Origen explains βηθανία as οἶκος ὑπακοῆς, and the Syriac as “place of praise.” Compare on this the much-discussed passage in the Gospel of Peter (ὑπακοὴ ἠκούετο, c. xi.). Βηθαβαρά, on the other hand, he interprets as οἶκος κατασκευῆς, so that he must either have spelt it Bethbara, בית ברא, as in Jud. vii. 24, or taken it as Beth-ha-bara. It is spelt βηθααβαρά in Lagarde’s Onomastica Sacra, 240, 12, and Bethabara in 108, 6 (Bethbaara, Codex B). Jerome (see Onomastica Sacra) interpreted the name as “domus humilis (= ?) vel vesperae” in Joshua xv. 6, as “domus multa vel gravis” in xv. 59, and as ἀοίκητος in xv. 61, following Symmachus. Luther had Betharaba, but in three impressions of the New Testament and in three of the Postils he had Bethabara (according to Bindseil-Niemeyer), and in the margin Bethbara, with a note in which reference is rightly made to Jud. vii. 24, “ut mysterium consonet.” See my German or Greek-German New Testament. It may be asked if “Ainon” in John iii. 23 has any connection with Bethania. Compare בֵית עְַנות in Jos. xv. 59. For ἐν Αἰνών e has in eremo and f has in deserto. How is this to be explained? Compare Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 561.
i. 34. For υἱὸς א*, Syrcu, Syrsin, and e read ἐκλεκτός. D is here defective. Zahn thinks the latter reading is original, and the former an example of an early and widely current alteration. Westcott and Hort insert ἐκλεκτός among their Noteworthy Rejected Readings. The two readings are combined in some manuscripts “electus filius Dei.” See Zahn, Einl., ii. 515, 544, 557.
i. 41. Zahn here decides for the nominative πρῶτος. Both the disciples of John who attached themselves to Jesus found their brother, but Andrew was the first to do so. See Einleitung, ii. 477 f.
ii. 2. In his Commentary on the Gospels, extant in the Armenian only, we find Ephraem saying, “Graecus scribit recubuit et defecit vinum” (§ 53), which shows that he had a Greek exemplar before him containing the itacism ἐκλίθη for ἐκλήθη. See Zahn, Forsch., i. 62, 127, and compare Luke xiv. 8, where Antiochus, Homil., iii., has κατακλιθῇς for κληθῇς.
ii. 3. Zahn is perhaps right when he says that no critic need doubt for a moment that the original reading is the longer, genuinely Semitic text exhibited by א*, the Harklean Syriac, and the best Latin manuscripts. D is defective, as also Syrcu and Syrsin.
iii. 5. βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν is attested only by א*, a few minuscules, by c m, and certain early Fathers, in place of βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, which has now the support of the Sinai-Syriac. Zahn thinks the former reading to be correct (Einleitung, ii. 294). If that is so, this will be the only place where the expression is found in the New Testament outside the Gospel according to Matthew, where it occurs some thirty-three or thirty-four times. See note on “The Kingdom of Heaven” in the Expository Times for February 1896, p. 236 ff.
iii. 24. Zahn (Einl., ii. 515) thinks that the omission of the article before φυλακὴν shows that there was some uncertainty regarding the fact mentioned by John. This, however, is open to question. That the insertion or omission of the article may be of importance is shown by such examples as John v. 1; Matthew xxii. 23; Acts xvi. 6; James ii. 2.
iii. 34. Our knowledge of the text of the Sinai-Syriac here rests solely on the last reading of Mrs. Lewis: “Not according to his measure gave (or, gives) God the Father.” This rendering, as well as the insertion of ὁ Θεός in many Greek texts, is due to the fact that πνεῦμα was not taken as the subject of the sentence.
iv. 1. For ὁ κύριος Tischendorf reads ὁ Ἰησοῦς, which is probably correct. Ὁ κύριος is elsewhere found only three times in John—viz., vi. 23, xi. 2, xx. 20. According to Zahn (Einl., ii. 391) the first two passages are explanations outside the Gospel narrative interjected by the evangelist, while the words in the last passage are spoken from the point of view of the disciples.
iv. 9. The words οὐ γὰρ συγχρῶνται Ἰουδαῖοι Σαμαρείταις were retained by Lachmann and by Tischendorf in his seventh edition, because the only authorities known at that time for their omission were D a b e. But when the first hand of א appeared in confirmation of the testimony of these witnesses, the words were dropped by Tischendorf and bracketed by Westcott and Hort. Syrcu and Syrsin insert them, and perhaps Tatian. Zahn is inclined to admit them. “The classic brevity of the interjected explanation speaks for its genuineness.” See his Einleitung, ii. 549.
v. 1. ἡ ἑορτή is supported by א C etc., and ἑορτή by A B D etc. On the chronology, see Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 516.
v. 3b, 4. After ξηρῶν D alone inserts παραλυτικῶν, and then adds, with A2 C3 I Γ Δ Λ Π (this last, however, with asterisks), the clause ἐκδεχομένων τὴν τοῦ ὕδατος κίνησιν. The shorter text is given by א A* B C* L. The whole of the fourth verse is omitted by א B C* D, 33, 157, 314. In this case D and A change sides. Within the limits of the verse there are a great many variations, which show that it is a very early addition. Some of the words are hapax legomena, like δήποτε, ταραχή, νόσημα. Zahn thinks the gloss may have been one of the “expositions” of Papias. According to the Commentary of Ishodad, Theodore of Mopsuestia did not consider this verse as part of the Gospel of John (Sachau, Verzeichnis der syrischen Handschriften, p. 308). See Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 557. Cyril says the incident occurred at Pentecost.
v. 36. Zahn (Einl., ii. 557) calls μείζων a difficult reading, and one that could not have been invented: “I, as a Greater than John, have the witness of God.”
vii. 8. οὔπω has taken the place of οὐκ in all the uncials except א D K M P, a fact which reveals its antiquity. Οὐκ is retained also by Syrcu and Syrsin. The change was introduced to obviate the inconsistency between vii. 8 and vii. 10. Porphyry (apud Jerome, Contra Pelagium, ii. 17) on the ground of οὐκ, accused Jesus of “inconstantia et mutatio,” and Schopenhauer (Grundprobleme der Ethik, 2nd edition, p. 225) cited this passage as justifying an occasional falsehood, saying that “Jesus Christ himself on one occasion uttered an intentional untruth.” See Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 547.
vii. 15. See Addenda, p. xvi.
viii. 57. According to the authority cited in the ThLz., 1899, p. 176, the first hand of Codex B is supposed to have written εορακεσε: “the final ε has been erased, and the ε preceding it changed into α.” I have examined the photograph of B in the Stuttgart Library, and can find no trace of an ε ever having stood after σ. The blank space of the size of two letters is meant to divide the sentences. It is the case, however, though neither Tischendorf, Fabiani, nor the pamphlet of 1881 mentions it, that the first hand wrote εορακες, which was then made into εωρακας by means of a stroke drawn through the ο. The matter is not insignificant in view of what is said in Westcott and Hort’s Notes on Orthography, Appendix, p. 168. Burkitt supposes that εορακεσε was the reading of the ancestor of א B (Texts and Studies, vol. v. 5. p. ix).[276]
xii. 7. τετήρηκεν, without ἵνα, has the support of a comparatively large number of manuscripts. Peerlkamp and De Koe read ἵνα τί ... τετήρηκεν; Zahn (Einl., ii. 518) has no doubt that the correct reading is ἵνα ... τηρήσῃ, and that it was replaced by τετήρηκεv (without ἵνα) on the ground that this Mary was not among the women who came to the sepulchre to anoint the body of Jesus. He says that the true text presupposes that Mary would like to use the remainder of the ointment to anoint the body of Jesus after his death, and that the words of Jesus were intended to prevent Mary and the disciples afterwards following the suggestion of Judas.
xiii. 2. The change of a single letter here is important from a harmonistic point of view. א* B L read δείπνου γινομένου, i.e., “during supper,” but אc A D have δείπνου γενομένου, which means “after supper.” Compare Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 520.
xiii. 34. On the form in which this saying was cited by the Marcionites, see Zahn, GK. i. 678.
xviii. 12 ff. The Sinai-Syriac, probably following Tatian, gives the following arrangement of the verses—viz., 12, 13, 24, 14, 15, 19-23, 16-18, 25-28. On this see Zahn, Einl., ii. 521. Spitta would arrange the verses, 12, 13, 19-23, 24, 14, 15-18, 25b, 27, 28. See Zahn, Einl., ii. 558. It does sometimes happen that a leaf of a manuscript is misplaced, but it is hard to account for such transpositions as these. Compare the Journal of Theological Studies, October 1900, p. 141 f.
xix. 5. Though not properly connected with the criticism of the text, the question may be asked here, by way of a contribution to a subject much discussed of late, whether the expression ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος may not be connected with בר נשא. Compare ὁ ἄνθρωπος and ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου in Mark ii. 27, 28. In this passage of John, B omits the article before ἄνθρωπος, reading ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος simply. See the Expository Times, November 1899, p. 62 ff., “The Name Son of Man and the Messianic Consciousness of Jesus,” where Schmiedel’s article with the same title in the Protestantische Monatshefte is noticed.
xix. 37. The quotation, according to Zahn, is made from the Hebrew. The LXX has ἐπιβλέψονται πρὸς μὲ ἀνθ’ ὧν κατωρχήσαντο. The later Greek versions all seem to have kept the first three words as in the LXX but to have variously corrected the second clause, for which Aquila gives σὺν ᾧ ἐξεκέντησαν, Theodotion εἰς ὃν ἐξεκέντησαν, Symmachus ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεξεκέντησαν. Compare with this Apoc. i. 7, οἵτινες αὐτὸν ἐξεκέντησαν; Barnabas vii. 9, ὄψονται αὐτὸν ... κατακεντήσαντες; Justin, Dial. 32, ἐπιγνώσεσθε εἰς ὃν ἐξεκεντήσατε. It has accordingly been supposed that John in the Gospel and Apocalypse followed some unknown Greek version which exhibited the characteristic forms ὄψονται (found only in John and Barnabas) and εἰς ὃν ἐξεκέντησαν (given by John, Justin, Theodotion, and partly by Aquila). But this supposition is simply a proof of unwillingness to admit a palpable fact—viz., that in the Gospel and Apocalypse John gives an independent rendering of the original text of Zechariah xii. 10, and that Barnabas and Justin follow John. See Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 563.
The subscriptions state that the fourth Gospel was written thirty or thirty-two years after the Ascension, at Ephesus, in the reign of Nero, or, as some say, of Domitian. It is also said to have been published by Gaius, the host of the Apostles (διὰ Γάϊον τὸν ξενοδόχον τῶν ἀποστόλων). Others say that it was dictated to Papias of Hierapolis the disciple of the Apostle. On the alleged autograph (ἰδιόχειρον) preserved at Ephesus, see above, p. 30.
ACTS.
It would unduly enlarge the extent of this work were I to go on mentioning all the passages in the Acts that are more or less striking from the textual point of view. This book has already been more frequently referred to than the others. I would again refer the student to Zahn’s Introduction. I agree with that writer in thinking it impossible in many cases to suppose that a scholiast manufactured the text we now find in Codex D with no other material before him save the usual text and his inkhorn. At the same time there is undoubtedly room for much diversity of opinion with respect to many matters of detail. Ι would instance such a simple narrative as that of Acts iii. 1-5, and ask what reasonable ground a copyist could have had for altering ὃς into οὗτος, ἀτενίσας into ἐμβλέψας, βλέψον into ἀτένισον, ἐπεῖχεν into ἀτενίσας or vice versa, or for omitting or inserting ὑπάρχων or λαβεῖν.[277] Such changes might, however, be introduced by an author who writes a passage twice over. Without himself being fully conscious of his reasons for doing so, he might substitute a final construction for a participle, introduce or remove an asyndeton, replace one word by its synonym, and make all the striking linguistic changes which a comparison of the two texts reveals.
Time will show whether I am right in my conjecture that ἐβαρύνατε in iii. 14 is due to an error in translation. In illustration of the interchange of λαοῦ and κόσμου in ii. 47, I have cited in Philologica Sacra, p. 39, a number of instances of the confusion of עם or עמא with עלם or עלמא, to which I would now add Daniel viii. 19, Sirach xlv. 7; xlvii. 4; Matt. i. 21 (in the Curetonian Syriac). Compare also Eusebius, Eccles. Hist., iv. 15, 26; History of Mary, ix. 17; xiv. 11 (ed. Budge). Whether the change in the passage in question is really to be explained in this way, or by the supposition of an “anti-Judaic tendency,” as Corssen prefers (Göttinger gelehrte Anzeigen, 1896, vi. 444), may be left an open question for the present. I would just point to one thing in favour of my view, and in answer to what Zahn says in his Einleitung, ii. 423. He says there: “Linguistic considerations are against the supposition that a pure Greek like Luke, the physician of Antioch, was able to read a Hebrew book. For a thousand Jews (Syrians and Copts) who were able at that time to read, write, and speak Greek, there would be at most a single Greek possessed of a corresponding knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic. And I confess that I have hitherto sought in vain for this rara avis.” Quite true, but how do we know that the physician of Antioch was a pure Greek? All the Prologues to the Gospels unanimously call him “natione Syrus.” I have pointed out in my Philologica Sacra, p. 13, what is very generally admitted, that in the New Testament Ἕλληνες denotes simply the “heathen,” whether they speak Greek or not.[278] The woman mentioned in Mark vii. 26 was a Ἑλληνὶς Συρο-Φοινίκισσα τὸ γένος, and in the same way Luke was a Ἕλλην of Antioch (Acts xi. 20), but Σύρος τὸ γένος. He is one of the thousand who could read, write, and speak Greek, though he was not above making such a mistake in translation when using a Hebrew or Aramaic book as I think he certainly does in Luke xi. 41, and as I am inclined to think he does in Acts iii. 14, till I find a better explanation of the reading ἐβαρύνατε than has yet been given.[279] I am glad to see from Zahn that more than seventy years ago, in his dissertation entitled De Codice Cantabrigiensi (1827), p. 16, Schultz suggested that the text of D may perhaps be derived from a Syriac version. According to what I have said above on Tatian, this view must certainly be admitted as possible, and I see that it has been revived by Chase.
A new solution of the textual problem in Acts has been suggested by Aug. Pott (Der abendländische Text der Apostelgeschichte und die Wir-Quelle, Leipzig, 1900). He thinks that the original narrative drawn up by Luke existed as a separate work for some time after it had been worked up into our canonical Acts, and that notes were taken from the former and inserted in the margin of the latter, and in this way came into the text of Codex D and its associates. Against this, however, there is the fact that similar problems emerge in the Gospel of Luke where this distinction cannot be made.
For the sake of brevity I append notes to a few passages only of Acts.
But at the outset I must express my surprise that Wendt, even in his eighth edition of 1899, repeats the statement that the title of the book in D is πρᾶξις ἀποστόλων. Even without the assurance given by Blass in his Grammatik, § iii. 1, 2, it should be borne in mind that “δωσιν stands equally for both δῶσιν and δώσειν,” and that accordingly πραξις may be either πράξεις or πρᾶξις. In the case before us it is the former. As illustrations take the following from D in Acts:—δυναμι, iii. 12, iv. 7; πιστι, vi. 7; ις, iv. 30; μηνας τρις, vii. 20; and conversely θλειψεις μεγαλη, vii. 11; μερεις, viii. 21; δυναμεσει and σημιοις side by side in ii. 22. Compare also Mark vi. 2; vi. 14; xiii. 25; Luke xxi. 26; Acts viii. 13; (δυναμις τοιαυται; αι δυναμις; δυναμις μεγαλας). It is true that in every case in which the title is written out, which occurs only five times altogether, it is πραξις, but this is to be understood as plural, like actus in the Latin. It came afterwards to be used as singular in the Syriac (Zahn, Einl., ii. 370, 383, 388), but that is nothing strange. We say “the Times says”; and we have an analogy in the use of the word biblia in the Middle Ages when the neuter plural biblia bibliorum became biblia bibliae (singular feminine).
i. 23. It is a matter of commentary rather than of textual criticism, but Wendt, in his eighth edition, asserts that nothing further is known of this Joseph surnamed Justus. Eusebius, on the authority of Papias, mentions παράδοξον περὶ Ἰοῦστον τὸν ἐπικληθέντα Βαρσαβᾶν γεγονός, ὡς δηλητήριον φάρμακον ἐμπίοντος καὶ μηδὲν ἀηδὲς διὰ τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου χάριν ὑπομείναντος (Eccles. Hist., iii. 39). The name of Aristion is inserted in the margin of this passage in Rufinus’s Latin translation of Eusebius. This marginal gloss acquires a peculiar importance from the fact that the name Ariston is inserted in the Etschmiadzin manuscript of the Gospels over Mark xvi. 9-20, apparently ascribing these verses or their main contents to him. Compare Zahn, Einleitung, ii. 231, and see Plate IX.
iv. 6. On the reading Ἰωνάθας in D for Ἰωάννης, see above, p. 243.
iv. 24, and v. 39. See Harris, Two Important Glosses in the Codex Bezae, Expositor, November 1900, pp. 394-400.
xi. 27, 28. In his treatise, “On the Original Text of Acts xi. 27, 28” (Berliner Sitz.-Berichte, Heft 17), Harnack comes to the conclusion that the Western text here cannot be the original.
xv. 20, 21. On Harnack’s examination of the Apostolic Decree, see Selbie in the Expository Times for June 1899, p. 395. Harnack comes to the same results as Zahn, but draws the opposite conclusion from them. See above, p. 232 f.
xvi. 6. The article is omitted before Γαλατικὴν χώραν by א A B C D minuscules. For this Blass, on the authority of p, which reads “Galatie regiones,” substitutes τὰς Γαλατικὰς χώρας = “vicos Galatiae.” On this see Zahn, Einleitung, i. 133. The omission of the article does not necessitate taking τὴν Φρυγίαν as an adjective (so Wendt8); it might still be rendered “through Phrygia and Galatian territory.”
xvii. 27. In my Philologica Sacra, p. 42, I say that it was easier to change τὸ θεῖον (β) into τὸν θεόν (α) than vice versa. To this Wendt replies in his eighth edition, p. 294, by saying, “In all probability offence was taken at the representation of God himself as an object of τὸ ψηλαφᾶν.” Yes, there is a considerable difference between Hector alive and Hector dead, and of the latter it could be truly said (Iliad, xxii. 372 f.):