MINOR CODICES, COMPILED FROM DR. SCRIVENER'S "INTRODUCTION TO THE CRITICISM

E Codex Basiliensis

E.

Nearly all the 4 Gospels, Mid. 8th cent.
Acts (W. & H., p. 15)

Basle

Very good, p. 103.

4 Gospels, defective

9th or 10th cent.

7th cent. (?)

6th or 7th cent.

8th cent. (?)

་་

No comments, 105.

Strongly resembles F, 135.

106

I

St. Paul's Epistles

Frag. Gosp., Acts. & Epis.
St. Paul's Epistles

Frag. of Gospels
Ditto

10th cent.
9th cent.

6th cent.

Pub. Lib.,Utrecht Very defective, 104.
Trin. Coll., Cam- See below, 135.*
bridge

Pub. Lib., Ham- Higher value than G, 106.

burgh

Imp. Lib., Paris"Very precious fragments,"

5th and 6th cent St. Petersburg

Mid. 9th cent.
8th cent.

End of 9th cent.
Perhaps 10th cent.

End of 6th cent.

R (letter assigned to different books Palimpsest frag. of Gospels by various editors)

4 Gospels, with serious de- 9th or early 10th Univ. Lib., Mu

fects

Frag. Matthew

6th cent.

extant, 119.

Dublensis Rescriptus

Trin. Coll.,Dublin One of the chief Palimpsests

*F "abounds as much as any with real variations from the common text, and with numberless errors of the pen," 135.

is denounced by the Quarterly Reviewer as being exceptionally corrupt, while it is upheld by Drs. Westcott and Hort as having been of exceptional purity, and the nearest possible approach to the words themselves of the sacred writers. Upon this difference of opinion it is not unimportant to remember that Dr. Scrivener says (Introd., p. 386, 1st ed.), "The worst corruptions to which the New Testament has ever been subjected originated within a hundred years after it was composed," i.e., before the actual words of the originals had acquired the sacred character in the estimation of Christians which they gradually attained, as the New Testament writings grew to be looked upon as ai ypapai-sacred writings-like "the other Scriptures." These corruptions, whether of omission or of addition, were gradually corrected with scrupulous care, especially in the fourth century, and in many instances the "versions," and the quotations by Christian writers of this and even a later period, were more trustworthy than the less scrupulously correct text of an earlier date.

THE IMPORTANT QUESTION TO BE SETTLED.

There seems to be little reason to doubt the antiquity of the two great uncials and B; but the consideration of their age is very different from that of the faithfulness with which they represent the words of the Evangelists and Apostles, and the real question at issue appears to be: Are these two recently-discovered MSS.- and B,-though of unknown authorship, and dating from a period of great corruption of the text, differing from each other in important particulars, and differing still more widely from all others, to be accepted as almost unquestionable authorities, over the heads of all other MSS., and of versions made from MSS. also, some of the versions being of greater antiquity than and B; and the MSS. of others being of an age in which the greatest

care had been taken to ensure scrupulous accuracy in the sacred text. Messrs. Westcott and Hort, supported by the Revisionists as a body, appear to make this claim; and it has been acted upon in the alterations made in the new text. Objectors to the claim are neither few nor unlearned; and the question is one which will have to be settled before the Revised Version can be accepted with the feeling of confidence that has hitherto attached to the Authorised Version of the New Testament.

Some idea may be formed of the number of changes likely to be made in the Greek text of the New Testament, if the authority of these various uncials is accepted, from the following table, compiled from the Quarterly Review article:

SERIOUS differences in the GOSPELS alone between the Textus Receptus and

AMOUNT OF MS. EVIDENCE FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT

AND VARIOUS CLASSICAL WORKS.

The amount of MS. evidence to be taken into account in determining the Greek text of the New Testament is startling, when it is compared with what is possessed in the case of the most eminent classic authors. High authorities speak of known MSS. of the whole or parts only of Herodotus as 14; Plato, 10, "but probably more " Xenophon's Anabasis, 5; Virgil, 7, as old as the third and fifth centuries; Horace, at least 16, "but probably more numerous "; Ovid, at least 20; Tacitus, about 18.

• Supplied to the author by the Rev. Canon Butler.

;

But of almost the entire New Testament, there are the five great uncials; and of portions, more or less extensive, there are:

Uncials examined and catalogued, 158 (Newth).

Cursives of the whole New Testament, about 30 (Westcott and Hort, "Introduction," p. 76).

MSS. (uncial or cursive) of the Gospels, there are 685; of the Acts and Catholic Epistles, 242; of the Pauline Epistles, 298; of the Apocalypse, 110.

Lectionaries, or special portions appointed to be publicly read in the Greek churches, there are 428, of which 347 contain passages from the Gospels, and 81 from the Acts and Epistles, making nearly 1,800 MSS. which have been catalogued and more or less carefully examined. (Newth, p. 80.)

When to this list is added the quotations by the early Christian writers, and the versions made in the first few centuries into almost every Eastern language, as well as into Latin and Gothic, the amount of evidence to be considered is overwhelming, and appears utterly beyond the power of any mixed company to decide upon, when submitted to it for immediate adoption or rejection.

METHOD ADOPTED IN REVISING THE GREEK TEXT.

In order that the principles upon which the Quarterly Reviewer's and similar attacks are based may be appreciated by those members of the Society who may not have studied the subject carefully, a few illustrations may indicate their nature, and the degree of weight they appear entitled to claim; and in this case we have, fortunately, evidence in the two books by Drs. Newth and Roberts (Revisionists themselves), and in the Preface to the Revised Greek Testa