81. GREEK MSS., NEW TESTAMENT
There is a further classification, according to certain characteristics, into *Recensions* (which in the case of printed books, we speak of as *Editions*).
1. The Alexandrine or Egyptian.
2. The Western or Occidental.
3. The Oriental or Byzantine.
But the collators and editors of these MSS. are not all agreed, and their reckonings often overlap. There are other *Recensions* than these recognized and named by other scholars and critics.
*The chief MSS.* of the New Testament are known and referred to as follows:—
"A" is the recognized symbol of the *Codex Alexandrinus*. The MS is so called because it was brought from Alexandria by Cyrillus Lucaris, a native of Crete and patriarch of Constantinople, who sent it by Sir Thomas Rowe, the British Ambassador, to King Charles I. The proprietor of the MS., before it came into the hands of Cyrillus Lucaris, had written a subscription in Arabic, stating that it was written by Thecla, a Christian martyr, about 1300 years before. This would make the date of the MS. about the end of the fourth century. It could not be earlier, as it contains a letter of Athanasius. It is preserved in the British Museum. "B" is the *Codex Vaticanus*. This MS. is so called because it is preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome.
It is generally supposed to belong to the fourth or fifth century.
"C" is the *Codex Ephræmi*. It is so called because the MS. contains, in the first part, several Greek writings of Ephrem the Syrian. It is generally believed to have been written in Egypt in the fifth or sixth century. It is preserved in the National Library at Paris.
"D(1)" is the *Codex Bezæ*. It is known also as the *Codex Cantabrigensis*, because it was presented, in 1581, by Theodore Beza to the library of the University of Cambridge, where it is still preserved. It is believed to belong to the fifth century. It contains only the Gospels and Acts. XII. THE PLACE OF VARIOUS READINGS
"D(2)" is another MS. found by Beza at Clermont, and called the Codex Claromontanus. It contains the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews; and is in the National Library at Paris.
"N" denotes the Codex Sinaiticus, which is regarded by some as the most ancient and important of any of the MSS. at present known. It is so called from the fact that it was discovered by Tischendorf so recently as 1844 and 1859 at the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. Its date may be fixed about the middle of the fourth century, and its authority is very great. It will be noted that, from the dates assigned to the discovery of these several MSS., they were for the most part unknown to the translators of the Authorized Version; so that due allowance must be made for the weight (or the reverse) of their authority when we have to consider any particular passage. The above are the principal Uncial MSS. There are many more; and it is quite possible that some of the later Cursive MSS. may be transcripts of MSS. still older than any of the existing Uncial MSS. So that no one critic can speak with absolute authority.
THE ANCIENT VERSIONS have also to be taken into account. Passing over the Jewish (Hebrew) Targums or Commentaries,
1. The oldest is the Greek Version of the Old Testament, made about B.C. 277,¹ for the Jews dwelling in Egypt. It is known as THE SEPTUAGINT, from the traditional belief that it was made by seventy or seventy-two translators. Hence it is referred to by the abbreviation LXX. or by the Greek letter (signa) for this number, σ. 2. The Peschito, or Old Syriac Version, was one of several versions made by Christians in the earliest period of the Christian Era. It is called "Peschito," which means literal, and it was so named because it was a literal translation from the Hebrew. It was made at the close of the first century or the early part of the second century. ¹ It could not be earlier than this date because in Prov. viii, 18 years, a word of Gallic origin, is used for a short javelin, first known in Greece by an invasion of Gauls in B.C. 278.
THE ANCIENT VERSIONS
There is a later Syriac Version, made in A.D. 488-518. It is known as the "Philoxenian," or "Syro-Philoxenian" Version, from the name of Philoxenus, Bishop of Hierapolis, in Syria, who employed Polycarp to make it.
3. The Coptic (or Memphitic) Version was made from the Septuagint in the third century, but not printed till 1716, at Oxford.
4. The Ethiopic (or Abyssinian) Version was made certainly in the second century.
5. The Armenian Version, made also from the Septuagint towards the close of Cent. IV, or early in Cent. V.
6. The Vulgate Version dates from the fourth century. As Latin gradually displaced the Greek as the common language of the people, so there soon sprang up a number of versions in that language. These were translated, part by one translator and part by another, until one complete copy was made by combining the several parts. This was known by the name of Itala, or the Italic Version, called by Jerome sometimes the Vulgate (or Common) Version, and sometimes the Old. Both Old and New Testaments were translated from the Greek. This was revised by Jerome, who re-translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew. The work occupied him from A.D. 385-405, and by the year 604 had superseded all others, being known as the Vulgate Version. Since the seventh century it has been adopted by the Church of Rome, and in the sixteenth century it was declared by the Council of Trent to be the "Authentic" Version. With the multiplication of copies came, inevitably, the multiplication of errors. An attempt at correcting these was ordered by Charlemagne in the eighth century. A further revision was attempted by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the eleventh century, and by other scholars during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was first printed by Robert Stephens in 1528, and a revision of this was printed by Pope Sixtus V. at a printing office set up in the Vatican in 1590. So many corrections were introduced by Sixtus V. that another edition was prepared and printed by Pope Clement VIII. in 1592, which contained even more and greater divergencies, XII. THE PLACE OF VARIOUS READINGS which gave Protestants like Thomas James¹ the opportunity of exposing the numerous additions, omissions, and alterations between these two Editions.
In spite of all this, the Vulgate has its place in the consideration of the subject of Various Readings.
THE PRINTED TEXT OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT.
The manuscripts mentioned above have been collated at various times by many who have, from this, been termed "Textual Critics."
These are quite different from the more modern generation of the so-called "Higher" Critics.
The former base their conclusions on documentary evidence which they see before them; while the latter base theirs on hypotheses which are the productions of their own imagination.
Some of the Textual Critics have published from time to time Greek Testaments which they have compiled from the manuscripts to which they have had access, and to which they have attached the greatest weight.
The most important are as follows:--
| The Complutensian Polyglot | . | . | 1514 |
| Erasmus (1st Edition) | . | . | 1516 |
| Stephens | . | . | 1516-9 |
| Beza² | . | . | 1624 |
| Elzivir | . | . | 1624 |
| Griesbach | . | . | 1771-5 |
| Scholz | . | . | 1830-6 |
| Lachmann | . | . | 1831-50 |
| Tischendorf | . | . | 1841-72 |
| Tregelles | . | . | 1850-72 |
| Alford | . | . | 1862-71 |
| Wordsworth | . | . | 1870 |
| Revisers' Text | . | . | 1881 |
| Westcott and Hort | . | . | 1881-1903 |
| Scrivener | . | . | 1886 |
| Weymouth | . | . | 1886 |
| Nestle | . | . | 1904 |
¹ In his Bullum Papale. London, 1890.
² This, with the Elzivir, forms the Text used by the A.V. translators, and is known as the Textus Receptus, or Received Text.