Griesbach’s opponent, Christian Friedrich Matthaei, a Thüringian (1744-1811), was misled into attributing a too great value to a large number of manuscripts in Moscow of the third, the Byzantine, class.
A considerable amount of critical material was collected at the expense of the King of Denmark by Andreas Birch (afterwards Bishop of Lolland, Falster, and Aarhuus), by D. G. Moldenhauer, and by Adler.
A similar service was rendered, though not with sufficient care, by J. M. Augustin Scholz, Professor of Catholic Theology in Bonn.
Literature.—On Matthaei see O. v. Gebhardt, Christian Friedrich Matthæi und seine Sammlung griechischer Handschriften, Leipzig, 1898.
It was Carl Lachmann (1793-1851) who first broke with the Textus Receptus altogether. He was a master in the domain of textual criticism. He distinguished himself first in the department of classical and Teutonic philology, but came afterwards to render equal service to the textual criticism of the New Testament. His object was to restore the text to the form in which it had been read in the ancient Church about the year 380, going on the ground of the oldest known Greek and Latin manuscripts, i.e. the oldest Eastern and Western authorities.[14] He did not claim to go further back than that date with any certainty. But it was still open to question whether that were not possible, and whether the grounds on which Lachmann’s work was based might not be still further extended and confirmed.
11. The task which Lachmann set before him was prosecuted with the most brilliant success in and from Germany by Gottlob (Aenotheus) Friedrich Constantin von Tischendorf (b. 18th January 1815, d. 7th December 1874). In the course of several tours, first in Europe and afterwards in the East, from the year 1841 onwards, he discovered and collated a number of the most important and ancient manuscripts of the Bible. Among these the most notable was the Codex Sinaiticus, found by him on Mount Sinai in 1859, and now in St. Petersburg, the oldest known manuscript of the present day which contains the entire Greek New Testament. On the basis of the material collected by himself and others, Tischendorf prepared eight different editions between 1841 and 1872.[15] His seventh edition, consisting of 3500 copies, appeared in 1859, previous to the discovery of the Sinaiticus. The text of this edition differed from that of 1849 in 1296 instances, of which no fewer than 595 were reversions to the Textus Receptus. The text of the last edition, the octava critica maior, which was issued complete in eleven parts between 1864 and 1872, differed from that of the seventh in 3572 places. The third volume of the editio octava maior, containing the Prolegomena, was completed in three parts, extending to 1428 pages, by Caspar René Gregory between 1884 and 1894, a work which affords the most complete survey of what has been done on the Greek New Testament up to the present time.
Literature.—Scrivener, ii. 235; TiGr., 1-22; Urt., 49-52. Apart from the Editio Octava Maior, the most useful editions will be found to be those of O. v. Gebhardt (see below, p. 23), or the Editio Academica ad editionem oct. maior. conformata, Leipzig, Mendelssohn, 16mo, 1855, twentieth edition, 1899.
While the editions of Tischendorf were appearing on the Continent, an edition began to be issued in England, which was completed in the course of twenty years. It was the work of a Quaker, Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (b. 1813, d. 1875), who, while reaping no profit from his undertaking, has left in it a monument to his fidelity. In this edition (1857-1879)[16] those passages in which the editor was unable to pronounce a final judgment from the accessible material are indicated by the form of the type.
A still more important advance was made by Brooke Foss Westcott (b. 1825), now Bishop of Durham, and Fenton John Anthony Hort (b. 23rd April 1828, d. 30th November 1892). In 1881, these Cambridge scholars, after nearly thirty years of joint labour, published two volumes, the first containing the Text with a brief survey of its history and resulting criticism, the second giving a detailed exposition of their critical principles by Hort himself. They were led by their investigation to distinguish four main types of text:—
(1) A late type, originating in Syria about the year 300, which, issuing from Constantinople, became the prevailing text in later manuscripts, and corresponds essentially with the textus receptus of early printed editions:
(2) A type originating in Alexandria, characterized by linguistic emendations:
(3) A type originating in Syria but reaching the West previous to the year 200, represented essentially by the Old Latin versions on the one hand and by the Syriac on the other, and displaying all sorts of remarkable additions:
(4) The Neutral text, which displays no sort of corruptions.
Westcott and Hort’s work is the latest and most thorough attempt yet made at a complete edition of the New Testament.
Literature.—The New Testament in the original Greek. The text revised by Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., and Fenton John Anthony Hort, D.D., Cambridge and London. Vol. i. Text (Fourth Edition, 1898). Vol. ii., Introduction and Appendix (Third Edition, 1896). A smaller edition of the text, 1885. Text, from new type, in larger form, 1895. For “Some trifling Corrections to W.-H.’s New Testament,” see Nestle in the Expository Times, viii. 479; ix. 95, 333, 424. See Life and Letters of F. J. A. Hort, by his son, A. F. Hort, 2 vols., London, 1896; also article on Hort, by Gregory in the PRE3, viii. 368. Facsimile of the American Edition with Introduction by Schaff, in Schaff’s Companion.
The “Resultant Greek Testament” of R. F. Weymouth affords a convenient comparison of the text of the most important editions.
Literature.—The Resultant Greek Testament, exhibiting the text in which the majority of modern editors are agreed, and containing the readings of Stephen (1550), Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf, Lightfoot, Ellicott, Alford, Weiss, the Bâle edition (1880), Westcott and Hort, and the Revision Committee. By Richard Francis Weymouth. With an Introduction by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Worcester. London, 1886.... Cheap Edition, 1892, pp. xix. 644. Besides the editions mentioned in the title, the Complutensian, Elzevir (1633), Scrivener and others are compared in several places.
Quite recently, Bernhard Weiss, of Berlin, began a new and independent revision of the text, which has been published in three large volumes with introduction and explanatory notes.
Literature.—Das Neue Testament. Textkritische Untersuchungen und Textherstellung von D. Bernhard Weiss. Erster Theil, Apostelgeschichte: Katholische Briefe: Apocalypse. Leipzig, 1894. Zweiter Theil, Die paulinischen Briefe einschliesslich des Hebräerbriefs, 1896. Dritter Theil, Die vier Evangelien 1900. Vol. i. is compiled from Texte und Untersuchungen, ix. 3, 4; viii. 3; vii. 1. The section in vol. ii. entitled Textkritik der paulinischen Briefe, is taken from TU. xiv. 3, and the corresponding section in vol. iii. from TU. xix. 2 (New Series, iv. 2). See “B. Weiss and the New Testament,” by C. R. Gregory in the American Journal of Theology, 1897, i. 16-37.
In Germany, O. von Gebhardt has done good service by issuing the text of Tischendorf’s last edition, with the necessary corrections, and giving in the margin the readings adopted by Tregelles and Westcott-Hort, when these differ from the text. In the “editio stereotypa minor,” the differences of Westcott-Hort alone are shown. In his Greek-German New Testament, he also exhibits at the foot of Luther’s German text those readings wherein the text of Erasmus’s second edition of 1519, used by Luther, differs from that of the last edition of Tischendorf. In this diglot of v. Gebhardt, therefore, one can see at a glance not only how far the Greek text of the present day differs from that printed at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but also the amount of agreement between present-day editors working on such different principles as Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort. In the Adnotatio Critica found in the Appendix to the larger edition, there is a brief digest of the critical Apparatus, but it extends only to those passages where Tischendorf and Westcott-Hort disagree. The editio minor contains 600 pages. One of these, p. 501, shows not a single disagreement between these great editors, while 18 pages exhibit only one variation each, and these, for the most part, mere grammatical trifles.
Literature.—Novum Testamentum Graece recensionis Tischendorfianae ultimae textum cum Tregellesiano et Westcottio-Hortiano contulit et brevi adnotatione critica additisque locis parallelis illustravit Oscar de Gebhardt. Editio stereotypa. Lipsiae (Tauchnitz), 1881. Seventh edition, 1896.
N. T. Graece et Germanice. Leipzig, 1881. Fourth edition, 1896. In this edition the Greek is that of Tischendorf’s last edition, and the German is the Revised text of Luther (1870). The various readings are shown for both texts, and a selection of parallel passages is also given.
N. T. Graece ex ultima Tischendorfii recensione edidit Oscar de Gebhardt. Editio stereotypa minor. Lipsiae, 16mo., 1887. Fourth edition, 1898.
The text of the Greek and Greek-German New Testaments prepared by me, and issued by the Württemberg Bible Institute, is based on a comparison of the three editions of Tischendorf, Westcott-Hort, and Weymouth. The variations of these editions are shown at the foot of the page, where are given also the readings inserted by Westcott and Hort in their Appendix and omitted by O. v. Gebhardt. From Acts onwards, the readings adopted by Weiss are indicated as well. In a lower margin, a number of important manuscript readings are given. In the Gospels and Acts, these are taken mainly, though not exclusively, from Codex Bezae. In the Greek-German edition, the text (German) is that of the Revised Version of 1892. Below it are given the readings of Luther’s last edition (1546), with several of his marginal glosses and earlier renderings.
Literature.—Novum Testamentum Graece cum apparatu critico ex editionibus et libris manu scriptis collecto. Stuttgart, 1898. Second corrected edition, 1899. Also issued in two and in ten parts, and interleaved. Third edition in preparation.
Fr. Schjøtt published an edition at Copenhagen in 1897 the text of which was determined by the agreement between the Codex Vaticanus (Claromontanus, from Heb. ix. 14 onwards) and the Sinaiticus. Where they disagreed he called in the next oldest manuscript as umpire. For this purpose he employed for the Gospels the manuscripts A C D E F H Ib K L P Q T U V X Z Γ Δ, for the Acts and Catholic Epistles A C D E H K L P, for the Pauline Epistles A C D E F G H L P, and for the Apocalypse A C P 1, 18, 38, 49, 92, 95. At the foot of the text his edition gives, in two divisions, a comparison with the Elzevir text and with that of Tischendorf-Gebhardt (1894). From what source Schjøtt derived his knowledge of the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus is not mentioned. The photograph of the former seems not to have been employed.
Literature.—Novum Testamentum Graece ad fidem testium vetustissimorum recognovit necnon variantes lectiones ex editionibus Elzeviriana et Tischendorfiana subjunxit Fr. Schjøtt. Hauniae, 1897, pp. xi. 562.
The edition of J. M. S. Baljon is in the main an abridgment of Tischendorf’s octava maior. He avails himself, however, of later discoveries, such as the Sinai-Syriac Palimpsest for the Gospels, and the Syriac version published by Gwynn for the Apocalypse. In Acts, Blass’s restoration of the so-called Forma Romana is regularly indicated. No other edition, for one thing, shows more conveniently where recent scholars recognise glosses or other interpolations, or propose transpositions or conjectural emendations and such like. So far, therefore, it may be commended to those who do not possess an edition with a more copious critical apparatus. But even Baljon’s New Testament fails to realise the ideal of a practical edition.
Literature.—Novum Testamentum Graece praesertim in usum studiosorum recognovit J. M. S. Baljon, Groningae, 1898, pp. xxiii. 731. The first 320 pages are also issued separately as Volumen primum continens Evangelia Matthaei, Marci, Lucae et Ioannis. Vide Bousset in the Theologische Rundschau for July 1898.
From the Catholic side little has been done in Germany in this department of scholarship for a long time. In 1821 Aloys Gratz reprinted the Complutensian at Tübingen; while Leander van Ess issued an edition which combined the Complutensian and Erasmus’s fifth edition.[17] This also appeared at Tübingen in 1827. Both of these contained the Vulgate, and showed where recent editions gave a different text.
Reuss mentions two Synopses, one by Joseph Gehringer (Tübingen, 1842, 4o), the other by Fr. X. Patricius (Freiburg, 1853, 4o), and two small editions, one of which, by A. Jaumann (Munich, 1832), was the first to be printed in Bavaria. The other is by Fr. X. Reithmayer (Munich, 1847), and closely follows the text of Lachmann.
There has also appeared recently at Innsbruck a Greek-Latin edition in two volumes by Michael Hetzenauer, a Capuchin. The first volume contains the Evangelium and the second the Apostolicum. But as the strict Catholic is bound by the decision of the Holy Office, Hetzenauer’s edition hardly falls to be considered here. A resolution of the Holy Office of 13th January 1897 pronounced even the Comma Johanneum (1 John v. 7) to be an integral part of the New Testament. This was confirmed by the Pope on the 15th January, and published in the Monitore Ecclesiastico of the 28th February of the same year. An edition in Greek and Latin was issued by Brandscheid at Freiburg in 1893.
It is impossible to enumerate here editions of separate books of the New Testament. Many of these are in the form of Commentaries. In addition to the works of Blass, to which reference will be made later, mention may be made here of a recent and most thorough piece of work—viz., The Gospel according to St. Mark: The Greek Text, with Introduction and Notes, by Henry Barclay Swete, D.D., pp. cx. 412 (London, Macmillan, 1898); also of The Gospel according to St. Luke after the Westcott-Hort text, edited with parallels, illustrations, various readings, and notes, by the Rev. Arthur Wright: London, Macmillan, 1900; and of Hilgenfeld’s edition of the Acts in Greek and Latin. Berlin, 1899.
Nor can we enter particularly the field of early Christian Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Those who cannot obtain Hilgenfeld’s Novum Testamentum extra Canonem Receptum, or Resch’s Agrapha, or the editions of Tischendorf, Lipsius, and Bonnet, will find a handy and inexpensive selection in my Supplement to Gebhardt’s editions of Tischendorf.
Literature.—Novi Testamenti Graeci Supplementum editionibus de Gebhardt-Tischendorfianis adcommodavit Eb. Nestle. Insunt Codicis Cantabrigiensis Collatio, Evangeliorum deperditorum Fragmenta, Dicta Salvatoris Agrapha, Alia. Lipsiae (Tauchnitz), 1896, pp. 96.
There can be no question that in these last mentioned editions which have been brought out at the end of the nineteenth century, we have a text corresponding far more closely to the original than that contained in the first editions of the Greek New Testament issued at the beginning of the sixteenth century, on which are based the translations into modern languages used in the Christian churches of Europe at the present time. It would be a vast mistake, however, to conclude from the textual agreement displayed in these latest editions, that research in this department of New Testament study has reached its goal. Just as explorers, in excavating the ruined temples of Olympia or Delphi, are able from the fragments they discover to reconstruct the temple, to their mind’s eye at least, in its ancient glory—albeit it is actually in ruins—so too, much work remains to be done ere even all the materials are re-collected, and the plan determined which shall permit us to restore the Temple of the New Testament Scriptures to its original form.