CHAPTER IV: ACCIDENTAL CAUSES OF CORRUPTION.

ACCIDENTAL CAUSES OF CORRUPTION.
III. FROM WRITING IN UNCIALS.
§ 1.

CORRUPT readings have occasionally resulted from the ancient practice of writing Scripture in the uncial character, without accents, punctuation, or indeed any division of the text. Especially are they found in places where there is something unusual in the structure of the sentence.

St. John iv. 35-6 (leukai' eisi pro`s therismo'n e'de) has suffered in this way,--owing to the unusual position of e'de. Certain of the scribes who imagined that e'de might belong to ver. 36, rejected the kai as superfluous; though no Father is known to have been guilty of such a solecism. Others, aware that e'de can only belong to ver. 35, were not unwilling to part with the copula at the beginning of ver. 36. A few, considering both words of doubtful authority, retained neither
[60] . In this way it has come to pass that there are four ways of exhibiting this place:--(a) pro`s therismon e'de. Kai ho therizon:--(b) pro`s therismo'n Ede ho th.:--(c) pro`s therismon e'de. Ho therizon:--(d) pro`s therismo'n. Ho therizon, k.t.l..

The only point of importance however is the position of e'de: which is claimed for ver. 35 by the great mass of the copies: as well as by Origen [61] , Eusebius [62] , Chrysostom [63] , Cyril [64] , the Vulgate, Jerome of course, and the Syriac. The Italic copies are hopelessly divided here [65] : and Codd. 'BMP do not help us. But e'de is claimed for ver. 36 by CDEL, 33, and by the Curetonian and Lewis (= kai e'de ho therizon): while Codex A is singular in beginning ver. 36, e'de kai--which shews that some early copyist, with the correct text before him, adopted a vicious punctuation. For there can be no manner of doubt that the commonly received text and the usual punctuation is the true one: as, on a careful review of the evidence, every unprejudiced reader will allow. But recent critics are for leaving out kai (with 'BCDL): while Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, Tregelles (marg.), are for putting the full stop after pro`s therismo'n and (with ACDL) making e'de begin the next sentence,-- which (as Alford finds out) is clearly inadmissible.

§ 2.

Sometimes this affects the translation. Thus, the Revisers propose in the parable of the prodigal And I perish here with hunger!' But why here?' Because I answer, whereas in the earliest copies of St. Luke the words stood thus,--EGoDELIMoAPOLLUMAI, some careless scribe after writing EGoDE, reduplicated the three last letters (oDE): he mistook them for an independent word. Accordingly in the Codex Bezae, in R and U and about ten cursives, we encounter ego de ode. The inventive faculty having thus done its work it remained to superadd transposition,' as was done by 'BL. From ego de ode limo the sentence has now developed into ego de limo ode: which approves itself to Griesbach and Schultz, to Lachmann and Tischendorf and Tregelles, to Alford and Westcott and Hort, and to the Revisers. A very ancient blunder, certainly, ego de hode is: for it is found in the Latin [66] and the Syriac translations. It must therefore date from the second century. But it is a blunder notwithstanding: a blunder against which 16 uncials and the whole body of the cursives bear emphatic witness
[67] . Having detected its origin, we have next to trace its progress.

The inventors of hode or other scribes quickly saw that this word requires a correlative in the earlier part of the sentence. Accordingly, the same primitive authorities which advocate here,' are observed also to advocate, above, in my Father's house.' No extant Greek copy is known to contain the bracketed words in the sentence [en to oiko tou patros mou: but such copies must have existed in the second century. The Peshitto, the Cureton and Lewis recognize the three words in question; as well as copies of the Latin with which Jerome [68] , Augustine [69] and Cassian [70] were acquainted. The phrase in domo patris mei' has accordingly established itself in the Vulgate. But surely we of the Church of England who have been hitherto spared this second blunder, may reasonably (at the end of 1700 years) refuse to take the first downward step. Our Lord intended no contrast whatever between two localities--but between two parties. The comfortable estate of the hired servants He set against the abject misery of the Son: not the house wherein the servants dwelt, and the spot where the poor prodigal was standing when he came to a better mind.--These are many words; but I know not how to be briefer. And,--what is worthy of discussion, if not the utterances of the Word made flesh?'

If hesitation to accept the foregoing verdict lingers in any quarter, it ought to be dispelled by a glance at the context in 'BL. What else but the instinct of a trained understanding is it to survey the neighbourhood of a place like the present? Accordingly, we discover that in ver. 16, for gemisai ten koilian autou apo, 'BDLR present us with chortasthenai ek: and in ver. 22, the prodigal, on very nearly the same authority ('BDUX), is made to say to his father,--Poieson me hos e'na ton misthi'on sou:

Which certainly he did not say [71] . Moreover, 'BLX and the Old Latin are for thrusting in tachu (D tacheos) after exene'nkate. Are not these one and all confessedly fabricated readings? the infelicitous attempts of some well-meaning critic to improve upon the inspired original?

From the fact that three words in St. John v. 44 were in the oldest MSS. written thus,--MONOUThUOU (i.e. mo'nou Theou ou), the middle word (theou) got omitted from some very early copies; whereby the sentence is made to run thus in English,--And seek not the honour which cometh from the only One.' It is so that Origen [72] , Eusebius [73] , Didymus
[74] , besides the two best copies of the Old Latin, exhibit the place. As to Greek MSS., the error survives only in B at the present day, the preserver of an Alexandrian error.

§ 3.

St. Luke explains (Acts xxvii. 14) that it was the typhonic wind called Euroclydon' which caused the ship in which St. Paul and he sailed past Crete to incur the harm and loss' so graphically described in the last