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THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

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TORONTO

THE BEGINNINGS
OF CHRISTIANITY

PART I
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

EDITED BY

F. J. FOAKES JACKSON, D.D.

AND

KIRSOPP LAKE, D.D.

VOL. Ill

THE TEXT OF ACTS
BY

JAMES HARDY ROPES

HOLL1S PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN S STREET, LONDON

1926

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

MY WIFE

FIERI autem omnino non potest ut unius hominis industria
editio novi testament! historiae ut ita dicam fide adoniata
perficiatur. nam etiam libris edendis earn legem scriptam
esse didici ut lente festinetur, ne dum omnia simul assequi
veils nihil assequaris.

Id ago ut theologis apparatum non quidem locupletem
sed pro humanarum virium infirmitate certissimum

congeram.

PAUL DE LAGARDE (1857).

PREFACE

THE study of the textual criticism of the New Testament, like
that of the kindred science of palaeontology, rests on morphology,
but necessarily expands into an historical inquiry. Without an
adequate history of the text the determination of that text
remains insecure. But textual history has also intrinsic value,
for it is a true, though minor, branch of Church history. As an
account of the development of one phase of the life and activity
of the Church it is significant for its own sake, and not unworthy
to take a place beside the history of liturgies or creeds or vest
ments. Not only does it abundantly illustrate the history of
biblical exegesis, but in it many characteristic traits of the
thought and aspiration of successive ages may be studied from
original sources.

These considerations have been in mind in preparing the
present volume, and especially in the Introductory Essay ; and
a summary sketch of the textual history of the Book of Acts, so
far as present knowledge permits, has been offered on pp. ccxc-
ccxcvii. Every part of the section on the Sources of Knowledge
for the text will reveal how wide is the range of general history,
both sacred and secular, into contact with which the student of
textual history is brought. Some of the specific tasks as yet
unperformed which are requisite to a completer knowledge of
textual history and a securer confidence in the results of textual
criticism are mentioned at the close of the Essay.

The large space occupied in this volume by the discussion of
the text called Western (for which it is unfortunate that no
better name should be at hand) might seem excessive in view of

vii

viii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

the conclusion here presented that that text is inferior to the
text found in the Old Uncials, or even in the mass of later manu
scripts. But in fact the creation of the Western text was the
most important event in the history of the text of Acts, and the
recovery of it, so far as that is practicable, from the many corrupt
documents in which its fragments now repose is an essential
preliminary to a sound judgment on the textual criticism of the
book. That the Western text, if, as I hold, not the work of
the original author of Acts, was a definite rewriting, rather than
an accumulation of miscellaneous variants, ought not to have
been doubted, and that for two reasons. In the first place, it has
an unmistakably homogeneous internal character. Secondly, its
hundreds or thousands of variants are now known to have arisen
in a brief period, scarcely, if at all, longer than the fifty years
after the book first passed into circulation. In that period a
pedigree of successive copies was short, and to produce so many
variants the mere natural licence of copyists would be insufficient.
And since one rewriting would suffice, any theory that more than
one took place in those years would seem to fall under the con
demnation of Occam s razor. Of course the * Western text,
once produced, was liable to modification and enlargement, and
the Bezan form, in which it is most commonly read, while in
valuable, is full of corruptions, but a full study of the evidence
contained in this volume and elsewhere is likely to bring con
viction that a definite Western text, whether completely
recoverable in its original form or not, once actually existed.

If the Western text had never been created, the problem
of the textual criticism of the New Testament would have been
relatively easy, and the variants not unduly numerous. Textual
history, in nearly all its more difficult phases, is the story of a
long series of combinations of the Western text with its rival,
the text best known to us from the Old Uncials and the Bohairic
version. One of these combinations, for which I have used the
name Antiochian, became the text most widely employed
throughout the later Christian centuries. Nevertheless, if the

PREFACE ix

Western text had not been created, although the critic s task
would be easier, we should be the poorer, for those fragments of
its base, which it enshrines like fossils in an enveloping rock-mass,
would probably have perished, and we should have lost these
evidences of a good text of extreme antiquity, vastly nearer
in date to the original autographs than any of our Greek
manuscripts.

With regard to the Western text itself the most interesting
idea that I have been able to bring forward seems to me one
worthy of further discussion, but hardly susceptible of direct
proof, although it may be possible to show that as an hypothesis
it fits well all the known facts, and would elucidate some other
wise perplexing problems. I refer to the suggestion that the
preparation of the * Western text, which took place early in the
second century, perhaps at Antioch, was incidental to the work
of forming the collection of Christian writings for general Church
use which ultimately, somewhat enlarged, became the New Testa
ment ; in a word, that the Western text was the text of the
primitive canon (if the term may be pardoned in referring to
so early a date), and was expressly created for that purpose.
Such a theory is recommended by its aptness to explain both the
wide spread of the Western text in the second century, as if
issued from some authoritative centre, and its gradual disappear
ance from general use thereafter, as well as its inferiority, when
judged by internal evidence. That this conception would throw
a direct light on certain dark places in the history of the New
Testament canon is at once manifest. It is probably inconsistent
with some current hypotheses and conclusions in that field, since
it would require the admission that at the date of the rewriting
those rewritten books already formed a collection ; but it may
be remarked that in any case the very act of making a rewritten
text of these books must of itself have produced a kind of
collection. On the side, however, of the history of the canon
by virtue of which it appears as a topic in the history of Christian
dogma rather than of Christian antiquities and usages, the theory

x THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

here proposed does not seem to run counter to any views
commonly held by scholars.

If the Western text was a revision made in the first half of
the second century, it is a monument of the life and thought of
that period, an historical source, although one not easily recon
structed with completeness and accuracy. It is more difficult
to study than the contemporary Apostolic Fathers, but not less
worthy of attention than they are.

The plan of the text and apparatus of this volume is set forth
fully in the Explanatory Note following the Introductory Essay.
What is offered is neither a fresh text nor a complete apparatus,
but rather a selection of important material and a series of in
vestigations in the form partly of apparatus, partly of textual
notes. The time for making a satisfactory new critical text
does not appear to me to have yet arrived, and although often
with reasons given I have fully stated the readings in which,
with varying degrees of confidence, I am disposed to believe
Codex Vaticanus wrong, that is a very different thing from pro
pounding a complete new text, with the necessary decision of
innumerable questions of orthography, punctuation, and typo
graphy, as well as of the body of words to be included. In the
nature of the case a new text could not at present lay claim to
finality, and the only certainty about it would seem to be that
it never existed until its author, the critic, created it.

In the several apparatus the aim has been clearness and
simplicity, and with that in view much has been omitted that
finds appropriate place in a complete thesaurus of readings.
Even so, the apparatus are complicated enough. They are
intended to afford a knowledge of the variation within limited
range manifested by the chief Greek Old Uncial authorities,
and a definite notion of the oldest form of the Antiochian text,
preserved as it is with singular exactness in the manuscripts.
For the Western text, in consequence of the highly mixed
character of nearly all the witnesses, equal completeness in the
apparatus of these pages is impracticable. Whether there ever

PREFACE xi

was an Alexandrian revision of the text of Acts is uncertain,
but that question also can be studied in the Old Uncial apparatus
and in the exhibition of the Bohairic version given in Appendix V.

To the Appendices, in which the ingredient readings of the
four chief versions are set forth in full, special attention is asked.
These tables give in a different arrangement, and with careful
analysis of relevant attestation, most of the information about
the four versions which is usually included in a textual apparatus
to Acts, and they will serve some purposes of study better than
the ordinary plan. It is a pity that the Armenian and Georgian
and Ethiopic versions could not also have been analysed.

The concluding portion of the volume consists of a translation
of the full Commentary of Ephrem Syrus on the Book of Acts,
made for the present use by the late Dr. Frederick C. Conybeare,
whose acuteness and learning detected the existence of this work
in an Armenian MS. at Vienna. The lamented death of this
eminent and beloved scholar prevented him from seeing his work
in its final printed form, but the first proof had been revised
by him, and I am confident that what is here offered is not
unworthy of the memory of the generous friend who so often, as
here, put other scholars under obligation. The translation both
of the Commentary and of the accompanying Catena-extracts
has been compared with the original Armenian by the self-
denying labour of my colleague, Professor Robert P. Blake of
Harvard University.

It remains to express gratitude to many who have helped me.
The Editors of The Beginnings of Christianity have followed the
preparation of the work with constant and sympathetic aid, and
I am indebted to my colleague, Professor Lake, not only for
the original proposal and for a large share in the development
of the plan, but for innumerable valuable suggestions, incisive
criticisms, wise counsels, and cheerful encouragement. Sir
Herbert Thompson s characteristic kindness and accurate
scholarship have supplied, through his collations of the Sahidic
and Bohairic versions, knowledge which was not otherwise

xii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

accessible, and the Appendices drawn from his work make it
possible to approach the Egyptian versions with confidence in a
way which has not hitherto been open to New Testament scholars.
My colleague, Professor Henry J. Cadbury, has rendered admir
able service in the laborious task of collating the Vulgate and
the Peshitto. From Professor F. C. Burkitt, Professor Alexander
Souter, and Professor Charles C. Torrey I have received much
valuable aid, and likewise from Professor Paul Diels of Breslau,
Professor James A. Montgomery and Professor Max L. Margolis
of Philadelphia, and Professor J. E. Frame of New York. To
the great courtesy of Mgr. G. Mercati I owe information which
he alone could give. For wise advice, which contributed
fundamentally to better the general plan of the volume, I have
to thank honoured friends Professor von Dobschutz, Professor
Julicher, Dean H. J. White of Christ Church, Dean J. Armitage
Robinson of Wells, Professor George Foot Moore ; and to Pro
fessor C. H. Turner and the Oxford University Press I owe
the kind permission to use the text of Novum Testamentum
Sancti Irenaei.

To the devoted and efficient aid of Miss Edith M. Coe, who
has assisted in the work through its whole progress, every reader
will be indebted as long as the book is used ; and it would be
ungrateful indeed not to express appreciation of the remarkable
skill and large knowledge which have enabled the printers to
solve the complicated problem of clear arrangement of the pages
of text and apparatus.

In spite of the accurate work of the printers and of much
pains taken to secure correctness of statement and of citation,
it is inevitable that a work like this should contain errors.
I shall be much obliged to any reader who may find such and
will take the trouble to send them to me.

JAMES HARDY ROPES.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
May 25, 1925.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE . vii

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: THE TEXT OF ACTS

I. THE SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TEXT

1. GREEK MANUSCRIPTS

1. LISTS

(a) Uncials ...... xvii

(6) Minuscules ...... xxii

Von Soden s Classification . . . xxiv

2. CODICES BtfACDE . . xxxi

B. Codex Vaticanus .... xxxi
K. Codex Sinaiticus .... xliv
A. Codex Alexandrinus li

C. Codex Ephraemi . . . Iv

D. Codex Bezae . . . . Ivi

E. Codex Laudianus . . . Ixxxiv

3. THE TEXT OF CODICES BtfAC IN THE OLD TESTA
MENT ..... Ixxxviii

2. VERSIONS

1. LATIN

(a) Old Latin Texts cvi

(6) Vulgate ..... cxxvii

1. Provenal .... cxxxv

2. German .... cxxxviii

3. Bohemian ..... cxl

4. Italian ..... cxlii

xiii

xiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

PAGE

2. EGYPTIAN ....... cxlii

(a) Sahidic ..... cxliii

(6) Bohairic ...... cxlv

3. ETHIOPIC ...... cxlvi

4. SYRIAC

(a) Old Syriac ..... cxlviii

(6) Peshitto . . . . . cxlviii

(d) Harclean . . . . . .civ

(e) Palestinian ..... clxxxi

5. OTHER VERSIONS

(a) Armenian ..... clxxxi

(b) Georgian ..... clxxxii

3. GREEK FATHERS

(a) Epistle of Barnabas ; Polycrates of Ephesus ;

Justin Martyr ; Didache . . clxxxv

(b) Irenaeus . . . . . clxxxvii

(d) Origen . . . . . clxxxix

(e) Didascalia Apostolorum ; Apostolic Constitu

tions i.-vi. ..... cxci

(/) Eusebius ; Cyril of Jerusalem ; Epiphanius cxcviii
(g) Athanasius ; Didymus ; Cyril of Alexandria ;

Cosmas Indicopleustes . . . cxcviii

(h) Chrysostom . , . . cc

II. THE CRITICISM AND HISTORY OF THE TEXT

1. INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS .... ccii

2. PAPYRI AND OTHER FRAGMENTS

1. Papyri and Egyptian Fragments . . . ccx

2. Other Fragments . . . . ccxii

3. THE WESTERN TEXT

1. Witnesses ....... ccxv

2. The Text . . . . . ccxxi

Note on Von Soden s View of his supposed I-text of Acts ccxlvii

CONTENTS xv

PAGE

4. THE OLD UNCIAL TEXT . . . . ccl

5. THE ANTIOCHIAN TEXT .... cclxxvi

6. THE HISTORY OF THE TEXT ..... ccxc

7. THE METHOD OF CRITICISM .... ccxcviii

8. TASKS ....... ccciii

EXPLANATORY NOTE ...... cccvii

ABBREVIATIONS .... . cccxix

TEXT, APPARATUS, AND TEXTUAL NOTES . . 1

DETACHED NOTES

On i. 2 256

On xiii. 27-29 261

On xiii. 33 263

On xv. 29 265

On xv. 34 269

APPENDICES

I. PAPYRUS WESS 237

II. THE VULGATE LATIN VERSION ....

III. THE PESHITTO SYRIAC VERSION.

IV. THE SAHIDIC VERSION .....
V. THE BOHAIRIC VERSION .....

THE COMMENTARY OF EPHREM ON ACTS.
FREDERICK C. CONYBEARE .....

INDEX

271
276
291
317
357

373
455

THE TEXT OF ACTS

I. THE SOUECES OF KNOWLEDGE FOR
THE TEXT

1. GREEK MANUSCRIPTS *
1. LISTS

(a) UNCIALS 2

Century III. or IV.

Pap 29. Oxyrhynck 1597.

Acts xxvi. 7-8, 20. Text in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. xin.,
1919.

Century IV.

B (8 1). Codex Vaticanus. Rome, Vatican Library, gr. 1209.
Pap 8 (a 8). Berlin, Altes und Neues Museum, Aegypt. Abth., P
8683.

1 In the account of the Greek manuscripts of Acts here given it is not
intended in general to repeat the information given in Gregory s Prolegomena
to Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, editio octava, Leipzig, 1894, and
in the same writer s Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes, Leipzig, 1900-1909.
In referring to minuscule codices, and to the less familiar uncials, the later
numbering of Gregory will be followed, as found in his Oriechische Handschriften
des Neuen Testaments, Leipzig, 1908, and (less conveniently) in his Textkritik,
vol. iii., 1909. The earlier numbering, from the list in the Prolegomena, will
sometimes be indicated, with the word formerly. The numbers of von Soden s
list, when referred to, are recognizable by the prefixed Greek letter 8 or a, or
the symbol or A*? with a superior figure.

a The determination of the century is in some cases open to doubt. For
instance, V. Gardthausen, Griechische Paldographie, 2nd ed., vol. ii., 1913,
pp. 122-134, holds confidently, against many other scholars, that Codex
Sinaiticus was written in the fifth, not in the fourth century.

VOL. Ill xvii b

xviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Acts iv. 31-37 ; v. 2-9 ; vi. 1-6, 8-15. Text in Gregory,
Textkritik, pp. 1087-1090.

057. Berlin, Altes und Neues Museum, Aegypt. Abth., P 9808.
Acts iii. 5, 6, 10-12.

Century IV. or V.

X (8 2). Codex Sinaiticus, Petrograd, Public Library, 259.
0165. Berlin, Altes und Neues Museum, Aegypt. Abth., P 271.

Acts iii. 24-iv. 13, 17-20. Text in Gregory, Textkritik, pp.

1369 f.

Century V.

048 (l ; a 1). Rome, Vatican Library, gr. 2061.

Acts xxvi. 4-xxvii. 10; xxviii. 2-31. Palimpsest. Written

in three columns.
066 (I 2 ; a 1000). Petrograd, Public Library, gr. VI. II. 4.

Acts xxviii. 8 1/05 Lepo&lt;ro\vp,wv 17. Palimpsest. Text in

Tischendorf, Monumenta sacra inedita, vol. i. pp. 43 f .
077. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine. (Harris, No. 5.)

Acts xiii. 28-29. Text in Studia Sinaitica, L, 1894, p. 98,

No. 5.
0166 (a 1017). Heidelberg, Papyrus-Sammlung, 1357.

Acts xxviii. 30-31. Text in A. Deissmann, Die Septuaginta-

papyri und andere altchristliche Texte der Heidelberger Papyrus-

sammlung, 1905, p. 85.
0175. Florence, Societa Italiana. Oxyrhynchus fragment.

Acts vi. 7-15. Text in Papiri greci e latini, vol. n., 1913,

No. 125.

Century V. or VI.

A (8 4). Codex Alexandrinus, London, British Museum, Royal

Library I. D. V-VIII.

C (S 3). Codex Ephraemi, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, gr. 9.
Acts i. 2 TTvev/jbaro^ et9 rrjv iv. 3 ; v. 35 eiTrev /cat,
vercpcov x. 42 ; xiii. 1 09 /j,avar)v ev eiprjvrj xvi. 36 ; xx. 10
avrov ai Ovpai, xxi. 30 ; xxii. 21 tcai enrev Trpos rov

LISTS OF GREEK MSS. xix

xxiv. 15 7ria e%a)v aTreiO^ rrj xxvi. 19 ; xxvii.
16 &lt;/&gt;?79 j]v apavres ovrc eiacrev xxviii. 4. Not quite two-
thirds of Acts extant. Palimpsest. Text in Tischendorf,
Codex Ephraemi Syri, Leipzig, 1843.

D (8 5). Codex Bezae. Cambridge, University Library, 2. 41.
Graeco-Latin. Acts i. 1-viii. 29 ; x. 14-xxi. 2 ; xxi. 10-16 ;
xxi. 18-xxii. 10 ; xxii. 20-29. Reconstruction from trust
worthy sources of xxi. 16-18 (and the Latin of the obverse)
in J. H. Ropes, Three Papers on the Text of Acts, Harvard
Theological Review, vol. xvi., 1923, pp. 163-168, see also pp.
392-394.

076. Norfolk, England, Collection of Lord Amherst of Hackney.
Acts ii. 11-12. Text in Grenfell and Hunt, The Amherst
Papyri, i. No. VIII.

Century VI.

093 (a 1013). Cambridge, University Library, Taylor-Schechter

Collection.

Acts xxiv. 22-26, 27. Palimpsest. Text in C. Taylor,
Hebrew-Greek Cairo Genizah Palimpsests from the Taylor-
Schechter Collection, 1900, pp. 94 f.

Wess 59c . Vienna, parchment fragment, partly Sahidic, partly

Greek.

Acts ii. 1-5. Text in C. Wessely, Griechische und koptische
Texte theologischen Inhalts ii. (Studien zur Palaographie
und Papyruskunde, Heft 11), 1911, No. 59 c.

Century VI. or VII.

E (a 1001). Codex Laudianus. Oxford, Bodleian Library,
laud. 35.

Acts i. 1 rov fjuev TrauX-09 xxvi. 29 ; xxviii. 26 jropevd^n

a/c&&amp;gt;Xi;Tft)? xxviii. 31. Contains Acts alone (Greek and Latin).

Text in Tischendorf, Monumenta sacra inedita, vol. ix., 1870.
Pap 33 (Pap Wess 190 ). Vienna, leaf from papyrus codex.

Acts xv. 22-24, 27-32. Text in C. Wessely, Griechische und

xx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHKISTIANITY

koptische Texte theologischen Inhalts iii. (Studien zur Palao-
graphie und Papyruskunde, Heft 12), 1912, No. 190 (Lit-
terarischer theologischer Text No. 25).

Century VII.

095 (G ; a 1002). Petrograd, Public Library, gr. 17.

Acts ii. 45-iii. 8. See Tischendorf, Notitia editionis codicis
Sinaitici, 1869, p. 50, and Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum
graece, ed. octava, apparatus, ad loc.

096 (I 5 ; a 1004). Petrograd, Public Library, gr. 19.

Acts ii. 6-17 ; xxvi. 7-18. Palimpsest. Text in Tischen
dorf, Monumenta sacra inedita, vol. i. pp. 37 f ., 41 f.

097 (I 6 ; a 1003). Petrograd, Public Library, gr. 18.

Acts xiii. 39-46. Palimpsest. Text in Tischendorf, Monu
menta sacra inedita, vol. i. pp. 39 f .

Century VIIL

0123 (formerly Apl 70 b ; a 1014). Petrograd, Public Library,

gr. 49.
Acts ii. 22, 26-28, 45-47 ; iii. 1-2.

Century VIIL or IX.

S (049 ; a 2). Athos, Laura, A 88.

Mutilated in Acts i. 11-14, xii. 15-19, xiii. 1-3. Photograph

in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Harvard College

Library.
(044 ; 8 6). Athos, Laura, B 52 (earlier, 172). 1

Photograph in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Harvard

College Library.

Century IX.

H (014 ; a 6). Modena, Biblioteca Estense, [CXCVI] II. G. 3.
Acts v. 28 Kai /3ov\e&lt;rde iracrai ix. 39 ; x. 19 avBpes

1 On Codex ^ see K. Lake, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. i., 1899-1900,
pp. 290-292 ; Texts from Mt. Athos (also in Studia Biblica et Ecdesiastica, v.,
1902, pp. 89-185).

LISTS OF GREEK MSS. xxi

xiii. 36 ; xiv. 3 yweo-Oai, rv^eiv xxvii. 3. Contained
Acts alone, without Catholic Epistles, which have been
supplied in hand of fifteenth or sixteenth century. Readings
in Tregelles apparatus.

L (020 ; a 5). Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, A. 2. 15.

Acts viii. 10 /,u9 rov Oeov a/ca)\vra)&lt;i xxviii. 31. Readings
in Tregelles apparatus.

P (025 ; a 3). Petrograd, Public Library, 225.

Palimpsest. Acts ii. 13 eicri, cucwXvrws xxviii. 31. Text
in Tischendorf, Monumenta sacra inedita, vol. vi. pp. 89-248.

0120 (G b ; a 1005). Rome, Vatican Library, gr. 2302.

Acts xvi. 30-xvii. 17 ; xvii. 27-29, 31-34 ; xviii. 8-26.
Palimpsest. Text in J. Cozza, Sacrorum bibliorum vetustis-
sima fragmenta Graeca et Latina e codicibus Cryptoferratensi-
bus eruta, iii. Rome, 1877, pp. cxxi-cxxxiv ; and Gregory,
Textkritik, p. 1078.

1874 (formerly Apl 261 ; a 7). Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine,
273.

Century X.

056 (formerly 16 ; O 7 ). Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, coisl. gr.

26.
0140. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine. (Harris, No. 41.)

Fragment. See Studia Sinaitica, I., London, 1894, p. 116.
0142 (formerly 46 ; O 6 ). Munich, Staatsbibliothek, gr. 375.

Century XL or XII. (?)

Pap Wess 237 . Vienna, K 7541-7548.

Acts xvii. 28-xviii. 2 ; xviii. 24-27 ; xix. 1-8, 13-19 ; xx.
9-16, 22-28; xx. 35-xxi. 4; xxii. 11-14, 16-17. Eight
leaves of Greek and Sahidic bilingual papyrus codex. Text
in C. Wessely, Griechische und koptische Texte theologischen
Inhalts iv. (Studien zur Palaographie und Papyruskunde,
Heft 15), 1914, No. 237 ; also below in Appendix I., pp.
271-275.

xxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

(b) MINUSCULES

The above-named MSS. of Acts are all uncials. Four are
papyri. In addition, the following minuscules may be specially
mentioned :

33 (formerly 13 ac ; 8 48). Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, gr. 14

(formerly colbert. 2844).

Ninth or tenth century. " The queen of the cursives."
Readings in Tregelles apparatus.

81 (formerly 61 ac ; a 162; p scr ). London, British Museum,

add. 20,003.

A.D. 1044. Acts i. 1-4, 8 ; vii. 17-xvii. 28 ; xxiii. 9-28, 31.
About three-quarters of Acts extant. Another portion of
this codex, containing the Catholic and Pauline epistles, is
1288 (formerly 241 ac 285 paul ; a 162), Cairo, Patriarchal
Library, 59 (formerly 351). Readings of Acts in Tregelles
apparatus, and in Scrivener, Codex Augiensis.

462 (formerly 101 ac ; a 359). Moscow, Synodal Library, Wladimir

24, Sabbas 348, Matthai 333.

Thirteenth century. Readings in Matthai, S. Lucae Actus
Apostolorum graece et latine, Riga, 1782, with the symbol f .

614 (formerly 137 ac ; a 364). Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E.

97 sup.

Thirteenth century (eleventh century ?). Photograph in
the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, Harvard College
Library.

383 (formerly 58 ac ; a 353). Oxford, Bodleian Library, dark. 9.
Thirteenth century. Readings of Acts in A. Pott, Der
abendldndische Text der Apostelgeschichte und die Wir-quelle,
1900, pp. 78-88.

102 (formerly 99 ac ; a 499). Moscow, Synodal Library, Wladimir

412, Sabbas 5, Matthai 5.

A.D. 1345 (1445 ?). Collation in Matthai, S. Lucae Actus
Apostolorum graece et latine, Riga, 1782, with the symbol c.

LISTS OF GREEK MSS. xxiii

69 (formerly 31 ac ; B 505 ; m scr ). Leicester, England, Library of

Town Council.
Fifteenth century. Readings in Tregelles apparatus.

The minuscule Greek manuscripts which contain Acts number
upwards of 500 copies. The following tables (which include also
most of the uncial codices and fragments) are drawn from the
classification reached by Hermann von Soden, Die Schriften des
Neuen Testaments, I. Teil : Untersuchungen, 1902-1910, pp.
1653 f ., 1686-1688, 1760, 2162 f ., 2172-2174, From this classi
fication must proceed all future investigation of the text found
in the minuscules. In the enumeration the numbers preceded by
the Greek letter B (for Smtfr;*:??) refer to manuscripts containing
the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles (with or without the Apocalypse).
Numbers without preceding Greek letter do not contain the
Gospels, and are those to which in von Soden s catalogue
(pp. 215-248) the Greek letter a is prefixed. The designation
A. np refers to manuscripts in which the text of Acts is accompanied
by the catena of Andreas. O np designates a manuscript
containing with the text the commentary ascribed to Oecu-
menius.

In the columns headed * Formerly are given the numbers (in
the list of MSS. of Acts and Catholic Epistles) of Gregory s Pro
legomena to Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum graece, editio
octava, 1890, pp. 617-652, and Gregory s Textkritik des Neuen
Testamentes, vol. i. ? 1900, pp. 263-294 ; in the columns headed
4 Gregory the numbers of Gregory s final list, to be found in his
Griechische Handschriften des Neuen Testaments, 1908, as well as
in the Nachtrag which constitutes Textkritik, volume iii., 1909.
These last-mentioned numbers are employed consistently in the
present volume to designate the minuscules and all except the
better known of the uncials.

Brackets are here used to connect the numbers of manu
scripts said by von Soden to be closely akin to one another,
or even in some cases to constitute pairs of sister manuscripts.

xxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

It will be remembered that von Soden s system of enumera
tion is as follows :

1-49 " before end of ninth, century

a 1000-1019 before end of tenth century
8 50-99
a 50-99
8 100-199
a 100-199
a 1100-1119
8 200-299 ]

a 200-299 &gt; twelfth century
J

eleventh century

a 1200-1219
8 300-399
a 300-399
a 1300-1319

-
J

thirteenth century

and similarly for later centuries.

VON SODEN S CLASSIFICATION

H (Hesychius)
(arranged approximately in order of date)

von Soden.

8 1

86
8

8 48

1002

1004

103 }

104 /
162
257

8 371

Formerly.

B
X

C
A

13
G
I 5

389
25
89
61
33

290

Gregory.

044

Pap 8

33
095
096
1175
104
459

326

1241

LISTS OF GREEK MSS.

XXV

I (lerosolyma)

Von Soden s designation of P forms the largest division of the
I-group ; I bl and I b2 are two sections of a distinct sub-group
P ; likewise I cl and P 2 are sections of an equally distinct sub
group P. In each list the MSS. are arranged approximately in
the order of their value as preserving in von Soden s opinion the
original type of their section.

Formerly.

apl 261
233

83
231
505

391
271
195
265

65
202
104

96
179
395

239

142

308

156

95
93

Gregory.

1874

917
88

915
1898

181

1873

927

489

808

218

547

241

460

177
1245
2143
1270

618

337

1827

623
1

209

205

1 Codex S 254 is the one described by von Soden, p. 104, under the designa
tion 5 50 ; see his volume i., * Erganzungen und Verbesserungen, p. xi.

xxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

von Soden.

Formerly.

Gregory.

554

238

2288

1100 )

310

1829

55 J

236

920

8 180 )

1319

8 355 J

8 505

502

116

467

552

217

642

251

326

1843

175

319

1838

192

318

1837

170

303

1311

464

218

1522

8 454

262

794

172

436

3 156

108

226

1202

249

1526

316

1835

328

1845

152

388

1162

168

226

910

202

309

1828

361

248

1525

S 268

180

431

A*" 10

502

1895

A" n 1

307

A ^P2o 1

36 a

A TP 12

437

A *P21

130

610

A-P^O

453

A*" 41

1678

62 498 1891

602 200 522

365 214 206

396 \ .. 1758

472 I 312 1831

LISTS OF GREEK MSS. xxvii

von Soden.

Formerly.

Gregory.

398

429

B 206 |

105

242

B 264 /

201

536

S 414

. .

2200

B 152 \

B 368 [

196
266

491

823

270 j
306 J

54
119

43
469

253 1

B 600 j

124

296

161

173

635

8 360

197

496

368

344

1099

490

382

1868

461

163

630

275

. .

2194

567

207

592

78 1

1739

171 J

2298

157

323

B 260 1
469 J

111
215

440
216

B 356

209 \
B 370 J

386

288

1872
1149

403

1880

B 309

550

322

I b (not identifiable as I bl or I b2 )

1000 I 2 066

1003 I 6 097

rcl

208 307 1611
370 353 1108

xxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

von Soden. Formerly. Gregory.

116 .. 2138

551 216 1518

364 137 614

353 58 383

S 299 . . 2147

466 302 257

470 229 913

486 . . 1765
258 56 378

487 . . 1717
506 60 385

69 221 221

169 192 639

114 335 1852

174 252 255

8 101 199 506

154 381 1867

471 I 313 = 1832
356 J 224 876
503 ) 139 616

8 298 I 43 76

F (not identifiable as I cl or I c2 )
0^ 20 232 916

K (koine)

Virtually all the Greek MSS. of Acts not comprised in the
above lists (types H and I) are known, or believed, to present
in greater or less purity the K-text. Some of these contain in
varying degrees a weak infusion of I-readings. Two groups,
distinguished by special selections of such readings as well as in
other ways, are designated K c ( complutensis ) and K r (* revi-
dierte ). The following lists, arranged approximately in order

LISTS OF GREEK MSS. xxix

of date, include the oldest codices of the K-type and the K r -type,
and all those assigned by von Soden to the K c -type. Mention of
many others will be found in von Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen
Testaments, pp. 1760 f., 2162 ., 2172-2174.

von Soden. Formerly. Gregory.

h 093

2 S 049

3 P 025

5 L 020

6 H 014

47 323 1841

48 112 2125

50 . . 1760

51 17 93

52 86 456

53 160 627

54 384 1870
61 122 602
67 87 457
72 334 1851
75 394 1244

S 95 41 175

8 97 285 1073

and upwards o f 250 other codices of the eleventh and later
centuries.

K c

107 42 42

186 223 223

8 255 35 57

271 .. 2115

S 359 193 479

8 364 32 51

8 365 ^ 57 234

8 375 . . 1594

S 376 J 194 483

THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

von Soden. Formerly. Gregory.

8 366 164 390

366 228 912

395 . . 1753

8 410 206 582

450 . . 1766

555 305 1405

557 331 1848

The above list includes all the codices assigned by von Soden
to the group K c .

K r

8 269 300 1251

8 304 260 757

& 357 92 204

8 378 1400 1400

8 390 . . 1622

8 393 &gt;. 1490

358 38 328

362 . . 1752

371 356 1140

372 360 1855

373 361 1856
380 378 1865
385 . . 1725

and many other codices of the fourteenth and later centuries.

Many lectionaries containing lessons from Acts are known,
and are catalogued in Gregory s lists. Of these I a 171 is of the
ninth century, I a 59 and P173 of the ninth or tenth ; I a 156 is
of the tenth century, and I a 597 and I a 1316 of the tenth or
eleventh. From the eleventh century on many extant lection
aries are assigned to each century. The text of the lectionaries
has never been investigated.

CODEX VATICANUS xxxi

2. CODICES BKACDE

A discussion of the history and peculiarities of some of the
chief manuscripts named above is more conveniently placed
here ; the character of the New Testament text in the several
documents will be treated later in connexion with the history
and criticism of the text of Acts.

B. CODEX VATICANUS

Codex Vaticanus is mentioned in the catalogue of the Vatican Histc
library of the year 1475. 1 Whence it came into the library is

1 The catalogue of 1475 (Vat. cod. lat. 3954) made by Platina, the librarian,
is printed in full by E. Miintz and P. Fabre, La Bibliotheque du Vatican au XV*
siecle, Paris, 1887. It is arranged in two parts (Latin and Greek) and by subjects
in each part. At that date the books had no fixed places (P. Fabre, La Vaticane
de Sixte IV [Melanges d Archeologie et d Histoire, xv.], 1898, p. 473). In the
list of Greek MSS. is included under the heading Testamentum antiquum et
novum (Miintz and Fabre, p. 244) the entry * Biblia. Ex membr. in rubeo.
This IP the only Greek MS. mentioned which purports to contain the whole
Bible. This entry can hardly refer to any other than our Codex Vaticanus
1209, for in a shelf -list, or catalogue arranged by the book-cases of the several
rooms of the Library, made by Platina with the aid of his subordinate Demetrius
Lucensis in 1481 (Vat. codd. lat. 3952 and 3947, the latter MS. being a copy of
the former ; see Miintz and Fabre, pp. 142 f., 250 f.), the statement is found,
relating to the left side of the library, as you enter : In primo banco bibliothecae
grecae. Biblia in tribus columnis ex membranis in rubeo (I. Carini, Centralblatt
fur Bibliothekswesen, vol. x., 1893, pp. 541 fL). This unmistakably refers to
Codex B ; and that it is a fuller description of the same Bible which the catalogue
of 1475 designated more summarily is not only made probable by the identity
of the binding in bo Ji notices (in rubeo), but is clearly shown by the fact that
no other book mentioned in this later inventory can be the same as the Bible
of the earlier ono. In the inventory of 1481 the only other Bible mentioned is
described as bound in black (in nigro) ; this was in fact a copy of part of
the Old Testament (Vat. gr. 330), afterward lent to Cardinal Ximenes for the
Complutensian Polyglot. The information with regard to the inventory of
1481 I owe to the kindness of Mgr. G. Mercati, of the Vatican Library. For
the former controversy on this subject see The Academy, May 30 and June 13,
1891 ; Centralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen, vol. x., 1893, pp. 537-547 ; F. G.
Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed., 1912, p. 77.
The position of B as Cod. graec. 1209 in the enumeration of the Vatican MSS.
throws no light on the source from which it came into the Vatican library
(founded about 1450). The present numbering is due to the brothers Rainaldi
about 1620, and in the list Codex B is preceded by codices known to have been
acquired as late as the years 1594 and 1612 ; see P. Batiffol, La Vaticane de
Paul III a Paul V, pp. 82 f. ; J. B. De Rossi, De origine, historia, indicibus

xxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

not known, but it has been observed that the hand which has
written extended scholia on fol. 1205 V , 1206, 1239, and elsewhere
in Codex B, resembles a Greek hand of the thirteenth century,
" easily recognizable by its ligatures as well as by the greenish
ink which it employs," which annotated two codices formerly
belonging to the library of the abbey of Rossano, one containing
Chrysostom on 1 Corinthians (Vaticanus, gr. 1648, tenth century)
and one Gregory Nazianzen (Vaticanus, gr. 1994, eleventh
century). 1 That Codex B had previously been in the possession
of Cardinal Bessarion (f 1472) has sometimes been suggested in
view of the fact that in Codex Venetus, Marc, graec. 6, which
was probably written for the Cardinal, several Old Testament
books are copied from it, 2 and it would not be unnatural to
suspect that the MS. was found by him in one of the Greek
monasteries of South Italy, oversight of which was entrusted to
him by the Pope in 1446, and from which many of his manuscripts
are said to have come. 3 But it is hard to believe that so eager

scriniae et bibliothecae sedis apostolicae, in Codices palatini latini bibliothecae
Vaticanae, vol. i., Rome, 1886, pp. cxiii-cxvii.

1 This observation was made by P. Batiffol, L Abbaye de Rossano, 1891, p. 49
note 1. Codex Vat. gr. 1648 was at Rossano in the fifteenth century, later at
Grotta Ferrata. For the statement found, for instance, in P. Batiffol, La Vaticane
de Paul III a Paul V, Paris, 1890, p. 82, that Codex B was in South Italy in the
tenth and eleventh centuries, positive grounds are not given. The restoration
of the codex by retracing the letters, etc., is commonly associated with the
work of a certain corrector who occasionally lapsed into minuscules that
betray his date as the tenth or eleventh century (Tischendorf, Novum Testa-
mentum Vaticanum, p. xxvii) ; but as to the locality where these corrections
were made there seems to be no evidence. The Roman editors, Prolegomena,
1881, p. xvii, hold the re-inking and the addition of breathings and accents to
be the work of the scribe (Clemens monachus) who, they think, supplied the
missing portions of the codex in the early fifteenth century.

2 Bessarion s manuscripts as a whole, however, were given by him in 1468
or 1469 to the Library of San Marco in Venice. The source from which
a fifteenth-century hand supplied Gen. i. 1-xlvi. 28 in B is said by Nestle
(Septuagintastudien [i.], Ulm, 1886, p. 9) to be the Roman twelfth-century
Codex Chisianus R. VI. 38 (Rahlfs 19). No one seems to have discovered the
source of the addition by the same hand which now fills the second lacuna,
Ps. cv. 27-cxxxvii. 6. Gregory, Prolegomena, p. 359, states that the source
from which the later part of Hebrews and Revelation were added was a manu
script belonging to Bessarion.

3 G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Altertums, 3rd ed. vol. ii., 1893,
pp. 123 ff., esp. pp. 130 f. ; Batiffol, La Vaticane de Paul III a Paul V, p. 82.

CODEX VATICANUS xxxiii

a collector as the Cardinal would have given up voluntarily his
greatest treasure. In any case he would not have given it to
the Vatican Library at any period after the date at which he
fell out of favour at Eome.

If it is proper to hazard a conjecture as to the earlier history
of Codex B, it would be that the codex was brought from Alex
andria to Sicily by fugitives from the conquering Arabs, in the
seventh century, and thence to Calabria. 1 Nothing is known
which suggests that it remained in the East until the fifteenth
century and was then brought to Rome under the influence of
the revival of letters. 2

The date of the Codex Vaticanus is admitted to be the fourth Date
century. From the peculiar selection and order of the books
included in the Old Testament and the order in the New Testa
ment it is evident that the manuscript is to be associated with
the influence of Athanasius ; 3 but it is not certain that it need
have been written after his 39th Festal Letter of 367, for the
Patriarch s views on the canon there stated, although perhaps
original with him, were doubtless formulated before that date.

1 The ancient Hellenistic character of the civilization of Magna Graecia
had substantially disappeared by the time of Procopius (f ca. 562) and Gregory
the Great (f 604). On the movement from Alexandria to Sicily in the seventh
century, and from Sicily to Calabria in the ninth and tenth centuries, and on
the fresh hellenization of South Italy in the seventh and subsequent centuries,
see below, pp. Ixiv-lxvii.

2 A partial parallel to the history here suggested may be seen in the history
of the Codex Marchalianus of the prophetic books of the Old Testament (Vatican,
gr. 2125), which was written in Egypt in the sixth century, shows annotations
made there at some time not later than the ninth century, was then brought to
South Italy, perhaps before the twelfth century, and there received further
annotations. As in the case of B, but in much less degree, Codex Marchalianus
has suffered re-inking. It came later to Paris, and was bought for the Vatican
Library in 1785. A. Ceriani, De codice Marchaliano, Rome, 1890, pp. 34-47.

3 This was first fully shown by A. Rahlfs, Alter und Heimat der vatika-
nischen Bibelhandschrift, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
zu Gottingen, Phil.-hist. Klasse, 1899, pp. 72-79. Hug, Einleitung in die Schriften
des Neuen Testaments, 1808, 50, had observed that Athanasius and B agree
in the position of Hebrews ; and Grabe, Epistola ad Millium, 1705, pp. 41 f.,
thought himself to have proved that the translation of Judges found in B
was the same as that used by Athanasius, Ep. I. ad Serap. p. 651, as well as
by Cyril.

VOL. Ill C

xxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Egyptian The place of origin of B has now been established as Egypt

oriffin.

in spite of the contention of some earlier scholars (R. Simon,
Wetstein, Ceriani, Corssen, Hort) that it was written in Rome
or in southern Italy. 1 Even under the dubious guess which
attempts to identify B with the copy (or, possibly, one of several
copies) prepared for the Emperor Constans by Athanasius in the
earlier years (339-342 or 340-343) of his exile at Rome, 2 it would
have to be admitted that the scribes, the composition, and the
text of B were Egyptian, so that the manuscript could in no way
claim to be a product of the West or to show Western practice. 3

Among the reasons which have led to the conclusion that
B is Egyptian are the following. They depend in part on the
assumption that a codex of that period giving the characteristic
text of a locality was written in the locality.
% 1. Its relation to Athanasius.

2. The fact that in the exemplar from which the Pauline

1 The chief reasons given by Hort ( Introduction, pp. 265 f.) for suggesting
such a conclusion are these : (1) The spellings Kra/c and KrrpaTjXfetrT/s] or
Kr5/&gt;a7?X[eiT?7s]. On the former word see Thackeray, Grammar of O.T. in
Greek, vol. i. p. 100 ; on the latter J. H. Moulton and W. F. Howard, Grammar
of N.T. Greek, vol. ii. part i., 1919, p. 103, and Lake, Codex Sinaitiais
Petropolitanus, p. xi. The spelling t&lt;ra/c is found in the early fourth - century
Oxyrhynchus papyrus 675 of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; see Oxyrhynchus
Papyri, iv. pp. 36 ff. (2) The wrong substitution in B, especially in the
Pauline epistles, of xP to " r s i^trous for itjirovs xpicrros. (3) The chapter-
enumeration of 69 chapters in Acts ; on this see below pp. xli, xliv. No one
of these reasons remains even partially convincing. For Ceriani s judgment
see his Monumenta sacra et prof ana, iii. 1, 1864, p. xxi, and the utterance
reported in Epistularum Paulinarum codices . . . Augiensem, Boernerianum,
Claromontanum examinavit ... P. Corssen, ii. (Jever programme), Kiel, 1889,
p. 3 note, together with Ceriani s reaffirmation in Rendiconti, Reale Istituto
Lombardo, Series II. vol. xix., 1886, pp. 212 f . ; cf. vol. xxi., 1888,
pp. 540-549.

2 Athanasius, Apol. ad Constantium 4 (i. p. 297) T$ d5eX0y crou OVK cypa\f/a
T) pbvov #re ol irept Eua^/Stop ^ypa^av avrt^ /car e/uou /cat dvdyKtji tayjov en &lt;jj/
iv rfi A\^av8pei(f, aTro\oyr)(raff6ai, KO! 6 re irvKria r&v detuv ypa&lt;()ui&gt; Ke\eiJcravTos
CLVTOV fj,oL Karatr/cei dcrat raura Trot^tras aTr^crretXa. As Zahn points out
(Gesch. d. Neutest. Kanons, i., 1888, p. 73, note 1; Athanasius und der Bibelkanon,
1901, p. 31 note 56), the context shows that the Bible (or Bibles) must have
been dispatched within the first three years of Athanasius s exile.

3 The old uncial numeration on the verso of each leaf, perhaps inserted
before the issuance of the codex, was believed by Gregory to be by an oriental
hand ; Prolegomena, p. 450.

CODEX VATICANUS xxxv

epistles were drawn Hebrews immediately followed Galatians, a
singular order strikingly like that of the Sahidic version, in which
Hebrews is found between 2 Corinthians and Galatians.

3. The close relation of the text to the Bohairic version, and
in a less degree to the Sahidic.

4. The type of text to which B belongs was current in Egypt,
being that employed by Athanasius and Cyril. The Egyptian
fragments of the Gospels designated as T show a text closely
related to B, though not perfectly identical with it, and the same
is true of most of the papyri. 1

5. The occurrence in Heb. i. 3 of the singular reading (pavepcov
for fapwv, elsewhere found only in the Egyptian monk, Serapion ;
together with the singular readings in Heb. iii. 2, 6 found only in
papyri. 2

6. The presence in B of a translation of the Book of Judges
which is of Egyptian origin.

7. A more doubtful line of evidence is the occasional, but
rare, occurrence in B of spellings which are believed to proceed
from peculiar Egyptian pronunciation. Thus /cpavrj for /cpavyrj,
Is. xxx. 19, Ez. xxi. 22, and a few cases of the omission of %, r, X,
and a- between vowels, together with the confusion of K and y
and of the dental mutes. 3 But these phenomena are notably
less frequent in B than in other old uncials.

8. The close resemblance of the text of B, at least in 1-4
Kingdoms, to the non-hexaplaric text found in some of Origen s
quotations, and to the text underlying the Ethiopia 4 The

1 Bousset, Textkritische Studien zum Neuen Testament (Texte und Unter-
suchungen, xi.), 1894, * Die Recension des Hesychius, pp. 74-110 ; Burkitt, in
P. M. Barnard, The Biblical Text of Clement of Alexandria (Texts and Studies, v.),
1899, pp. viii f., x f. The Egyptian LXX - fragment (fifth or sixth century)
designated Z m also shows striking agreement with B ; see Rahlfs, Lucians
Rezension der Konigsbucher, 1911, p. 193 note 2. See also below, p. xxxvi
note 1.

2 J. Armitage Robinson, in P. M. Barnard, op. cit. p. x ; G. Wobbermin,
Altchristliche liturgische Stiicke aus der Kirche Agyptens (Texte und Unter-
suchungen, xvii.), 1899, p. 23.

3 Thackeray, Grammar of the O.T. in Greek, vol. i. pp. 101, 103 f., 111-114.

4 Rahlfs, Origenes Zitate aus den Konigsbiichern, Septuaginta- Studien, i.,
1904, pp. 82-87.

xxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Const an -
tine s fifty
copies.

KO.I

Ethiopian Church was dependent on Egypt, and would
naturally acquire thence its text of the Bible.

These indications all point to Egypt, and the palaeographic l
and linguistic characteristics of the manuscript include nothing
which is not consistent with this conclusion. 2 No evidence
which in the light of present knowledge continues to be valid
tends to indicate an origin in the West. If the codex had its
home in Egypt, it was probably written in Alexandria.

The suggestion has, however, often been made that Codex
Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus formed two of the fifty copies
of the Bible 3 prepared by Eusebius, doubtless in Caesarea, by
order of the Emperor Constantine about the year 332 (Eusebius,
Vita Constantini, iv. 35-37), which Eusebius describes as [avri-
&lt;ypa(f)a] rpio-aa KOI rerpacrcrd. But this theory has no inherent
strength sufficient to overthrow the positive reasons for assigning
an Egyptian origin to B. On this point some further discussion
is necessary.

The expression rpicrcra xal rerpaao-a has received many inter
pretations. 4 (1) The rendering terniones et quaterniones, found in
the Latin translation of Valesius edition and accepted by Mont-
faucon (Palaeographia Graeca, p. 26) is probably impossible
in itself, and is not well suited to the context, as, indeed,
Valesius observed to say nothing of the fact that ternions seem
never to have been a usual form of gatherings. (2) The meaning

1 On the resemblance of the uncial writing of both B and ft to Papyrus
Rylands 28 see Lake, Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, p. xi. The Greek hand
of B is extraordinarily like the Coptic hand of a papyrus MS. of the Gospel of
John ; see H. Thompson, The Gospel of St. John according to the Earliest Coptic
Manuscript, London, 1924, p. xiii.

2 V. Gardthausen, Griechische Paldographie, ii. pp. 248 fif., has, however,
shown that the so-called Coptic form of M cannot be used as positive evidence
of Egyptian origin.

3 That the books ordered by Constantine were copies of the whole Bible is
not certain, although the language of Eusebius makes it probable. E. Schwartz
(art. Eusebios, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopddie, vi., 1909, col. 1437)
thinks that they were copies of the Gospels only, some containing three, others
all four. The meaning of rpiffaa. /ecu Terpa&lt;r&lt;ra required by this theory makes
it impossible. See also John Lightfoot, Horae hebraicae, on John viii.

4 K. Lake, The Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts and the Copies sent by
Eusebius to Constantine, Harvard Theological Review, xi., 1918, pp. 32-35.

CODEX VATICANUS xxxvii

1 three and four at a time would suit the verb ^la jre^dvrwv, but
not the proper sense of the adjectives themselves, for these latter
are virtually synonymous with rpi7r\a and rerpaTrXa, and mean
that the copies themselves had * three and four of something.
(3) Having three and four volumes in each copy would make
sense, but nothing in particular tends to confirm this interpre
tation. (4) The meaning having three columns and four
columns is said to have been a conjecture of Tischendorf, 1 and
is probably to be accepted. 2 It suits the natural meaning of the
terms, and can be accounted for in the context from the author s
manifest desire to emphasize the splendour of these copies. 3
Manuscripts in three or four columns would certainly be large
and costly. A similar desire to emphasize the large size and
dignity of the book seems to be present in the following interesting
passage (Menaea, October 15), where rpio-a-os is used in describing
a fourth-century codex of the whole Bible, written with three
columns to the page by the famous martyr, Lucian of Antioch :

rfj

rpel? 0-7-77X0.9 Siyprj/jLewr)? TTJS ereX/So9), Trepie^ov Traaav TTJV
TraXaLav re /ecu rrjv veav SiaOrj/CTjv. 1 *

The word Terpacrcros is used in Eusebius, H.e. vi. 16, 4
(Schwartz s text ; v.l. rerpa-TrXofc) to refer to the Tetrapla of

1 Gregory, Prolegomena [1884], p. 348 ; but in Novum Testamentum
Vaticanum, 1867, p. xviii, Tischendorf still followed the explanation of Valesius.
The earliest mention which I have met with of the interpretation in three
and four columns is by W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter,
1871, p. 114. C. Vercellone, in a paper read before the Pontifical Academy,
July 14, 1859, and published in his Dissertazioni accademiche, Rome, 1864,
pp. 115 ff., connects Codex Vaticanus with the fifty manuscripts of Eusebius,
but does not seem to have thought of the aptness of the word r/)to-&lt;rd to
describe the three columns of that codex. So also Scrivener, A Full Collation
of the Codex Sinaiticus, 2nd ed., 1867, p. xxxvii, with reference to K.

2 For a good, but exaggerated, statement see F. C. Cook, The Revised Version
of the First Three Gospels, 1882, pp. 162 f. note.

3 So Wattenbach, op. cit. p. 114, 3rd ed., 1896, p. 181.

4 This is found in a somewhat different form, containing, however, the word
in question, in Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, Propylaeum ad
Acta Sanctorum, Novembris [vol. Ixi. bisj, 1902, p. 139.

xxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Origen ; but no other occurrence of the word, except the
one under examination, has been produced, r/otcrcro? is a not
uncommon word.

The notion, often brought forward, that the three columns
of Codex B and the four columns of Codex K show that one or
both of these splendid manuscripts made a part of the shipment
with which Eusebius filled Constantine s order, would only be
justified if confirmed by the resemblance of their text to that
used by Eusebius. 1 This is not the case in the New Testament,
and still less in the Old. There were rich patrons of churches in
the fourth century in other places besides Constantinople, and
no trait of the text of either B or K, or known fact of their
history, serves to connect either of these codices with that city. 2
Scribes. Codex B was written 3 by either three or four scribes : B 1 (pp.
1-334, Gen. to 1 Kingds. xix. 11), B 2 (pp. 335-674, 1 Kingds. xix.
11-Ps. Ixxvii. 71), B 3 (pp. 675-1244 [?], Ps. Ixxvii. 72-Matt. ix.
5), B 4 (pp. 1245-fin., Matt. ix. 5-fin.). Of these B 2 and B 4 may
be the same. The frequently repeated opinion of Tischendorf
that the scribe (now believed to be two scribes) who wrote the
New Testament of B was also one of the scribes of X has been
shown by Lake to be an error.

Ortho- B was very carefully written, and its orthography is more

rap y * correct than that of most other uncials. 4 The common confusion
of vowels is relatively infrequent. The most noteworthy pecul
iarity is the strong preference for et where earlier usage and the
practice of the later grammarians wrote i. This was not by

1 On the text probably used for Eusebius s fifty copies see Streeter, The
Four Gospels, 1924, pp. 91 f., 102-105.

2 Hort, * Introduction, pp. 74 f. : " The four extant copies [B^AC] are
doubtless casual examples of a numerous class of MSS., derived from various
origins, though brought into existence in the first instance by similar
circumstances." The fifth-century palimpsest Codex Patiriensis (3; 048)
was written in three columns.

3 L. Traube, Nomina sacra, 1907, pp. 66 f.

4 Thackeray, Grammar of the O.T in Greek, vol. i., 1909, p. 72 : " The
generalization suggested by the available evidence is that B is on the whole
nearer [than A and ft] to the originals in orthography as in text," cf. pp. 78,
86 ; H. von Soden, Schriften des N.T. p. 909.

CODEX VATICANUS

inadvertence, but represents a deliberate attempt to convey
the sound of long I by e*,. 1 Perfect consistency, however, was
not attained, and some mistakes can be pointed out. 2 The con
fusion of CLL and e occurs only occasionally, and testifies to the
absence in the fourth century of a fixed standard of spelling. 3
Letters are occasionally omitted (sometimes perhaps in conse
quence of dialectal pronunciation). In the present edition of B
the spelling of the manuscript has been followed, except where
it is manifestly a case of clerical error and in a few places where
the strange spelling causes undue difficulty to the modern reader.
In all cases where a change has been made, the spelling of the
manuscript has been indicated in the line next below the text.
The aim has been to leave in the text (with a very few exceptions)
all those spellings which the scribe himself would probably have
been disposed to defend as tolerable. The notion that B is full
of bad spellings is unjust.

Although the general correctness of B is thus very great, yet, Errors,
as will appear below in the discussion of the criticism of the text,
it shows in Acts a considerable series of singular, or virtually
singular, readings. Of these hardly any can be accepted as
superior to the rival readings of the Old Uncial group, so that the
great body of those others which are not susceptible of judgment
on transcriptional grounds (as well as those judged to be tran-
scriptionally inferior) are to be rejected. Striking peculiar read
ings (like Krjpvypa for {3a7mo-/jLa Acts x. 37) are rare among these ;
there are some omissions of necessary words (such as K\av$iov t
xviii. 2 ; fyv, xxv. 24), a few repetitions (like /j,6ja\rj rj
a/&gt;re/u9 efaaitov, xix. 34). Stupid blunders, yielding no in
telligible sense, are extremely rare, apart from a moderate number
of cases where letters or syllables are omitted (as e/Qacrrafe for
e/Baara^ero, iii. 2 ; ryevos for 76^0/46^09, vii. 32 ; eipijv for

1 On the systematic use of a to represent long i in the Michigan papyrus
of the Shepherd of Hermas, probably written not later than A.D. 250, see
C. Bonner, in Harvard Theological Review, vol. xvin., 1925, p. 122.

2 Thackeray, pp. 85-87.

3 F. Blass, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, 1896, pp. 6 f.

xl THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

eipyvrjv, x. 36 ; tceicpei for /ce/cpLKei, xx. 16). An instructive
classification of such, individual errors of B is given by von Soden. 1
Codex B has been corrected at more than one date, but the
discrimination of the several correctors by Fabiani (Roman
edition, vol. vi. 1881) is unsatisfactory, and a critical investiga
tion of the corrections throughout the manuscript is much to be
desired. 2 Some revision of the Roman editors results is to be
found in Tischendorf s apparatus. The designations are to be
regarded as referring to groups of correctors, rather than to
individuals. The earliest corrections (B 1 and in part B 2 ) are doubt
less those of the diorthotes, added before the codex was sent out
from the scriptorium. 3 Others (B 3 ) are commonly ascribed to a
hand of the tenth or eleventh century, 4 who added the breathings

1 Pp. 907-914, 1655-1657. Von Soden s combination of this list of individual
errors with groups of readings which he ascribes to the influence of the K-text,
the I-text, and the Egyptian versions, tends to blur the important distinction
between the * singular readings of B and those which B shares with other
authorities. His description of the scribe of B is interesting (p. 907) : " Der
Schreiber von 51 scheint ein Schonschreiber von Beruf gewesen zu sein, der
mechanisch abschrieb, obgleich er gut verstand, was er schrieb." Gregory s
statement (Prolegomena, p. 359), " erroribus scribae scatet," can only be pro
nounced obsolete. One interesting piece of evidence is the fact that the spelling
ovflets, which was already expiring in the first century after Christ, and was
wholly extinct after about A.D. 200, is found seven times ; cf. Thackeray, pp. 62,
104 1, Moulton and Howard, Grammar of N.T. Greek, vol. ii. p. 111. In Acts
xv. 9, ovdev, as found in B, has passed into the Antiochian text, against ovftev in
KACD 81.

2 See A. Ceriani, Rendiconti, Reale Istituto Lombardo, Series II. vol. xxi.,
1888, pp. 545 f.

3 Hort, Introduction, p. 270, says of B 2 , the corrector : " Among his
corrections of clerical errors are scattered some textual changes, clearly marked
as such by the existence of very early authority for both readings : the readings
which he thus introduces imply the use of a second exemplar, having a text less
pure than that of the primary exemplar, but free from clear traces of Syrian
influence. The occurrence of these definite diversities of text renders it unsafe
to assume that all singular readings which he alters were individualisms of the
first hand, though doubtless many of them had no other origin." Many
scholars would now hold that more of these singular readings are " individual-
isms of the first hand " than Westcott and Hort allowed, and that too many of
them were admitted into the text of those editors.

4 The date (tenth to eleventh century) is assigned to B 3 chiefly because of
the character of the minuscules into which he occasionally lapses. On the
correctors see especially Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Vaticanum, 1867,
pp. xxiii-xxviii.

CODEX VATICANUS xli

and accents, and re-inked the already faded letters of the text,
leaving untouched letters and words which he disapproved. It
is only in these latter (for instance, 2 Cor. iii. 15, where nearly
the whole of four lines had inadvertently been written twice)
that the fineness and beauty of the original work can now be
observed. This work of B 3 , it should be noticed, in all its
branches is held by Fabiani to have been done in the early
fifteenth century, and to have included long Greek interpretative
scholia, Latin notes in Greek letters, and the sixty-two supple
mentary pages, but this is doubtful. 1 A hand later than the
tenth or eleventh century added liturgical notes, which do not
seem to have been carefully studied by any scholars in recent
times.

As B in the Gospels has peculiar chapter divisions (Matt., Chapter
170 chapters ; Mark, 62 ; Luke, 152 ; John, 80), marked on a divisions
system elsewhere used only (and but in part) in Codex 3 (eighth
century), so in the Book of Acts two noteworthy sets of chapters
are indicated. One of these divides the book into 36 chapters,
the other into 69.

The former (36 chapters) is by a hand of early, but uncertain,
date, possibly as old as the codex itself but quite as possibly later, 2
and is also found for substance (von Soden, p. 440) in connexion
with the Euthalian material in codices 1874, 1898, 1175, 1244,
181, 1162, 917 (?), 1248 (?), ranging from the ninth to the four
teenth century and representing many types of text. Von Soden
has shown (pp. 442 fL) that this system is closely related to the
division into 40 chapters, which constitute the KefyaXaia, or main
sections, of the Euthalian system. Whether the 36 chapters or
the 40 chapters represent the original system which was altered
so as to create the other, has not been determined.

The other system (69 chapters) was inserted in B by a some
what later hand, and also in K, chapters i.-xv., it is found for
substance, introduced by a hand described by both Tischendorf

1 Note Batiffol s observation, mentioned above, p. xxxii.
a J. A. Robinson, Euthaliana (Texts and Studies, iii.), 1895, p. 36.

xlii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

and Lake as " very early." x By Lake (and apparently by
Tischendorf also) the tituli, or chapter-headings, are attributed
to the same hand. Tischendorf held that this was not the same
as any of the correctors designated by him by the symbols X a
and K b , but Lake is disposed to identify it with K a&gt;2 and to think
that the tituli and chapter-numbers were introduced before
the manuscript left the scriptorium. In K the system is only
incompletely entered, and in B there are some manifest errors, 2
but the origin of this chapter-division can be made out with
reasonable certainty. It is a slightly altered, probably corrupt,
form of a combination of the 40 sections (Kefyakaia) and 48 sub
sections (uTroStat/oecret?) of the system attributed to Euthalius,
belonging to the earliest stratum of the Euthalian material, 3
and found in many manuscripts of Acts. The 40 sections and 48
subsections (probably the latter were originally designated by
asterisks, not by numbers) were counted in one series, making 88
in all, but in the corrupt (perhaps altered) form found in B
omissions (chiefly of very brief subsections) have reduced the total
to 69. That the division into 69 and that into 88 chapters are
not independent of one another is demonstrated by the nature
of their distinctive and complicated agreement, which cannot be
accidental. 4

1 Tischendorf, Nov. Test, graece ex Sinaitico codice, Leipzig, 1863, p. xxiv ;
Lake, Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, 1911, p. xxi.

2 Notably the omission of a division at xv. 1, which causes a difference of one
number between B and K in the numbering of the subsequent chapters, as far
as the end of the enumeration in K. Other differences between B and fc&lt; are
unimportant.

3 Robinson, op. cit. pp. 21-24, 36-43. The Euthalian problem cannot be
discussed here, and, indeed, cannot be satisfactorily treated at all without a
much larger collection of data than has yet been published. See von Soden,
pp. 637-682 ; E. von Dobschiitz, art. Euthalius in Protestantische Realencyklo-
pddie, vol. xxiii., Erganzungen und Nachtrage, pp. 437 f. The Euthalian
sections and subsections, and the full rtrXot in which the contents of Acts are
summarized, will be found in von Soden, pp. 448-454.

4 See von Soden, pp. 444-448 ; Robinson, op. cit. p. 42. The " surmise "
put forward by Hort ( Introduction, p. 266) that the resemblance between the
system of division in Codex Amiatinus of the Vulgate (and other Lathi codices)
and the system of 69 chapters of B and K tends to indicate that the two latter
codices were both written in the West, may, in the light of the knowledge now
available, be left out of account.

CODEX VATICANUS xliii

B and (for chapters i.-xv.) K agree in omitting certain of the
Euthalian subsections, and so betray the fact that while their
independence of one another is shown by certain differences
between them, they are both derived from the same corrupt, or
altered, form of the system. Now some codices which have the
Euthalian material (notably H paul , 88 [formerly 83 ; Neapol.
II. Aa. 7], and Armenian codices) also contain colophons, both
to the Pauline epistles and to the Acts and Catholic epistles,
stating that the manuscript in question (that is, probably, in
many or all cases one of its ancestors) has been compared with
the copy at Caesarea written by Pamphilus. In consequence of
this some scholars have suggested that B and N each lay during
some period of its history at Caesarea, and there received the
numbers of the 69-fold system of chapters in Acts. 1 But it is
difficult to follow this inference. If the 88-fold system of
Euthalius was contained in a standard manuscript at Caesarea,
it would seem unlikely that the corrupt form of it with only 69
chapters, now found in these two costly manuscripts, was drawn
from a codex of that library. It is much more likely that the
corrupt form was that current in some other locality, for instance
Alexandria, and that B and K received it in such a locality.
Moreover, the two colophons which mention Caesarea are prob
ably not an integral part of the work of Euthalius, and in fact
nothing at present known seems to connect the author of the
Euthalian material with Caesarea. 2

In the present edition of B the chapter divisions of the codex

1 Robinson, op. cit. p. 37. J. R. Harris, Johns Hopkins University Circulars,
vol. iii., March-April 1884, pp. 40 f., and Stichometry, 1893, pp. 71-89 ( The
Origin of Codices tf and B ), urged a similar conclusion as to the common
relation of B and X to Caesarea on the ground that the other division, that into
36 chapters, is found both in B and in the Euthalian material, and further
that there is a connexion between B and K and between a corrector of K and
Caesarea. But Robinson, p. 24, pointed out that the 36 chapters in the
Euthalian material are a later addition in the apparatus ascribed to
Euthalius. He states : " There is no ground at all for connecting it with the
original edition of Euthalius " ; and it may be added that in fact there seems
no particular reason for associating with Caesarea in any way the Euthalian
testimony to the 36 chapters. 2 See Robinson, op. cit. pp. 34 f.

xliv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

have not been printed, because the division into 69 chapters
represents neither the original form nor the full later develop
ment of any system ; while the division into 36 chapters is very
likely not the original form of its own system, but rather a cor
ruption, and in any case is not unique but is abundantly found
elsewhere. The study of the relations, history, and origin of
these divisions would be instructive, but it requires a special and
comprehensive apparatus in tabular form. The facts relating
to B are elsewhere easily accessible, 1 and by themselves are
incapable of yielding much fruit.

The pre-eminence of B among the manuscripts of Acts is due
to the current acceptance by scholars of the type of text to
which it belongs as generally superior both to the Western and
to the Antiochian recension, and also to the absence in B, at least
as compared with other codices of its type, of influence from
these divergent and inferior types. Apart from this superiority
B, while a good manuscript, carefully written, has its own due
proportion of individual errors. This general character of B
for Acts applies also to the Gospels and to the Catholic epistles,
but not wholly to the epistles of Paul. In many books of the
Old Testament a corresponding character has been determined
for B by recent study of the text of the Septuagint.

K. CODEX SINAITICUS

Codex Sinaiticus is the only one of the four great Bibles of
which we know with certainty the locality in the East where it lay
in the period immediately preceding its emergence into the light
of Western knowledge. But whence it was brought to Mount
Sinai, and how long it had been there when in 1844 Tischendorf
first saw some leaves of it, we do not know. Tischendorf s
own elaborate and protracted study has now been supplemented
by the investigations of Lake, as reported in his Introductions to

1 For instance, in the convenient table printed by Robinson, Euthaliana,
pp. 39 f. Both systems are entered on the inner margin of Nestle s text, 7th
edition, 1908.

CODEX SINAITICUS xlv

the photographic facsimiles published in 1911 and 1922. 1 The
most important contribution there made is the demonstration
that Tischendorf was wrong in supposing that the scribe D of
K was the same hand that wrote the whole (or, rather, nearly
the whole) New Testament of Codex Vaticanus. 2 This mistaken
theory has had such far-reaching consequences in critical dis
cussion that any treatment of these two codices in which it is
even mentioned as probably correct needs to be carefully scrutin
ized to make sure that the supposed connexion in origin of the
two manuscripts has not somewhere affected or warped the judg
ment of the critic. Even Lake s opinion (p. xii) that the two
codices probably came from the same scriptorium, in support of
which he adduces the similar character of the subscriptions to
Acts, ought not to be used as the foundation of any inferences,
for such resemblances may well be due merely to a tradition per
sisting for a long period among Alexandrian calligraphers of
different workshops. The writing of K is much less elegant
than that of B.

On the history of the codex light is thrown chiefly by the
corrections made at some time in the period from the fifth to
the early seventh century to make the text agree with the codex
at Caesarea corrected by the hand of Pamphilus the Martyr.
The notes appended to Nehemiah (2 Esdras) and Esther 3 seem
to indicate (although not quite indubitably) that the codex was
actually taken to Caesarea and the corrections made on the spot
from the original Codex Pamphili, not merely introduced in some
other locality from a copy of that codex. The hand by which
these notes are written is, according to Lake, probably not the
corrector known as K c&gt;a but another of the group that Tischen
dorf designated as K c . In the Old Testament prophets the
corrector N Ctb seems actually to have followed a standard which

1 K. Lake, Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, Oxford, 1911 ; Codex Sinaiticus
Petropolitanus et Frederico-Augustanus Lipsiensis, Oxford, 1922.

2 Lake, Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, 1911, pp. xii-xiii, xix, Illustrative
Plate III.

3 For the text of those notes see below, p. c note 6.

xlvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

corresponded to what we should expect Pamphilus s copy of the
fifth column of the Hexapla to contain. The significance of the
corrections of K is a complicated question which has not been
fully elucidated for either Testament. In the New Testament
we do not know what was the text of Pamphilus.

Codex Sinaiticus was written by several hands, 1 but the New
Testament is all by the same scribe except for seven leaves
(three and one half sheets, not including any portion of Acts)
written by a different scribe, who was also employed in the
correction of the New Testament. These seven leaves were
probably substituted for the corresponding cancelled pages of
the work of the original writer. A good deal of work was
evidently done on the manuscript before it was regarded as
complete, and several persons employed in perfecting it for
issuance from the scriptorium.

The date of K is ordinarily given as the fourth century, 2 but
palaeographical reasons make it wholly probable that it repre
sents a later style than that of B. In the Gospels the Eusebian
sections and canons have been entered, not by the original hand
but apparently by one of the same date, so that Lake believes
this to have taken place before the codex was issued. But the
earliest date at which this could have taken place is uncertain ;
Eusebius died in 339-340. A later date for K has been urged
by Viktor Gardthausen, who in an elaborate discussion con
fidently assigns it to the early part of the fifth century. 3

For determining the place of origin of K less evidence is
available than in the case of B. Hort, relying on a part of the
same grounds as in the case of B (see above, p. xxxiv note 1),
argued for the West, probably Rome. Ceriani, who had previously
thought of Palestine or Syria, 4 later decided for South Italy on
the ground both of the palaeographical and the textual character

1 See Traube, Nomina sacra, pp. 66-71 ; Lake, op. cit. pp. xviii f.

2 F. G. Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed.,
1912, p. 67 ; Lake, op. cit. pp. ix f.

3 Oriechische Palaographie, 2nd ed. vol. ii., 1913, pp. 122-134.

4 Monumenta sacra et prof ana, iii. 1, 1864, p. xxi.

CODEX SINAITICUS xlvii

of K. 1 For the suggestion of Caesarea, urged by J. K. Harris,
no convincing arguments have been presented. 2 For an origin
in Egypt (doubtless Alexandria) speaks the fact that in spite of
noteworthy differences X exhibits beyond question, in a large
part of those books of the Old Testament which it contains (see
below, pp. xcviii f.), and in the New Testament, the same type
of text as B, and one closely related to the Egyptian and Ethiopic
versions, which were derived from Egyptian sources. 3 To this
is to be added the evidence that the writing of K is " closely
akin to that of the older Coptic hands," and that certain pecul
iarities of spelling are regarded as characteristic of Egypt. 4 The
force of these technical arguments is less than that drawn from
a consideration of the text itself, since we have little parallel
knowledge of what scribes in other centres of book-manufacturing
were capable of producing, but, as in the case of B, the palaeo-
graphical and linguistic phenomena present, at any rate, no

1 Eendiconti, Reale Istituto Lombardo, Series II. vol. xxi., 1888, p. 547.

2 J. B. Harris, Johns Hopkins University Circulars, vol. iii., March- April
1884, pp. 40 f., and Stichometry, 1893, pp. 74 f. Harris s often-quoted geo
graphical argument from the reading avrnraTpida for TrarptSa, in Matt. xiii. 54,
which he thinks shows that the scribe lived somewhere in the region of Anti-
patris, has enlivened criticism but cannot be accepted. The motive for the read
ing, as Hilgenfeld suggested (Zeitschr.f. wiss. Theol. vol. vn., 1864, p. 80), is plain.
The scribe, in order to avoid calling Nazareth the native place of Jesus, coined
a word (or else used a very rare one) to mean foster-native-place. Cf. avr nro\i s,
rival city ; avrL/ut-avTis, rival prophet ; avdinraros, pro-consul, etc. etc.
dvTiiraTpos itself seems to mean foster-father, or one like a father. As
Kenyon points out (Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed. p. 83),
" The fact that K was collated with the MS. of Pamphilus so late as the sixth
century seems to show that it was not originally written at Caesarea ; otherwise
it would surely have been collated earlier with so excellent an authority."
Indeed, if written at Caesarea, K ought to show the text of Pamphilus. To the
reasons for Caesarea given by Lake, The Text of the New Testament, Oxford,
1900, pp. 14 f., was later added the point that the Eusebian canons might have
been inserted in Caesarea, but no one of the arguments holds, nor do all of them
together constitute a cumulative body of even slight probabilities. For Lake s
statement of his change of view in favour of Egypt see his Introduction to the
facsimile of Codex Sinaiticus, pp. x-xv.

3 The resemblance of the text of the Psalms in X to that which underlies
the Coptic Pistis Sophia is one piece of evidence ; cf. Harnack, Ein judisch-
christliches Psalmbuch (T.U. xxxv.), p. 13.

4 Thackeray, Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek, vol. i. pp. 72, 112-115,
147. See also above, p. xxxv note 3.

xlviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

obstacle to the conclusion to which the textual relations clearly
point, namely, that K was written in Egypt. 1 Nevertheless the
inclusion of Barnabas with Hernias as the books to be added to
the New Testament seems to show that K was not written, as B
has been thought to have been, under substantial control of
the views of Athanasius, expressed in his Festal Letter of 367. 2
Errors. Codex Smaiticus is carelessly written, with many lapses of

spelling due to the influence of dialectal and vulgar speech, 3 and
many plain errors and crude vagaries. 4 Omissions by homoeo-
teleuton abound, 5 and there are many other careless omissions.
All these gave a large field for the work of correctors, and the
manuscript does not stand by any means on the same high level
of workmanship as B. ( Singular readings of K hardly ever
commend themselves. On the other hand, readings of X which

1 V. Gardthausen, Griechische Paldographie, 2nd ed., 1913, vol. ii. pp. 122-
134, holds strongly to the Egyptian origin of K.

2 Zahn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, 1924, pp. 129 f. Athanasius
expressly names the Didache and the Shepherd, with certain of the Old Testa
ment apocrypha, as books not included in the canon but ancient and suitable
to be read by catechumens.

3 Thackeray, passim (cf. above, p. xxxv note 3).

4 For instance, i. 9 enrovruv for enruv ; iii. 13 -rrpa for TrcuSa, a,Tro\\veu&gt; for
aTToXveiv ; v. 1 Tra/ut,&lt;t&gt;ipTj for &lt;ra7T0eip?7 ; vii. 35 diKacrTT)! for XvTpwrjv ; viii. 5
/caitraptas for cra^aptas ; viil. 26 rrjv Ka\ov/j.evr)v Kara^aivovaav ; xi. 20 evayye-
Xtcrras for eXX^iucrras ; xiv. 9 OVK yKovffev for yKovo ev ; xv. 1 edvei for e#et ;
xv. 33 eaurous for aurous ; xvi. 23 7rapayyei.\as re for 7rapa776tXaj&gt;res ; xviii.
24 ctTreXX^s for aTroXXws ; xxi. 16 iacrovi for nvavovi ; xxvii. 43 /Scares for
/3ov\r)/u,aTos ; xxviii. 25 Trept for 5ta ; xxviii. 27 e^apwdrj for eTrax^vdrj, etc.
etc. Whether the preference shown by X for ets as against ev is to be reckoned
here or shows fidelity to the archetype, is a question ; cf. ii. 5, iv. 5, ix. 21, xvi.
36. For a summary of the tendencies to error in X and lists of errors see H. von
Soden, Schriften des N.T. pp. 917-921, 1657-1659 ; also P. Buttmann, Bemer-
kungen iiber einige Eigenthiimlichkeiten des Cod. Shiaiticus im N.T., Zeitschrift
fur wissenschaftliche Theologie, vol. vii., 1864, pp. 367-395 ; vol. ix., 1866,
pp. 219-238 ; Hort, * Introduction, pp. 246 f. That the vagaries are not the mere
ineptitudes of an ignorant monk may be seen, for instance, from James v. 10,
Ka\oKayadLas for KaKoiraOeias. In the Epistle of Barnabas, Gebhardt concluded
that X unsupported by other witnesses is nearly always wrong ; Gebhardt,
Harnack, and Zahn, Patrum apostolicorum opera, i. 2, 1878, p. xxxvii.

6 Especially in John, but not there alone. There are said to be sixty such
omissions hi the Gospels. See H. S. Cronin, An Examination of some Omis
sions of the Codex Shiaiticus in St. John s Gospel, Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. xm., 1912, pp. 563-571 ; von Soden, p. 920.

CODEX SINAITICUS xlix

at first sight look like errors are sometimes confirmed by other
and better witnesses, and prove to be right. But K does not
seem to preserve earlier and perhaps original spelling so faith
fully as B. 1

In the text of Revelation it is recognized that K is perhaps
the least trustworthy of all the chief manuscripts. 2 In the
Gospels the text has suffered much from harmonization, both in
passages where other manuscripts share the defect and in other
cases where the harmonization is peculiar to K.

The correctors of X are numerous, and deserve more com- Correctors,
plete study than they have received hitherto. They are
classified by Lake (on the basis of Tischendorf 3 ) as follows :

Fourth century. K a . Various hands employed in the scrip
torium, together with others of about the same time, all of
whom probably worked in the locality where the codex was
written. K a&gt;1 and K a-2 are probably the same hand, and denote
the diorthotes (Tischendorf s scribe D), who was likewise the
writer of the substituted leaves, or cancel - leaves, referred to
above (p. xlvi).

Fourth and fifth centuries. N b , K b a , and possibly others.
Locality unknown.

Fifth to seventh century. K c , together with K c&gt;a , K Clb , and
a number of others. The view that one set of these corrections
was made in Caesarea has led Lake to connect the whole group
with that place, but in the LXX prophets the standards
followed by K c-a and K c-b are said to be opposed to each other.
On the work of this group in the Old Testament see below,
pp. xcix-c. From one or more of this group (designated merely
as K c by Tischendorf) proceed many corrections in the New
Testament, often such as to bring the manuscript into harmony
with the Antiochian revised text. In Hernias, K c a introduced

1 Thackeray, Grammar, vol. i. pp. 72, 86.

2 See R. H. Charles, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation
of St. John, vol. i. pp. clx-clxxxiii, especially the tables on pp. clxiv and clxxxi.

8 Tischendorf s mature views on the several hands and correctors are most
conveniently learned from his Novum Testamentum graece ex Sinaitico codice,
Leipzig, 1865, pp. xxvi, xxx-xl, Ixxxiii.

VOL. Ill d

1 THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

corrections from another copy of the book. 1 So also K c&gt;c in
Barnabas. 2

Eighth to twelfth century. x d K e . At least two unimportant
correctors, who were perhaps monks on Mount Sinai. K d did not
touch the New Testament.

In Acts corrections are found from K a and N c&gt;a .

and B. The text of K, as has already been said, is much like that of B,

and the two manuscripts in both Old and New Testaments largely
represent in different examples the same general type, a type
current in the fourth century in Egypt. Not only do they often
agree (a circumstance which might merely indicate that both are
often true representatives of the remote original), but they seem to
rest on a common base, containing a definite selection of readings.
This base was subjected to different treatment in the ancestors
of the two manuscripts respectively, and has suffered deteriora
tion in both. But it was in most books a good text ; in the New
Testament (apart from Revelation) it was an excellent one and
X and B rarely agree in detectable error. The one striking
instance which Westcott and Hort thought to be a manifest
blunder found in K and B, and not due to coincidence (James i. 17),
has in recent years received confirmation from a papyrus, and
can be confidently accepted as giving the true reading of the
author. 3 But K and B also show great differences in every part,
and Hort s elaborate argument 4 to prove that they are not
descended from a common proximate ancestor is substantiated
by later criticism. Apart from their text itself, the difference
of origin of the two codices may be inferred from their difference
in the contents and arrangement of the Old Testament, and in
the order of books in the New Testament (in K the Pauline

1 O. von Gebhardt, in Gebhardt, Harnack, and Zahn, Patrum apostolicorum
opera, iii., 1877, pp. vi f.

2 Ibid. i. 2, 1875, p. xxxiii.

3 The difficulty disappears with the correct interpretation of the unaccented
text ; not Trapa\\ayr) ^ rporr^s d,7rocr/acicr / uaTOS, but TrapaXXayi] TJ rpoTrrjs d,7ro&lt;r/ad-
a-yaaros (BJ&lt; Pap. Oxyrh. 1229). See J. H. Ropes, Commentary on the Epistle
of St. James, 1916, pp. 162-164 ; Hort, Introduction, pp. 217 f.

4 Hort, Introduction, pp. 212-224.

CODEX ALEXANDKINUS li

epistles immediately follow the Gospels ; in B they follow the
Catholic epistles).

A. CODEX ALEXANDRINUS

Codex Alexandrinus seems to have borne that name from History,
about the time of its arrival in England (1628) ; l it gained
it, however, not from any certainty as to its place of origin, but
only because it had lain in Alexandria while in the possession of
the Patriarch Cyril Lucar, who presided over that see from 1602
to 1621, and by whom, while Patriarch of Constantinople, it was
offered to King James I. in 1624-1625, and actually given to
King Charles I. in 1627. A series of notes in the codex, two in
Arabic, two in Latin, make the following statements : (1) An
Arabic note of wholly uncertain date affirms that the manuscript
was written by Thecla the martyr. 2 (2) A Latin note in the hand
of Cyril Lucar himself says that current tradition declares the
codex to have been written by Thecla, a noble lady of Egypt in
the fourth century, whose name the tradition also declares to
have stood formerly at the end of the book on a page torn away
by the Mohammedans. 3 (3) An Arabic note says that it belonged
to the Patriarchal cell (i.e. residence) in Alexandria. 4 This is
signed by Athanasius, who has commonly been identified
with the Patriarch of Alexandria, Athanasius III. (fca. 1308),

1 The name Alexandrinus and the designation A are used in Walton s
Polyglot, 1657.

2 This Arabic note reads : " They relate that this book is in the hand
writing of Thecla the martyr."

3 " Liber iste script ae sacrae N. et V. Testam 11 , prout ex traditione habemus,
est scriptus manu Theclae, nobilis feminae Agyptiae, ante mile et trecentos
annos circiter, paulo post concilium Nicenum. Nomen Theclae in fine libri
erat exaratum, sed extincto Christianismo in Agypto a Mahometanis et libri
una Christianorum in similem sunt reducti conditionem. Extinctum ergo et
Theclae nomen et laceratum sed memoria et traditio recens observat. Cyrillus
Patriarcha Constantin."

4 The note reads : " Bound to the patriarchal cell in the fortress of
Alexandria. He that lets it go out shall be cursed and ruined. The humble
Athanasius wrote (this)." A cross (of a shape found elsewhere as late as
about 1600) is added at the right of this note. Both Arabic notes may well be
by the same hand, according to Burkitt.

lii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHEISTIANITY

but may at least equally well have been some otherwise
unknown librarian of Cyril Lucar, bearing the same distinguished
name. (4) A Latin note on a fly-leaf, in a hand of the late
seventeenth century, states that the codex was given to the
Patriarchal cell in the year of the Martyrs 814 (A.D. 1098). l
The source of this information (or conjecture) is not known.

It thus appears that the evidence from tradition for any
Alexandrian connexion for Codex Alexandrinus cannot be traced
with certainty farther back than Cyril Lucar. 2

On the other hand, Wetstein (Novum Testamentum Graecum,
vol. i., 1751, p. 10) quotes two letters of his great-uncle, J. R.
Wetstein, dated January 14 and March 11, 1664, both stating
on the authority of his Greek teacher, one Matthew Muttis of
Cyprus, a deacon attached to Cyril Lucar, that Cyril procured
the codex from Mount Athos, where he was in 1612-13. In
that case it would be not unnatural to suppose it to have come
from Constantinople.

Palaeographical and orthographical evidence has generally
assigned A to Egypt, 3 but it is doubtful whether our knowledge
of the difference between the uncial hands of Alexandria and of
Constantinople in the fifth or sixth century is sufficient to justify
confident assertion here. 4

The very mixed character of the text of A in both Old and
New Testaments (see below, pages ci-ciii) ; its use in many

1 " Donum datum cubiculo Patriarchal! anno 814 Martyrum."

2 F. C. Burkitt, Codex " Alexandrinus," Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. XL, 1909-10, pp. 603-606.

3 Thackeray, Grammar, vol. i. p. 72 (kinship to older Coptic hands), pp. 100-
105 (interchange of consonants), p. 110 ; Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual
Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed. p. 76, on the forms of A and M in a few instances
in titles and colophons (but not in the text itself), but see Gardthausen, Grie-
chische Paldographie, 2nd ed. pp. 248 ff., on the widespread use of the Coptic
M, also H. Curtius, in Monatsbericht of Berlin Academy, 1880, p. 646.

4 For palaeographical and historical discussion see the introductions to the
facsimile editions, by E. Maunde Thompson (1881) and F. G. Kenyon (1909).
G. Mercati, Un oscura nota del codice Alessandro, in Melanges offerts a M.
Smile Chdtelain, Paris, 1910, shows that a note on fol. 142b (417b) together
with the form of the table of contents make it plain that the codex originally
consisted of two volumes, the second of which began with the Psalms.

CODEX ALEXANDRINUS liii

parts of the Septuagint of a text distinctly different from, and
sometimes, though not always, superior to, the special type of
B and K ; the presence in the Apocalypse of a text different
from, and far superior to, that of K ; the large amount of hexa-
plaric influence in the Old Testament, and of influence in both
Testaments from the Antiochian recension (to which in the
Psalter and the Gospels, though somewhat mixed, it is the oldest,
or one of the two oldest, of extant Greek witnesses) all these
facts would probably be more easily accounted for if A could be
referred to Constantinople rather than to Alexandria.

The date assigned to A is the first half, the middle, or the Date,
close of the fifth century ; but no strong reason seems to be
given why it could not have been written as late as the first
half of the sixth century.

Two hands are distinguished in A in the Old Testament, and Scribes,
three in the New, writing as follows : (1) Matthew, Mark, and
the Pauline epistles from 1 Cor. x. 8 on ; (2) Luke, John, Acts,
the Catholic epistles, and Rom. i. 1-1 Cor. x. 8 ; (3) Apocalypse.
The Clementine epistles were written by the same scribe who
wrote the earlier historical and some other books of the Old
Testament. 1 The codex has received various corrections ; A 1
was probably the original scribe, A a perhaps a diorthotes of the
scriptorium. In the New Testament " other corrections are
very much fewer and less important." 2

Codex Alexandrinus is written with a fair standard of accuracy, Ortho-
as may be seen in Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 Esdras, g
where the proper names are usually given without monstrous
distortion, and where ancient errors, which might easily have
been corrected, have generally been allowed to stand. 3 It
contains in the New Testament relatively few readings peculiar

1 Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed., 1912, p. 74 ;
but cf . Traube, Nomina sacra, pp. 72 f.

2 Kenyon, op. cit. p. 74 ; cf. Kenyon, Introduction to facsimile (1909),
Swete, Introduction to the O.T. in Greek, p. 126, and especially Rahlfs, Der Text
des Septuaginta-Psalters, pp. 58 f.

8 Torrey, Ezra Studies, 1910, pp. 91-96.

iiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

to itself, and those wliicli it does have are mostly unimportant. 1
Its orthography in the LXX is probably largely that of later
copyists and not of the date of the autographs ; even where
ancient forms are found they are in many cases to be referred to
literary correction ; skilful conjectural emendations of the Greek
are sometimes detected. 2

The most striking characteristic of A among the chief uncials
is its plainly heterogeneous composition, which has been referred
to above (p. Hi), and which marks both Testaments in ways
partly different, partly parallel (see below, pp. ci-ciii). In the
New Testament the Gospels show a mixture of the Antiochian
revision with an earlier (chiefly * Western 3 ) text, in which the
former strongly predominates. Its ancestor here was probably
a text of ancient type which was systematically, but not quite
completely, corrected in conformity with the Antiochian type
which later became current. 4 In Acts and the Pauline epistles
the Western element is smaller ; and in Acts, at least,
correction from the Antiochian cannot be affirmed. For the

1 Von Soden, Schriften des N.T., vol. i. pp. 877, 1662-1664, 1928.

2 Thackeray, Grammar, vol. i. pp. 65, 72, 98, note 3.

3 Hort, Introduction, p. 152.

4 Von Soden, p. 877. Von Soden, pp. 878 f., 1662, gives some interesting
instances where the reading of A seems to be due to the misunderstanding of
corrections in the archetype, in which an Antiochian reading (as he thinks, of
the type K a ) was intended to be substituted for an earlier one. For instance,
Luke xi. 42 (I follow von Soden s notation) H irapewai, K afaevai, 54 (i.e.
Codex A) Trapa(piei&gt;at. ; xix. 23 H av avro CTrpafa, KK a av e7rpaa airro, 54 av
avro aveirpa^a ; xxiv. 53 KK a add aivovvres /ecu after ev TW tepo;, 54 aivovvres KO.L
instead of et&gt; rw tepw ; Acts iii. 18 Trader rov xP Lffrov O-VTOV, K avrov ira6eiv rov
XpiffTov, 54 omits iradeLv TOV xpicrrov ; and many others. The view of von Soden
that an older text has been corrected by the Antiochian rather than vice versa
receives strong support from some of the cases noted in the pages referred to,
and is inherently more probable than Hort s idea (if he meant it in an historical
and not merely a logical sense) of " a fundamentally Syrian text, mixed occasion
ally with pre-Syrian readings, chiefly Western " ( Introduction, p. 152). Hort
called attention to the striking agreement of A and the Latin Vulgate in some
books. Von Soden, in his Erster Theil : Untersuchungen, 172-182,
designated the Gospel text of A (together with about one hundred other codices)
as K a . Later in the same volume, 235-237, in consequence, it would appear,
of some alteration of judgment as to the significance of the older element in the
text, he includes it under the I-form, and in the text- volume the group
appears as 7*.

CODEX EPHRAEMI Iv

Apocalypse, as in some parts of the Old Testament, it is the
best of all extant manuscripts. The usefulness of A for the
reconstruction of the text of the New Testament is considerably
limited by the circumstances here mentioned.

C. CODEX EPHRAEMI

Of the earlier history of this codex before it came into the History,
possession of Cardinal Ridolfi of Florence (f 1550) nothing is
known. It was broken up and the parchment rewritten with
Greek tracts of Ephraem Syrus in the twelfth century, perhaps
at Constantinople. 1 The manuscript is written carefully and
accurately, by a different hand in the New Testament from that
which appears in the Septuagint fragments ; and possibly a
third hand appears in Acts. 2 There seems to be no sufficient
reason for any confident assertion that it is of Egyptian origin.

The chief ground adduced for ascribing C to the fifth century Date,
is its resemblance in writing (and to some degree in text) to
Codex Alexandrinus (see above, p. lii). It has been corrected
by a hand C 2 , assigned to a date perhaps one century later than
the original, and again by a later hand, C 3 or C c , deemed to be
not later than the ninth century.

The text of the Gospels in C is fundamentally of the type of Character
B and K, but has probably been affected by the influence
of the Antiochian revision, and contains some Western read
ings. There are but few individual peculiarities. In the Pauline
epistles the character of the text is the same, but with less in
fluence from the Antiochian ; and the same may be said of the
text of Acts, as more fully discussed below, although in Acts von
Soden estimates the Antiochian and Western influences as
about equal. In some cases in Acts the same Antiochian reading

1 Tischendorf, Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus sive fragmenta Novi Testa-
menti, 1843, p. 16. Ceriani, Rendiconti, Reale Istituto Lombardo, Series IT.
vol. xxi., 1888, p. 547, expresses doubts as to the accuracy of Tischendorf s
edition of C.

2 Traube, Nomina sacra, pp. 70-73.

Ivi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

lias been adopted by A and C, but the two manuscripts do not
seem to be derived from any common mixed original. 1

D. CODEX BEZAE

History. Codex Bezae (graeco-latin 2 ) was obtained by Theodore de
Beze, the French reformer of Geneva, from the monastery of
St. Irenaeus at Lyons, where it was found during the civil
commotions of 1562, doubtless at the sack of the city by
Huguenot troops in that year. 3 A few years earlier it had been
taken to the Council of Trent by William a Prato (Guillaume
du Prat), Bishop of Clermont in Auvergne, and used there in
1546 as evidence for several unique or unusual Greek readings
relating to matters under debate by the members of the
council. 4 While it was in Italy a friend communicated many

1 Von Soden, pp. 935-943, 1659-1662, 1928.

2 Codex Bezae appears to be the oldest known graeco-latin MS. of any part
of the New Testament. Other early graeco-latin codices are the Verona Psalter
(R, sixth cent.), Codex Claromontanus (D? aul , fifth or sixth cent.), Codex
Laudianus (E ac , sixth cent.) ; many graeco-latin Psalters and New Testament
MSS. were written in the ninth and following centuries until the invention
of printing. See E. von Dobschiitz, Eberhard Nestle s Einfuhruny in das
griechische Neue Testament, 4th ed., 1923, pp. 58 f.

3 For Beza s letter of gift to the University of Cambridge, containing his
statements as to the source from which he acquired it, see Scrivener, Bezae
Codex Cantabrigiensis, 1864, p. vi. In the annotations to Beza s edition of the
New Testament, 1598 (notes on Luke xix. 26 ; Acts xx. 3), the editor refers to
the codex as Claromontanus. This may be due to some knowledge on his
part, not now to be recovered, or perhaps to a mere confusion between
the Lyons MS. and the similar, but Pauline, Codex Claromontanus (DP aul ), then
at Beauvais, the readings of which he had been able to adduce as early as his
second (third) edition, 1582. Beza was not aware that the MS. from which the
readings designated /3 1 in Stephen s apparatus were drawn was the same as his
codex ; J. R. Harris, Codex Bezae : A Study of the So-called Western Text of the
New Testament (Texts and Studies, ii.), 1891, pp. 3-6.

4 Our knowledge here comes from the statements of Marianus Victorius,
Bishop of Amelia and later of Rieti (f 1572), in the notes to his edition of the
works of St. Jerome, first published at Rome, 1566. They are as follows :

(1) Note on Adv. Jovinianum, i. 14, with reference to John xxi. 22 (oirrws),
Antwerp ed., 1578, p. 570, col. 1 ; Paris ed., 1609, p. 509 F ; Cologne ed., 1616,
vol. iii., Scholia, p. 33, note 32 : sicut habet antiquissimus quidam Graecus
codex, quern Tridentum attulit Claramontanensis episcopus anno domini 1549
[so Cologne ed. ; apparently mistake for 1546].

(2) Note on Adv. Jov. i. 18, with reference to Matt. i. 23 (/caAecreis) ; Cologne

CODEX BEZAB Ivii

readings of D to Robert Stephen, the Paris printer and editor,
and they were included (to the number of over 350, with
some inaccuracies) in the apparatus to his first folio edition of
1550. 1 The Bishop of Clermont evidently returned the manu
script to its owners at Lyons. In 1581 Beza presented it to
the University of Cambridge, as he says, * asservandum potius
quam publicandumJ 2

Codex Bezae has commonly been assigned to the sixth century, Date,
but there seems no good reason for refusing it a place in the
preceding one, 3 and a date even at the beginning of the fifth

ed., 1616, vol. iii., Scholia p. 34, note 40 : et ita etiam scriptus est in antiquissimo
codice Lugdunensi.

(3) Note on Epist. 146, ad Damasum, with reference to Matt. ix. 13 (ets
fj^eravoLav); Cologne ed., 1616, vol. iii., Scholia, p. 89, note 4: desunt \Jiaec verbal
etiam apud Graecum codicem Vaticanum qui scriptus est iam sunt anni mille et
ultra, et apud alter um antiquissimum librum Graecum Claremontensem.

The first of these notes has been well known since the seventeenth century ;
the other two were noticed by H. Quentin, Note additionnelle to Le Codex
Bezae a Lyon au IX e siecle ? (Revue Benedictine, vol. xxin., 1906, pp. 24 f.).
As Queutin observes, all doubt as to the accuracy of Beza s statement about
Lyons is removed by the second of these notes. See also J. R. Harris, Codex
Bezae, pp. 36-39. It was natural that Marianus Victorius, who was present at
the council, should have described a codex brought from Lyons by the Bishop
of Clermont, now as Lugdunensis now as Claremontensis ; his variation
throws no light on Beza s above-mentioned references to its readings as from a
Claromontanus.

1 For the evidence that the authority designated /3 1 in Stephen s editio
regia, 1550, was actually our Codex Bezae see Scrivener, Bezae Codex Canta-
brigiensis, pp. ix-x. Stephen s statement in his Epistle to the Reader is rb
d ft ecrrl rb ev IraXta virb rCov -rj/mer^puv avTif3\7]6i&gt; 0Aa&gt;p. The identification
with D was made as early as Wetstein.

2 Since the arrival of the codex at Cambridge, it has suffered at least twice
by mutilations of the bottom of folio 504, succeeding an earlier cut or tear
which may have taken place before 1581. The missing text, however, both
Greek and Latin, can be securely reconstructed, mainly from early collations ;
see below, pp. 202-5, and J. H. Ropes, The Reconstruction of the Torn Leaf
of Codex Bezae, Harvard Theological Beview, vol. xvi., 1923, pp. 162-168. It
may be fitting here to call attention to F. Blass, Zu Codex D in der Apostel-
geschichte, Theol Studien und Kritiken, vol. LXXI., 1898, pp. 539-542, where will
be found some corrections of Scrivener s edition of the manuscript in Bezae Codex
Cantabrigiensis, 1864, in difficult places which Blass personally examined.

3 F. C. Burkitt, * The Date of Codex Bezae, Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. in., 1901-2, pp. 501-513, partly in reply to Scrivener, who had presented as
the chief argument against the fifth century " the debased dialect of the Latin
version " surely an unconvincing reason.

Iviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

century has been urged. 1 Palaeography, whether Latin or Greek,
has so far given little aid toward a definite solution of the problem
of its date and origin. 2 Various characteristics, such as the
ornamentation, subscriptions, titles, the numbering of the quires,
and the form of the letters betray the training of the scribe in
Latin methods, 3 and the presence, by inadvertence, of occasional
Greek words and letters on the Latin side is no proof to the
contrary. 4 It cannot be maintained that the codex originated
in a centre of strictly Greek writing, where Latin was a wholly
foreign language. On the other hand, it certainly did not

1 J. Chapman, Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. vi.,
1905, pp. 345 f.

2 The writing of Codex Bezae shows marked resemblances to that of Codex
Claromontanus of Paul, but the hand of Codex Bezae is less skilful and regular.
The many points of contact of the two MSS. make it hard to believe that they
are not to be associated in origin. The peculiar Latin text of the Pauline
epistles in Codex Claromontanus is practically the same as that of Lucifer of
Cagliari, a fact which has led Souter to suggest that Codex Claromontanus (and
consequently also Codex Bezae) was written in Sardinia ; see A. Souter, The
Original Home of Codex Claromontanus (DP au1 ), Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. vi., 1904-5, pp. 240-243. The remarkable list (Canon Claromontanus)
of the books of the Old and New Testaments which in D? au1 follows the
thirteen Paub ne epistles, as if the exemplar had lacked Hebrews, must be
taken into account in any theory of the origin of both Codex Bezae and Codex
Claromontanus.

3 G. Mercati, On the Non-Greek Origin of the Codex Bezae, Journal of
Theological Studies, vol. xv., 1913-14, pp. 448-451. This article was in reply
to E. A. Lowe, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. xiv., 1912-13, pp. 385-388,
who had urged that the Latin uncials employed in D are of a grecizing type,
used in Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and North Africa, and such as would probably
have been used in Latin law-books written in Byzantium, and further that
sundry Greek practices are exhibited by the manuscript, so that all these facts
together would suggest an origin in a non-italian centre. But in a later article,
* The Codex Bezae and Lyons, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. xxv., 1924,
pp. 270-274, Lowe admits the conclusive force of Mercati s rejoinder, and with
draws his theory.

4 Against the suggestion of South Italy, Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual
Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed. p. 92, remarks, " The chief objection to this theory
is that Greek was so well known in that region that we should have expected
the Greek part of the MS. to be better written than it is. In point of fact, the
Greek has the appearance of having been written by a scribe whose native
language was Latin ; and some of the mistakes which he makes (e.g. writing
I for X or c for K) point in the same direction. We want a locality where Latin
was the prevalent tongue, but Greek was still in use for ecclesiastical purposes,
for the liturgical notes are all on the Greek side."

CODEX BEZAE lix

proceed from any centre of the trained Latin calligraphy of the
period.

Of the earlier history of the codex the work of the successive Correctors

1 1 C IT aU( ^ an

correctors and annotators has left a partial record if we could tatora.
only interpret correctly the lessons to be drawn ! Some twenty
successive hands can be distinguished, but their approximate
dates are disputed, with a tendency on the part of palaeograph-
ical experts to assign them to more and more early periods. 1 No
one of the correctors was probably the regular diorthotes of the
manuscript. Nearly all were much more interested in the Greek
text, and touched the Latin pages but little ; but one corrector
(G, assigned to the seventh century, or even to about the same
time as the original scribe 2 ) concerned himself mainly with the
Latin. The annotators include more than half of the improving
hands ; in two cases the same hand undertook both kinds of
addition. The Greek annotators were formerly thought to have
begun with the ninth century, but recently have all been assigned
to the period before 800. 3 Their work includes the marginal
indication of lessons both in the Gospels and in Acts, drawn from
the usual Byzantine system, 4 with modifications by other cor
rectors ; titloi in Matthew, Luke, and John, in a form somewhat
divergent from that commonly found ; 5 the numbers of the

1 On the correctors and annotators see Scrivener, op. cit. y 1864, pp. xx,
xxiv-xxix ; F. E. Brightman, On the Italian Origin of Codex Bezae. The
Marginal Notes of Lections, in Journal of Theological Studies, vol. I., 1899-1900,
pp. 446-454 ; F. G. Kenyon, ibid. pp. 293-299 ; J. R. Harris, The Annotators of
the Codex Bezae (with some Notes on Sortes Sanctorum), 1901 ; F. C. Burkitt,
The Date of Codex Bezae, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. in., 1901-2,
pp. 501-513; E. A. Lowe, The Codex Bezae, ibid. vol. xiv., 1912-13, pp. 385-
388. It is surprising that the perfect accessibility of the codex, now available
also in facsimile, the valuable foundation laid by Scrivener sixty years since, and
the highly stimulating inquiries of Harris more than twenty years ago should
not yet have led to the production of an adequate account of the facts as to these
matters.

2 E. A. Lowe, I.e. p. 387. So also F. C. Burkitt, I.e. pp. 511 f., who suggests
that " G is the handwriting of the Bishop of the church for which Codex Bezae
was originally prepared," and that the corrections were made before the manu
script was considered to be issued for use.

3 So A. S. Hunt, as quoted by Lowe, I.e. p. 388.

* Brightman, I.e. 5 Harris, Annotators of the Codex Bezae, p. 41.

Ix THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Ammonian sections ; and in the margin of the Gospel of Mark, by
a hand formerly assigned to the tenth century, but perhaps earlier,
a set of seventy-one ( sortes sanctorum, or soothsaying sentences
in Greek. These last are closely like the more complete Latin
series in the (Vulgate and Old Latin) Codex Sangermanensis
(G) of the eighth or ninth century, probably written in the
neighbourhood of Lyons.

No one of the annotators appears to have been a scholar. 1
The holy days for which lessons are marked include the Assump
tion of the Blessed Virgin, and the feasts of St. George and
St. Dionysius the Areopagite, all of these by relatively late
annotators. 2

In the eighth or early ninth century 3 a single Latin scribe
supplied the missing portions of both the Greek and Latin text
of the Gospels, adding to the codex leaves of which nine are
still extant. His Latin text was derived from the Vulgate. 4
Use by One other highly instructive piece of possible evidence as to
the history of the codex before the sixteenth century remains to
be mentioned, and is due to the critical acumen and the learning
of H. Quentin. 5 It is drawn from the Martyrology of Ado of
Lyons (later Bishop of Vienne), written in 850-860. In his
summary accounts of the several martyrs Ado both makes
allusions to the New Testament and draws quotations from it in
abundance. These are ordinarily taken from the Old Latin

1 Harris, Annotators, p. 75.

2 Ibid. p. 105.

3 Lowe, I.e. p. 388. Lowe describes the Greek of this hand as Western
imitation uncials. Scrivener, p. xxi, had assigned the supplementary
leaves to the hand " of a Latin of about the tenth century." Harris, Anno
tators, pp. 106-109, observes that the hand is not Calabrian, and argues that it
is that of a scribe unacquainted with spoken Greek.

4 A parallel to the succession first of Greek and then of Latin annotators
and correctors of Codex Bezae may be seen in Codex Marchalianus (Q) of the
LXX, where the Greek correctors end in the ninth century, and later corrections
are Latin (see above, p. xxxiii note 2).

5 Le Codex Bezae a Lyon au IX e siecle ? in Revue Benedictine, vol. xxin.,
1906, pp. 1-23. On Lyons in the ninth century, see S. Tafel, The Lyons
Scriptorium, in Palaeographia Latina, edited by W. M. Lindsay, Part II.,
London, 1923, p. 68.

CODEX BEZAE bd

fourth-century recension known to us from Codex Gigas and other
sources, which was evidently the most widely used form of the
Latin translation in the period just before the introduction of the
Vulgate, and continued to be employed in various parts of the
West for centuries after that date. But in seven instances he
departs from the recension of gigas. Three of these l are cases
where the gigas-recension lacked the reading, and in all of these
unique or extremely rare readings Codex Bezae is a source from
which the reading of Ado could be drawn. In one of the three
the Greek of D is the only possible source known to us ; in the
second the only other Latin witness is the African text of h, which
Ado is hardly likely to have known ; in the third the only other
Latin is the mysterious margin of the Bible de Rosas. In three
other cases 2 Ado has twice combined renderings from the gigas-
recension and the Vulgate with a third rendering found only in
d, while for the third, and similar, case of this group he has taken
one rendering from the gigas-recension and combined with it
another found in both the Vulgate and d. In the seventh passage 3

1 (1) Acts xi. 28 conversantibus autem nobis (no Latin evidence) for crui/eo-T/m/ci-
IJLtvuv de rjfj.uv D, apparently a direct translation, skilful, very apt, and not
naturally suggested by the parallel Latin rendering (congregatis) otherwise
known to us ; d has the erroneous rendering revertentibus autem nobis.

(2) Acts xviii. 2 in Achaiam, d h only among Latin MSS. ; so D hcl.mg.

(3) Acts xix. 1 cum vellet ire Hierosolimam, dixit ei spiritus sanctus ut rever-
teretur in Asiam, only d and second hand in margin of Bible de Rosas (eastern
Spain, tenth cent.), with slight variations in both ; so D hcl.ra&lt;7. It will be
observed that in Acts xviii. 2 the addition, omitted in the gigas-recension, is
African (codex h), and the same origin may be assumed for a reading of the
Bible de Rosas.

2 (1) Acts vi. 9, for &lt;rwfr}TowTes, disputantibus (vg e t p m s) et conquirentibus
(gig g 2 p) atque altercantibus (d only).

(2) Acts xviii. 3, for 5ia TO o^ore\vov eivai (D 5ta TO ofjiorexvov without
eivai), propter artificium (d only, incomplete to correspond with the number of
words in D) erant enim ejusdem artis (gig vg quia ejusdem erat artis), id est
scenophegiae (vg erat autem scenofactoriae artis ; so e, with variations). The
strange error scenophegiae is an obvious reminiscence of John vii. 2.

(3) Acts vi. 12, for aweKivrja-av, concitato (cf. gig g 2 h) populo ac senioribus
scribisque adversus eum commotis (cf. vg e p t ; d).

3 Acts vi. 9 qui erant (d only) de synagoga quae dicitur Libertinorum. Qui
erant, to which nothing corresponds in any known Latin text, is the character
istically exact rendering in d of TWV (e/c rr/s aw 0,70)7775) found in D and nearly
all Greek MSS. (except N). For quae dicitur (d h p ; TTJS \eyo[j.ei&gt;rjs D B C

Ixii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Ado s text gives the exact reading of d. He seems to have brought
it in in part (quae dicitur) in order to make the language conform
to the usual Greek text, but in effecting this has not followed the
Vulgate rendering, though equally available for the purpose.
Another phrase (qui erant) common to d and Ado is unique in
d among Latin texts, and may well be one of the cases where the
Latin of Codex Bezae (possibly without any predecessor) has been
brought into agreement with the Greek opposite page.

The inference drawn from these intricate facts is that the text
of Codex Bezae has influenced the language of Ado s Martyrology.
Quentin finds reason to think that an intermediate stage was
a copy of the gigas-recension, which Ado used, equipped with
marginal notes drawn from Codex Bezae. And he attributes the
learning and critical interest here displayed not primarily to Ado,
but to Florus, Bishop of Lyons (*) ca. 860), of whom it is known
that he cherished these interests and that he had correspondents,
also interested in the text of the Bible, in Italy. A further, and
natural, step is the suggestion that to the instigation of Florus
may be due the coming of Codex Bezae to Lyons. That event
naturally brought to an end the long line of Greek correctors
and annotators of the codex, of which it is now held (see above,
p. lix, note 3) that all were, or may have been, earlier than
Florus, although formerly scholars ascribed some of them to
later centuries.

The subtle and carefully considered theory thus put forward
by Quentin may well be correct, provided the dates of the Greek
correctors do not stand in the way. 1

Antiochian), the Vulgate (with e t) has quae, appellatur (appellabatur) ; while
the gigas-recension (gig g 2 ), alone among Latin texts, has qui dicuntur (for TWV
Xe7o / ue^wf KA minn). Ado has here deserted the gigas-recension, not for the
Vulgate, but to adopt a reading conforming to the Greek text with the singular,
and he has used for this purpose the Latin form found in d (and in h p, to neither
of which does Ado s text show specific kinship).

1 E. A. Lowe, The Codex Bezae and Lyons, Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. xxv., 1924, pp. 270-274, accepts as convincing Quentin s arguments, and
adds striking confirmation from two observations : (1) Blue ink occurs in the
colophon to the added pages of Mark in Codex Bezae (ninth century). The
use of this ink in Latin MSS. has been observed elsewhere only in a ninth-

CODEX BEZAE Ixiii

From the whole body of facts here summarized it is a fair
inference that at an early time, certainly as early as the seventh
century, and for a long period, the codex lay in a place or places
where Greek was both the ecclesiastical language and was also
(for long, at least) understood and used by the people, but where
Latin was also familiarly known to a greater or less extent, a
place that is, which was distinctly " not a Latin centre where
Greek was merely read and written." 1 Where such a place is
to be sought will be considered presently. Soon after the
beginning of the ninth century the MS. lay in a strictly Latin
environment.

On the question of where Codex Bezae was written the char- Theory of
acter of its Latin pages, and of their dialectal and vulgar
peculiarities, whether as respects pervading linguistic traits or
isolated phenomena, has hitherto thrown no light. Since it was
found at Lyons in the sixteenth century, the suggestion has often
been made that it was written and had always remained in the
south of France, where in the second century the Christians of
Lyons and certain other towns of the Rhone valley were Greeks.
But this Greek life continued for only a limited period, and it is
wholly improbable that Greek was the common language of this
population or of these churches in the fifth, still less in the sixth,
century. In Gaul of that period Greek was the cultivated art
of the few. 2 Moreover, the place of origin of the codex would
naturally bear a close relation to the scene of work of the early
correctors and annotators of the seventh and eighth centuries,
who clearly belong in Greek surroundings, to be found nowhere

century Lyons MS. (Lugd. 484), which is perhaps in Florus s own hand, and in
one other MS., probably written at Luxeuil. (2) A peculiar interrogation mark,
found in these added pages, is found also (and hitherto only) in five MSS., all
of the ninth century, and all perhaps written or annotated by Florus himself.
See also E. A. Lowe, Codices lugdunenses antiquissimi, Lyons, 1924.

1 Harris, Annotators, p. 75.

2 On the very limited amount of Greek ecclesiastical life in Gaul see
Brightman, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. i., 1899-1900, pp. 451-454 ;
C. P. Caspari, Ungedruckte, unbeachtete und wenig beachtete Quellen zur Geschichte
des Tauf symbols und der Glaubensregel, iii., Christiania, 1875, pp. 228-231.

Ixiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

in Gaul. The ninth-century revival of letters in Lyons, under
Bishop Agobard (814-840) and his successors of the days of
Florus and Ado, would explain the addition by an undoubtedly
Latin hand of the supplementary pages already referred to, but
the predecessors of these men in the two preceding centuries were
far removed from the attainments, capacity, and interests of the
earlier annotators of the codex. And fatal to the whole theory of
Southern France is the insertion of the Byzantine lesson-system,
which was not used in Gaul. 1

The other suggestion most often made is that Codex Bezae
was written in South Italy, which in ancient times, as Magna
Graecia, had been a recognized part of the Greek world. Here,
it is true, in Reggio and the district nearest to Sicily, Greek seems
to have been dominant at the beginning of the eighth century ;
and in that and the following centuries Greek customs and the
use of the Greek language made steady progress in all Calabria,
in consequence of the incoming of immigrants religious and
secular from Sicily and from the East. But in fact the origin
of the codex in the fifth or sixth century, and its earliest use, fall
in the intervening time between the ancient and the mediaeval
Greek periods of Southern Italy.

At the end of the fifth century what Greek civilization and
ecclesiastical life had survived there from a happier period
disappeared, largely in consequence of the barbarian invasions.
Even the remotest part of Bruttium, close to Sicily, seems to
have become Latin in institutions and language, save for the
cosmopolitan meeting-place of Reggio. In the middle of the
sixth century the implications and explicit statements of
Procopius, and at the end of that century the letters of Gregory
the Great, make clear the same state of things in spite of the
reconquest of Italy under Justinian, and it is likewise revealed
by the evidence of the South Italian inscriptions of the fifth and
sixth centuries. Cassiodorus himself (f 562), with his native
Calabrian aristocratic origin, and as well the Latin monastery

1 F. E. Brightman, op. cit. pp. 446-454.

CODEX BEZAE Ixv

which he founded, are characteristic for his time. The Roman
ecclesiastical system and Latin monasteries seem to have supplied
substantially all there was of higher intellectual and moral forces.
The second hellenization of Southern Italy, which issued in
the flourishing Greek civilization of the eleventh century, was
due to a variety of causes. In the seventh century the advancing
victories in Syria and Egypt, first of the Persians, then of the
Mohammedans, led to the migration of oriental Christians to
Italy and still more to Sicily. Toward the end of that century,
and increasingly thereafter, measures were taken by Byzantium
to consolidate its power in Southern Italy and to defend Sicily
against Mohammedan invaders from Africa, and these steps must
have caused a growth of the Greek population of Southern Italy,
as they certainly enlarged the channels of Greek influence, both
ecclesiastical and secular. In the eighth century Greek clergy
and monks fleeing from the persecuting rigor of the imperial
iconoclastic policy may have come in considerable numbers to
Italy, where they were able to find a friendly theological environ
ment ; while at the same time the administrative connexion of
these South Italian dioceses with Constantinople was knit closer.
In the early ninth century, when the Saracens conquered most of
Sicily (taking Palermo in 831), many Sicilians fled to Italy, and
Greek Sicilian monks began to wander through the wilderness
and to be seen in the towns of Calabria. Before the middle of
the tenth century St. Nilus appears, Greek monasteries are
numerous, and the copying of Greek manuscripts is common.
With the Norman rule great monastic centres of Greek intellectual
life were constructed, and prospered, until, two centuries later,
they shared in the general decay of civilization consequent upon
the overthrow of the Normans, and at last fell into the wretched
state in which the humanistic ecclesiastics of the fifteenth century
found them. Fortunately these houses still had Greek books,
many of which were brought at different periods to securer
centres and incorporated in the great collections to which modern
scholars resort.

VOL. in e

Ixvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

In considering the origin of Codex Bezae this sketch of the
progressive re-hellenization of Southern Italy from the seventh
century on is necessary, because the abundant Greek life of
Calabria in later ages is often assumed to have been present in
the earlier period in which the codex was written and in which
it had its home in a community using Greek as well as Latin.
While, under the limitations of our knowledge, there is a bare
possibility that in the fifth or sixth century some place existed
in Southern Italy where it could have been written, nevertheless
no such place is known, and the general conditions which we do
know make such an origin unlikely. This unlikelihood is raised
to a very strong improbability by the difficulty of supposing that,
even if the codex was written in South Italy, any locality there
in the sixth or seventh century (and with some restrictions
conditions were similar for a great part of the eighth) would have
provided the background of church life implied by the extra
ordinarily numerous correctors and annotators. 1 South Italy
certainly does not seem to offer a probable birthplace and still
less a probable early home for this codex. 2

1 The suggestion that the writing of the annotator M resembles a Ravenna
hand of the year 756 (Burkitt, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. m., 1901-2,
p. 505 note) rests on a confusion. The hand in question (shown in E. M.
Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography, p. 144 ; Introduction to
Greek and Latin Palaeography, pp. 26, 184) is, in fact, from the imperial chancery
in Constantinople. The document is part of the original of a letter from the
emperor to a French king, probably from Michael II. or Theophilus to Louis
the Debonnaire, and brought by one of the embassies known to have been sent
in the period 824-839 ; see H. Omont, Revue Archeologique, vol. xix., 1892,
pp. 384-393, with facsimile.

2 The disappearance of the ancient hellenism of Magna Graecia and the
fact that the mediaeval Greek civilization of Calabria was due to a fresh
rehellenization several centuries later was brought out in the IraXoeXX^t/cd
of Spyridion Zampelios (Athens, 1864), and emphatically presented by
F. Lenormant in La Grande-Grece, 1881, vol. i. p. vii ; vol. ii. pp. 371-382,
395. An illuminating sketch of the history is given by P. Batiffol, UAbbaye
de Rossano, 1891, pp. i-xxxix. See also Jules Gay, Ultalie meridionale et
V empire byzantin, 1904, pp. 5-24, 184-200, 254-286, 350-365, 376-386; Charles
Diehl, Etudes sur r administration byzantine dans rexarchat de Ravenne
(568-751), 1888, pp. 241-288 ; K. Lake, The Greek Monasteries in Southern
Italy, in Journal of Theological Studies, vol. iv.. 1902-3, pp. 345 ff., 517 ff. ;
-/., 1903-4, pp. 22 ff., 189 ff.

CODEX BEZAE Ixvii

On the other hand, what is known of Sicily corresponds very Probable
well with the requirements for Codex Bezae. Greek was the siciiy.
language of Sicily under the Koman emperors, and never
succumbed to the Latin influences which Roman rule brought in.
In Sicily, unlike Magna Graecia, the landowners were a Roman
aristocracy residing in a country with which they did not fully
identify themselves. Latin was the official language, but the
mass of the people, although affected by Latin culture, continued
to speak Greek. At the end of the sixth century, under Gregory
the Great, the clergy were largely Latin, but included Greeks,
and from the beginning of the seventh century Greek language
and culture made rapid progress among the Sicilian clergy, and
there were strong personal relations with the churches of the
Orient. By the middle of the century Greek was preponderant,
and in the eighth century the clergy were firmly attached to the
Eastern Church. By this time the same had become true of
Calabria. During these centuries there seems to have been a
steady influx of Greeks, especially in consequence of Persian and
Saracen attacks on various centres of Christian life in the Greek
world. In the early years of the ninth century came acute and
persistent disturbance from Arab invasion. 1

All this would well account for the origin of Codex Bezae and
for its use for centuries in a locality or localities where the Greek
language and Greek customs were continuously in vogue, but
where Latin was also known. The disturbed condition of the
country early in the ninth century would likewise explain the
acquisition of the manuscript by scholars of Lyons at about that
date.

Nothing, indeed, forbids the suggestion that emigrants or
refugees from Sicily carried Codex Bezae with them to Calabria

1 On the history of conditions in Sicily and the relation of Sicily to Calabria,
see, besides the works of Batiffol, Gay, and Lake, mentioned in the preceding
note, Adolf Holm, Oeschichte Siciliens im Altertum, vol. iii., 1898, Buch ix.
pp. 220-337 ; Josef Fiihrer, Forschungen zur Sicilia sotteranea (Abhandlungen,
Munich Academy, vol. xx.), 1897. On early monastic life in Sicily see
D. G. Lancia di Brolo, Storia delta Chiesa in Sicilia nei died primi secoli del,
cristianesimo, vol. i., Palermo, 1880, chapter xx.

Ixviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

in the eighth century, but no fact as yet known requires this
assumption.

It thus seems likely that Sicily was the place of origin of
Codex Bezae and of its mate Codex Claromontanus (D paul ), and
that the correctors and annotators of the earlier period, who
were chiefly concerned with the Greek pages, were Sicilians.
Yet some of these latter may, for aught we know to the contrary,
have been Calabrians. Somewhere about the year 800 the codex
was probably sent to Lyons. Its history, partly conjectural,
partly known, presents a remarkable parallel to that of the Codex
Laudianus, written in Sardinia in the sixth or seventh century,
brought (by way doubtless of Italy) to England in the seventh,
to be used in the eighth by the Venerable Bede, and finally
destined, like Codex Bezae, to pass into the hands of modern
scholars in consequence of the looting of a monastery by
Protestant soldiers in a war of religion.

But we must turn from the history of Codex Bezae to its
internal character. The four Gospels stand in the order, Matthew,
John, Luke, Mark. This is the order of many Old Latin MSS.,
and is often called Western/ but it is also followed in W
(Egyptian), X, the Apostolic Constitutions, and other Greek
witnesses, and does not imply anything as to the place of origin
of D. 1 Between the Gospels and Acts three leaves and eight
quires are missing, to judge by the numbering of the quires.
Since all quires contain eight leaves (except one which has six),
the lost leaves must have numbered sixty-seven, of which perhaps
the whole of one was filled by the close of the Gospel of Mark.
The remaining sixty-six included at least some of the Catholic
Epistles, for one page containing the closing verses of 3 John still
immediately precedes the first page of Acts. Even all the seven
Catholic Epistles, however, would not suffice to fill sixty-six

1 J. Chapman, Zeitschrift fur die mutest. Wissenschaft, vol. vi., 1905, pp.
339-346, argues from various indications that the order of the Gospels in
the parent MS. of D was Matthew, Mark, John, Luke, as in Mommsen s Canon
and the Curetonian Syriac. This he holds to have been the original Western *
order, for which is substituted in Codex Bezae the characteristic Latin order.

CODEX BEZAE Ixix

leaves, and what these pages contained has been the subject
of much conjecture. The space would about suffice for the
Apocalypse and the three Epistles of John. 1 Such a corpus
johanneum would account for the unusual position of the Epistles
of John, at the end of the collection of Catholic Epistles, which is,
however, found in Codex 326, in the Muratorian fragment, and in
Rufinus, and perhaps was the order of the Old Latin translation
of Cassiodorus. The arrangement by which the Catholic Epistles
preceded Acts is that of the Egyptian translations, and seems to
have been not uncommon in the Latin world.

The codex seems to be the work of one scribe, and the Greek Errors.
and Latin pages have a general aspect of deceptive similarity to
one another. 2 It is badly written. On the Greek side the scribe
is guilty of many obvious blunders and misspellings on nearly
every page. Such are, for instance, Matt. vi. 7 ftXaTTo\oyr)aeT(u,
Mark xii. 17 eQavfjia^ovro, Luke xii. 35 \v^\ot, for Xv^vot, xxiii.
26 O7ri,a-o0i&gt;, John i. 3 eveyero, xvii. 25 o #007*0? TOVTOS (for
oi&gt;ro9, itself probably due to imitation of the Latin rendering
of o /COCT/AO? by mundus hie), Acts i. 4 crvvaXia-tco/jievos, iii. 10
e/cracrea)? for e/ccrTacreays, viii. 5 Ka\e\dcov for /care\6(ovj and
many others. Many of these can be seen in the plain and trouble
some errors which have been excluded from the text as printed in
the present volume, but are given in the lines immediately below
the text. In innumerable instances the endings are wrong,
so that nonsense results, or, for instance, a pronoun does not
agree in gender with the noun to which it refers. This is some
times due to thoughtless assimilation to the ending of a neighbour
ing word (for instance, Matt. iv. 18 {3a\\ovra&lt;i a^i/BXyo-Tpos,
Acts i. 3 oirravo^evoi^ avrois), sometimes it may be attributed

1 F. C. Burkittr, Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1903, col. 4997 ; J. Chapman, The
Original Contents of Codex Bezae, Expositor, 6th series, vol. xn., 1905, pp. 46-53.

2 The Latin page has at first glance a likeness to Greek writing somewhat
like that which is found in a page of ancient Coptic, and rather greater than that
of modern Russian. But see the articles of Lowe and Mercati referred to above.
Such resemblance of the two sides in a graeco -latin MS. is not without parallels ;
the Coislin Psalter of the seventh century (Paris, Bibl. nat., coisl. 186) is an
example.

kx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

to the influence of the corresponding Latin word (thus, Acts
xviii. 2 /oV&lt;zvSto9 for K\CLV$IOV, cf. d Claudius). It has been
suggested that many of these errors may be due to some stage
in the ancestry of the codex in which a copy was made from a
papyrus text with easily misunderstood abbreviations for termina
tions (T for TTJV, etc.). 1 Nothing forbids this suggestion, but it
likewise implies an ignorant, if not a careless, scribe, and many
mistakes thus made ought subsequently to have been corrected
by any competent later copyist. Mistakes in gender, as Matt.
iv. 16 &lt;&&amp;gt;9 /jieyav, Luke ix. 1 jracrav Sai/jLoviov, are not infrequent,
especially in pronouns. Semitic proper names receive strange
forms. Good examples of some of these classes of error occur in
Acts iii. 26, where D reads ev\o&lt;yovvTas for ev\oyovvra, r a?ro-
&lt;7Tp&lt;f)6iv for TO) aTTOGTpefyeiv, 6Ka(7To&lt;; for eKaarov ; xiv. 20,
KVK\co(TavT&lt;; for /cv/cXcoaavTcov, avrov for avrov, rrjv eiravpiov
for T?? eTravpiov. Blunders such as these sometimes give the
impression of a writer who understood Greek imperfectly, and
some of them suggest that the look of a Greek word did not
infallibly present to him a combination of sounds with which
he was familiar. 2 Nevertheless his ignorance of Latin is also
extraordinary.

In view of this character of the codex the frequent departure
which it shows from other manuscripts in the omission, or (what
is more common) the addition, of the Greek article will in many
cases have to be attributed to eccentricity, not to a sound or
ancient tradition.

1 Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the N.T., 2nd ed., pp. 96 f.

2 The most complete account of these blunders (and the other peculiarities)
of D will be found in von Soden, Schriften des Neuen Testaments, pp. 1305-1340,
1720-1727, 1814-1836. But even in the paragraphs devoted to unintentional
errors von Soden has too little distinguished between actual errors and what
may be called antiquated irregularities, such as would have been deemed
tolerable, or even respectable, in a manuscript of the third or fourth century,
before the reforming efforts of the grammarians had come to dominate the copy
ing of books. Singularities of this latter type should be treated separately ;
they may well have been derived from an exemplar of a remote antiquity,
several stages back, and so testify only to the fidelity, not to the debased con
dition, of the copy which we have.

CODEX BEZAE Ixxi

Besides these disfiguring blunders, the usual confusions of
vowels and consonants, due to itacism and the like, occur in
abundance, as well as the miscellaneous omissions and errors to
which scribal frailty is prone ; and the well-known grammatical
peculiarities of the older codices, especially in the forms of verbs,
are constantly encountered. Peculiar, or antiquated, spellings,
such as Matt. ii. 11 ^vpvav for o-fivpvav ; xii. 20, xxv. 8 f/3ej&gt;-
VVJJLI, for o-/3evvvfjLL ; Luke xiii. 34 opvi% for opvis, frequently
attract the attention of the reader. All these singularities are
found in greater abundance than in perhaps any other New
Testament manuscript. 1

Harmonization of parallel passages as between the several
Gospels, and in the parts of Acts which strongly resemble one
another, are numerous, and often do not agree with the similar
harmonizations of the Antiochian text. 2 Omissions, by homoeo-
teleuton and otherwise, are relatively abundant, much more so
in the Gospels than in the Acts. A considerable group of these
omissions consists of the evident omission of whole lines, for
instance Acts ii. 31, where TrpoiScov e\a\rfcrev Trepi TT;? has fallen
out in both D and d ; more complicated cases are Luke viii. 41,
Acts v. 29. In some instances the misplacement or omission of

1 For classified lists of these see Scrivener, Bezae Codex Cantabrigiensis,
pp. xlvi-xlviii. An adequate linguistic investigation of Codex Bezae (or indeed
of the other oldest New Testament manuscripts) seems never to have been
attempted. G. Rudbe r g, Neutestamentlicher Text und Nomina Sacra, Upsala,
1915, has a valuable discussion of the errors and confusions of spelling in D,
and is led to emphasize the conservative character of the copying. On the
peculiar variation in spelling, twav^s almost always in Matt., Mark, John i.-v. 33,
but iuavri&lt;; (with negligible exceptions) in Luke, Acts, see von Soden, pp. 2100 f. ;
J. Chapman, Zeitschrift fur die neutest. Wissenschaft, vi., 1905, pp. 342-345 ;
Rudberg, pp. 13 f. The phenomenon can be accounted for in more than one way,
and does not necessarily indicate (as sometimes supposed, see Nestle, Einfuhrung
in das griech. N.T., 3rd ed., pp. 175 f.) that we have here a survival from the
period when Luke and Acts circulated together as two books of a single
history. The regular use of nomina sacra in D (62^ KS, fH2, XPS, UNA) is
about as in B, while K, A, and C show a much more fully developed system ;
see Rudberg, pp. 49-52.

2 For some examples of such assimilation see E. von Dobschutz, E. Nestle" s
Einfuhrung in das Neue Testament, 4. Aufl. p. 29 ; see also H. J. Vogels, Die
Harmonistik im Evangelientext des Codex Cantabrigiensis (T.U. xxxvi.), 1910.

Ixxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

lines on one side or the other was either corrected by the original
scribe or noted by him in the margin by numeral letters.
Scrivener has been able to show from such cases that the exemplar
had lines like those of Codex Bezae, but was not identical with it
in the contents of the pages. 1
influence of Reference has already been made to the influence of the

Latin on T . . . . f . n . . ,

Greek. Latin page in causing errors, for instance in endings, in the
Greek text. This latinizing influence has produced a far-
reaching effect on the Greek text, the precise range of which is
difficult to determine. The Latin rendering (due to the poverty
of Latin in participial forms) of a Greek participle and finite
verb by two finite verbs connected by and is probably the
cause of the unusual number of corresponding variants in the
Greek D. In some cases KCU, alone has been introduced from the
Latin, without change in the Greek participle. Thus Mark vii. 25
6\0ov&lt;ra Kai TrpoaeTreo-ev (intravit et procidit), xi. 2 \vaavres
avrov icai ayayere (solvite ilium et adducite), xiv. 63 Siapprjgas rov ?
^eirayva^ avrov KCLI \eyei, (scidit vestimenta sua et ait), Acts xiv.
6 avvibovres Kai /caretyvyov (intellexerunt et fugerunt). The
necessary addition of a copula in rendering into Latin by a rela
tive sentence has produced an inept imitation in the Greek, e.g.
Matt. xi. 28 nravre^ 01 KOTriwvres K,ai Trecfroprio-fjievoi, ecrrat [for

ecrre] (omnes qui lavoratis [ ] estis) ; Acts xiii. 29 Travra ra

ire pi avrov yeypa^eva eiaiv (omnia quae de illo scripta sunt) ;
xvii. 27 fyreiv TO Qeuov ecrnv (quaerere quod divinum est) ; xxi.
21 rou? Kara eOvrj eicriv wv&aiovs (qui ingentibus sunt judaeos) ;
so also xi. 1 01 (qui) added before ev TTJ tovSaia. Not so grotesque,
but probably due to adjustment to the Latin, are cases where
an otiose but not incorrect participle is added ; so in Mark v. 40
Tou? /Jier avrov is expanded by the addition of ovras to corre
spond with qui cum illo erant, and similarly Mark ii. 25 ; and with
these may be mentioned the frequent supplying of the copula,
as in Mark x. 27 rovro aSvvarov eanv (hoc impossibile est). In a
smaller number of cases the attempt to equalize the Greek and

1 Bezae Codex Cantabrigiensis, p. xxiii.

CODEX BEZAE Ixxiii

Latin lines has caused not the addition but the omission of a word.
These attempts at assimilation have sometimes led to secondary
complicated, but plainly detectable, corruptions of the Greek.
A few other instances out of many that have been collected 1
will serve to suggest the great variety of ways in which latinizing
assimilation may reasonably be accepted as the corrupting force
at work : Matt. xi. 22, 24 avetcrorepov ecrre (for ecrrat) ev rifjuepa
Kpicrews r)v VJACIV, for 77 vptv (quam vobis, misunderstood as if a
relative) ; Matt. v. 24 Trpocr^e/jet?, for irpocrfape (offeres, itself
probably corrupted from offers) ; Acts xiii. 10 vioi (fili) for uto? ;
Matt. xv. 11, 18, 20, Acts xxi. 28 Koivwvelv for KOIVOVV (com-
municare, which means not only share/ but also, in Tertullian,
pollute ). 2 Examples, taken from countless others, of words
which owe to the Latin either their presence in the text or
their form are Matt. xxvi. 6 \eirpwa-ov for \67rpov, Acts ii. 11
apaftoi, for apaffes, v. 32 ov (referring to Trvevpa) for o, vii. 43
p/jL,(j)afji, for pe/j,&lt;f)av, xvi. 12 Kefya\7] (caput) for Trpcorvj, xvi. 13
e&o/cei, (bidebatur, i.e. videbatur) for e^o/ufero, xix. 14
(sacerdos, a common Latin rendering of ap^uepev^) for
In many cases there will obviously be great difficulty in deciding
whether the corrupting force lay in the Latin or in a similar
motive, independent and earlier, within the Greek text itself, but
the presence of some degree of latinizing must be admitted in
many expressions, and of the great range in which this can be
surely assumed the above examples can give but an imperfect
notion.

The types of latinizing described above have almost all been Omissions
such as can be detected from traits present in Codex Bezae. Latin?
But it is also probable that sometimes the striking omission
from D of words and clauses found in other well-known, but less

1 See J. R. Harris, Codex Bezae, 1891, esp. chaps, viii., ix., and x. ; von
Soden, Schriften des Neuen Testaments, pp. 1323-1337 and pp. 1815-1821, cf. also
pp. 1802-1810. For Harris s later view see his Four Lectures on the Western
Text, 1894, p. viii.

2 In Codex D KOLVUVCIV for KOLVOVV is found uniformly in Matthew, never
in Mark, and in one case out of three in Acts.

Ixxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

continuous, witnesses to the Western text is to be associated
with the fact that these glosses are not found in all or most
of the Old Latin witnesses known to us. Thus in the compli
cated passage Acts xviii. 21, 22, the important sentences rov Se
y A/cv\av eiacrev ev Ece&lt;r&), avros Be ava%0els rf\6ev are found
in 614, hcl.ww/, and in part in other Greek minuscules and in the
Peshitto, but not in D d, nor in any Latin text whatever. It is
natural to suppose that the words belonged to the fundamental
Greek text from which D is drawn, but were omitted because
nothing in the Latin version corresponded to them. The alter
native supposition of an excision in order to conform to the
Antiochian text is rendered unlikely by the number of Western
readings remaining in the immediate context of D d. Similarly,
at the close of Acts xiv. 18 the words a\\a TropevecrOai, etcaarov
et? ra i&ia are found translated in ~h.cl.mg, and have survived in
Greek in C 81 614 and many minuscules ; but they are lacking
in D d and all Latin texts (except that h contains a clause
vaguely resembling the Greek, perhaps a loose paraphrase of it).
Other examples of the same phenomenon could be collected
(cf. some of the omissions mentioned below, pp. ccxxxvi-viii).

That the Greek text of Codex Bezae has been influenced from
the Syriac has also been strongly urged, 1 and some of the facts
can be explained thereby, just as they can from the Latin, and
in some instances ingenuity can point out with considerable
plausibility that a possible confusion in the Syriac text would
account for the variant in the Greek. But whereas influence
from Latin is naturally indicated as likely to take place in a
graeco-latin codex, the theory of Syriac influence has no such

1 F. H. Chase, The Old Syriac Element in the Text of Codex Bezae, 1893 ;
The Syro-Latin Text of the Gospels, 1895 ; cf. J. R. Harris, Codex Bezae, pp. 178-
188. A similar view was favoured many years earlier by J. D. Michaelis,
Einleitung in die gottlichen Schriften des Neuen Bundes, 3rd ed., 1777, pp. 503 f.
(but cf. pp. 336-340), and David Schulz, Disputatio de Cod. D Cantabrigiensi,
Breslau, 1827, p. 16 ; but Chase was the first to undertake to explain com
pletely and in detail the Western text as the product of influence from the
Syriac version. For criticism of Chase s theory see J. R. Harris, Four Lectures
on the Western Text of the New Testament, 1894, pp. 14-34, 68-81.

CODEX BEZAE Ixxv

prima facie probability, and in order to be accepted requires
telling instances of demonstrative force, such as are actually
found in some of the instances of latinizing cited above. This
proof, however, is not forthcoming, and the point is well taken
that for some of the frequently occurring characteristics of D
the Syriac offers no explanation whatever. Thus the addition
of the copula is against Syriac idiom, and such a variant as the
addition in Acts xiv. 2 o Se icvpios tbwicev ra^v eipTjvrjv cannot
have been drawn from a Syriac expansion, for the corresponding
Syriac would mean, not give peace, but say farewell. x
There are in D some Semitic traits, such as the use of Hebrew,
instead of Aramaic, in the words from the Cross in Matt, xxvii. 46,
Mark xv. 34 ; the readings cnro fcapvcorov John xii. 4, xiii. 2, 26,
xiv. 22 (also in K John vi. 71), aa^ovpeiv for e^pcu^, John
xi. 54, and perhaps ov\a/jL/jiaov$ for e/^aof?, Luke xxiv. 13. 2
Also the otiose aurofc Acts xiv. 2 might be Semitic ; pera rcov
^jrv^cov avrwv Acts xiv. 27 sounds more Semitic than Greek. But
these are isolated phenomena, and a better explanation of some
of them will be found below (pp. ccxlii-iv). The theory of
systematic or continuous Syriac influence does not furnish a
satisfactory solution of the problem of Codex Bezae.

It is not to be supposed that all the peculiarities and errors Successive
of Codex Bezae were introduced at the latest, or at any single
earlier stage. Much of the orthography is doubtless very ancient,
or possibly original. Scribal errors of the various usual types
may have been introduced at each copying, including that which
produced the codex itself. The adjustment of the Greek to the
Latin and the converse (of which something will be said later)
may well have taken place, in part at least, in different periods.
An interesting illustration of a succession of corruptions which
must have preceded the present text is the unique reading

1 Harris, Four Lectures, pp. 69 f. It is to be observed that Chase s theory
was quite as much intended to explain the variants of the Western text as
the eccentricities of Codex Bezae.

2 Cf. E. von Dobschutz, E. Nestle s Einfiihrung in das griechische N.T.,
1923, p. 5.

Ixxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Luke xxii. 52 o-rparrjyov^ rov \aov (for tepov, d praepositos
populi). Here \aov seems clearly a corruption for vaov, and that
again a substitute (intelligible, but incorrect in point of technical
usage) for tepov of all other witnesses. In general, if at first the
Latin was made approximately to correspond with the Greek,
the widespread assimilation of the Greek to the Latin may have
been due to the pains of a later scribe ; or both assimilations may
have been made concurrently now from one side, now from the
other when this bilingual edition was first constructed. One
stage in the ancestry of our codex may have been an interlinear
graeco-latin text, like the Codex Boernerianus (G paul ).

The general relation of the Greek text of Codex Bezae and
the Latin version associated with it has long been the subject of
discussion. 1 The two texts, as they stand, bear intricate relations
of likeness ; yet they are by no means identical, 2 and the differ
ence between them cannot as a whole be accounted for by later
correction of one side or the other from the Antiochian text. 3
The older debate revolved about too simple a formulation of the
question, and was too much interested in proving or disproving
the worthlessness of the codex for the practical uses of textual
critics. The seventeenth - century scholars, from Erasmus to
Grotius (except Morinus 4 ), seem to have held that the Greek
text of D had been so adapted to the Latin version as to be
practically worthless. A more moderate view was that of Mill
(1707), who deemed the Greek text to have been copied from a

1 See Harris, Codex Bezae, pp. 41-46.

2 Scrivener, Bezae Codex Cantabrigiensis, pp. xxxix f., states that nearly
2000 divergencies are found between the Greek and the Latin. Of these Acts
contains 631, of which 285 are "real various readings" of some consequence,
on the Latin side not infrequently showing agreement with the Vulgate.

3 See, for instance, how the Antiochian (or Old Uncial) correction in chap,
xviii. has affected both Greek and Latin equally. But some cases of one-sided
correction can be pointed out ; thus Acts xix. 39 Trepi erepwv seems to be a
correction in accord with KA Antiochian, while the corresponding Latin ulterius
has retained the Western reading, as found also in gig.

4 J. Morinus, Exercitationes biblicae de hebraei graecique textus sinceritate,
Paris, 1660, lib. i., exerc. ii., c. iii., pp. 47-54. Morinus, convinced of the
superiority of the Latin Vulgate, rejoiced to find Vulgate readings confirmed
by Codex Bezae and Codex Claromontanus.

CODEX BEZAE Ixxvii

Greek original, similar to that from which the Latin version was
made, but later to have been altered in conformity to the Latin
at a few points here and there (" paucula hinc inde "), and who
gives well-chosen examples of such readings. 1 Wetstein (Pro
legomena, 1751) agreed with Mill ; and Middleton (1808) 2 urged
with much vigour the latinizing tendency of D as evidence (and
as one cause) of its worthlessness. Meanwhile, however, J. D.
Michael is 3 had pointed out that this tendency, if it existed,
explained but a small part of the peculiarities of D, and Gries-
bach 4 protested that the conformation to the Latin was negli
gible, and that the Greek text itself was of Greek origin and a
witness to a very ancient stage of the text of the Gospels and Acts.
With Griesbach agreed Marsh in his notes to the translation of
Michaelis s Introduction (1793), and this general view appears
to have held the ground through the greater part of the nineteenth
century. Hort ( Introduction, 1881, pp. 82 f.) regarded d as of
little practical value for Old Latin evidence, because it had been
" altered throughout into verbal conformity with the Greek text
by the side of which it had been intended to stand " ; again
(p. 120), he refers with contempt to the " whimsical theory " that
" the Western Greek text owed its peculiarities to translation
from the Latin " ; in his account of Codex Bezae (pp. 148 f.) he
makes no reference whatever to any latinizing tendency in the
MS. Similarly Burkitt regards Codex Bezae as a Greek book
with a Latin version. 5 But in the meantime J. E,. Harris, in
his Codex Bezae, 1891, presented at length the opposing theory
that " the major part," or (p. 203) nine-tenths, of the variants
in the Acts of D are due to the attempt to make the Greek text
conform to the Latin, and drew attention to a great body of

1 Prolegomena, par. 1282.

2 T. F. Middleton, The Doctrine of the Greek Article, 1808, Appendix, pp.
677-698.

3 Einleitung, 4th ed., 1788, pp. 582 f.

4 Symbolae criticae, vol. i., 1785, pp. cx-cxvii.

5 Journal of Theological Studies, vol. in., 1901-2, p. 505. Scrivener, Bezae
Codex Cantabrigiensis, p. xxxii : " The Latin version is little better than a close
and often servile rendering of the actually existing Greek."

Ixxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHKISTIANITY

evidence in support of this claim. 1 Von Soden assigns a large
place to latinization.

Relation of The result of this debate has been to establish that D can
Latin shies, neither be rejected as worthless, on the ground that it is secondary
and dependent throughout on the Latin, nor yet used, in a fashion
which has been all too common, as in every respect a trust
worthy witness, as it stands, to the Western text. The Latin
d, while it has no doubt been affected in countless readings by
its Greek partner, is yet by no means a mere literal translation
of the Greek D, but neither is D a mere late construction designed
to give Greek support to d. Both sides are mixed texts, and
this is exactly what our knowledge of other manuscripts written
with parallel columns would lead us to expect. Indeed, the inter
action is probably less marked in Codex Bezae than in cases
where the single lines are shorter. In the very short lines (one
to three words each, on the average) of Origen s Hexapla the order
of words in the LXX column is believed to have been altered
to match the others. 2 In many graeco-latin Psalters from the
sixth to the tenth century the Greek text has been altered to
conform to the Latin. 3 Codex Boernerianus (G paul ) is said to
show conformation in both directions. 4 Codex Claromontanus
(D paul ) probably shows correction of the Latin to agree with
the Greek. 5 The case of Codex Laudianus (E ac ) is discussed
below. 6 From a much later date (fourteenth or fifteenth century)

1 Searching criticism of Harris s views were contained in two excellent
articles by A. S. Wilkins, The Western Text of the Greek Testament, Expositor,
4th series, vol. x., 1894, pp. 386-400, 409-428. Wilkins admits the existence of
latinizing influence, but points out that many of Harris s examples are not
convincing, and that in many cases variation common to D and d " may have
originated in either."

2 A. Rahlfs, Studie uber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, 1922,
pp. 69 f., n. 3.

3 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, 1907, pp. 94-101.

4 E. Diehl, Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. xx., 1921,
p. 107 ; Hort, Introduction, p. 82. 6 Hort, Introduction, p. 82.

6 Julicher, Zeitschrift fur die neutest. Wissenschaft, vol. xv., 1914, p. 182,
speaks of the " Unmoglichkeit," that D and E should have been conformed to
d and e, but the author informs me that the word is a mistake of the press, or
the pen, for Moglichkeit.

CODEX BEZAE Ixxix

Codex 629 (Vat. ottobon. 298, see Gregory, Prolegomena, p. 635)
has a Greek text extensively accommodated to its parallel Vulgate
columns. The Latin codex f of the Gospels is thought to be
drawn from a bilingual Gothic-Latin codex in which the Latin had
been altered to correspond with the Gothic. 1 Even the editors
of the Complutensian Polyglot transposed the Greek to make it
agree in order of words with their Hebrew column. 2 Apart from
the other kinds of corruption, the latinized element in D must
always be kept in mind in using Codex Bezae. In such cases
the only safe or possible method is by comparison with other
witnesses to the same type of text. It cannot be admitted that
a Latin influence is accountable for the Western variants
found equally in other Greek, Syriac, and Sahidic sources. 3
Where such evidence is at hand, we may accept the text of D
as free from influence from d. Contrariwise, the renderings of
d can be supposed to be directly translated from D only where
no other Old Latin witness attests them. Within the field thus
narrowed, where either D or d can be a direct translation from
the other, many cases will be so related to Latin or to Greek
idiom, or to the recognizable characteristics of the Greek Western
reviser, as to point convincingly to a conclusion ; many others
will not. Often doubt will remain. In considering this question
it must never be forgotten that the process of mind of a scribe
improving the text is in many respects essentially the same as

1 Burkitt, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. I., 1899-1900, p. 131 ; vol. XL,
1909-10, p. 613 ; Wordsworth and White, Novum Testamentum Latine, Evan-
gelia, 1889, pp. 653 f., held f to represent substantially the Old Latin text on
which the Vulgate revision was founded.

2 Flaminius Nobilius, in Veins Testamentum secundum LXX latine redditum,
1588 (fourth page of Praefatio ad lectorem ), cited by G. F. Moore, The
Antiochian Recension of the Septuagint, American Journal of Semitic Languages
and Literatures, vol. xxix., 1912, pp. 57 f.

3 It is for this reason that the striking contentions of Harris with regard
to the reading, Luke xxiii. 53, /ecu devros avrov eireOriKev TW fivrj/j^enij \eidov ov
/j.oyts eiKcxri CKV\IOV, remain unconvincing. Since the Sahidic, and not merely
some Old Latin texts, bears witness to it, it must be supposed to have arisen in
Greek, and the imperfect Latin hexameter, imposuit lapidem quern vix viginti
movebant, must be accounted for, as it can be, by assuming it to be the work of
an ingenious Latin translator from the Greek.

Ixxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

that of a translator into another language. That d has affected
D seems beyond doubt in view of such facts as those adduced
above (pp. Ixxii-lxxiv) ; but the proof is in most cases demon
strative only for details, many cases must remain doubtful, and
in a great mass of instances, including most of the larger and
more interesting readings, Codex Bezae has certainly preserved
approximately the Greek text of the Western recension. 1

Latin text ^e Latin text of d is not carefully written, but offers to the

of Codex student of late and dialectal Latin a great storehouse of facts
which seem to have been but little used by philologists. 2 The
obstacles to the use of it for the Old Latin have already been
sufficiently indicated. That it has been extensively corrected
to correspond to the Greek text would be expected, and is
altogether probable. 3 Undoubtedly the Greek text from which
was made the Latin version on which d rests was a Western
text closely akin to the fundamental text which appears in
corrupt form in D. Of the character of the Latin rendering
found in Codex Bezae more will be said below in connexion with
the Old Latin version in general (p. cxi).

Contamina- An extensive influence of capital importance which came in
after the fundamental text of Codex Bezae was formed, but early

western enough to control also the Latin side, was the introduction,

Text.

sometimes by conflation, sometimes by substitution, of readings
not Western, but drawn from the rival type of text. 4 Whether

1 With Codex Laudianus (E) the situation is different, as will be shown
below.

2 The chief study of these is to be found in Harris, Codex Bezae, chaps, iv.,
v., xii., xix., xxvi. Of. K. S. de Vogel, Bulletin Rylands Library, viii., 1924,
pp. 398-403. On nomina sacra in d see Traube, Nomina sacra, pp. 178 f.

3 So Hort, Introduction, p. 82 ; but the arguments and illustrations put
forward by Scrivener, Bezae Codex Cantabrigiensis, pp. xxxi-xxxiv, do not
prove this, as is shown by Wilkins, Expositor, 4th series, vol. x., 1894, pp. 390-
392. The proof can be brought by a collection of instances where readings of
d not attested elsewhere in Latin correspond to readings of D that are shown by
other evidence to be genuine Greek variants.

4 Especial attention was called to this phenomenon by the memorable essay
of P. Corssen, Der Cyprianische Text der Ada apostolorum, Berlin, 1892 ; see
also Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1901, pp. 9 f. Blass, Acta apostolorum,
editio philologica, 1895, p. 25, admits this contamination ; as does B. Weiss, Der

CODEX BEZAE Ixxxi

these came from the Old Uncial text of B and its associates or
from the Antiochian text has not been fully determined, although
an answer to that question could probably be found. 1 In some
cases the source seems to be the Antiochian text, 2 and this would
be what the general history of textual succession and contamina
tion would lead us to expect. As a striking and representative
example of such conflation reference may be made to Acts xviii.
3-6 (see Textual Note), where the original Western text without
conflation is found in the Syriac hcl.mg and the African Latin h.
A remarkable instance of the contamination is Acts iv. 13-15,
where in D one small addition is almost the only indication that
its fundamental text once possessed widely different readings
which are still in large measure recoverable from the Latin h and
the Peshitto. Sometimes in the process of such conflation a
necessary word was accidentally omitted (so 77 o-wrrjpia in Acts
iv. 12 ; see Textual Note), but the student has no right to assume
this except where other reasons show that such a process of
substitution or insertion has taken place. In some cases the
omission in D of words still found in other witnesses to the
Western text is doubtless due to deliberate conformation to
the rival text. 3

Codex D in der Apostelgeschichte (Texte und Untersuchungen, xvii.), 1897, pp.
15 f., albeit on a small scale. The latter gives some examples ; he assumes that
the source of the mixture was the Old Uncial text.

1 In the Textual Notes below, when such conflations are discussed, the term
B-text has often been used for convenience of brevity without regard to the
distinction pointed out here, and without prejudice to the question of whether
the contamination came from the Old Uncial text or from the Antiochian text
which had been developed from it.

2 See von Soden, pp. 1309-11, 1722 f. For Acts he adduces the Antiochian
readings in x. 46-xi. 2, xi. 3-20, and finds instances here, as in the Gospels, of
the misunderstanding of corrections from the Antiochian text on the part of the
scribe of D or its ancestor. Von Soden (p. 1310) is of opinion that these intru
sions in the Gospels are the work of more than one of the successive owners and
copyists.

8 Von Soden, p. 1723. In such cases as xvii. 17, where a misplacement of
lines occurs only in d, this is probably due to the misplaced substitution of the
non-western text for the original Western. The observation is confirmed
both by the fact that rots (before ev TTJ ayopa) added to the usual text in
D hcl.mg sah seems to imply an original Traparvxavinv instead of -rrpos roi/y
ruxofras and by the form his in company with (twice) hiis in d.
VOL. Ill f

Ixxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

It would be tedious to multiply illustrations of this charac
teristic of Codex Bezae. The facts can be properly weighed only
after a careful study of the instances themselves and of the
outside evidence bearing on them ; many of them are touched
on in the Textual Notes. But the fact plainly advises wariness
to every student of the Western text, and the following list of
passages (but a small part of the whole number) where con
tamination of this sort is probably present in D may be useful,
and is certainly instructive : i. 2, 9 ; ii. 14 ; iii. 8, 11, 13 ; iv. 5,
10, 12, 34 ; v. 26, 27, 28, 29 ; vii. 26, 43, 55 ; xii. 5 ; xiii. 3, 4,
27-29, 44 ; xiv. 5, 15, 18, 19, 21 ; xv. 5, 18 ; xvi. 4, 38, 39 ; xvii.
1 ; xviii. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 19, 21, 22 ; xix. 8, 20, 29 ; xx. 7, 18, 35 ;
xxii. 6. In the study of such cases as these it must be borne in
mind that agreement between the text of D and the Antiochian
may be due to the adoption of Western readings by the Anti
ochian, not to contamination of D from the latter. A decision
will have to be reached in each case partly by considering the
outside evidence for the reading, but partly also from the intrinsic
character of the reading itself. The two texts have each its own
distinctive character, which the student learns in a measure to
recognize. It is likewise to be observed that the agreement of
D and one or more of the Old Uncials may either have arisen
from contamination or be due to participation in the same ancient,
perhaps original, text. No mechanical rule, such as critics have
often attempted to frame, can be applied in these cases.
Use of ix The proper mode of using Codex Bezae is determined by the
characteristics which have been described. Its Greek side is
unique in furnishing a continuous * Western text of Acts. But
that Western text was copied with many scribal errors, has
been conformed to the parallel Latin in details on a large scale,
has probably suffered the excision of clauses not found in the
Latin used to make the bilingual, while in many striking instances,
and doubtless in many others not so easy to recognize, it has been
altered, at some time before the present copy was made, so as to
agree either with the Antiochian text or with the text of B and

CODEX BEZAE Ixxxiii

its associates. All these various sources of corruption must be
constantly borne in mind, and only when their distorting effects
have been recognized in every case can the fundamental Greek
text be discovered of which D is a broken light. In other words,
D, although the oldest Greek text of Acts containing many
Western readings, and the only one possessing anything like
continuity, is, like the other witnesses, but mixed after all. 1
Nevertheless, the antiquated character of some of the spelling, 2
as well as other traits, give confidence that where the well-known
sources of corruption have not been at work, the copying has been
highly faithful, in the sense that the form of the Western text,
so far as it has been preserved at all, has not been modernized. 3
Another aspect of this consideration is the warning that extra
ordinary readings of D ought never to be neglected as insignificant.
Senseless as they seem, they sometimes prove to be not mere
blunders of a thoughtless scribe, but genuine survivals of an
ancient text. For instance, in Acts xiii. 29 the meaningless /JLCV
probably represents /juera of the fundamental Western text, as
discoverable from a comparison of D with the astericized and
marginal readings of the Harclean Syriac ; in Acts iv. 18 Trap-
r)yyi\avTo Kara TO represents the reading TraprjyyeiXav TO
Ka6o\ov found also in A and the Antiochian text. The
text of Codex Bezae is far more than an accumulation of
scribal errors combined with the influence of the Latin
version.

What has been said will have already made abundantly clear
the important distinction, not generally sufficiently noticed,
between the text of D and the Western text. Each of these
constitutes a problem for itself, and these two problems must, so

1 The large number of agreements, often small but nevertheless significant,
of pesh and h, and of pesh and gigas, against D also seem to show that the
text of D has been corrected, and true Western readings eliminated, to a
greater extent than would otherwise be suspected.

2 Cf. what is said on the use of u and f/3 for 07* and &lt;rf3 in J. H. Moulton
and W. F. Howard, Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. ii., 1919, p. 107 ;
Thackeray, Grammar, p. 108 ; and Rudberg (above, p. Ixxi note 1).

3 On the nomina sacra in D see Traube, Nomina sacra, pp. 78 f.

Ixxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

far as possible, be kept separate. 1 The discussion at the present
point of this Essay is intended to relate to the problems of Codex
Bezae ; the questions relating to the Western text (to which
it is only one, although the most important, witness) will find
their place at a later stage of the discussion. 2

Of a different nature from the excellent edition of Codex
Bezae by Scrivener (1864) are a succession of New Testament
texts mainly or largely founded on this MS. : Bornemann, Acta
apostolorum ad Codicis Cantabrigiensis fidem recensuit, 1848 ;
Blass, editio philologica, 1895, and in smaller form with a some
what different text, 1896 ; Hilgenfeld, Acta apostolorum, 1899.
Whiston published an English translation in 1745 ; J. M. Wilson
another in 1923. Zahn s reconstruction of the Greek * Western
text in his Die Urausgabe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas (For-
schungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons und der
altkirchlichen Literatur, ix.), 1916, uses all the available evidence,
and is a work of permanent importance. Nestle s collation of D
in his Novi Testamenti graeci supplementum, 1896, will be valuable
to the student for some purposes, but no presentation of the
variants, however complete, can take the place of the use of
the continuous text of D.

E. CODEX LAUDIANUS 3

History. Codex Laudianus (graeco-latin, containing Acts only) was in
Sardinia at some date after the year 534, as is shown by a note

1 The theories of Blass, von Soden, Harris (Montanistic), and A. C. Clark
pertain to the Western text in general rather than to Codex Bezae in par
ticular, and are accordingly reserved for later mention. On the theory of Credner,
adopted by Alfred Resch, that the text of Codex Bezae was of Jewish-Christian
(Ebionite) origin, it is sufficient to refer to the crushing criticism of J. R. Harris,
Credner and the Codex Bezae, in Four Lectures on the Western Text, pp. 1-13.

2 The term Bezan text, by which it was sought to avoid the fallacy (or at
least the petitio principii) implied in the name Western text, has done more
positive harm than the latter.

3 For a more extended discussion of E see J. H. Ropes, The Greek Text of
Codex Laudianus, Harvard Theological Review, vol. xvi., 1923, pp. 175-186,
from which some paragraphs and sentences are here used without substantial
change. Much additional material is also to be found in von Soden, pp. 1717-
J720, 1811-18H,

CODEX LAUDIANUS Ixxxv

in the volume, and may well have been written in that island in
the late sixth or early seventh century. The opening years of
the eighth century found it in England at Jarrow, for it is the
Greek codex abundantly referred to by the Venerable Bede in
his commentary on Acts. It is likely that it was brought to
England from Italy by Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid not long
after 650 (rather than by Theodore of Tarsus in 668, for the
latter is not recorded to have brought any books). 1 The scribe
of Codex Amiatinus (shortly before 716) seems here and there to
have drawn readings from its Latin side.

At a later date the codex was in Germany, doubtless trans
ported thither by one of the English missionaries, Willibrord or
Boniface, or some one of the latter s disciples. 2 Its home may
have been the monastery of Wiirzburg, and it may have come
to that house, like many other manuscripts, through Burchard,
whom Boniface consecrated bishop of Wiirzburg in 741 or earlier. 3
In 1631, during the Thirty Years War, Wurzburg was sacked
by the Swedish army, and Codex E was somewhere obtained
by the agents employed in Germany by Archbishop Laud to
purchase manuscripts which became available through the dis
orders of the time. Laud gave it to the Bodleian Library in
1636.

The scribe of E was a Greek, who knew his own language
better than Latin, although he wrote both with reasonable
accuracy. The manuscript was copied from a similar bilingual
predecessor. 4

As between the Latin and Greek columns there are some Depend
differences, enough to show that the Latin is not a mere rendering oJceko

1 J. Chapman, Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels, 1908, Latin
pp. 158, 160.

2 The proof that the codex was in Germany before it fell into the hands of
Laud was, it would appear, first observed by E. W. B. Nicholson, Librarian of
the Bodleian Library.

3 C. H. Turner, art. New Testament, Text of, in Murray s Illustrated BibU
Dictionary (ed. W. C. Piercy), 1908, p. 586 ; A. Souter, The Text and Canon of
the New Testament, 1913, p. 29.

* A. Jiilicher, Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. xv.,
1914, pp. 182 f.

Ixxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHEISTIANITY

of this Greek text ; but they consist in most cases of trifling
variations in a single word, while agreement has been secured
by systematic adjustment of the two columns to one another.
The Latin text shows many instances of Latin solecisms, and
strange expressions, plainly due to imitation of the Greek, and
not drawn from the Latin gigas-recension, which was used as
the foundation of the text. 1 The Greek, on the other hand, has
been modified to make it agree with the Latin. Thus, Acts vi. 7,
the old Latin translation discentium for rwv /jLaOrjrcov has
evidently given rise to the Greek TWV pavOavovTwv, which is
quite as impossible Greek as the learners for the disciples
would be in an English translation ; so also, xii. 14, the Latin
januam for rov TrvXcova, evidently the cause of the unique Greek
reading rqv 6vpav ; xxiv. 25, /caipay Be eirir^io) for Kaipov Be
/j,Ta\a/3cov, and other cases.

In a considerable series of instances where even the partly
expurgated Latin version used for this codex had retained
* Western enlargements, it was necessary to translate these
into Greek in order to equalize the two columns, and that this
took place is made certain by the difference in the Greek form
from the corresponding Western reading in D. Thus, to cite
a few of the instances :

e E D

iii. 13.
iv. 32.

in judicium
etnoneratsepa-

/cat OVK t]v xupifffnos ev KOLL OVK t]v ta/cpi&lt;ns ev

ratio in eis ulla

aurois rts avTots ou5e/xta

v. 15.

et liberarentur

Kai pvffQuaiv OTTO Traces a-mjXXacro-ovTO

yap airo

ab omni vali-

aax^ftas 175 eixov Traar/s acrdevias

us etX ei/

tudine quam

CKa&TOS aVTUV

habebant

vi. 10.

propter quod

dtori rjXeyxovTO VTT avrov Sta TO e\ey%t

adai av-

redarguerentur

fj.Ta Tra&lt;rr]s irapp rjffia.s TOUJ CTT ayroi* ^tera Traces

ab eo cum omni

eiridi&gt;) OVK rjSvvavTO avTi- ira.pp-qai.as U.TI

5vvafJ.evoi

fiducia : cum

\ryiv TT) a\i]6eia oi/O^ avTofida

\/j.eiv TTJ

ergo non pos-

a\-r)6ei.a

sent contra-

dicere veritati

1 Tischendorf, Monumenta sacra inedita, Nova collectio, vol. ix. pp. xvi f. ;
Julicher, op. cit. pp. 183-185.

CODEX LAUDIANUS

Ixxxvii

eyevero Be Kara -rraaav
iro\iv ^r/fj.Lffd rjvai. TOV
\oyov

eyevcro Se Kad 0X775 TTJS
TToXews 8ie\0eiv TOV \oyov
TOV dv

TTl TTJ l-

5a%77 avTWv. o Se TrauXos
/cat /3api&gt;a/3as dieTpi/Bov ev

/cat KLvr]di] o\ov

TT\r)9oS TTL Tt]

o 5e iravXos /cat

ep \vffTpois

xiii. 43. factum est
autem per uni-
versam civi-
tatem diffa-
mari verbum
xiv. 7. et commota
est omnis multi
tude in doctrina
eorum. paulum
autem et barna-
bas moraban-
tur in lystris

In many of the simple phrases and words the appropriate
Greek rendering was inevitable, and could not fail to agree with
the original, as found in D or elsewhere, but in the more compli
cated instances (a few of which are given above) the well-educated
Greek to whom we owe the retranslation was forced to go his
own way, and produced a different text from the parallel in the
Greek authorities, with which he would seem not to have been
acquainted. In some few cases the readings of E may possibly
be due to sporadic Western readings in the Greek codex from
which it is derived, but the observed facts cause the presumption
in any single case to be against such an origin. The text itself
bears hardly any, if any, resemblance to D, except in readings
which are probably the result of retranslation from the Latin.
It is not to be regarded as in any sense a witness to a Greek
Western text, although of course its Latin column (e) rests
in part on such a text. The Greek text properly so called from
which E (or, rather, its ancestor x ) was taken was one of the Old
Uncial type which had been extensively corrected to the Antioch-
ian type. To judge by an incomplete examination, perhaps in
somewhat more than two-thirds of the cases where an Antiochian
variant might have been introduced, the corrector who effected
that ancient mixture has actually introduced it. Codex Laudianus,
apart from Latinisms, thus gives substantially an Antiochian
text of Acts, and is the oldest extant codex of any degree of com
pleteness which does so. Its Western readings on the Greek

1 Jiilicher, Zeitschr.f. d. neutest. Wissenschaft, vol. xv., 1914, pp. 182 f.

Ixxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

side can teach us nothing, and may rightly, as mere curiosities,
disappear from the apparatus to Acts. The Greek of Codex
Laudianus is therefore not included in any apparatus of the
present volume, although its readings are sometimes adduced,
for the sake of completeness, in the Textual Notes. 1

3. THE TEXT OF CODICES BtfAC IN THE
OLD TESTAMENT

Bearing of From the beginning the Greek-speaking Christian Church
New read the Old Testament in Greek translations, and from these
Testament were ma j e the early versions of the Old Testament into Latin,

textual

criticism, the Egyptian vernacular dialects, and Ethiopic. The text of the
Greek Old Testament was consequently subjected to some of the
same influences, and underwent in part the same history, as the
text of the New Testament. The four oldest extant New Testa
ment manuscripts (Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and
Ephraemi) are pandects which originally contained the whole
Bible in Greek ; and other manuscripts contain, in whole or in
part, both the Old and New Testaments. Especially the Psalter
was in ancient times, as to-day, included in the same volume with
the New Testament. Not only do the results of textual criticism
of the Greek Old Testament reveal a parallel to the process of
New Testament textual development, but they throw light on
the specific character and value of the New Testament part of
the four great Bibles. The use of these results, however, calls
for discriminating judgment : for the history of the Septuagint
contains elements wholly lacking in that of the New Testament ;
the character of any great Bible is likely to vary in different
parts ; and it would be easy to draw utterly wrong conclusions
by making direct inferences, not independently supported, from
one field to the adjacent one. Nevertheless, both the guidance

1 For substantially the same conclusion with regard to Codex E see
H. Coppieters, De historia textus Actorum Apostolorum, Louvain, 1902, pp. 68-71;
F. C. Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 4996 ; F. Blass, Acta apostolorum,
1895, pp. 28 f.

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT Ixxxix

and the confirmation furnished by Septuagint criticism are to be
highly prized. With these considerations in view it has seemed
worth while at this point to interrupt the account of the sources
for the text of Acts with a summary of the main results thus far
reached in the investigation of the four great Bibles which origin
ally contained both the Old and New Testaments in Greek.

Of the Septuagint the two great editions by which a wide Hexapia
influence was exerted were the fifth column of Origen s Hexapia
(completed A.D. 240-245) and the edition of Lucian of Antioch
(died at Nicomedia in 311 or 312). In Origen s edition stood a
text drawn by him from some previous copy, which he approved
but modified in three ways : (1) by slight tacit improvements,
and by occasional rearrangements (in detail or on a larger scale)
for the sake of agreement with the other columns ; (2) by pre
fixing obeli, and appending metobeli, to Greek words to which
nothing in the original Hebrew corresponded ; (3) by the inter
jection of Greek words, phrases, and passages, not found in the
LXX-text on which in the main he drew, but required in order
to supply the plus of the Hebrew. These intruded words and
portions were marked by asterisks and metobeli, and were them
selves usually drawn from the version (made from the Hebrew)
of Theodotion or of Aquila. 1 From the huge series of codices
which were part of Origen s legacy to the library at Caesarea,
his fifth column was copied, with the critical marks, in the early
fourth century, under the supervision, partly perhaps by the
hand, of Pamphilus (f 309) and his venerator Eusebius the
church historian, and was doubtless used in various ways in the
formation and correction of other copies, so that it produced a
definite edition, large knowledge of which is still recoverable in
greater or less accuracy and completeness from many manuscripts.

The edition of Lucian of Antioch had in part the same
purpose as that of Origen, to bring the current Greek translation

1 H. B. Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, 2nd ed., Cambridge,
1914, pp. 59-78.

xc THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

of the Old Testament into closer harmony with the Hebrew
original ; in part his aim was to produce a more polished, and
otherwise improved, translation. But Origen mainly limited
himself to creating an instrument for the use of scholars ; while
Lucian s edition was merely a new text, not provided with
critical apparatus. A fair number of extant MSS. can be identified
as giving, often in corrupt form, this edition. The shadowy
Hesychius. figure of Hesychius, whose text, we are told by Jerome, was used
in the fourth century in Egypt, must also be mentioned here, but
it constitutes a problem of critical inquiry, not a starting-point
of further investigation. He has been thought to be a contem
porary of Lucian, but all that is known of his work is that it
can have affected but little the previously existing text. 1

The first task of Septuagint textual criticism is thus to deter
mine as perfectly as possible from MSS., versions, and patristic evi
dence the exact form of the hexaplaric and of the Lucianic
texts, and then to inquire how far either or both of these two
great sources of influence have affected the several copies of the
Septuagint which we possess. In the MSS. which include several
groups of Old Testament books, the inquiry has to be made for
each group separately, and sometimes different books of the same
group are found to vary in their type of text within a single
manuscript. Recent critical investigations cover a part of the
Old Testament. The most elaborate and instructive so far
published are those by Alfred Rahlfs and the scholars who, under
his incentive and supervision, and following the traditions of
Lagarde, have issued preliminary studies for the edition of the
Septuagint planned by the Gottingen Academy. But other
scholars in their measure have made important contributions. 2

Codex For a series of books it has been shown that Codex Vaticanus

Vaticanus.

1 A. Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta- Psalters, 1907, pp. 226 f.

2 See F. C. Burkitt, Fragments of the Books of Kings according to the
Translation of Aquila, 1897, pp. 18-20 ; L. Dieu, Les Manuscrits grecs des livres
de Samuel, Le Museon, xxxiv., 1921, pp. 17-60. Other studies are mentioned
in the notes below.

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT xci

gives a text nearly akin to that which Origen found in exist
ence and adopted as the basis of the fifth column of the
Hexapla, 1 and that B itself has been influenced by the Hexapla
in but small degree, in some books perhaps not at all. This is
the case in Joshua, Ruth, 1-4 Kingdoms, Psalms, Ezekiel, and
apparently Esther. 2 In probably all of these books B (with, or
more often without, support from its closest adherents) shows
some peculiar readings, which are usually to be rejected. 3 Of
the influence of the Lucianic recension B shows no trace in these
books.

In these instances, with which could doubtless be associated
other books of which no thorough investigations have yet been
produced, B represents a very old LXX-text, which can some
times be distinguished from other extant strains of pre-origenian
text. It contains, however, errors, as compared with these, and

1 The idea apparently intended by Lagarde, Anmerlcungen zur griechischen
Ubersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, p. 3, that Codex B was drawn from an edition
of the fifth column of the Hexapla with the astericized portions omitted (a view
followed by Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 5022, cf. Torrey, Ezra Studies,
pp. 96 f.) has been abandoned by Rahlfs in the books treated in his monographs
in favour of the conclusion stated in the text. Rahlfs scrupulously formed
judgment may be received with the more confidence in that his work has all
been conceived and executed in pursuance of the plans marked out by the master,
to whose memory the first instalment of Rahlfs Septuagint Studies is dedicated.
For Ezekiel the view suggested by Lagarde was strongly maintained by C. H.
Cornill, Das Buck des Propheten Ezechiel, 1886, pp. 80 f., 94 f., but after criticism
by Lagarde himself (Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1886 ; reprinted in Mit-
theilungen, ii. pp. 49 ff.) and by Hort (The Academy, December 24, 1887) it was
withdrawn by Cornill (Nachrichten, Gottingen Academy, vol. xxx., 1888, pp.
194 ff.).

2 For Joshua I owe this information to Professor Max L. Margolis. For Ruth
see Rahlfs, Studie iiber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth (Mittheilungen
des Septuaginta-Unternehmens, vol. in., Heft 2), 1922, pp. 60, 119; for 1-4
Kingdoms, Rahlfs, Studien zu den Konigsbuchern (Septuaginta-Studien i.),
pp. 85-87 ; for the Psalter, Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuagintu-Psalters, p. 228 ;
for Ezekiel, 0. Procksch (cited below) ; for Esther, L. B. Paton, Critical
and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Esther (International Critical
Commentary), 1908, p. 31.

8 So, for instance, Ruth, Rahlfs, Studie uber den griechischen Text des
Buches Ruth, pp. 120 f . ; Kingdoms, Rahlfs, Studien zu den Konigsbuchern,
1904, pp. 83 f. ; in Kingdoms the Ethiopic text sometimes gives the means of
restoring the true reading of the type, when B has departed from it (Rahlfs,
p. 84).

xcii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

may be the result of a recension. Rahlfs is disposed to regard
the text of B and its congeners as due to the recension of Hesy-
chius. This may be a sagacious conjecture, but seems to furnish
no aid to the actual investigation, and there is danger of pro
ceeding as if the conjecture were a ground for inferring the date
and Egyptian origin of the text, instead of being itself an infer
ence from the conclusions reached by study of the text itself.
Nothing points to influence from any locality outside of Egypt.
The great significance of B lies in the general soberness of its
text (except in the proper names) and its relative freedom from
deliberate revision.

Daniel. The text of Daniel in B, as in all Septuagint manuscripts
with the exception of the hexaplaric Codex Chisianus, gives the
version of Theodotion, and is the best extant copy of that text,
with valuable support from the Old Latin and Sahidic, which
occasionally provide means for the correction of the text found
in B. B shows in Daniel but few mistakes or interpolations, but
displays some tendency to abbreviation. 1

Psalms. In the Psalms the situation is in some respects peculiar, and
is full of interest for the New Testament critic. The relation,
indeed, of the Psalter to the New Testament is unique among
Old Testament books, for the liturgical use of the Psalms by
Christians, and perhaps also the occasional practice of combining
the Psalms with a part or the whole of the New Testament, has
led to an agreement in the textual history of the two not found
elsewhere. 2 More than one striking illustration of this can be
pointed out. 3 Thus the Antiochian (Lucianic) recension of the
Psalms, like the corresponding Antiochian recension of the New
Testament, became the prevalent form in the Greek-speaking

1 This statement about Daniel I owe to Professor James A. Montgomery.

2 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, p. 237.

3 Somewhat similar is the preservation of Coverdale s English Psalter in the
later editions of the Great Bible and in the Prayer Book ; also the fact that the
Latin text used for the Psalter of the French translation of the thirteenth century
was a compilation, not the University of Paris text from which all tho rest of the
translation was made (S. Berger, La Bible franpaise au moyen dge, 1884,
p. 155).

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT xciii

world, while in the rest of the Old Testament the prevalent later
Greek text was of a different type. 1 Again, in the Psalter the
Syrian translator Paul of Telia deliberately deserts the hexa-
plaric Greek which he elsewhere translates, and follows an
entirely different type of text, 2 while similarly Codex Alex-
andrinus, which in most of the other important books is strongly,
and sometimes almost completely, under hexaplaric influence,
is not reported as showing any trace of this in the Psalms, but
seems to be wholly a combination of pre-origenian and Lucianic
elements. It is no accident that both in the Psalms and in the
New Testament Codex Alexandrinus is one of the two oldest
extant witnesses to the revised Antiochian text, although in
both cases in a mixed form.

To return to the matter under discussion, the various extant
documents for the Psalter not only exhibit the Lucianic revision,
the Hexaplaric text, and the pre-hexaplaric text found in B,
the Etbiopic, the Bohairic, and the non-hexaplaric citations
of Origen, but also reveal the existence of two other divergent
pre-origenian types of text. One of these is found in the Leipzig
papyrus L (Universitatsbibliothek, pap. 39) from the southern
border of Middle Egypt, in the London papyrus U (Brit. Mus.
pap. 37) from Thebes, and in the Sahidic version. 3 It receives
some support from Clement of Alexandria, as well as from
Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Justin, and Irenaeus. It is not a
text of great correctness, but shows a tendency to unrestrained
variation, to careless errors due to resemblance of sound and
form, to influence from neighbouring and parallel passages, and
to licence in making additions, in part prompted by Christian
motives (e.g. Ps. 1. 9 airo rou aiparos rov v\ov added after
Ps. xcv. 10 airo rov %u\ov added after o

1 On the reasons why the Lucianic Old Testament failed to gain the same
acceptance as the corresponding Antiochian text of the New Testament, see
B. H. Streeter, The Four Gospels, 1924, pp. 42 f.

2 Rahlfs, op. cit. pp. 122-124.

8 Rahlfs, op. cit., passim, esp. pp. 5, 141-164, 209, 211 f., 219-225.

xciv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The other noteworthy divergent text of the Greek Psalms is
that underlying the Old Latin. 1 Many manuscripts of one or
another form of this are known, including those of the so-called
Roman Psalter of Jerome, and it was used by certain Latin
church fathers. This Latin translation in a modified form has
continued in liturgical use until modern times in Rome (until
nearly 1600), Milan, Venice (to 1808), and Spain. It bears some
slight relation to the text just mentioned from Upper Egypt
(L U Sahidic), and like that text is to be distinguished from the
text of B (with Bohairic and Ethiopic), but it is more restrained
in character than the Upper Egyptian, and sometimes stands
quite alone in offering the original Septuagint reading.

The parallel in some respects to the Western Text of the
New Testament offered by these two types is at once apparent,
and does not need to be set forth in detail. The two types of
the Psalter are alike ancient and both diverge from the text
commonly used in the third and later centuries in Lower Egypt
(B) ; one of them was the text from which the early Latin version
was made, while the other appears in Upper Egypt, and was an
ingredient of the text used by Clement of Alexandria. In the
nature of the case, the completeness of the parallel to the New
Testament is limited by the fact that the old Syriac fathers used
in their Peshitto a version of the Psalms translated directly
from the Hebrew, not drawn from the Greek rendering. 2

The text of the Psalms in B (with which the Bohairic is almost,
though not quite, identical, and to which the Ethiopic is only a
little less similar) is clearly pre-origenian, being not at all
affected by the Hexapla ; and probably it is substantially the

1 Rahlfs, op. cit. esp. pp. 25-31, 61-101, 225 f. ; Capelle, Le Texte du psautier
latin en Afrique, pp. 195-211.

2 A similar parallel to the * Western Text of the New Testament, at least
in the branch of that text found in the Old Latin version, seems to be indicated
by the fact that the Greek text of the Books of Kingdoms on which rest the
Latin translations given by Tertullian and by Cyprian (whom Lactantius
followed) is unlike any type of Greek text known to us, and in at least one case
a Greek reading is implied of which we have otherwise no knowledge whatever ;
cf. Rahlfs, Lucians Eezension der Konig$]bucher, 1911, pp. 138-143.

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT xcv

text used by Origen as the basis of his fifth column. 1 In the
text of B here (as in all other books) are included a number of
peculiar readings, which may well be due to later revision and
consequently be wrong. 2 In a few instances we find the distinct
ive reading of the Upper Egyptian (L U Sah) text. 3 It does
not appear that B has anywhere been influenced by the Lucianic
text.

In certain other books of the Old Testament the relation of i Esdras,
texts seems to be quite different. In 1 Esdras, and Chronicles- Ezra
Ezra-Nehemiah, Torrey has shown that B, whose text in these Nehemiah -
books he finds to be very corrupt, is similar to Origen s fifth
column, but without the astericized portions and with badly
damaged forms of the proper names. But the evidence which
he presents does not seem to justify his conclusion that B is
derived from the Hexapla column, and the facts, so far as given,
especially the considerable divergence of B from the Syro-
hexaplaric text, suggest rather that here, as in the books referred
to in preceding paragraphs, B s text is pre-origenian, and closely
similar to that which Origen took as the basis of his LXX-
column. The fact that the Hebrew-Aramaic counterpart of
1 Esdras seems to have perished before the later Greek ver
sions were made, and that the Greek version of Chronicles-
Ezra-Nehemiah appears to be Theodotion, 4 necessarily restricts
the field from which evidence on this point can be drawn.

1 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, p. 228. The determination of
the exact character of Origen s text in the Psalter is made difficult through the
defection of the Syriac translation of Paul of Telia, which here did not follow
the Hexapla but took a wholly different text. This procedure is itself instruct
ive. The Greek hexaplaric fragments are important but meagre. Rahlfs, op.
cit.pp. 122-124, 109-111.

2 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, pp. 228 f., regards these as
probably the work of Hesychius. Rahlfs conclusion that the text of B gives
the Hesychian recension is drawn from the agreement of B with Cyril of Alex
andria and the Bohairic version (op. cit. pp. 183 f., 197, 226-229, 235 f.). See
also Rahlfs, Studie uber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, p. 148.

3 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, p. 163.

4 Charles C. Torrey, Ezra Studies, Chicago, 1910, pp. 66-82 ; cf. Thackeray,
Grammar, vol. i. pp. xx, 13 ; F. C. Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 5019 ;
but see also Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbucher, p. 85, note 2.

xcvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The monstrous corruption of the proper names may have taken
place at any period, and need not have been limited to the
years between Origen and Athanasius ; while the supposition that
a copy of Origen s column was ever made with the astericized
portions (not merely the asterisks themselves) accurately excised,
lacks support, so far as appears, from any extant manuscript
or text, and is improbable in view of the practice that we
do know. 1 Important observations of Torrey are that B
and the others of its group were copied from their archetype
with extraordinary fidelity, as is shown by the numerous
" glaring blunders " which they have preserved in common ;
that deliberate revision is rarely to be detected in their text ;
and that B itself is frequently disfigured by omissions due to
carelessness. Torrey connects the text of B with Egypt.
Judges. In the Book of Judges, B gives not the Septuagint proper but
a different translation, found in a number of other MSS. and made
with the aid of an Egyptian form of the LXX-text. This version
was used by Cyril of Alexandria (f 444), and is that rendered by
the Sahidic version but by no other. 2

1 Torrey, op. tit. chap. iv. pp. 62-114 (first published in Studies in Memory
of William Rainey Harper, vol. ii., Chicago, 1908). Torrey s conclusions as to
the hexaplaric character of B were probably affected by his understanding that
the subscription to Nehemiah in ft is from the original scribe of the MS. On
this point we must take the judgement of the only two scholars who have studied
the original codex itself, Tischendorf and Lake, both of whom hold the sub
scription to be the work of one of the correctors known as K c . It is to be noted
that one of these correctors, ft c - b (from whom this subscription may come),
perhaps followed in general in his corrections a hexaplar text ; cf. 0. Procksch,
Studien zur Oeschichte der Septuaginta : Die Propheten, 1910, p. 85 ; also G.
Bardy, Notes sur les recensions hesychienne et hexaplaire du livre de Nehemie
(II. Esdras), in Revue Biblique, vol. v., 1918, pp. 192-199. But the practical
difference between Torrey s view of the relation of B to the Hexapla and that
suggested above is in most respects not so great as might at first appear.

2 G. F. Moore, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges, 1895, pp. xliv-
xlvi, and The Anticchian Recension of the Septuagint, in American Journal
of Semitic Languages, vol. xxix., 1912, pp. 41 f. The discovery of a sixth-
century papyrus of Cyril shows that his Old Testament text was even closer to
B than could be known from the altered form of the later MSS. of Cyril s works,
in which the Old Testament text quoted resembles rather that of codices F
(fifth cent.) and A ; see D. Serruys, Un " codex " sur papyrus de Saint Cyrille
d Alexandrie, in Revue de Philologie, vol. xxxiv., 1910, pp. 110-117.

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT xcvii

Of the prophetic books apart from Ezekiel (of which mention Prophets,
has already been made) it is to be said that in Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and the Twelve, the text of B is more affected by hexaplaric
influence, although not a direct copy of the fifth column of the
Hexapla, and is less valuable. 1 Nevertheless the basis of B
seems to have been, as in so many books, the same text as that
chosen by Origen for his textual work. 2 The tendency of B is
not so much to expand the Greek text by large additions of a
translation of the plus of the Hebrew, as to improve it in detail
by the aid of the Hexapla, and especially to omit words and phrases
not found in the Hebrew and therefore usually marked by Origen
with the obelus. The text of B shows many peculiar readings,
not shared by other uncials, and these are usually wrong wher
ever a decision is possible ; 3 on the other hand, B is at least
nearly free from any influence of Lucian. 4 In the Minor Prophets
B (with K) is not the text followed by Cyril, so far as our manu
scripts of Cyril can be depended on. 5 Daniel has already been
mentioned above.

In Job, B follows the Hexapla, with its supplementary addi- job.
tions from Theodotion, as against the abridged text of the Septua-
gint, which can be reconstructed with the aid of the Sahidic
version and those hexaplaric manuscripts which have retained
Origen s diacritical marks. 6

1 0. Procksch, Studien zur Geschichte der Septuaginta : Die Propheten
(Beitrage zur Wissenschaft vom Alten Testament, edited by R. Kittel, 7), 1910.
For the character of BKA in the prophetic books other than Ezekiel, I am
mainly dependent on the monograph of Procksch, with reference to which see
the review by Rahlfs, Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, vol. CLXXII., 1910, pp. 694-
705. Compare the remarks of F. C. Burkitt, The Book of Rules of Tyconius
(Texts and Studies, iii.), 1894, p. cxvii, who finds that in most cases B is free
from the hexaplaric insertions, but occasionally contains them, especially in
Isaiah. See also P. Volz, Studien zum Text des Jeremia, Leipzig, 1920, p. xiv.

2 Procksch, pp. 68, 112 ff.

3 Procksch, pp. 52-54, 113.

4 Procksch, p. 85.

5 Procksch, pp. 100 f . ; but cf . the article of Serruys mentioned in a previous
note.

6 A. Ceriani, Rendiconti, Reale Istituto Lombardo, Series II., vol. xxi., 1888,
p. 543 ; Edwin Hatch, Essays on Biblical Greek, 1889 ; Dillmann, Textkritisches
zum Buch I job (Sitzungsberichte, Berlin Academy), 1890 ; Burkitt, Encyclo-

VOL. Ill g

xcviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

In Ecclesiastes, B is like all the other MSS. in having a text
which shows many of the characteristic traits of Aquila s version ;
B s text is better than that of any other uncial, but is inferior
to the closely kindred Codex 68 (fifteenth century ; copy probably
made for Bessarion), which " has the excellencies of B without
some of its defects." In Lamentations the text of B is non-
hexaplaric ; it shows peculiarities not found elsewhere and
perhaps ultimately due to Aquila. 1

In the books of the Old Testament to which no Hebrew corre
sponds, the texts of the different Greek manuscripts sometimes
show strong divergences. In the absence of probability that
these books (except 1 Esdras and Baruch) were included in
Origen s Hexapla, one of the chief instruments of criticism else
where used is lacking. Also the question of the Lucianic text
does not seem to have been worked out here. In Wisdom the
text of B is often inferior to that of A ; in Ecclesiasticus it differs
widely from most others, and is inferior ; in Tobit, although the
form of the book given in K may be nearer to the Semitic
original, yet it is held that the text of B (with A and the Syriac
of Paul of Telia) is probably a more correct form of the Alex
andrian version. 2

Of Codex Sinaiticus in the Old Testament only great frag
ments remain. The Octateuch (except for a few scraps), the
books of Kingdoms, 1 Esdras, 2 Chronicles, Ezekiel, Hosea,
Amos, Micah, are all lacking, not to mention minor defects. Of
what remains, the text is in large measure akin to that of B, but

paedia Biblica, 1903, cols. 5027 f. (Burkitt, Ency. Bibl, cols. 5022, 5027 f.,
withdraws the view stated in his The Old Latin and the Itala, 1896, p. 8, that
the original state of the Greek translation survives in the Sahidic.)

1 On Ecclesiastes see A. H. McNeile, An Introduction to Ecclesiastes, Cam
bridge, 1904, pp. 135-168; on Lamentations, F. C. Burkitt, Encyclopaedia
Biblica, cols. 5018, 5022.

2 J. R. Harris, The Double Text of Tobit, in American Journal of Theology,
vol. in., 1899, pp. 541-554. That the text of B in Tobit is certainly an abridg
ment, is maintained by C. C. Torrey, Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. XLI.,
1922, pp. 237 f., 239, 241 f.

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT xcix

nowhere without marked differences from that manuscript. In
Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah, X belongs to the same group with
B, and gives a better text than that or than other of the
witnesses to the group. 1 In Esther, K is much like B, but shows
some hexaplaric influence. 2 In the Psalter also its text is much
like that of B (but less so than is the Bohairic version) ; it often
shows hexaplaric influence, and has in some cases readings drawn
from the Lucianic revision. 3 In the Prophets (Ezekiel is lacking)
it forms part of a group with B, and shows as its base a pre-
origenian text, similar to that used by Origen for the construc
tion of his fifth column; 4 in common with B it has been spor
adically subjected to hexaplaric influence, but reveals on the
whole less of this than B and is in general better than B, 5 although
it shows Lucianic influence, as B hardly does. 6 Of the revision,
whatever it be, that has given B in a series of readings in the
Prophets an isolated position X of course shows no sign ; 7 and
it stands alone among the uncials far less often than does B,
although it contains many orthographic errors. 8

In Tobit, K (with the Old Latin) gives a different recension
from B.

The extensive corrections of K known as K c&gt;a and K c-b and Correctors.
K c , made in the fifth, sixth, or seventh century, are important.
For the individual discrimination of them, scholars are mainly
dependent on Tischendorf s minute study of the codex, supple
mented by Lake s observations. First, as to K c-a . This corrector
in Nehemiah has introduced the plus of the Hebrew, and made
extensive insertions from the Lucianic text (of the doublets), as
well as other corrections. 9 In the Psalter he has systematically
tried to make the text conform to the Lucianic standard, although

1 Torrey, Ezra Studies, pp. 91 f.

2 L. B. Paton, Commentary on Esther, p. 32.

8 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, pp. 54, 134 note, 137 note, 217,
235.

4 Procksch, Studien zur Geschichte der Septuaginta : Die Propheten, pp.
49 ff., 68.

5 Procksch, pp. 51, 59. 6 Procksch, p. 85.

7 Procksch, pp. 46, 54 (cf. pp. 52-54).

8 Procksch, p. 49. 9 Torrey, pp. 96, 97, notes.

c THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

he overlooked some readings. 1 In the Prophets also his standard
is close to Lucian, 2 as appears to be the case in Job to a large
extent, 3 but in Esther it is hexaplaric. 4 A (probably) different
corrector of the same period 5 has added notes at the close of
Nehemiah and of Esther stating in each case that it (that is,
apparently, Codex K) has been compared with " a very old
copy " which had been corrected by the hand of Pamphilus the
Martyr. 6 The note to Esther states that the copy used as a
standard for correction began with 1 Kingds. and ended with
Esther. The natural understanding of this is that the corrector
himself made the comparison ; although conceivably he might
have copied the note from an exemplar which he used for
correcting x and which had itself been compared with the
codex of Pamphilus. With regard to K c b in the Prophets,
the standard by which he worked may be hexaplaric. 7

1 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-P sailers, p. 57. 2 Procksch, p. 84.
3 L. Dieu, as cited below, pp. 272 f. 4 Paton, op. cit. p. 35.

5 It appears to be impossible to determine which of the correctors known
collectively as X c wrote these notes ; but in any case they are probably not
from X c - a ; see Lake, Codex Sinaiticus, New Testament, pp. vii f., Old Testa
ment, pp. x f. Tischendorf, Bibliorum codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, vol. i.,
1862, p. 13*, seems to ascribe them to either K c - a or K c - b ; cf. N.T. graece ex
Sinaitico codice, 1867, pp. Ixii f.

6 Note at the end of Nehemiah :

ai&gt;Tej3\r}0 r) Trpos iraXai&rarov Xi av dvriypatpov 8e8iOpd&lt;i)fj,&ov %etpi rov aylov
/A&prvpos Ha/J.&lt;pi\ov, oirep avriypatyov Trpos r&lt;$ r^Xei inroffrj/jLeitatrLs rts t5t6%etpos
atirou VTT^Keiro ^x ovffa ovrws

/j.T\r)/j.(f)d r) teal diopduffij Trpos ra Ea,TrXa

Note at the end of Esther :

OLvre^iK fiOfi Trpos TraAcuiiraroj \iav avriypatyov dediopdufAevov Xpt rov ayiov

pdprvpos Tlafj.&lt;j)l\ov ?rp6s 5^ ry rAei rou aurou TraXaiwrdrou /3t/3Xt ou, oVep dpxw

fjikv elxev OLtrb T?)S Trpc6rr;s r&v BacriXeicDi cts 5 rT\v T&crdijp ^yyev, Toicujrrj rts

tv TrXdret t Stoxetpos UTrocrTj/ieiaxriS rov avrov /adpriipos VTrttceiro $xov&lt;ra

fj.Te\ri/ji(j&gt;dT) Kal Siopd&dT) Trp6s TO. E^aTrXa Opi^^vous UTT avrov

6^10X0777x775 avrt (3a\v . IId/i0iXos dtopducraro reuxos v ry &lt;pv\aKri.
rov deov -rroXXrjv Kal xdpu&gt; Kal Tr\arvff^bv Kal ctye ^7) jSapi) diretv
avTLypa,&lt;pq&gt; TrapaTrXTjcrlov evpeiv avrLypa&lt;pov ov pdoLOv.
8e rb avrb TraXaiwraro* fiifBXtov Trpos r65e rb TeO%os ei s ra Kvpca ovb/J-ara.
7 Procksch, p. 85. But is the remark of Procksch more than an inference
from the subscriptions to Nehemiah and Esther ?

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT ci

Codex Alexandrinus contains the whole Old Testament, with Codex
but a few leaves lacking. Its text, as in the New Testament,
is not homogeneous, and shows remarkable phenomena of
mixture from widely divergent sources. In Joshua it combines
hexaplaric elements with others from " the common text and a
residue of readings which seem to rest upon the Palestinian Koine
which served as a basis for Theodotion." l In Judges it gives
the older Greek translation, in a form similar to that which
Origen adopted for his fifth column. 2 In Ruth the basis of its
text is pre-origenian, but corrected unsystematically from the
Hexapla and influenced by other texts. 3 Esther is similar. 4 In
1-4 Kingdoms A is purely hexaplaric. 5 In 1 Esdras and
Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah (Theodotion) the text of A is pre-
origenian, and here, although somewhat corrupted in trans
mission and (in the latter group) with the transliterations of
Theodotion occasionally altered to translations, it gives a text
distinctly better than that of any one of its own group of accom
panying minuscules, as well as much better than that shown in
B and others and adopted by Origen for his Hexapla. In these
books it represents a text, probably Alexandrian, different from
that used as the basis of the Lucianic recension. 6 In Job the
text of A, which has not hitherto been found attested in any
minuscule, 7 is probably Lucianic. 8

1 This statement I owe to Professor Max L. Margolia.

2 G. F. Moore, Commentary on Judges, p. xliv ; Rahlfs, Studie uber den
griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, p. 122.

3 Rahlfs, op. cit. pp. 122 f. * Paton, op. cit. p. 32.

* Rahlfs, Studie uber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, p. 122 ; Lucians
Rezension der Konigsbucher, p. 6 ; Studien zu den Konigsbuchern ( Origenes
Zitate aus den Konigsbuchern ), p. 48 ; S. Silberstein, Uber den Ursprung der
im Codex Alexandrinus und Vaticanus des dritten Konigsbuches der alexandri-
nischen (Jberset/ung uberlieferten Textgestalt, in Zeitschrift fur alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft, vol. xm., 1893, pp. 1-75 ; xiv., 1894, pp. 1-30.

8 Torrey, pp. 79, 92-96, 101.

7 A Jerusalem palimpsest fragment, published by E. Tisserant, Revue
Biblique, vol. ix., 1912, pp. 481-503, has a similar text to that of A, but less
fully Lucianic ; the corrections of N c - a in Job largely follow the same text
as A.

8 L. Dieu, Le Texte de Job du Codex Alexandrinus, Le Museon, vol. xm.,
1912, pp. 223-274.

cii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Psalter. In the Psalter the case is quite another. The text of A
proves to be a clean mixture of the B-type with Lucian, in
about equal proportions, but irregularly distributed. No hexa-
plaric influence or kinship appears to be present (on this striking
circumstance see above, p. xciii). A is here the earliest
extant Greek witness to the Antiochian revision. 1

Prophets. In the Prophets, Ezekiel stands somewhat by itself. Here
the base of the text of A is pre - origenian, of a type different
from that of B, but has been very strongly influenced by the
Hexapla, more so than B. 2 In this book the Old Latin, Bohairic,
Ethiopic (older form), and Arabic (older form as found in the
Paris Polyglot) follow A closely, and especially the Bohairic
sometimes provides the means of recovering the text of this
type where A (which contains not a few wrong singular readings)
is in error. 3 In Jeremiah, likewise, A often shows a different type
of pre-origenian text from that of B (and x), but here, too, it
has often suffered through correction from the Hexapla, although
less severely than in Ezekiel. 4 In Isaiah and the Twelve Prophets
we find a similar condition, but in these books it is B and K
which have been most corrected, and the text of A is less hexa-
plarized than is theirs ; 5 the text of A is not the basis used by
Lucian, who employed rather a text akin to Btt. 6 On the other
hand, the text of A seems itself to have been somewhat
affected here by Lucian s recension. 7

Daniel. In Daniel, A is said to give a revision of the hexaplaric text,
made with the use of the pre-origenian text, but is an inferior
representative of this revision, being itself full of gross errors.
It is suggested that the revision was that issued by Eusebius, and

1 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, pp. 54, 56 f., 235, 236 ; Studie
uber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, p. 122.

2 Procksch, pp. 46 f., 48, 57 ; C. H. Comill, Das Buck des Propheten Ezechiel,
pp. 67, 71, 73, 76.

3 Cornill, pp. 32-35, 36, 42, 55, 67 ; Procksch, p. 59.

4 Procksch, pp. 56 f .

5 Ibid. ; Burkitt, The Book of Rules of Tyconius, 1894, p. ex note 1, says that
B has " a worse text in Isaiah than in the rest of the Prophets."

6 Procksch, p. 79.

7 Ibid. p. 86.

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT ciii

that it constituted a kind of received text of Constantinople.
It appears to be the basis of the Bohairic and of the Arabic
(Melchite) version. 1

Of the other books it is possible to say that in Wisdom Wisdom;
A is sometimes better than B, 2 and that in 1 Maccabees it is JjJ,* 00 *"
generally not so good as K. 3

The relation of the LXX-text of A to the New Testament Relation to
has not been fully elucidated. The New Testament quotations ^n t T6
from the Old Testament tend to agree with the text of A, especi
ally in the Gospels, where, however, the question is complicated
by the possibility of fresh translation from the Hebrew, with or
without LXX influence. Yet in certain cases the text of A
seems unmistakably conformed to the New Testament standard,
for instance, in Isaiah xl. 14, where A (with K minn) has inserted
Job xli. 3, evidently because the two verses are combined in
Kom. xi. 35. 4

Of the text of Codex Ephraemi (C) in the Old Testament Codex
nothing can be said ; only sixty-four leaves have been preserved, p r
scattered through Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Job (nine
teen leaves), Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus (twenty- three leaves).

When the forms of the two recensions (the Hexapla and Principles
Lucian) which chiefly influenced our Old Testament text have Lptuagint
been determined, 5 and their relation to the extant individual criticism -

1 This statement I owe to Professor James A. Montgomery.

2 C. H. Toy, Encyclopaedia Biblica, art. Wisdom (Book), col. 5348.

3 C. C. Torrey, Encyclopaedia Biblica, art. Maccabees (Books), col. 2867.

4 Procksch, pp. 56, 89-98, 133 ; W. Staerk, in Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche
Theologie, vol. xxxvi., 1893, p. 98 ; Swete, Introduction, pp. 395 f., 403, 413,
422, 489. Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta- Psalters, p. 198, refuses to use the
New Testament quotations at all as evidence for the text of the Septuagint,
because of the doubt which he thinks is everywhere present as to whether the
New Testament was the receiver or the giver. Torrey holds that in the passages
quoted in the Gospels the Old Testament text of A has been systematically
made to agree with the text of the New Testament.

5 The recension of Hesychius was a vera causa, and it is not unlikely that the
Bohairic version was largely, if not wholly, made from it. Perhaps to some
extent his recension can be identified among the forms of the Greek text known
to us. But Hesychius, as has been pointed out above, does not seem to have

civ THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

manuscripts discovered and worked out in detail, a body of
readings remain, most of which are pre-origenian in date, and
which can be grouped as belonging to different types by studying
the groups of the uncial and minuscule manuscripts which con
tain them. One of the chief problems concerns the basis of the
Lucianic recension, and the extent to which readings of that
recension can be accepted as probably inherited, not pro
duced, by Lucian and his fellow-workers. That some ancient
readings otherwise unknown can be recovered from Lucianic
manuscripts seems to be admitted, and Lucianic evidence is
sometimes valuable in supporting the testimony of the non-
lucianic manuscripts. Finally, with the pre-origenian readings
from all sources before him, the critic will determine the relative
value of such pre-origenian types as can be elicited, and choose
among the readings they offer. Hort s statement, 1 that B " on
the whole presents the version of the Septuagint in its relatively
oldest form," has been substantiated for many books, but in
others A will have to be preferred ; and not infrequently, in
those parts where X represents the same type of text as B, the
better reading is found in X rather than in B. The groups of
minuscules, too, are held to constitute the most trustworthy
sources of knowledge for some parts of the Old Testament. 2
The rules for the criticism of the LXX were formulated by
Lagarde ; 3 they are governed by the character of the Septuagint

made far-reaching alteration in the Egyptian text on which he worked, and the
precise text which left his hands is so tenuous and uncertain a magnitude that
to operate with any theory of what it was is an embarrassment rather than an
aid to the investigation, and does not tend to clarity of thought on the subject
in general. See Rahlfs, as cited above on p. xc note 1.

1 Quoted in Swete, Old Testament in Greek, vol. i. pp. xi f. ; Introduction
to the Old Testament in Greek, pp. 486 f. 2 Procksch, pp. 102 f.

8 Anmerkungen zur griechischen Vbersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, p. 3 ;
Librorum Veteris Testamenti canonicorum pars prior, 1883, p. xvi. Lagarde s
statement of principles is cited in full by Swete, Introduction, pp. 485 f., and
more briefly given by Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, art. Text and Versions,
col. 5021. For qualification of Lagarde s third axiom, that the Greek reading
which departs from the Masoretic text of the Hebrew is to be accepted as
original, see Torrey, Ezra Studies, p. 109 note 56; Rahlfs, Der Text dea
Septuaginta-Psalters, p. 231.

BKAC IN THE OLD TESTAMENT cv

as a translation, and are consequently of a different nature from
those by which the New Testament critic must be guided, although
they ultimately rest on the same simple notion, namely, the
inquiry as to how alteration of text will betray itself. What is
most instructive for the New Testament critic is the determina
tion of the principles which controlled the formation of the text
of those copies which contain both Old and New Testament.
But, as has been said above, only with the aid of insight, and
never by mechanical transference of conclusions from one field
to the other, can the knowledge so gained be successfully used.

2. VERSIONS

1. LATIN
(a) OLD LATIN TEXTS

Codices. UNDER the Old Latin are included all Latin texts which are
not mainly composed of Vulgate renderings. Latin codices
which contain the whole, or fragments, of a text of Acts sub
stantially non-vulgate are known as follows :

h. Paris, Bibl. nat., 6400 G, formerly 5367. The Fleury
palimpsest (Codex Floriacensis). Sixth century. 1 The frag
ments (printed in the present volume) contain about one quarter
of Acts. 2 For a table of the more important differences of
scholars in deciphering this palimpsest see below, pp. cccxiv-xv.

1 The over- writing (eighth century) is Isidore of Seville, De mundo. On the
date and origin of h see Novum Testamentum Sancti Irenaei, 1923, p. clxxxv ;
E. Chatelain, Uncialis scriptura, Paris, 1901, tab. xv., and p. 28 ; D. de Bruyne,
Les Fragments de Freising (Collectanea Biblica Latina v), 1921, p. xxiii note 1 ;
L. Traube, Nomina sacra, pp. 191, 200 f. ; also S. Berger (see following note).
It is believed that h was copied, possibly in Africa (so also k), from an exemplar
giving the text of Acts, Catholic epistles, and Apocalypse, as used in some
African church in the fifth century. This text was Cyprianic for Acts and
(according to de Bruyne) the Apocalypse, but the Catholic epistles had been
revised at some time subsequent to the date of Cyprian. The text of the
Apocalypse is discussed by H. J. Vogels, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der
lateinischen Apokalypse-ubersetzung, Diisseldorf, 1920, pp. 93-98. Vogels holds
that in the Apocalypse the text of h probably shows some influence from the
Vulgate.

2 S. Berger, Le palimpseste de Fleury, Paris, 1889 ; E. S. Buchanan, Old-
Latin Biblical Texts, No. V., Oxford, 1907. Wordsworth and White s citation
of h is dependent on Berger alone. For further discussion of the readings, with
corrections and conjectures, see P. Corssen, Der Cyprianische Text der Ada
apostolorum, 1892, p. 20 ; S. Berger, Un ancien texte des Actes des Apotres,
Notices et extraits, vol. xxxv., 1896-97, p. 181 note 3 ; E. S. Buchanan, Journal
of Theological Studies, vol. vm., 1906-7, pp. 96, 100; vol. ix., 1907-8, pp. 98-100;

cvi

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cvii

The text of li is shown by comparison with the Testimonia
of Cyprian, 1 as well as by internal characteristics, to be of
African origin. In the passages where comparison is possible,
it differs hardly at all from Cyprian and represents the African
translation current in the early third century with but little
variation in Latin expression and virtually none in under
lying Greek text. 2 The manuscript is written with many
errors. 3 The rendering into Latin is often very free, although the
Greek text followed can usually be discerned. In particular the
omissions of words and phrases are not wholly due to the under
lying Greek text, so that inferences have to be drawn with
caution; thus in the narrative of Paul s voyage, Acts xxviii. 1-13,
we seem to have a corrupt form of an abridgement made by the
translator. 4 In Acts iii. 11 the words et concurrit omnis populus
ad eos [in porti\cu quae vocatur solomonis stupentes agree sub
stantially with the usual Greek text against D d, and are appar
ently due to a later correction based on that text ; in vss. 12,

vol. x., 1908-9, p. 126 ; Old-Latin Biblical Texts, No. VI., 1911, * Addenda et
corrigenda, p. 197 ; F. C. Burkitt, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. ix.,
1907-8, p. 305 ; A. Souter, ibid. vol. XL, 1909-10, pp. 563 ff. ; Th. Zahn,
Urausgabe, 1916, pp. 114, 138, 172. These have all been considered in pre
paring the text of h printed in the present volume. References to the earlier
scholars who deciphered and published portions of the MS. are given by
Buchanan, Old- Latin Biblical Texts, No. V., p. 97.

1 The resemblance of the two texts was apparent to Sabatier from the small
fragments of h (Acts iii. 2-12, iv. 2-18) known to him, but the comparison was
first made with thoroughness by P. Corssen, Der Cyprianische Text der Acta
apostolorum, Berlin, 1892.

2 About 203 verses of Acts are extant in h, and in these but 10 differences
from the Cyprianic text of the Testimonia appear ; see Hans von Soden, Das
lateinische Neue Testament in Afrika zur Zeit Cyprians (Texte und Unter-
suchungen, vol. xxxm.), 1909, esp. pp. 221-242, 323-363, 550-567. That
at least some parts of the African Bible existed from an early time
in varying forms and that the text underwent natural modification and
development (apart from certain definite recensions) is shown by P. Capelle,
Le texte du psautier latin en Afrique, Rome, 1913. Von Soden, pp. 238 f., gives
examples of Degeneration der Africitas in h ; but these changes of Latin
phraseology do not pertain to the Greek text underlying the codex.

3 Hans von Soden, op. cit. pp. 234-236.

4 Instances of omission in h are the following : ix. 12 (the whole verse) ;
xxvi. 22 a%/H TTJS rj/mepas Tavrrjs ; xxvi. 26 Trapp^triafo/xej oj, ov 7ret#o/ucu, ov yap
CCTTLV ev yuvia TreTrpay/j.evoi TOVTO ; for many others see below, pp. ccxxxvi-viii.

cviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

13, and 14 further readings occur in which h agrees with B
against D. In several of these latter Irenaeus agrees with h.
Other cases of agreement of h with B against D are iv. 6, where
h reads Johannes/ not, like other Western witnesses, Jona
than ; v. 36 Sie\v6v](Tav ; xi. 6 hos (cf. quos d). But such
instances are extremely rare. In iii. 4 aspice et contemplari
might be a conflation due to the rival Greek readings ffXe-^ov
and arevicrov, 1 but may equally well be accounted for from
arevio-ov alone by the African tendency to translation by
two words. 2

The Old African Latin text gives the Western recension
in the purest form known to us in continuous sections, and con
stitutes a source of knowledge for that recension of equal value,
so far as it is available, with Codex Bezae and the Harclean ap
paratus. In not a few instances h provides conclusive evidence
of the conflate character of the text of D (so, for instance, v. 29,
xviii. 5).

perp or p. Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 321. Thirteenth century.
A manuscript from Perpignan, near the Spanish border, and
probably written there. 3 In Acts i. 1-xiii. 6, xxviii. 16-31, the
text is Old Latin. The corrections of perp come from a pure
Languedocian Vulgate text, and this is also the source of the
part of Acts which is drawn from the Vulgate. This type of
Vulgate text is characterized by the inclusion of many isolated
Old Latin survivals ; but the line is perfectly distinct between the
Vulgate section and the Old Latin sections of the MS., which is
properly described as containing not a mixed, but a divided,
text. 4

1 So Jiilicher, in Zeitschrift filr die neuteslamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. xv.,
1914, p. 168.

2 Harris, Codex Bezae, p. 254 ; cf. h, Acts iii. 14 vivere et donari, xiv. 9
damans dixit. This tendency is also found in the Peshitto.

3 S. Berger, Un ancien texte latin des Actes des Apotres retrouve dans un
manuscrit provenant de Perpignan, Notices et extraits des MSS. de la bibliotheque
nationale, xxxv., Paris, 1896, pp. 169-208, prints the two Old Latin sections in
full ; F. Blass, Neue Texteszeugen fur die Apostelgeschichte, Theol. Studien
und Kritiken, LXIX., 1896, pp. 436-471.

* Zahn, Urausgabe, p. 15 ; Berger, op. cit. p. 187.

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cix

Jiilicher s analysis of perp is of much interest. 1 The text
in the Old Latin chapters is related to nearly all the known
types, to the Cyprianic text, to gig d e m t (but not to s), and to
the Vulgate. Carefully formed as a recension, not a mere con
glomeration of readings, and bearing a uniform character, with
a distinct standard both of lucidity and of taste, it is punctili
ously literal, strives to omit nothing (hence its many Western
additions, besides which it has others of Latin origin), strictly
eliminates foreign expressions (an African trait), 2 is old-fashioned
in the choice of words. Comparison with gigas and the Vulgate
leads on the whole to the conclusion that the editor was not
acquainted with those ancient texts, although perp and gig may
well be thought to show common dependence on an earlier re
cension. The late date of the actual manuscript need not lead
us to assume that many readings have intruded themselves into
the text of these chapters at a period more recent than the fourth
century.

To this Souter 3 adds that perp " has points of contact with
the quotations in the homilies of Gregory of Elvira " (that is,
the fourth-century pseudo-origenian tracts, De libris sacrarum
scripturarum, see below, p. cxvii), and that Augustine s readings
so often agree with perp as to suggest that perp is a Spanish
revision of the Old African text.

gig or g. Codex Gigas. Thirteenth century, not earlier than
1239. Complete. 4 Brought in 1648 from Bohemia to Stockholm
(hence called Codex Holmiensis ; now in the Royal Library).

1 Jiilicher, op. cit. pp. 180-182.

2 Thus evayye\lea6ai. is rendered bene (ad)nunciare ; ffwayuyrj conventio ;
sXeTlfMoavvai misericordiae ; ^/ccrrao is mentis alienatio, stupor mentis ; eupoD^os
spado, Eunicus (!) ; yd fa, diviciae.

8 Text and Canon of the New Testament, 1912, p. 45.

* Continuous text, J. Belsheim, Die Apostelgeschichte und die Offenbarung
Johannis in einer alien lateinischen Ubersetzung, Christiania, 1879 ; for certainty
as to readings use must be made of the apparatus of Wordsworth and White s
Vulgate, for which a fresh collation was made. On the date see Belsheim, p.
vii, and especially B. Dudik, Forschung in Schweden fur Mdhrens Geschichte,
Briinn, 1852, where a detailed history of this extraordinary codex will be found
(pp. 207-235).

ex THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The text of gig in Acts can be used with confidence as repre
senting a Latin text widely current in the fourth century, as is
shown by its close agreement with the abundant quotations
(more than one-eighth of Acts) of Lucifer of Cagliari in Sardinia,
who wrote in exile in the East in 355-362, and must have brought
his Latin Bible with him from the West. Lucifer s text is
as yet known through a single MS., of the ninth or tenth century. 1
Where gig and Lucifer differ, comparison shows that they are
about equally liable to go wrong. Lucifer shows no trace of
the use of any Greek text with different readings from those of
gig. Both he and gig are very rarely affected by the Vulgate. 2

g 2 A fragment of a lectionary, now at Milan, containing
Acts vi. 8-vii. 2 ; vii. 51-viii. 4, in a text substantially identical
with that of gig. Tenth or eleventh century. 3

t. Liber comicus. Paris, Bibl. nat., nouv. acq. lat. 2171.
Eleventh century. Lectionarius missae, as used in the church
of Toledo in the seventh century. 4 Of the fourteen lessons from
Acts, seven contain an Old Latin text, freely handled and
corrupt but similar to gig. 5 The Old Latin lessons comprise
Acts i. 1-11, 15-26 ; ii. 1-21, 22-41 ; iv. 32-v. 11 ; vi. 1-vii. 2
with vii. 51-viii. 4 (partly Vulgate) ; x. 25-43. Occasional Old
Latin readings are also found in the Vulgate lessons.

s. Codex Bobiensis. Vienna, Imperial Library, 16. Fifth
or sixth century. Palimpsest, formerly at Bobbio. 6 Acts xxiii.
15-23 ; xxiv. 6, 8, 13-xxv. 2 ; xxv. 23-xxvi. 2 ; xxvi. 22-24, 26-
xxvii. 32 ; xxviii. 4-9, 16-31.

d. Codex Bezae (see above, p. Ixxx). Fifth or sixth
century.

1 The agreement of Lucifer with gig was mentioned by Hort, * Introduction,
1881, p. 83. A second MS. of Lucifer has been found in the Library of Ste.
Genevieve, Paris ; see A. Wilmart, Un Manuscrit de De Cibis et des ceuvres
de Lucifer, Revue, Benedictine, vol. xxxin., 1921, pp. 124-135.

2 Julicher, pp. 169-171.

3 Text in Ceriani, Monumenta sacra et profana, i. 2 (1865), p. 127.

4 Text in G. Morin, Anecdota Maredsolana, i., 1893.

5 The significant variations of t from gig seem to be due in part to the Vulgate,
in part to ancient survivals ; cf. Jiilicher, pp. 172 f.

6 H. J. White, Old-Latin Biblical Texts, No. IV., Oxford, 1897.

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxi

The Latin side of Codex Bezae has been so extensively altered
to make it agree with its Greek partner that it can seldom be
used as a witness to the Old Latin text except where that text
is known from other sources. It seems, however, that a text
akin to, but not perfectly identical with, that of gig was used
as the basis of d ; the text of d is farther removed from the
African Latin than is that of e, gig, perp, or the Vulgate ; I in
the Gospels d has sometimes preserved readings found else
where only in k and a, which are the chief sources respectively
for the African and European Gospel text. 2

e. Codex Laudianus (see above, pp. Ixxxiv-viii). Sixth or
seventh century.

The Latin of Codex Laudianus, like that of Codex Bezae, has
been brought into conformity with the Greek text, but it seems
to have retained its own character much more fully than d, and
was often the dominant member of the partnership. The editor
of this bilingual text, evidently a Greek of good education, seems
to have understood Latin, but hardly to have mastered it for
the purposes of composition. The Latin text which he took as
a basis for his work had a resemblance to gig and also to the
Vulgate, and may have been the common precursor of both of
these, but shows a less close resemblance to d. The suggestion
has been made that it may be the nearest extant representative of
the text which Jerome used as the basis of the Vulgate. But few
survivals of distinctively African renderings occur in e. 3

Many other Latin codices contain Old Latin readings mixed
with a prevailing Vulgate text, and these readings are valuable
as evidence of the Greek text from which the Old Latin was
drawn. The mixture in most cases was made from either
Spanish (whence the characteristic Languedocian mixed Vulgate
text) or Irish Old Latin sources. Of these codices the following
are notable, but not the only, examples, and are sometimes
counted as Old Latin :

1 Jiilicher, pp. 182, 185. 2 Souter, op. cit. p. 42.

3 Jiilicher, pp. 182-185.

cxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

c. Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 254. Codex Colbertinus. Twelfth
century (second half). Believed to have been written in Lan-
guedoc.

dem. Codex Demidovianus (now lost). Twelfth or thirteenth
century. 1 Formerly at Lyons.

r. Schlettstadt, Stadtbibliothek, 1093. Seventh or eighth
century. Lectionary. 2 The Old Testament lessons are from th
Vulgate ; but the New Testament lessons, fourteen in number,
all from Acts, are Old Latin, with a text much like that of gig
but also showing some resemblance to perp.

w. Wernigerode, Library of Graf Stolberg, Z.a. 81. Fifteenth
century. Contains a partial interlinear version in Bohemian. 3

R. Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 16. Bible de Rosas. Tenth or
eleventh century. Written in eastern Spain. In Acts xi. and
xii. another text has been written in the margin, and Old Latin
readings, often agreeing with perp, are found in these chapters,
sometimes in the main text, sometimes in the margin. 4

D. Dublin, Library of Trinity College. The Book of Armagh. 5
First half of ninth century.

lux. Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 9427. The Luxeuil lectionary.
Eighth century. 6

Latin Of Latin ecclesiastical writers significant for the Old Latin

ers text mention may be made as follows :

TERTULLIAN of Carthage (ca. 160-ca. 240). The chief cita-

1 The text was edited by Matthai, Novum Testamentum XII. tomis dis-
tinctum Graece et Latine, vol. ix., Riga, 1782.

2 Text in G. Morin, fitudes, textes, decouvertes, vol. i. (Anecdota Maredsolana,
ii.), 1913, pp. 440-456, cf. p. 49. Readings from this lectionary will be found
in the apparatus of Zahn, Urausgabe, but not in that of Wordsworth and White.

3 F. Blass, Theol Studien und Kritiken, LXIX., 1896, pp. 436-471 ; for further
remarks on this MS. see below, pp. cxxxv-cxxxvi.

4 For the readings of R see Wordsworth and White ; on the codex and its
illustrations see W. Neuss, Die katalanische Bibelillustration um die Wende des
ersten Jahrtausends und die altspanische Buchmalerei, 1922. The Bible de Rosas
was probably written at the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, which had a
famous library and scriptorium.

6 J. Gwynn, Liber Ardmachanus, The Book of Armagh, Dublin, 1913.
* Readings of lux are given by Sabatier, Bibliorum sacrorum Latinae ver- \
siones antiquae, vol. iii., Paris, 1751.

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxiii

tions from the Acts found in the writings of Tertullian are
printed in full in the apparatus of the present volume. 1 His
text was of the Western type. 2 That at least one Latin trans
lation of the Bible existed in his time in Africa is clear. 3 In
Tertullian s use of 1-4 Kingdoms the Greek text on which his
Latin version rests is different from any known to us, and in
particular shows no close relation to the Antiochian (Lucianic)
text. 4 In the Psalms the Greek text underlying the Old African
Latin was Old Antiochian mingled with Egyptian elements and
others more primitive (see below, p. cxxvi). The Acts of Perpetua
and Felicitas may have been written by Tertullian ; in them
several passages seem to show dependence on Western read
ings in Acts (notably Acts ii. 17 awrwv for vpwv, twice ; iv. 24,
xvi. 10). 5

CYPEIAN (f 258 ; literary activity chiefly after 249). The
citations of Cyprian from Acts are chiefly contained in the collec
tion of Biblical texts arranged by topics, Ad Quirinum testimonies,
for which Codex L (Laureshamensis, formerly at Lorsch) must
be used. 6 These and other scattered quotations are printed in

1 The text followed is that of the Vienna edition so far as the latter is
available, elsewhere that of Oehler. Mere allusions of Tertullian are generally
not reproduced in the present volume.

2 F. H. Chase, The Syriac Element in Codex Bezae, 1893, pp. 103-105, has
collected some good illustrations of this fact, which are supplemented with
examples elicited by characteristically subtle reasoning in J. R. Harris, Four
Lectures on the Western Text of the New Testament, 1894, pp. 55-59. The most
striking cases are the text of the Apostolic Decree (Acts xv. 28 f. ; see below,
pp. 265-269) and of Acts xiii. 33 * in primo psalmo (see below, pp. 264 f.).

3 This is convincingly argued afresh (against Zahn s view), and illustrated
from the Psalter, by P. Capelle, Le Texte du psautier latin en Afrique, 1913,
pp. 1-21. See also P. Monceaux, Histoire litteraire de V Afrique chretienne, vol. i.,
1901, pp. 105 f. ; Harnack, Die Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur, vol. ii.
pp. 296-302 ; Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei
Jahrhunderten, 4th ed., 1924, p. 800. Of Marcion s Bible also it is clear that
Tertullian had a Latin text ; Harnack, Marcion, 1921, pp. 46*-54*, 160*-163*.

4 Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbucher, pp. 141-143.

5 Harris, Codex Bezae, pp. 148-153 ; J. A. Robinson, The Passion of S.
Perpetua (Texts and Studies, i.), pp. 48-50.

6 Unfortunately the collation of Codex L in Hartel s edition (Vienna corpus,
1868) is not perfectly accurate ; see P. Capelle, op. cit. p. 24 ; H. L. Ramsay,
Journal of Theological Studies, vol. in., 1901-2, pp. 585 f. ; C. H. Turner, ibid.
vol. vi., 1904-5, pp. 264-268.

VOL. Ill h

cxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

the apparatus below, and from them a considerable part of the
Old African text of Acts can be recovered in substantially trust
worthy form. 1 It was an almost pure Western text. On
the Old Testament text of Cyprian the same statements can
be made as in the case of Tertullian.

SPECULUM, or Liber de divinis scripturis (cited as m ).
This collection of Biblical passages arranged by topics is known
from a number of MSS., of which the oldest is of the eighth or
ninth century. Formerly ascribed to Augustine, it has been
included in the edition of Augustine s works in the Vienna Corpus
(ed. F. Weihrich, 1887). The text of Acts (the longest quotation
being Acts ix. 36-42) shows kinship to perp. It appears to be a
Spanish form of the African text, probably dating from the
fifth century. 2

LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI, who wrote in 355-362, used in Acts,
as has been pointed out above, the same Latin version which
we find in gig. It is worth noting that Lucifer s text 3 in Luke
is substantially (perhaps in an earlier stage) that of b (Codex
Veronensis, fifth century) ; in John that of a (Codex Vercellensis,
fourth century) and e (Codex Palatinus, fifth century) ; in Paul
that of d paul (Codex Claromontanus, fifth-sixth century), except,
of course, in those epistles where this MS. on its Latin side is
conformed to the Vulgate ; and that in the Old Testament it !
agrees with the Vienna palimpsest fragments (fifth century ; !
Genesis and 1 and 2 Kingdoms). In 1-4 Kingdoms Lucifer s ;
quotations have been shown to come from a text corresponding |
partly to the Lucianic Greek, partly to the (older) non-lucianic. 4 !

1 Hans von Soden, Das lateinische Neue Testament in Afrika zur Zeit Cyprians \
(Texte und Untersuchungen, xxxm.), 1909, pp. 550-567.

2 P. Capelle, op. cit. pp. 47-50. Jiilicher, op. cit. p. 180, thinks the text of
m to be a true recension, with a mixture of the textual types represented by h
and gig.

3 Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, cols. 4994 f., 5023 ; Sanday, Old-Latin
Biblical Texts, No. II., 1886, p. 140. On the quotations of Lucifer from Lukej
and John, see Sanday, Old-Latin Biblical Texts, No. II., 1886, p. 140 ; H. J.j
Vogels, Theologische Quartalschrift, vol. cm., 1922, pp. 23-37, 183-200.

4 Rahlfs, Lucians Eezension der Konigsbiicher, p. 161 ; Burkitt, Fragment
of the Books of Kings according to the Translation of Aquila, 1897, pp. 19 f. ;|

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxv

In Lucifer s quotations from the Bible, however, attention must
always be paid to the fact that he, like Lactantius and others,
often derived them from the writings of Cyprian and not from
his own reading of the biblical text. 1

AMBROSE (f 397). Ambrose must have used an Old Latin
text of Acts, but his works are so largely founded on Greek
sources that its nature can hardly be determined.

AMBROSIASTER (fl. 375-385) used in Acts the gigas-recension,
and his text is " almost to a letter identical with that of gig
itself." In the Gospels the text of Ambrosiaster is to a consider
able extent that of b (Veronensis), but sometimes departs from b
and agrees with some other of the European witnesses, especially
fE 2 . In the Pauline epistles Ambrosiaster used a text " closely
related " to that of Lucifer, but apparently more polished. 2

AUGUSTINE (baptized 387 ; f 430). Augustine knew and
used for certain purposes the Vulgate of Acts, for instance in
the Speculum 3 and in debate with Jerome (Ep. 82, 9, Acts xxi.
20-25). The text of Acts, however, used in the church of Hippo
was Cyprianic, and Augustine quotes from this at length in De
actis cum Felice Manichaeo, i. 4-5 (A.D. 404), in Contra epistulam
Manichaei quam vacant Fundamenti (397 ?). In these his text is
almost identical with that of Cyprian s Testimonia. In De
consensu evangelistarum (A.D. 399) the influence of the African
text of Acts is plain, but the quotations show traces of the
Vulgate rendering, and were perhaps made from memory. The
most important of these Old Latin quotations are printed in this
volume ; but others will be found in the apparatus to the Latin

see also L. Dieu, Retouches Lucianiques sur quelques textes de la vieille
version latine (I et II Samuel), Revue Biblique, vol. xxvin., 1919, pp. 372-403.

1 Dombart, Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift, vol. viu., 1888, cols.
171-176.

2 A. Souter, A Study of Ambrosiaster (Texts and Studies, vii.), 1905, pp.
205-214.

3 That the use of the Vulgate in the texts from both Testaments formally
quoted in the body of the Speculum (A.D. 427) was in accordance with the
purpose of Augustine himself has been made plain by Burkitt (against Weihrich),
Saint Augustine s Bible and the Itala, in Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. XL, 1909-10, pp. 258-268.

cxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHKISTIANITY

text of Zahn s Urausgabe. A complete investigation of all
Augustine s quotations from Acts has never been made. The
agreement which he shows with perp is probably due to the Old
African element in that manuscript. 1 In some cases Augustine s
text of Acts seems due to dependence on Ambrosiaster. 2

This use of the Vulgate for learned and critical purposes and
of the African version on other occasions accords with Augustine s
practice as seen in his use of the Psalms (see below, pp. cxxiv f.)
and of the Gospels, 3 although in the Gospels he appears to have
adopted the Vulgate for habitual use about the year 398. 4 In
the Apocalypse Augustine uses the African text, closely resembling
that of Cyprian, cited in the Commentary of Primasius (sixth
century) and found in the fragments of h, while in the Catholic
epistles his text is a late African revision, also found in h and in
r. 5 For the Pauline epistles, likewise, the revised African text
of r (the Freising fragments, probably Spanish) is that employed
by Augustine in Africa from 389 on. He may, indeed, himself
have made this revised text ; and it is not improbable that the
Epistle to the Hebrews as found in r was Augustine s own render
ing from the Greek. While still in Italy (early in 388) he had
used a different text, similar to, and probably a precursor of,
the Vulgate. 6

Other writers who used an Old Latin text must be briefly

1 Souter, Text and Canon of the N.T. p. 45.

2 So in Acts xv. 29, see below, p. 266 ; A. J. Smith, Journal of Theological
Studies, vol. xix., 1917-18, pp. 170, 176; vol. xx., 1918-19, p. 64.

3 The Old Latin text of the Gospels used by Augustine in his earlier period
is substantially the revised African type found in e (Codex Palatinus, fifth
century) ; Souter, op. cit. p. 89.

4 Burkitt, Saint Augustine s Bible and the Itala ; II. The Gospel Quota
tions in the De Consensu, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. xi., 1909-10,
pp. 447-466, esp. p. 449.

5 Souter, Text and Canon of the New Testament, p. 89 ; Burkitt, Encyclo
paedia Biblica, col. 4997. De Bruyne, Les Fragments de Freising, 1921, p.
xxxviii, says : " II ne serait pas difficile de montrer qu Augustin cite pour les
Cath. un texte revise qu on ne trouve pas avant lui et dont il est sans doute
1 auteur."

6 D. de Bruyne, Les Fragments de Freising (Collectanea Biblica Latina v.),
1921, pp. xviii-xlviii. On Augustine see also P. Corssen, Der Cyprianische
Text der Ada apostolorum, pp. 24 f.

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxvii

mentioned. 1 The anonymous (pseudo-origenian) tracts De libris
sacrarum scripturarum (edited by P. Batiffol and A. Wilmart,
1900) of the fourth century, perhaps from Spain (? Gregory of
Elvira f 392) ; the anonymous Propheliae ex omnibus libris
collectae of the ninth-century St. Gall Codex 133, 2 probably
African from the years 305-325 (the text is surely corrupt) ; the
third-century pseudo-cyprianic tract De rebaptismate, with a
remarkable text of Acts, " a third-century African text as far as
regards renderings, but without the Western glosses " ; 3 the
tract Contra Varimadum, formerly attributed to Vigilius of
Thapsus ; 4 the Liber promissionum et praedictorum dei, formerly
attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, but now known to be by an
African, possibly Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Carthage, and to have
been written in 440-450. 5

The following names may be added. From Africa : Optatus
of Mileve (fl. ca. 368) ; Petilianus, Cresconius, and Tyconius the
Donatists (at the close of the fourth century) ; Fulgentius of
Ruspe (f 533). From Spain : Pacianus of Barcelona (fl. ca. 370),
( Priscillian (later fourth century), and the Priscillianist tract
De trinitate. 6 From Italy : Gaudentius of Brescia, Jerome, 7
Philastrius of Brescia, Zeno of Verona (all these are of the
middle or late fourth, or early fifth, century), with Paulinus

1 On their significance for the text of Acts see Zahn, Urausgabe, pp. 17-25.

2 A. Amelli, Miscellanea Cassinese, n. vi., 1897, pp. 17 ff. ; Zahn in Oeschicht-
liche Studien Albert Hauc^, zum 70. Geburtstage dargebracht, 1916, pp. 52-63.

3 F. C. Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, art. Text and Versions, col. 4996 ;
Burkitt is inclined to the view " that it was not originally composed in Latin,
and that we possess only the Latin translation."

4 Perhaps Spanish in origin. See G. Ficker, Studien zu Vigilius von Thapsus,
1897, pp. 42-50 ; Capelle, op. cit. p. Ill note 2.

6 Capelle, op. cit. p. 87. The text of the Psalter used by the Liber pro
missionum was substantially that of the Verona Psalter (R) and of the Old
Latin Psalter of Carthage, as quoted by Augustine ; Capelle, pp. 87-169, 227-
233. On the attribution to Quodvultdeus see P. Schepens, Recherches de science
religieuse, vol. x., 1919, pp. 230-243 ; D. Franses, Die Werke des hi. Quodvultdeus
(Veroffentlichungen aus dem Kirchenhistorischen Seminar Miinchen, iv. Reihe,
Nr. 9), Munich, 1920 ; Theologische Quartalschrift, vol. cm., 1922, p. 129.

8 G. Morin, Etudes, textes, decouvertes, vol. i. pp. 151-205.

7 Souter, Text and Canon of the New Testament, p. 89. In at least one
instance, Ep. 41, 1, 2, Jerome quotes Acts (ii. 14-18) from a text "related to
gig and p."

cxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

of Nola (I 431), Valerian of Cimiez (near Nice ; middle of fifth
century), and Cassiodorus (f 575). From Gaul : Hilary of
Poitiers (f 367), Gregory of Tours (f 593), and Ado of Lyons and
Vienne (f 875) ; from the British Isles, Pelagius (ca. 409) ; l from
Dacia, Niceta of Remesiana (fl. 400). To these should be added
the tract De trinitate ascribed to Vigilius of Thapsus, the Acta
Archelai of Hegemonius, and the Latin version 2 of Irenaeus. 3
The quotations from Acts of nearly all these writers are few,
and sometimes brief, but the list, which is not exhaustive, shows
the abundance of available material for illustration of the history
which awaits the student who will approach the Latin text of Acts
with sound method, adequate knowledge, and historical sense.

History of On the complicated history of the Old Latin text of Acts

Old Latin

version. two recent studies, one by Jiilicher, the other by Capelle, have
thrown fresh light, the one by direct approach, the other
indirectly. 4 Jiilicher, in an essay resting on thorough study of
the documents considered, and no less full of learning and
insight than it is delightful and sympathetic, has investigated the
character of the six chief witnesses, and traced in this way the
history of the text. 5 On his guidance the following account is
largely, but not wholly, dependent.

1 On Pelagius s text of Acts see A. Souter, Pelagius s Expositions of Thirteen
Epistles of St. Paul : I. Introduction (Texts and Studies, ix.), 1922, pp. 169-171 ;
" the evidence suggests that the British text was related to those used in
Africa and Spain rather than any others " (p. 169).

2 The biblical quotations in the Latin version of Irenaeus generally follow
Irenaeus s Greek text, but in the form of language adopted for this purpose a
fourth-century revised African text seems to have been in the translator s mind ;
see A. Souter in Novum Testamentum S. Irenaei, pp. clxiii, clxv ; cf . pp. xvii f . ;
see below, pp. clxxxvii-clxxxviii.

3 These Latin writers are nearly all used in the apparatus of Zahn,
Urausgabe ; most of the quotations are given by Sabatier.

4 In addition to the investigations of Jiilicher and Capelle here referred to
see Paul Monceaux, Histoire litter air e de VAfrique chretienne depuis les origines
jusqu d ^invasion arabe, vol. i., 1901, chap, iii., La Bible latine en Afrique.
This comprehensive exposition by Monceaux is of great value, in spite of some
misapprehensions with regard to the textual criticism and history of the Greek
Bible, and although some matters would require restatement in the light of
more recent studies.

6 Adolf Julicher, Kritische Analyse der lateinischen Ubersetzungen der

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxix

The earliest evidence of the translation, or translations, of
parts of the Bible into Latin comes from Africa through Ter-
tullian, whose text, so far as we can learn it, was * Western. The
text of Cyprian and Codex h was that of the church of Carthage, 1
for we find it in that church, with virtually no change, cited at
length by Augustine in the report of the debate with Felix the
Manichee in 404, as well as elsewhere in Augustine s writings.
That the earliest form of this version was native to Africa, not
brought from Europe or the East, is altogether probable, although
the other view has been held. What was its further history has
not been determined. 2 The analogy of the African text of the
Psalter suggests some development of the text of Acts in the
later centuries, both in Africa and when it was transplanted to
Spain, but of the course of this nothing definite can at present
be affirmed. Such a development would doubtless show the
softening of African crudities under foreign influences from
Italian texts and then from the Vulgate ; it would probably in
certain types include the elimination of Western traits and
some degree of approximation to the Greek texts later current.
One example of such a later Spanish-African text, retaining a
strong Western character, is probably what we find in the Old
Latin portions of the Perpignan codex (thirteenth century) from
South-western France (see above, pp. cviii-cix).

The few fragments of Donatist quotations, chiefly in passages
which we are unable to compare with an earlier African
text, are insufficient to show the nature of the Donatist text
(after 330). They exhibit a certain contact with gig d e and the
Vulgate, 3 and doubtless represent a type marked by similar

Apostelgeschichte, Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. xv.,
1914, pp. 163-188.

1 The translation in h, Acts xviii. 2, of 0,71-6 TTJS PW/ATJS by ab urbe (so also d
ex urbem) does not imply Roman origin. See Zahn, Geschichte des neu-
testamentlichen Kanons, vol. ii. p. 132 note 1, for evidence from many parts of
the empire .

2 The uncertainty as to the origin of De rebaptismate (see above, p. cxvii)
makes it impossible to draw inferences therefrom with regard to a later form of
the African version. 3 Julie her, p. 180.

cxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

qualities to those found in Donatist texts from the Psalms,
namely a high degree of conservatism together with some
innovations.

Whether versions of the Latin Bible were made in Italy in
independence of the African version is not known, but there is
clear evidence that texts early used in Italy were strongly in
fluenced by the labours of the African church in translating the
Bible. 1 Intercourse between Italian and African Christians was
active at all times ; the need of a translation into Latin would
be felt less early in the Greek-speaking church of Rome than in
Africa ; a new translator is commonly wise enough to avail him
self of the aid of his predecessors renderings, and the line between
an independent translation in which such aid has been used and
the revision of an earlier translation is hard, indeed impossible,
to draw. Even if the line could be drawn in theory, it would
be hard from any actual facts to gather which of two so nearly
related processes had been employed. As time went on, however,
Italian Christianity gained pre-eminence, and, moreover, the
biblical text current in Italy, whatever its ultimate origin, came
to present a better and more modern literary form than the
African Bible, which must have sounded odd and archaic to the
educated Christian in either land. Meantime Spain seems to
have drawn its earliest text of the Bible, as it did its liturgy,
from African sources. 2 This interplay of influences proceeding
in the earliest period from Africa to affect Spanish and Italian
Bibles (followed by a development in Italy), and then, at a later
time, of counter-influences proceeding from Italy to affect the
text of Africa 3 and Spain, goes far to account for the mingled
elements which we actually find in most of the extant witnesses
to the Old Latin text.

1 Cf . Sanday and Turner, Novum Testamentum Sancti Irenaei, pp. xvii f.

2 Capelle, op. cit. pp. 44 f., 118 f. note, 222 ; Cabrol, art. * Afrique (Liturgie),
in Dictionnaire d archeologie chretienne, col. 613 note 1. On the service ren
dered by Spain in preserving and transmitting something of the secular
literature current in Africa, see L. Traube, Einleitung in die lateinische Philologie
des Mittelalters (Vorlesungen und Abhandlungen, ii.), Munich, 1911, p. 126.

3 Capelle, p. 45.

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxxi

The great event in the history of the Old Latin Acts was a
revision which must have taken place as early as the year 350,
and which speedily became widely influential. Well preserved
in Codex Gigas and the ample citations of Lucifer, this revised
text also appears in a fragment for liturgical use known as g 2
(tenth or eleventh century) ; it was used in s, perhaps as the
basis of the editor s work ; and its influence appears in the
lectionary of Toledo (t) in the seventh century, as well as probably
hi perp. Further, we find it employed by Ambrosiaster (fl.
375), by Niceta of Remesiana in Dacia (fl. 400), 1 and by Jerome
himself. 2 Even in the ninth century it was the chief text relied
on by Ado of Lyons. Where it was made is not known, 3 but it
was intended to provide the educated reader with a text suited
to his needs, conformed to Latin idiom, and clearly intelligible.
African peculiarities are largely avoided ; Greek barbarisms have
been dropped ; and its Latin is sometimes, because a less literal
rendering, better than that of the Vulgate. It was plainly made
with the use of a Greek text of non- western type, 4 and has been
partly freed from Western readings, especially Western
additions. Earlier revisions in the same direction may have
preceded it ; on such perhaps e and the Vulgate were founded ;
but this revision, made before 350, is the source of what has
come in modern times to be called the European Latin text
of Acts. Its publication meant a much closer approximation
than heretofore of the most widely used Latin text to the current

1 Burkitt in A. E. Burn, Niceta of Remesiana, pp. cxliv-cliv.

2 Souter, The Text and Canon of the New Testament, pp. 44, 89, who cites
Jerome, Ep. 41. 1, 2 (p. 312, Hilberg), a letter believed to be from the
year 384,

3 Jiilicher, p. 188, speaks of the recension as made neither in Africa nor in
Rome. Africanisms have been eliminated more thoroughly than in the African
revision of the Psalms of about the same date which produced the version of the
Psalter used by Augustine. Doubtless the ground for supposing it to have
originated outside of Rome lies in the fact that the text used as the basis of the
Vulgate differed from the gigas-text.

4 Jiilicher, pp. 177-180, 185 f., from which has been learned most of what is
said above about the gigas-recension. On Lucianic elements in later Old
Latin texts of the Old Testament, see Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 6 ;
Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, p. 93.

cxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Greek manuscripts of the period. In considering this recension
of the Latin Acts, we may recall that the fourth century was a
period of increasing contact of Western and Eastern Christian
leaders, and that Athanasius resided at Rome from 339 to 342
(or 340 to 343). 1

Among the Old Latin texts that of the fragments of the last
chapters known as s (Codex Bobiensis, fifth or sixth century)
occupies a place somewhat apart. It is allied to gig, and perhaps
based on a slightly different form of that recension, and is related
to the Vulgate in such a way as to suggest that its editor has also
used an older text on which the Vulgate rests. Yet that it was
directly influenced by the Vulgate is not impossible, although it
does not seem to have been proved. It is the work of a competent
scholar, who has tried to produce a text in good Latin idiom
which should be wholly conformed to the Old Uncial Greek text,
both in omitting longer Western additions and in details. The
date of this work must lie in the fourth or fifth century. 2

It thus appears that the two well-established landmarks (at
least in the Book of Acts) for finding our way in the wilderness
of the Old Latin version are the Cyprianic text, current by
240, and the gigas-revision, made before 350. 3

1 Abundant evidence (Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine) shows that in
the fourth century Greek texts of the Old Testament were used in the West ;
Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbilcher, p. 153 ; Der Text des Septuaginta-
Psalters, pp. 75-79 ; Burkitt, The Old Latin and the Itala, p. 8.

2 For the above account of s, I am wholly dependent on Jiilicher, op. cit.
pp. 173-177.

3 The Gigas-revision, as I have ventured to call it, produced much of the
text which appears in the European representatives of the Old Latin. I
have, however, ordinarily refrained from applying to it directly the term
* European, because the latter covers so many different forms of text, and is in
itself likely to mislead by reason of its direct parallelism to the term African.
The term Italian is also to be avoided. It was used by Augustine only with
relation to the Old Testament. That he used it there to denote Jerome s transla
tion must be accepted, especially since the remaining difficulties left by Burkitt s
fundamental discussion in The Old Latin and the Itala (Texts and Studies, iv.),

1896, and Corssen s clear and instructive review in Oottingische gelehrte Anzeigen,

1897, pp. 416-424, seem to have been once and for all removed by the acute study
of De Bruyne, L ltala de Saint Augustin, in Revue Benedictine, vol. xxx., 1913,
pp. 294-314, where it is conclusively shown that these difficulties were due to
the fact that the final edition of Augustine s De doctrina Christiana differed sub-

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxxiii

The other study mentioned above is that of Capelle on the The Psalter
Latin text of the Psalter in Africa, already often referred to, 1 a
treatise distinguished by a great elegance of method, a striking
sense of the concrete reality of events and circumstances, and a
comprehensive grasp of all the facts bearing on the author s field.

The history of the African Psalter is made out as follows.
By the time of Tertullian, or earlier, various local translations of
the Psalms were current in Africa in written form. From one
of these, not identical with that of Tertullian himself, grew up
the Psalter of Cyprian, of which we have much knowledge from
the Testimonies (Codex L). From one of the MSS. of the Testi-
monia (Codex V, known only from the collation of Latini), and
from the African writings prior to and contemporary with
Cyprian, it appears certain that the African Psalter was by no
means uniform in the time of Cyprian, and that a variety of
kindred but varying texts were in use. Later in the same
century the text of the Testimonies followed in the quotations of
Lactantius (who had probably lived only in Africa up to the date
of the composition of his Divinae institutions, about 290) shows
some modification of the original African (for instance \0709 is
verbum, no longer sermo). If one MS. of Lactantius (Codex H)
gives a text which seems even more archaic than that of the
original Testimonies, that fact bears witness to the persistent
vitality of the Latin text in Africa, which had by no means
stiffened into uniformity at the end of the third century or even
later.

In the fourth century, about 330, the Donatist party became
organized, and the controversies of that period, resting on
biblical proofs, stimulated attention to the biblical text. In
accordance with their theological character, the Donatists used

stantially from the form in which it was first published. An earlier suggestion
of the explanation now convincingly elaborated by De Bruyne was made by
Paul Wendland, Zur altesten Geschichte der Bibel in der Kirche, Zeitschrift
fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. i., 1900, p. 289 footnote.

1 Paul Capelle, Le Texte du psautier latin en Afrique (Collectanea Biblica
Latina cura et studio monachorum S. Benedicti, vol. TV.), Rome, 1913.

cxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

a Psalter of a generally archaic type but yet containing some
innovations as compared with Cyprianic standards. About
350, perhaps partly in consequence of the Donatist controversy,
there was made in the orthodox African church a revision of
the Psalter in which European influences and a more culti
vated Latinity were brought into the African text. This was a
revolutionary, and must have been a sudden, departure from the
Cyprianic text, even in the modified forms in which the first half
of the fourth century had known that text. It may have been
called out by the desire to unify the varying texts current among
the orthodox. In a form which had been subjected to a further
special revision (of but limited range) this text was that which
Augustine found in use when he came to Africa in 388, and which
was employed by the churches of Carthage and Hippo. It was
the text of the Psalter which Augustine always continued to
quote, except when for certain more learned purposes he used the
translation of Jerome.

A little earlier than Augustine s arrival in Africa, Optatus
of Mileve s quotations (about 370) show that he had entirely
broken with the Cyprianic Psalter. The change was due to
the same revision of which we see the later results in the text
of Augustine. Closely related to the transformed African Psalter
used by Augustine is the text of the Psalms in the African Liber
promissionum et praedictomm dei (440-450). l It passed over
to Italy also, and was long used there, for a continuous Psalter,
a sister type of the same special revision used by Augustine,
appears as the Latin side of the bilingual Verona Psalter (R)
of the sixth century, where it has perhaps even had its effect
on the Greek text opposite.

The text of Augustine and the Verona Psalter is in its whole
fabric a thoroughly African text, well mixed from various
African sources, " not merely a text with an African base, still

1 A similar relation is found to subsist between Augustine s text of the
Pauline epistles (extant in Codex r) and the text of the Liber promissionum et
praedictomm ; De Bruyne, Les Fragments de Freising, 1921, pp. xxxv f.

VERSIONS : OLD LATIN cxxv

less a foreign text africanized," * but the revision was made
with, the aid of European texts, although the precise type of
these latter is impossible to determine. Vigorous and skilful
African hands succeeded in producing a revision of the Psalter
distinguished by homogeneity, by a certain purity and uniformity,
by originality of apt rendering as compared with the European
texts, and by great fidelity to the Greek text. 2 Perhaps St.
Augustine himself had a share in perfecting the work. 3

In addition to his use of this fourth-century African revised
Old Latin, Augustine also used, especially for purposes of learning
and criticism, a copy of Jerome s Gallican Psalter (made from a
hexaplaric Greek text ; now included in the Vulgate). He seems
to have drawn this not directly from a manuscript of the true
Gallican version but from a gallicanized African Psalter.

Meantime the African text had been carried to Spain. Pacian
of Barcelona (360-390) used a Psalter closely akin to that of
Cyprian. 4 The pseudo-augustinian Speculum ( m in the New
Testament) and the text of Cyprian s Testimonies (Codex A)
found with it in the same MS. (Sessorianus) show kindred, but
not identical, mixed texts of the Psalter, in which the Old African
type current in Spain has been nearly, but not quite, supplanted
by the text of the Mozarabic liturgy. This mixture of texts in
Spain probably took place in the fifth century. The Mozarabic
Psalter itself was not devoid of survivals of the Old African
text, foreign to its main sources (which were the Roman Psalter
and in less degree the Hebrew Psalter of Jerome).

For the rest of the fifth century and the first half of the sixth,
the evidence of Victor of Vita (486), Vigilius of Thapsus (fl. 484),
and Fulgentius of Ruspe (468-533) gives a just notion of what
was taking place in Africa. Various texts were in use, but the
Gallican Psalter was extending its sway. Yet it did not succeed
in completely eliminating all Old African readings from the text

1 Capelle, p. 116.

2 Capelle, pp. 120, 129-131. On all these points Capelle furnishes
illustrations.

3 De Bruyne, op. cit. p. xxxviii. 4 Capelle, pp. 44 f., Ill note.

cxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

of these writers, while Fulgentius perhaps shows some traces of the
influence of Jerome s Roman Psalter. But Christian Africa was
already decadent, and by 700 was in the hands of the Saracens.
It has seemed worth while to give at some length this sketch
of the history of the Psalter in Africa, as worked out in the
admirable book of Capelle, for although no direct application
of his results to the text of the New Testament can at present
be made, it is highly suggestive for New Testament textual
history, both in method and conclusions. As, in the case of
Acts, Cyprian and the gigas-recension form two trustworthy
landmarks, so in the Psalter two fixed points stand out to our
view, the one again the text of Cyprian, the other an African
revision of about 350 which strongly reminds us of the gigas-
revision of not far from the same date. These two fourth-
century revisions, however, can probably not be brought into
close relation, for so far as we know the gigas-revision was
European, not African. Likewise, both in the Psalter and in
Acts, texts passed from Africa to Spain and in that land mingled
their readings with others coming from Italian or Gallic sources.
And finally the work of Jerome, although only after a plainly
discernible struggle, won virtually the whole ground.
Greek text As to the Greek text which underlay the African Psalter, that
Psalter. ^ Tertullian s and Cyprian s Latin versions seems to have been
an Old Antiochian text (hence it sometimes agrees with the late
Antiochian revision of Lucian, but never where the hand of
Lucian himself is apparent), combined with readings derived
from Egyptian texts, especially that of Upper Egypt, and some
other ancient elements. 1 The respective relations of Tertullian
and of Cyprian to these several constituent elements were in
part, but only in part, the same. 2 The revised African Psalter

1 A similar conclusion as to the African Latin text of the Prophets is stated
by Burkitt, The Book of Rules of Tyconius (Texts and Studies, vol. iii.), pp. cxvif.

2 Capelle, pp. 200-207. Capelle (p. 203 note 1) adds a discreet warning
against the too confident assumption that these Antiochian and Egyptian
readings originated in those regions, or that the text containing them was
derived from those regions by the Christians of North Africa.

VERSIONS : VULGATE cxxvii

of 350 seems to show no large influence from any other type of
Greek text than that observable in the Old African.

(6) VULGATE

The Vulgate translation of the Gospels was presented to Character
Pope Damasus by St. Jerome in 384 ; the rest of the New Testa- Vulgate.
ment followed, but perhaps only after several years. In Acts
Jerome s revision rested on an Old Latin basis, which may have
been an ancestor of gig. In some cases he preserved African
renderings foreign to gig (for instance xx. 17 major es natu for
TTpeo-pvrepoi, where d gig have presbyteri ; or xxvii. 3, where the
peculiar reading of vg ad amicos ire et curam sui agere recalls
h amicis qui veniebant [ad eum\ uti curam ejus agerent, while gig
reads ire ad amicos et curam sui habere), and he may well have had
at his disposal a variety of manuscripts. At any rate he has
retained a very large measure of Old Latin readings. But he
brought in some renderings of his own, and he purged the text
by the aid of a Greek text like that of the Old Uncials, 1 although
peculiarities of no single one of the extant uncials are reflected
in his translation. 2 Jerome s skill in departing as little as
possible from Old Latin renderings, while by slight changes and
rearrangement of words he yet attained, even in order, extra
ordinary exactness of agreement with his Greek standard, and
produced an excellent translation, is worthy of the greatest
admiration. Wordsworth and White believe that a series of
renderings which they collect show that his Greek text differed
somewhat from any known to us, 3 but on a close scrutiny these
instances, with hardly an exception, do not seem to require this
supposition.

The text of the Vulgate became mixed with the Old Latin
at an early date, and suffered from other corruption, as it was

1 Jiilicher, op. cit. pp. 167 f., 185-188 ; Wordsworth and White, Actus
Apostolorum, pp. x-xiii.

2 Wordsworth and White, pp. xii f.

3 Ibid. p. xi.

cxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

copied and when it was carried to distant lands. Important
events in its history were the attempts of Alcuin (801) and of the
Spaniard Theodulf (early ninth century) to establish a corrected
text.

Codices. The primary codices of the Vulgate which Wordsworth and

White have selected as the basis of their text are G C A F D,
named in order of excellence, and chosen as independent repre
sentatives from five distinct types and from widely distant
localities. The agreement of these five, when it presents itself,
is taken as decisive ; when they differ, the internal probability
of readings is invoked. The chief rules followed by the editors
are that that reading is to be accepted which (1) agrees with the
Greek, especially with the Old Uncials ; or (2) renders the Greek
best ; or (3) is not found in the Old Latin ; or (4) is supported
by a family of codices whose readings are approved as right
in the immediate context ; or (5) is shorter. Attention must
also be paid to obvious scribal errors. The five primary MSS. are
the following :

GCAFD G. Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 11,553. Codex Sangermanensis.
Ninth century (first half). This MS. came from Southern Gaul,
perhaps from Lyons. 1

C. La Cava 14. Codex Cavensis. Ninth century. Probably
written in Castile or Leon. C is the best representative of the
Spanish family, and probably represents the edition of Peregrinus
(450-500) ; it is superior to T (Codex Toletanus, eighth [tenth]
century), which seems to give the text of Isidore of Seville (560-
636). 2

A. Florence, Bibl. laur. 1. Codex Amiatinus. Ca. 700 A.D.
Written in Northumbria ; shows traces in Acts of influence

1 G is distinguished not only by the singular excellence of its text in some
parts of the New Testament, but by containing (in expanded form) at the close
of the Old Testament a colophon, elsewhere known only in the Bible de Rosas
(R), which claims to be by Jerome, and may be genuine ; see D. de Bruyne,
Un nouveau document sur les origines de la Vulgate, Revue Biblique, vol. x.,
1913, pp. 5-14.

2 D. de Bruyne, Etude sur les origines de la Vulgate en Espagne, Revue
Benedictine, vol. xxxi., 1914-19, pp. 373-401.

VERSIONS : VULGATE cxxix

from the Latin (e) of Codex Laudianus (E). The text is of
Neapolitan origin, and probably drawn from that of Cassio-
dorus. 1

F. Fulda. Codex Fuldensis. Ca. 545 A.D. Written at Capua.
On the text of F, which lay in Northumbria in the late years
of the seventh and early years of the eighth century, is closely
dependent the revision of Alcuin.

D. Dublin, Library of Trinity College. The Book of Armagh.
First half of ninth century. D contains many Old Latin readings
which survived from the text earlier current in Ireland. 2

The other codices used by Wordsworth and White fall into
groups :

(1) Codex I (luveniani ; Rome, Santa Maria in Vallicella, I M
B 25 2 ; now in Biblioteca Vittorio-Emanuele ; eighth or ninth
century) and Codex M (Monacensis ; ninth or tenth century)
represent the same type as Codex A.

(2) Codex S (Sangallensis ; eighth century) and Codex U S U
(Ulmensis ; ninth century), both Iro-gallic and written at St.
Gall, largely agree with Codex F, but contain some of the
additions current in the work of Celtic scribes.

(3) Codex T (Toletanus ; originally from Seville ; now at T
Madrid, Bibl. nac. ; eighth [tenth] century) 3 belongs with Codex
C, but shows a later form of the Spanish text, probably that of
Isidore of Seville (560-636).

(4) Codex (Oxoniensis-Seldenianus ; sometimes designated O
x of the Old Latin ; seventh or eighth century, written in the
Isle of Thanet, Kent, England) has a peculiar text related both
to the Irish and to the Northumbrian forms.

(5) Codex B (Theodulfianus ; early ninth century, probably e
copied at Fleury under the direction of Theodulf himself) best

1 J. Chapman, Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels, 1908,
chap. ij. ; and his article, Cassiodorus and the Echternach Gospels, Revue
Benedictine, vol. xxvm., 1911, pp. 283-295.

2 John Gwynn, Liber Ardmachanus, The Book of Armagh, Dublin, 1913.

3 E. A. Lowe, On the Date of Codex Toletanus, Revue Benedictine, vol.
xxxv., 1923, pp. 267-271.

VOL. Ill t

cxxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

represents the Theodulfian recension, which rested on a Spanish
(or, rather, Languedocian) text akin to that of C T.

K B V R (6) Codices K (Karolinus, British Museum, add. 10,546 ;
ninth century, script of Tours), B (Bambergensis, ninth century,
script of Tours), V (Vallicellanus, B. vi., ninth century), R (Bible
de Rosas, tenth century) ; written in eastern Tarragonian Spain ;
named in order of excellence, are the best representatives of the
recension of Alcuin, 1 and are consequently closely related to
F and, less nearly, to S U.

W (7) Codex W (William of Hales, A.D. 1254) is taken as a good

representative of the text current among scholars in the later
Middle Ages.

History The relation of these MSS. and groups is to be accounted for

VoSate ky the history of the Vulgate, in so far as that has been made
out by the researches of scholars. 2

Naples. Good copies of St. Jerome s translation, or of large parts of

it, were early in use in Italy and Southern Spain. At Squillace
in South Italy in the sixth century Cassiodorus obtained from
Naples an excellent text of the Gospels and a less good one of
other parts of the Bible, He seems to have used these to correct
an Old Latin text, from which some, though few and unimportant,
survivals remained in his text. 3 From this text proceeded that
brought to Northumbria, probably by Ceolfrid or Benedict
Biscop about 680. Among many copies of this Northumbrian
text Codex Amiatinus (A) is the best.

Also in the neighbourhood of Naples at Capua, in 541-546

1 Codex V in Acts i.-ii. follows the family of Codex Amiatinus rather than
the Alcuinian text ; Wordsworth and White, pp. viii, xv ; cf. Berger, Histoire
de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siecles du moyen age. pp. 197-204, 242. On
this MS. see also P. Corssen, Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1894, pp. 855-875 ;
H. Quentin, Memoire sur V etablissement du texte de la Vulgate, I 6re partie,
Octateuque (Collectanea Biblica Latina, vi.), 1922, pp. 266 ff.

2 S. Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, 1893 ; H. J. White, art. Vulgate in
Hastings s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iv., 1902 ; John Chapman, Notes on the
Early History of the Vulgate Gospels, 1908 ; id. l Cassiodorus and the Echternach
Gospels, Revue Benedictine, vol. xxvm., 1911, pp. 283-295; H. Quentin, op. cit.,
1922.

3 Chapman, Revue Benedictine, vol. xxvm., 1911, pp. 286-288.

VERSIONS : VULGATE cxxxi

was written Codex Fuldensis (F), which, was brought to England,
perhaps by the same hands as A, given to Boniface, and by him
to the monastery of Fulda in Germany. 1 The resemblance of
the text of A and F in the Gospels is thus easily accounted
for by their common dependence on the text of Naples ; the
divergence of the two texts in other parts of the New Testament
has not been definitely explained.

From Italy also, and perhaps from Rome, copies of the England
Vulgate, which were independent of the Northumbrian text, Ireland,
came to England with the mission of Augustine of Canterbury
(596) and with his successors in the following century. Roman
Christianity, advancing from England into Ireland, gained
dominance over the earlier Irish Christianity, introduced probably
in the fourth century, which had maintained itself during the
centuries of heathen aggression. But this Irish church of
earlier foundation had used the Old Latin version of the Bible,
and was strongly attached to it, so that one product of the
new Roman mission in Ireland was a combination of the Old
Latin with the new Italian Vulgate text brought by the new
leaders. The Irish text which thus resulted was distinct from
the Northumbrian ; in the great series of superb products of
Irish scribes in Ireland and on the continent it had a long history
and far-reaching influence, and in one of its forms it is found
in the Book of Armagh (D).

On the history of the Vulgate text in Italy recent researches Italy.
have thrown but little light. A Roman type must have existed&gt;
and one stage of it may be represented by the English manu
scripts of the Gospels traditionally connected with Canterbury
and Gregory the Great ; of Acts nothing can be said. The
difficulty of the problem and meagreness of the evidence are
perhaps due to the long-continued use in Rome 2 and North Italy

1 J. Chapman, Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels, pp. 157 f.,
160 f., 188.

2 Gregory the Great (f 604) says that both the Old Latin and the Vulgate
were alike in use at Rome in his time, Expositio in librum B. Job (Moralium
libri), Epistola ad Leandrum, 5, Migne, vol. Ixxv. p. 516 : Novam vero trans*

cxxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

of the good revised form of the Old Latin (the so-called Euro
pean ), as well as to the successive and terrible disasters which
befell the city of Rome. 1 In Northern Italy, in the province of
Milan, a definite type of text established itself as early as the
eleventh century, based on texts immediately or more remotely
of Spanish origin but with combination of the text of Alcuin.
It appears in MSS. of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and may
have had its origin at Rome. 2 Another group in the Octateuch
comprises chiefly MSS. written at Monte Cassino in the tenth,
eleventh, and twelfth centuries, which have a text derived from
Spain. 3

Africa. Of the history of the Vulgate text of the New Testament in
North Africa very little is known. The Vulgate Gospels and
St. Jerome s Gallican Psalter (in a slightly modified form) were
in use there in the time of St. Augustine. 4

Spain. l n Spain the text of the Vulgate had its own development.
As in Ireland, it came into rivalry, and then entered a com
bination, with the African Latin texts of earlier and of later
type which had come across the Mediterranean from Africa, and
with the revised European text which reached the peninsula
from Italy and perhaps from Gaul. At first in southern Spain,
then, at the coming of the Mohammedan Moors in the eighth
century (battle of Xeres de la Frontera, 711), driven to the north

lationem dissero, sed cum probationis causa exigit, nunc novam, nunc veterem,
per testimonia assumo ; ut quia sedes apostolica, cui deo auctore praesideo, utraque
utitur, mei quoque labor studii ex utraque fulciatur.

1 Codex luveniani (I) and Codex Monacensis (M) may represent an Italian
text akin to that of Codex Amiatinus. It does not seem to be suggested that
either of them is dependent on the text of Northumbria. The participation of
the text of Codex Fuldensis in the composition of Codex Sangallensis and Codex
Ulmensis may be due to an Italian strain in these latter manuscripts. But in
the case of Alcuin s revision the close connexion with the Italian Codex F
would seem more probably due to the relation of the two, each in its own
way, to Northumbria.

2 H. Quentin, Memoir e sur T etablissement du texte de la Vulgate, I 6re partie,
pp. 361-384.

3 H. Quentin, op. cit. pp. 352-360.

4 On Augustine s use of the Gallican Psalter see above, p. cxxv ; cf. also
P. Monceaux, Histoire litteraire de VAfrique chretienne, vol. i., 1901, pp. 150 f.

VERSIONS : VULGATE cxxxiii

and maintaining themselves in the kingdoms of Leon and Castile,
the Visigothic Christians produced many copies of the Latin
Bible, of which some, from the seventh century on, have come
down to us. Some of these show that the Vulgate element in
these mixed and interpolated texts was of excellent quality,
faithful to the original which had earlier reached Spain. Codex
Cavensis (C ; ninth century) seems to represent the edition of
Peregrinus (probably northern Spain, 450-500), Codex Toletanus
(T ; eighth century, perhaps completed in the tenth century)
that of Isidore of Seville (560-636). From Leon and Castile
(especially Toledo), and Catalonia, these texts made their way
into Languedoc and up the Rhone valley to Vienne and Lyons,
ancient seats of second-century Christianity which in the inter
vening centuries had, like Rome, exchanged Greek for Latin as
the language of the Church. Spanish texts were carried even
farther, to North Italy (Bobbio and the province of Milan) and
so to Switzerland.

Corresponding on the other side to the entrance of the France
Spanish text of the Vulgate into France was the bringing in of
Irish and Northumbrian texts by innumerable missionaries who,
from the seventh century on, worked in to a cordon of stations
on the north and east and south-east, some of them following up
the Rhine. From these centres Irish scribes and Irish texts pene
trated into the very heart of the country. To name only points
where the scribes or the texts are actually known, we find them
at Tours and Angers, perhaps coming by way of Brittany, and
in the neighbourhood of Lyons ; in Normandy, at Fecamp and
St. Evroult ; on the east at Echternach, Wiirzburg, Metz ; in
Switzerland, at St. Gall, the neighbouring Reichenau, and Pfafers ;
in Northern Italy, at Bobbio, founded by St. Columban.

In France itself no earlier type of Vulgate text had been
current indeed the Vulgate itself, especially for the New Testa
ment, had but slowly and gradually superseded the Old Latin
in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries ; but endless
varieties of French text resulted from the conflict of Spanish

cxxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

and British (Irish and English) influences. The most distin
guished example of this mixture is the Codex Sangermanensis
(G ; ninth century ; probably from near Lyons), in which a text
largely, in the Old Testament almost wholly, of Spanish origin
has been mixed with an Irish strain and with a European
Old Latin text (especially in the Gospel of Matthew). The
Acts of Codex G present a text of which neither its composition
nor the ground of its excellence is fully explained, but which,
on internal grounds, is accounted the best extant representative
of the Vulgate of St. Jerome. Even in the Gospels those readings
of Codex G which are not otherwise accounted for often possess
almost unique value as survivals of the original Vulgate text.
In Acts G agrees more often with A than with F. 1

Toward a better text two attempts were made about the
year 800. That of Theodulf (f ca. 821), himself a Visigoth, was
mingled of various elements, Spanish and British, but in Acts
substantially reproduced the text of Languedoc. Far more
powerful in its effects was the text of Alcuin, presented to Charle
magne in 801. For the formation of this, copies were brought
from York, where he had been brought up from infancy. In
the ninth century this text was multiplied in a great number of
copies, but in these was immediately and progressively modified
and depraved. Attempts to secure uniformity of use by a fresh
revision of the text of the Bible often produce at first a new
confusion, but they often mark an epoch. It was so here ;
Alcuin s text, in the main of Northumbrian origin, was the
signal for the final disappearance of any considerable Old Latin
influence in the French text.

In succeeding centuries a succession of scholars endeavoured
to establish more correct texts than those current, until the
thirteenth century witnessed the rise into leadership of the
University of Paris, and with it, centring in Paris, an activity
never before equalled in the production of Bibles, many of them

1 Wordsworth and White, Actus Apostolorum, pp. vi, xiii f., xvi ; Quattuor
Evangelia, Epilogus, p. 717.

VERSIONS : PROVENQAL cxxxv

characterised by their handy form and beautiful execution. The
text of the later Middle Ages was this Paris text, and from some
of its forms was drawn the chief part of the modern printed text
of which the Clementine edition of 1592 constitutes the standard.
From this sketch it will be apparent that the grouping of
Wordsworth and White s classification is due to the real working
of comprehensible historical forces, although not all of these can
be traced in detail.

Interest and some importance attaches in Acts to certain
daughter-versions of the Latin Vulgate, because they contain
many Western readings. These are the two Provenal versions
(of Provence and of the Waldensian valleys), the German version
made from the Provengal, the Waldensian Italian version, and
the Bohemian version. 1 Their origin is but imperfectly known,
but they are bound together by the heretical or sectarian character
of the Christians (except the Italians) among whom they severally
circulated and whose need of a translation of the Bible into the
vernacular they served. In particular they illustrate the wide
range of Waldensian activity in all southern Germany before
the period of John Hus. 2

1. Provencal 3

In Languedoc a Latin text was current throughout the Latin text
Middle Ages in which an important element containing many ued oc"

1 The translation into the Catalan dialect of north-eastern Spain is in some
of its forms partly based on a text containing Western readings (e.g. Acts xi.
1-2), as would be expected, but its complicated history is not well understood ;
see S. Berger, Nouvelles recherches sur les Bibles proven?ales et catalanes,
Romania, vol. xix., 1890, pp. 505-561, especially pp. 514 f.

2 S. Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 74 : " Deux pays seulement, a notre
connaissance, montrent, en plein moyen age, un attachement obstine aux textes
anterirurs a saint Jerome : ce sont les pays albigeois et la Boheme, terres
d heresie et d independance religieuse autant que de particularisme fier et
jaloux."

3 S. Berger, Les Bibles provengales et vaudoises, Romania, vol. xvm.,
1889, pp. 353-422.

cxxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Old Latin readings had been drawn from Spain. 1 A noteworthy
example of such a MS. is the Codex Colbertinus from Languedoc
(Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 254, twelfth century). In this the Gospels
are mostly Old Latin (c), with some African readings. Another
MS. showing considerable resemblance to Codex Colbertinus
in the mixed Vulgate part of the latter, was the Codex Demi-
dovianus (twelfth or thirteenth century), now lost, but published
by Matthai, 1782-1788, which came from the Jesuit house
at Lyons. Still another pure copy of this text (but not from
this region) is the Codex Wernigerodensis (Library of Graf
Stolberg, Z.a.81), containing interlinear Bohemian glosses, and
written in Bohemia very early in the fifteenth century. 2 Other
manuscripts from Languedoc date from the tenth to the four
teenth century, 3 when this text disappears in fusion with the
ordinary text of Paris. The revision of Theodulf (ninth century)
probably rests in part on the Latin text of Languedoc.

From this Latin are derived two types of translation into
Proven9al. 4 (1) The first is a version found in two MSS. :
one now at Lyons (Bibliotheque du Palais des Arts, No. 36), of
the thirteenth century, 5 probably written in the modern Depart
ment of the Aude, not far from Carcassonne ; the other an inferior

1 S. Berger, Hist, de la Vulgate, pp. 72-82 ; Romania, vol. xvm., 1889, pp.
354-356. It is necessary to remark that the Latin text so used was Catholic, not
heretical or schismatic, although its wide spread in southern and eastern Europe
was due to the fact that Languedoc was a centre from which pioneer movements
spread. It is an error, although a natural one, to say that " only among heretics
isolated from the rest of Western Christianity could an Old Latin text have
been written at so late a period " (sc. the twelfth century).

2 Berger, Revue historique, vol. XLV., 1891, p. 148 ; Histoire de la Vulgate,
1893, p. 80 ; W. Walther, Die deutsche Bibeliibersetzung des Mittelalters, Braun
schweig, 1889-1892, p. 190 ; readings given by Blass, Studien und Kritiken,
vol. LXIX., 1896, pp. 436-471, and in Wordsworth and White. The Latin Bible
of the abbey of Werden (Rhenish Prussia) referred to by Berger, Revue his
torique, 1886, p. 467, may be another similar copy.

3 " Un texte ancien disperse dans des manuscrits recents," Berger, Histoire
de la Vulgate, p. 82.

* Besides the references given in the following notes see E. Reuss, art.
Bibeliibersetzungen, romanische, in Protestantische Realencykl., vol. iii., pp.
139 f.

5 According to Paul Meyer, between 1250 and 1280.

VERSIONS : PROVENAL cxxxvii

MS. at Paris (Bibl. nat., fr. 2425), of the first half of the fourteenth
century, written somewhere in southern Provence. The Lyons
codex l appears to have been copied directly from the interlinear
Provengal gloss of a Latin MS., probably itself not much older
than this extant copy. By the Catharist (Albigensian) liturgy
which forms a part of it, appended to the New Testament, it is
shown to have been written for the use of that sect. The Paris
MS. gives a free and abridged version, by descent akin to the better
translation of the Lyons MS. The margin is full of marks calling
attention to the passages of Scripture especially valued by the
Waldensians, and it seems to have been used by a Waldensian
colporteur. 2 These Proven9al texts both represent the same
dialect. Of the origin of the translation nothing is positively
known ; no taint of heresy has been discovered at any point
in it.

(2) The second Provengal version is in the dialect of the
Vaudois valleys of Piedmont, and is found in copies used by the
Waldensians who dwelt there. The oldest and best MS. is that
of Carpentras (Bibl. municipale, 22), in a southern French hand
of the fourteenth century. Other important copies are at
Dublin (A.4.13, written in 1522, but almost identical with the
Carpentras MS.), Grenoble (about 1400), Cambridge (University
Library, Dd 15.34 ; early fifteenth century), and Zurich (six
teenth century). Many other late copies are also known.

These two Provengal versions 3 are probably, though not
certainly, derived from a common original translation into

1 Facsimile in L. Cledat, Le Nouveau Testament, traduit au XIII e siecle en
langue proven$ale suivi d un rituel cathare, Paris, 1887. See E. Reuss, Les
versions vaudoises existantes et la traduction des Albigeois ou Cathares, Eevue
de Theologie (Strasbourg), vol. v., 1852, pp. 321-349 ; Versions cathares et
vaudoises, ibid. vol. vi., 1853, pp. 65-96 ; S. Berger, Romania, vol. xvin., 1889,
pp. 357-364 ; Paul Meyer, Recherches linguistiques sur Forigine des versions
provencales du N.T., Romania, vol. xvm., 1889, pp. 423-429. Readings in
Acts are collected by Blass, Studien und Kritiken, 1896, pp. 436-471.

2 Berger, Revue historique, vol. xxx., 1886, p. 168.

3 See the clear brief statement of the process of events in Berger, Nouvelles
recherches sur les Bibles provensales et catalanes, Romania, vol. xix., 1890,
pp. 559-561.

cxxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

ProvenQal. At any rate, although their readings are not
everywhere identical, both are derived from the Latin text of
Languedoc of the thirteenth century, and hence in Acts contain
many Western readings of Old Latin origin. Indeed, " the
Provenal versions form the best witness to the [mixed Vulgate]
text of Languedoc," which " goes back directly to the ancient
text of the Visigoths." l It is not to be supposed that the
Waldensians, Catharists, and Bohemians deliberately adopted a
text of Acts because they knew it to be different from that used
by the orthodox Catholics. On the contrary, the translators of
these texts merely used the text of Languedoc current in their
own day and locality, which happened (through contiguity to
Spain) to be widely mixed with Old Latin readings ; 2 the
translators themselves may or may not have been sectaries.
Nevertheless, it is for the most part because these translations
were used by sectaries that they have been preserved for us.

2. German 3

The German translation of the New Testament which was
printed, with some variations, in many editions from 1466 to
1518, was probably translated in the fourteenth century in
southern Bohemia from a Provencal text 4 brought to Bohemia

1 Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 73.

2 This fact is in itself an interesting illustration of the peculiar persistence
in Africa and Spain of the Western African text of Acts side by side with
later renderings of other books (thus in the Liber promissionum et praedictorum
dei, about 450 ; codex h of the sixth century).

3 S. Berger, Revue historique, vol. xxx., 1886, pp. 164-169 ; vol. xxxn.,
1886, pp. 184-190 ; vol. XLV., 1891, pp. 147-149 ; Romania, vol. xvm., 1889,
pp. 407 f. ; W. Walther, Die deutsche Bibelubersetzung des Mittelalters ; 0. F.
Fritzsche and E. Nestle, art. Bibeliibersetzungen, deutsche, in Protestantische
Realencyldopddie, vol. in., 1897, pp. 64-69 ; Karl Muller, Studien und Kritiken,
vol. LX., 1887, pp. 571-594; and, on Miiller s article, Berger s comments in
Bulletin de la Societe d Histoire vaudoise, No. 3, Torre Pellice, December 1887,
pp. 37-41.

4 Th. Zahn, Die Urausgabe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas, 1916, p. 16 ;
Berger, Revue historique, 1891, pp. 448 f. The translator may have had the
aid of a Vulgate text and of another German translation, but the instances
adduced by Berger and Zahn seem to leave no doubt as to the fundamental

VERSIONS : GERMAN cxxxix

perhaps by Waldensians or Cathari. In any case it represents
a Latin text of the type current in Languedoc in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, containing many Western readings
in Acts. It is found in several MSS., of which two, the Codex
Teplensis and the Freiberg MS., contain Acts.

The Codex Teplensis l (Library of the Praemonstratensian Codex
monastery, Tepl, in Bohemia, ty. VI. 139) is a little copy, with
pages hardly more than two inches by three. It was evidently
meant to be carried in the pocket of a Waldensian missionary, for
whose use a great number of marks in the margin direct attention
to useful passages, while other appropriate matter is added at
the end, including a German translation of a Waldensian cate
chism. It was written, probably, toward the end of the four
teenth century.

The Freiberg manuscript 2 (Library of the gymnasium, Frei- Freiberg
berg in Saxony, I. Cl. MS. 18) closely resembles the Codex Teplensis
in size and hand, as well as in text, and is to be assigned to a date
not far removed from that MS. It is not, however, derived from
the same immediate exemplar, and its history seems to have
been different, for soon after it was written it was in the posses
sion of a Catholic pastor, who gave it in 1414 to a monastery,
probably one of those from whose books the Freiberg Library
was brought together. 3

With these two MSS. is to be associated the text of the first
German Bible (Strassburg, Joh. Mentel, 1466), which is drawn
from a different, but similar, German MS.

The peculiar readings of all these texts in Acts, often

relation to the Proven9al. That Latin MSS. containing this text were actually
brought to Bohemia from Provence may be inferred from the Codex Wernigero-
densis (see p. cxxxvi). Codex Gigas and the Bohemian version make it clear
that the Latin copies which the Bohemians had were of various types.

1 [Klimesch], Der Codex Teplensis, enthaltend die Schrift des newen
Gezeuges, Munich and Augsburg, 1884 ; readings are given by Wordsworth and
White.

2 M. Rachel, Die Freiberger Bibelhandschrift (programme), Freiberg, 1886 ;
facsimile and comparison with Codex Teplensis in W. Walther, Die deutsche
Bibeliibersetzung des Mittelalters, 1889-1892, cols. 154 ff.

3 K. Miiller, Studien und Kritiken, vol. LX., 1887, p. 517.

cxl THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Western, go back (partly at least through, a Provencal
version) to the mixed Vulgate text of Languedoc of the thirteenth
century, which is adequately known from Latin MSS. The text
of the German New Testament is closely related to that of the
Lyons Provengal MS., but also shows relations to the Paris MS.
and to the Vaudois MSS., especially that of Grenoble. These
German texts are historically interesting, and throw light on the
presence in Bohemia l of Old Latin texts and readings (for instance,
Codex Gigas, Codex Wernigerodensis) ; but, since their Latin
sources are adequately known, their direct contribution to
textual criticism is but small.

3. Bohemian 2

The New Testament was translated into Bohemian, the
several books by different hands, in the course of the fourteenth
century. As might be expected from the circumstances men
tioned in the preceding paragraphs, the text of Acts in at least
some forms of the version shows Western readings, 3 but the
version has not been sufficiently studied to permit confident
statements as to the channel through which these readings came
to Bohemia, or even as to the particular form of Old Latin which
they represent.

Some noteworthy readings from the Old Bohemian were com
municated to Griesbach by Joseph Dobrowsky, the founder of
Slavic philology (1753-1829), 4 and from Griesbach s New Testa
ment (2nd ed., 1796, 1806) Tischendorf introduced them into his

1 Yet the earlier Bohemian version (fourteenth century) does not seem to
be founded on the text of Languedoc (see pp. cxxxv-vi).

2 Leskien, art. Bibelubersetzungen, slavische, in Protestantische Real-
encyJclopddie, vol. in., 1897, pp. 161 f. ; Gregory, Prolegomena, 1894, pp. 1127 f.

3 Bohemia, " la patrie de la diversite religieuse et des textes bibliques les
plus incoherents," S. Berger, Revue historique, vol. XLV., 1891, p. 148.

4 J. Dobrowsky, Uber den ersten Text der bohmischen Bibeliibersetzung,
nach den altesten Handschriften derselben, besonders nach der Dresdener,
Neuere Abhandlungen der koniglichen bohmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften,
diplomatisch-historisch-litterarischer Theil, vol. in., 1798, p. 260 : Griesbach,
Novum Testamentum Graece, 2nd ed.. vol. I., 1796, pp. xci, xcvii.

VERSIONS : BOHEMIAN cxli

apparatus. The readings in Acts xxiv. 24, xxv. 24, xxviii. 31
are striking Western readings, all having parallels in the
margin of the Harclean Syriac. The first is otherwise not attested
(unless perhaps by Cassiodorus), the second only by the Book
of Armagh (Codex D), the third (imperfectly, however) by
Spanish MSS. For other Bohemian readings see Acts xi. 17 (cf.
D hcl * p Aug vg.cod.ardm. etc.) ; xxii. 28 (only in vg.cod.ardm.,
paris. 17250 2 Bede). The readings of the Bohemian do not seem
to be drawn from the usual text of Languedoc. but from some
other Western source. Since they come from chapters of Acts
where Codex Bezae is lacking, they are of importance in them
selves, and they create the expectation that a complete know
ledge of the Old Bohemian Acts might yield results of much
importance for the Western text of Acts.

Such a knowledge would not be difficult to secure, and it is Codices.
not to the credit of New Testament scholarship that nearly a
century and a half has passed without any use being made of
sources easily accessible in Germany and Bohemia. The most
important MSS. are the following : l

1. Dresden, Staatliche (formerly Konigliche ) Bibliothek.
Ca. 1410. From this copy Dobrowsky probably drew the read
ings which appear in Griesbach and Tischendorf. The MS. has
been injured by fire, but not destroyed.

2. Leitmeritz, Czecho-Slovakia (Bohemia), Episcopal library ;
and in collection of Prince Schwarzenberg, Wittingau, Trebon,
Czecho-Slovakia. 1411-1416.

3. Prague, University library. 1416. Written in Glagolitic
script by the Benedictines of the Emmaus Monastery in Prague.
Only preserved in part.

1 For information with regard to these MSS. I am indebted to Professor Paul
Diels of Breslau ; see also Dobrowsky in the article (1798) referred to above,
pp. 242 f . J. Schindler, professor at Leitmeritz, examined certain Bohemian
MSS. of Acts from the first half of the fifteenth century with a view to Western
readings, but reported that he found but little. One interesting Western
reading from a MS. of the year 1429 is cited by him, and will be found below in
the Textual Note to Acts xvi. 40 ; see Osterreichisches Litter aturblnM, vol. vi.,
1897, cols. 163 f.

cxlii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

4. Olmiitz, Czecho-Slovakia (Moravia), Studienbibliothek.
1417.

These MSS. are all believed to give the oldest recension of
the Bohemian text. Still older is :

5. Nikolsburg, Czecho-Slovakia (Moravia), Chapter library
of the Collegiate Church of St. Wenzel. 1406. But this is said
to give a revised form of the version. 1 Whether the underlying
Latin text may be the same is not known.

In the fifteenth century further revisions were made, of
which many MSS. are known.

4. Italian 2

A translation of the New Testament into Italian was made,
probably in the thirteenth century, from a Latin text like that
of Languedoc, and under the influence of the Provengal New
Testament. It includes, like those texts, some * Western read
ings in Acts. That it was made by a Waldensian is not im
probable, but it circulated among Catholics and was revised
with glosses by Domenica Cavalca, a Dominican of Pisa (f 1342),
as well as by others. From the translation of Cavalca the
Waldenses took over the Book of Acts and rendered it into their
own dialect, and in this guise it is still found for the second half
of Acts (from the middle of chapter xvi.) in the Grenoble and
Cambridge Vaudois MSS. mentioned above. Truly a strange
piece of history, and instructive in more than one aspect !

2. EGYPTIAN

The complicated textual history of the Sahidic and Bohairic
versions has never been investigated. The material at hand,
however, makes it possible to know with tolerable certainty
what forms these translations respectively had at relatively very

1 Leskien, I.e. p. 162.

2 S. Berger, La Bible italienne au moyen age, Romania, vol. xxin., 1894,
pp. 358-431, cf. especially pp. 387, 390-395, 418.

VERSIONS : SAHIDIC cxliii

early dates, forms not much altered from that of the original
rendering.

(a) SAHIDIC 1

The Sahidic version of Acts is found in a large number of Codices.
MSS. and fragments, from which substantially the whole book is
known. A full list will be found below, pp. 322 if. The most
important MSS. are the following :

B. London, British Museum, 7954. A.D. 350. Papyrus.
V. Vienna. A.D. 400. Parchment.

W. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. huntington. 394. Twelfth-
thirteenth century. Paper.

The other MSS. are to be dated in the seventh (?)-thirteenth
centuries.

The analysis of the collation of the Sahidic with the Greek Underlying
of Codex B given below (pp. 325 ff.) shows that the Greek text text.
on which it rested consisted largely of the readings of the Old
Uncials, but also contained, besides some other elements, a distinct
Western strand. 2 Since the c Western readings with but few
exceptions are small unimportant variants, it seems likely that
the Greek from which the Sahidic of Acts was translated was a
copy of a MS. in which a Western text had been almost com
pletely corrected by a standard of the B-type. It is hardly
conceivable that these trifling Western variants should have
been specially selected for introduction into a non-western text
and the great mass of interesting and important variants passed
by. And indeed this current from * Western to B text must

1 [G. Homer], The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Southern
Dialect, otherwise called Sahidic and Thebaic, vol. vi., Oxford, 1922; with list of
MSS., pp. 666-672.

2 Cf. Burkitt, Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 5010. A peculiarly instructive
case is to be found in Acts x. 33, where the Sahidic (Codex V )reads to us
for 7T/)os ere. This is evidently a fragmentary survival from irapaKaXuv f\dei.v
irpos Tj/icij, which the Western text (Codex Bezae perp hcl -X-) added to
the sentence. In the process of correcting the Greek MS., or of using it after
the correction, the wrong prepositional phrase was taken over ; and so this
passed into the Sahidic without the accompanying verbs, which were necessary
in order to justify its presence.

cxliv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

have characterized the adaptation and production of Greek MSS.
in Egypt and elsewhere from the third century on. The Sahidic
gives perhaps the most striking exhibition of it to be found in
the New Testament.

Date. Nothing seems to prevent the assumption that the Sahidic

version of Acts was made in the third century, 1 but a date
earlier than 300 is not indicated by any decisive positive evidence.
The fact that the "White Monastery" (der el-abjad) was
founded about 350 is perhaps not without significance in this
connexion.

Character. The Sahidic translator frequently added personal pronouns
not found in Greek, often made small omissions, and had a
curious habit of reversing the order of two words in a composite
phrase (for instance, Acts i. 7, seasons and times ; xxviii. 2,
cold and rain, for rain and cold ). As for the order of words
in general, " Coptic grammar requires a word-position of its own,
and the translation is rarely of any use in such a case." In the
use of the collation printed below, it is to be borne in mind that
it is made with Codex Vaticanus, but that no distinction is made
between the renderings which positively imply the text of that
codex and a certain number of neutral readings which might have
proceeded equally well from that Greek text or from one of the
known Greek variants. Thus, the Sahidic always writes the
name Jesus with the definite article, so that in Acts i. 1 no
inference can be drawn as to whether the Greek text before the
translator read LTJO-OVS (BD) or o irjaovs (tfA 81). Similarly,
in Acts the Sahidic " never uses any form but iepovo-aXr]^ (other
wise in the Gospels)." Again, " Coptic has no word for re when
used with following /cat, and does not reproduce re itself except
very rarely ; it is merely omitted." 2 Other remarks and warn-

1 So J. Leipoldt, according to Zahn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, 1924,
pp. 63 f. note 14, on the ground of the old-fashioned linguistic forms employed ;
but in Church Quarterly Review, 1923, p. 352, Leipoldt refers the Sahidic trans
lation of Acts to " the time about A.D. 300."

2 The statements about Coptic idiom here made are from Sir Herbert
Thompson.

VERSIONS : BOHAIRIC cxlv

ings with regard to the use of the Sahidic for textual criticism
will be found in the paragraphs introductory to the Tables.

(6) BOHAIRIC 1

The Bohairic version of Acts is known from eleven MSS. Codices,
(besides some others), of which six are from the twelfth, thirteenth,
and fourteenth centuries, and five from the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries (see below, pp. 357 f.).

The MSS. of chief importance for the text are :

A. London, British Museum, or. 424, A.D. 1307, said to be
copied from a text written ca. 1250. From this codex Homer s
text is printed and translated.

B. Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana. Fourteenth century.
F. Deir el Muharrak, Egypt. Twelfth century.

" A is an eccentric MS., with many peculiar and often corrupt
readings " ; " B is a very close follower of the Greek Codex
Vaticanus." The text of F belongs to a different family, which
" seems to be somewhat influenced by the Sahidic version." 2

A digest of the collation is given below (pp. 360 if.). It Character
will show the extraordinary fidelity of this version to the text &1
of the Old Greek Uncials, which extends in some cases to Codex
Vaticanus in particular. The date of the version is variously
estimated by different scholars. It was made later than the
Sahidic, and a date as late as 700 is possible, although a date
earlier in the seventh century, not too long after the Mohammedan
conquest, is not unlikely. 3 The earliest Bohairic MSS. (fragment-

1 [G. Homer], The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect
otherwise called Memphitic and Bohairic, vol. iv., Oxford, 1905 ; for the list of
MSS. see vol. iii. pp. x-lxviii.

2 H. Thompson.

" Erst als sich Agypten von dem grossen Reichsverbande loszulosen
begann, waren die Bedingungen gegeben, unter denen eine volkstiimliche
Litteratur auch im Delta entstehen konnte," Johannes Leipoldt, Geschiehte
der koptischen Litteratur, in Brockelmann, Finck, Leipoldt, and Littmann,
Geschiehte der christlichen Litteratur en des Orients (Die Litteraturen des Ostens
in Einzeldarstellungen, vol. vn. 2), 2nd ed., 1909, p. 179.

VOL. Ill

cxlvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

ary) of any part of the New Testament date from the ninth
century. Certain counsels of prudence, in view of the nature of
Bohairic idiom, with regard to the use of the Bohairic for textual
criticism, are given in connexion with the Tables.

3. ETHIOPIC

Codices. Of manuscripts containing the Ethiopic version of Acts

thirteen are mentioned in Gregory s list. No date is assigned
to four of these ; of the others, one (Paris, Bibl. nat., aeth. 26
[Zotenberg 42]) is of the fifteenth, one of the sixteenth, four of
the seventeenth, and three of the eighteenth century.

Editions. The Ethiopic New Testament was published at Rome, 1548-

1549 (reprinted in Walton s Polyglot, vol. v., London, 1657),
and by the British and Foreign Bible Society, London, 1830
(edited by Thomas Pell Platt). The manuscript of Acts used
for the Roman edition was defective, and the editors were com
pelled to translate from Latin into Ethiopic considerable parts
of the book. The edition of Platt was made, doubtless from
the manuscripts in London, for missionary rather than critical
purposes.

History. The Ethiopic version was made from the Greek (both in the

Old and New Testaments) in the period from the fourth to the
seventh century. In more recent times (perhaps in the fourteenth
century) it was revised by the aid of the Arabic (the Alexandrian
Vulgate ), through which a Syriac influence recognizable in the
later text may have been introduced. 1 Most MSS. are of very
late date, and give a revised form of the text, in various types
of combination with the earlier form.

Character. An analysis of the Ethiopic version of Matt, i.-x., as found in
the oldest and best MS. (Paris, Bibl. nat., aeth. 22 [Zotenberg
32], thirteenth century), shows that it contains a combination of
Western and Antiochian readings. 2 The Old Testament text

1 J. Schafers, Die dthiopische Ubersetzung des Propheten Jeremias (Breslau
dissertation), 1912, p. 14.

2 L. Hackspill, Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, xi., 1897, pp. 117-196, 367-388.

VEKSIONS : ETHIOPIC cxlvii

in Genesis agrees largely with the Sahidic and Bohairic ; 1 in
Joshua it has a text like Codex Vaticanus for its basis (as does the
Coptic) ; 2 in Judges it follows the older Greek version, not that
found in Codex Vaticanus ; 3 in Ruth it is in the main pre-
hexaplaric, and resembles Codex B, but has been subjected to
hexaplaric and other later influences. 4 In the four Books of
Kingdoms, the Ethiopic text is specially valuable, for it forms a
compact group with B and the non-hexaplaric quotations of
Origen ; in cases where B and Origen differ, the Ethiopic stands
almost always on the side of Origen, and it gives in some respects
a better text than does B. 5 In 1 Esdras the Ethiopic generally
agrees with B, the Syro-hexaplaric version, and Codex 55, as
against A and the minuscule text. 6 In the Psalter the Ethiopic
stands closer to B than any other witness except the Bohairic
and Codex X ; in its original form it may have been even
nearer. 7 In Jeremiah the oldest form of the Ethiopic belongs
to the type of Codex K. 8 In Ezekiel it largely agrees with the
oldest and best MSS. of the Septuagint. 9

The excellence and usefulness of at least many parts of the
Ethiopic text of the Old Testament and the character of its New
Testament readings in Matthew i.-x. justify the expectation that
an investigation of this version in Acts and in other parts of the
New Testament would produce interesting and valuable results.

1 A. T. Olmstead, The Greek Genesis, American Journal of Semitic
Languages, vol. xxxiv., 1918, p. 153 ; O. Procksch, Die Genesis (Sellin s Kom-
mentar zum A.T.), 1913, p. 14. Codex Vaticanus is lacking for nearly the whole
of Genesis ; the Ethiopic closely agrees with the group f (53), i (56), r (129).

Professor Max L. Margolis.

G. F. Moore, Commentary on Judges, 1895, p. xlv.

Rahlfs, Studie ilber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, 1922, pp. 134 f.

Rahlfs, Studien zu den Konigsbuchern, 1904, pp. 79, 84 f.

Torrey, Ezra Studies, 1910, pp. 100 f.

Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters, 1907, pp. 37, 56.

Joseph Schafera, op. cit. p. viii.

Cornill, Das Buck des Propheten Ezechiel, p. 42.

cxlviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

4. SYBIAC i
(a) OLD SYRIAC

The existence of an early translation of Acts into Syriac is
known from the Armenian translations of two works of Ephrem
Syrus (Nisibis and Edessa ; f 373), namely, his Commentary on
the Acts, of which a translation is printed below, pp. 380 fL,
and his Commentary on the Epistles of Paul. 2 These have to be
employed with caution, since the Armenian translator may have
made Ephrem s quotations conform to the Armenian Vulgate ;
nevertheless it is clear that the Syriac text used by Ephrem was
distinctly, and doubtless thoroughly, Western. The few slight
allusions to Acts found in the Homilies of Aphraates do not
permit any inference as to the character of the Syriac text which
he used. There seems nothing to show that the Syriac transla
tion may not have been made before the end of the second
century. The most natural source from which the Syrians could
draw the Greek manuscripts they used would perhaps be Antioch,
but it might have been Palestine, or possibly Rome. 3

(6) PESHITTO

Under Rabbula, bishop of Edessa (411-435), a great re
organizing churchman, the Syrian New Testament was made
more complete, and the translation thoroughly revised, both

1 For detailed information of every sort relating to Syriac literary history
reference can now be made to an invaluable thesaurus, A. Baumstark, Geschichte
der syrischen Liter atur, mil Ausschluss der christlichpaldstinensischen Texte,
Bonn, 1922.

2 Ephraem Syri Commentarii in epistolas Pauli ex Armenia in Latinum
sermonem a Mekitharistis translate, Venice, 1893.

3 On the evidence of the use of Acts in the Syrian church, see Zahn, Die
Urausgabe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas (Forschungen zur Geschichte des
neutest. Kanons, ix), 1916, pp. 203-220. Zahn s view (p. 205) is that Tatian
brought from Rome not only the Gospels, but also the Acts and the Epistles
of Paul. The Doctrina Addaei (ed. Phillips, p. 44) refers to " the Acts of the
Twelve Apostles, which John, the son of Zebedee, sent us from Ephesus " ;
this would seem to indicate that in circles which still knew the Diatessaron
(p. 34) Acts was believed to have been in the possession of the Syrian church
from the earliest times.

VERSIONS : PHILOXENIAN cxlix

with reference to the Syriac form and by the aid of Greek MSS.,
the latter probably being drawn from Antioch. The resulting
Peshitto text of the Acts is analysed below (pp. 292 if.), and
shows considerable survivals of a more primitive Western Old
Syriac, in the midst of a text substantially like that of the Old
Uncials. The rendering is often very free, somewhat after the
manner of the * Western text (cf . for instance Acts xii. 6 in the
Peshitto) ; the translator has a habit of expressing one Greek
word by two Syriac ones. He but rarely omits anything that
was in his Greek text. The readings which depart from the Old
Uncial text and follow the Antiochian are usually also found in
Western witnesses, and there seems no trace of the peculiar
and distinctive selection of readings which is the chief recognizable
characteristic of the Antiochian text.

The text of the Peshitto itself has been preserved with extra
ordinary fidelity from the earliest times ; moreover, at least one
MS. of Acts is extant, and used for Gwilliam s text (1920), which
may have been written in the very century in which the version
was made.

As the influence of a great Syrian ecclesiastic of the first half Origin.
of the fifth century, Rabbula of Edessa, had produced the
Peshitto in Edessa, so, a little less than a century later, the next
important revision of the Syriac New Testament was due to the
instance of a great and militant leader of the Eastern mono-
physite Christians, Philoxenus (Mar Xenaia, f 523), bishop of
Hierapolis (Mabog, Bambyce), who, with his contemporary,
Severus of Antioch, founded Jacobite Monophysitism. The
work of translation was performed in 508, in the period when
the prestige of Philoxenus was at its height, by Polycarp, chor-
episcopus in the diocese of Mabog ; it included, apparently for
the first time in Syriac, the four minor Catholic epistles (2 Peter,
2 and 3 John, Jude) and the Book of Revelation. 1 These the

1 John Gwynn, art. Polycarpus Chorepiscopus, and Edmund Venables,
ar t. Philoxenus, in Dictionary of Christian Biography ; Gwynn, Remnants of

cl THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

church of Edessa in the days of Rabbula, following its Greek
authorities, had not accepted, and they had accordingly not
formed a part of the Peshitto. This enlargement of the canon
was in itself an indication of monophysite accessibility to Greek
influence and of alienation from the old-fashioned Syrian ways
of the Nestorians. It is instructive to observe that Philoxenus
himself did not know Greek, 1 while Severus of Antioch, who was
in manifold communication with the Alexandrian monophy sites,
was a Greek. What parts of the Old Testament were comprised
in the revision is uncertain, although certain fragments of Isaiah
found in a British Museum MS. (Add. 17,106) have been somewhat
doubtfully supposed to be from this version, partly on the ground
of a scholion in the Milan Syro-hexaplar codex. Even of the
New Testament the only books which seem to have come down
to us in the Philoxenian version are the five which it added to
the Syriac Bible. 2

The four minor Catholic epistles (2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude)
in Syriac were first published by E. Pococke in 1630, from a MS.
now in the Bodleian Library (Or. 119, Catal. 35), were inserted
in the Paris Polyglot of 1645, and have since appeared in all
editions of the Peshitto. They were recognized by John Gwynn

the Later Syriac Versions of the Bible, London, 1909 ; Gwynn, The Apocalypse
of St. John, in a Syriac Version hitherto Unknown, Dublin, 1897. The argu
ments of Gwynn must be accepted in spite of the contentions of J. Lebon,
Revue d histoire ecclesiastique, vol. xir., Louvain, 1911, pp. 412-436. Lebon s
view rests on the articles by H. Gressmann, Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche
Wissenschaft, vol. v., 1904, pp. 248-252 ; vol. vi., 1905, pp. 135-152, who tried
to draw from the Syriac (Karkaphensian) masora evidence that the express
ascription of the version in the MSS. to Thomas of Harkel is a mistake. Adequate
replies to this view are given in the criticism of Lebon (by Lagrange ?)
in Revue Biblique, vol. ix., 1912, pp. 141-143, and the article of L. J.
Delaporte, * L fivangelaire heracleen et la tradition karkaphienne, ibid.
pp. 390-402.

1 J. Lebon, Revue d histoire ecclesiastique, vol. xii., 1911, p. 417 note 1
(with references).

2 N. Wiseman, Horae Syriacae, Rome, 1828, pp. 178 f. note, cites five brief
passages from Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians, which are ascribed to the
Philoxenian in a MS. of the Karkaphensian material. The renderings closely j
resemble those of the Harclean, but are not identical with the text of our
Harclean MSS.

VEKSIONS : PHILOXENIAN cli

as drawn from the Philoxenian. 1 The Apocalypse in the Phil-
oxenian was discovered by Gwynn in the Crawford MS. now
in the John Ry lands Library, Manchester. 2

The earliest extant notice of the Philoxenian version of the Moses of
New Testament is that of Moses of Aghel 3 in a letter prefixed
to his translation of the Glaphyra of Cyril of Alexandria, a
work containing interpretations of passages in the Pentateuch :

And I ask the reader to attend to the words of this book, for they
are deep. And when he finds quotations from the Holy Bible which
are cited in this translation, let him not be troubled if they do not
agree with the copies of the Syrians, for the versions and traditions 4
of the Bible vary greatly. And if he wishes to find the truth, let
him take the translation of the New Testament which [and of David] 5
Polycarp the chorepiscopus made into Syriac (rest his soul !) for
the worthy and for good works ever memorable Faithful man
and teacher, Xenaias of Mabog. He will be astonished at the differ
ences which exist in the translation of the Syriac from the Greek
language. But as for us, inasmuch as we are now translating from
the Greek language into Syriac (with the aid of Christ), we here
indicate the word as it is in the Greek, by the hands of the brethren,
our young pupils ; and when they make mistakes in the syllables
or the points, and are observed, well-instructed readers will correct as
the text ought to read.

1 Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol. iv., 1887, pp. 432 f. ; Hermathena,
vol. vii., 1890, pp. 281-314.

2 Gwynn, The Academy, June 18, 1892, p. 592 ; Transactions of the Royal
Irish Academy, vol. xxx., 1893 ; Apocalypse of St. John, 1897.

3 Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, ii. p. 83. The Syriac text is printed
by I. Guidi, in the Rendiconti of the Accademia dei Lincei, ser. 4, vol. n., Rome,
1886, p. 404. The sole MS. known (divided between the Vatican and the British
Museum) is of the sixth or seventh century. Evidence for dates in the life of
Moses of Aghel is meagre. His prefatory letter above mentioned was written
after the death of Philoxenus in 523. One of his other works was probably
already current in 570, since it is included in a collection made at about that date.

4 Translated by Merx: Ausgaben und Recensionen.

* The words and of David (we-dauid), here put in brackets, are to be
regarded either as an interpolation or as a corruption of some other word. Not
only do they stand in a wholly unnatural position, but it is doubtful whether
in any case the Psalms could be called David in such a context as this. They
constitute, it may be noted, the only known ground for supposing that the
Philoxenian version included the Psalms except for an allusion in a Syriac
Psalter belonging to the Harvard Semitic Museum (No. 133).

clii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The differences here referred to seem plainly to be those
readily observable between the Philoxenian version, conformed
to a different Greek text, and the Peshitto. But the statement
of Moses throws no direct light on the reason why Philoxenus
instituted a new translation. 1 We may assume that, incidentally
to his general labours in consolidating the monophysite Syrians,
he wished to provide them with a translation according both in
text and in contents with approved Greek copies. But the
meagre evidence does not point to an agreement in the Greek
text used with that employed by Cyril of Alexandria.

The other chief evidence relating to the Philoxenian version
is found in the subscriptions to the Gospels, Acts and Catholic
epistles, and Pauline epistles, of the later revision by Thomas of
Harkel (616). Reference is there made to the version (on which
that of Thomas is founded) made from the Greek at Mabog in
the year 508 in the days of Philoxenus, bishop of that city. In
the subscription to the Pauline epistles it seems to be stated that
the Philoxenian version of that portion rested on a Caesarean MS.
written by Pamphilus with his own hand. 2 The subscription to
the Gospels directly states, and that to the Pauline Epistles
implies, that the Philoxenian version was made from the Greek.

Later Syriac writers, Bar Salibi (f ca. 1171), Bar Hebraeus

1 The view of Gwynn, Apocalypse of St. John, p. Ixxi note (cf. Diet, of
Christian Biography, iv. p. 432), that Philoxenus was led to have the new version
made because he observed " discrepancies between the Peshitto text and that
of the citations of Cyril of Alexandria from LXX and N.T.," rests on a different
understanding of the participle translated above he will be surprised. Gwynn
took this as a causal participle referring to Polycarp, but the interpretation
followed above is better. The latter interpretation is also followed by A. Merx,
Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, vol. xn., 1898, p. 350 note.

2 In view, however, of the details of the form of statement employed in the
colophon, it is probable that here, as in Codex HP aul , the reference to the codex
written by Pamphilus was drawn from the well-known statement to the same
effect in the Euthalian material, and cannot be taken as evidence for the
actual Greek text used by Polycarp ; cf. Corssen, Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen,
1899, pp. 670 ff. That the Philoxenian of the Pauline epistles was supplied
with Euthalian apparatus is shown by E. von Dobschiitz, Euthaliusstudien,
Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, vol. xix., 1899, pp. 115-154. See also
F. C. Conybeare, On the Codex Pamphili and Date of Euthalius, Journal of
Philology, London and Cambridge, vol. xxui., 1895, pp. 241-259.

VERSIONS : PHILOXENIAN cliii

(f 1286), and an anonymous life of Thomas of Harkel of uncertain
date, make similar statements about the Philoxenian version,
but seem to have had no further knowledge than could be drawn
from the Harclean subscriptions.

Of the greater part of the Philoxenian New Testament, that, style and
namely, in which it was possible for the reviser to use the Peshitto,
nothing has been surely recognized in existing Syriac texts.
It would be possible, however, to draw some safe inferences
from the character of the four smaller Catholic epistles and the
Apocalypse, of which a fresh translation had to be made. The
style of these books is a free and fluent Syriac idiom, not slavishly
conformed to the Greek, and clearly showing the influence of
the style and diction of the Peshitto. 1 With regard to text,
in the four epistles the Philoxenian does not seem to belong
with B or with KLP (Antiochian). 2 But an adequate study of
the Philoxenian text of these epistles remains to be made. In
the Apocalypse the Philoxenian text contains a considerable
Antiochian element in agreement with Q (046 ; formerly B) and
the minuscules, but apart from that it gives an ancient text of
mixed character, in part agreeing with the best uncials, not
infrequently in accord with peculiar readings of N, and showing
a striking measure of agreement with the distinctive readings
of the African Latin of Primasius.

Since the version was made at Mabog, a place of Syrian
speech, and for practical ecclesiastical use, not for learned
purposes, it is more likely that an existing Greek text was obtained
and translated than that a new one was constructed out of varied

1 Gwynn, Apocalypse, p. cv: "We justly claim [for the Philoxenian], as regards
its general tone and manner, that it approaches the excellence of the Peshitto ;
and in point of force, directness, and dignity, that it gives worthy expression
to the sublime imagery of the Apocalyptist. It has strength and freedom such
as few translations attain." Cf. also the interesting general descriptions in
Gwynn, Remnants, Part I., pp. xxxii f. ; Apocalypse, pp. xvii-xxxviii. Phil-
oxenus himself is said to be " one of the best and most elegant writers in the
Syrian tongue " (Gwynn, Diet, of Christian Biography, iv. p. 393, citing Assemani).

* Gwynn, Remnants of the Later Syriac Versions, Part L, p. Ixx. Merx s
idea, Zeitschrift filr Assyriologie, vol. xn., 1898, p. 358, that the true Philoxenian
text gives the text of Lucian, is not well founded.

cliv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

materials assembled for the purpose. Consequently it may well
be that the text of the four epistles and the Apocalypse, the
latter evidently containing a remarkable Western element,
would, if studied in the light of the knowledge now available,
acquaint us with a highly archaic Greek text, 1 and throw im
portant light on the history of the text.

For the rest of the New Testament there is no means of
reconstructing the lost Philoxenian version. It must have shown
an affinity to the Peshitto at least as great as that to be observed
in the choice of language found in the books not previously
translated. 2 It would be natural to expect it to stand somewhere
between the Peshitto and the final Harclean revision.

One circumstance is noteworthy. Wholly unlike the Peshitto,
the Philoxenian, like the Greek texts, was subject to much scribal
modification and corruption. For the four epistles Gwynn used
twenty different MSS., the oldest being dated 823. They fall into
two groups, an older (ninth- twelfth century), and a later (fifteenth-
seventeenth century ; from this the usual printed editions have
been taken), besides several of intermediate character. There
is also an Arabic version of the Philoxenian, contained in a ninth-
century MS. from Mt. Sinai (Catalogue, No. 154), which mainly,
but not exclusively, agrees with the later group of Syriac MSS. 3

1 On the suggestion that the Philoxenian derived archaic elements from the
Old Syriac, see below, p. clxxvii note 1.

2 Gwynn, Apocalypse, pp. xix-xx. Burkitt is disposed to think that the
Philoxenian version made very few changes in the Peshitto, and that Polycarp s
work consisted almost wholly in adding kephalaia to the Gospels and
equipping the Acts and Epistles with Euthalian apparatus. Such a sub
stantial identity of text with the Peshitto is believed to account for the remark
able disappearance of all MSS. of the Philoxenian except for the five freshly
translated books. This theory makes it necessary to suppose that Moses of
Aghel, in referring to the translation made by Polycarp for Philoxenus, really
had in mind the Harclean version of 616. But in view of what is known of
the period of Moses activity, it is difficult to believe that his letter prefatory to
the Glaphyra could have been written at so late a date.

3 As between the two families, Gwynn has argued for the older, while A.
Merx, Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, vol. xn., 1897-98, pp. 240-252, 348-381 ;
vol. xiii., 1898-99, pp. 1-28, relying especially on the evidence of the Arabic
version, thinks that the later family (which is in less close agreement with the
Harclean version) better represents the original Philoxenian.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN civ

No reason exists for supposing that the Philoxenian version
was supplied with marginal readings, or other critical apparatus
except the Euthalian material. 1

(d) HARCLEAN

In the period following Philoxenus of Mabog and Severus of Origin.
Antioch the monophysite churches of Syria were subjected to
stern imperial persecution and were rent by internal theological
faction. From the state of weakness and disintegration which
resulted they were rescued by the untiring apostolic labours of
Jacob Baradaeus (b. before 500, f 578), honoured from that day
to this by the monophysites of the East Syrian, Coptic,
and Abyssinian. The later years of the sixth century, however,
witnessed the rise of grave quarrels between the Syrian and
Alexandrian monophysites, which were not healed until early
in the seventh century, when the hostile advance of the Persians
under Chosroes II. ravaged the chief seats of the monophysite
Syrians in Mesopotamia and northern Syria. At that time the
monophysite titular " patriarch of Antioch," Athanasius I.
(Camelarius ; 595-631), whose actual residence had been at a
monastery near Callinicus on the Euphrates, more than once
visited Alexandria in the interest of peace ; and about 613,
when the Persians were in full occupation of his own country,
he came again, with five of his bishops. Welcomed by the
* Faithful of Alexandria, they seem to have consummated
their ministry of reconciliation between the two branches of the

1 Considerable fragments of a reconstruction of the Euthalian material
for the Pauline epistles are found in the Peshitto manuscript, Brit. Mus. add.
7157, and are probably derived from the Philoxenian. The Harclean Codex
Ridleyanus (Oxford, New College, 333), used by White, contains a Euthalian
apparatus to these epistles, drawn from the same Greek text as is the Phil
oxenian and not independent of the latter in rendering, but brought closer
to the Greek original in arrangement and expression, and supplied with an
apparatus of asterisks, obeli, and marginal notes. This seems to be the revised
form by Thomas of Harkel. See White, Actuum apostolorum et epistolarum . . .
versio Syriaca Philoxeniana, vol. ii., 1803, pp. ix-xiv ; E. von Dobschutz,
Euthaliusstudien, Zeitschriftfiir Kirchengeschichte, vol. xix., 1899, pp. 107-154.

clvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

monophysite church, and some at least of the visitors remained
for several years. 1

Among the monophysite bishops whom Athanasius brought
with him, or found, as fugitives, already at Alexandria, 2 were
Paul, bishop of Telia, and Thomas of Harkel, 3 bishop of
Mabog, who had been expelled from that see in 602 by
Domitian of Melitene. Athanasius, Paul, and Thomas lived
together for a considerable period in the monastery at the nine-
mile relay - station (Enaton) near Alexandria. 4 Here, at the

1 A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, pp. 185-189 ; J. Gwynn,
articles Paulus Tellensis and Thomas Harklensis in Dictionary of Christian
Biography.

2 That Thomas had come to Alexandria earlier is the view of Jean Maspero,
Histoire des patriarches d Alexandrie (518-616), Paris, 1923, pp. 316, 322, 329-
332, on the ground of positive Syriac testimony.

3 The Greek for Harkel seems to be Heraclea ; the place may have been
a town east of Antioch mentioned by Strabo xvi. p. 751 ; but see Georg
Hoffmann, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, xxxn.,
1878, p. 740, who thinks it was an outlying village of Mabog.

4 The meaning of the name * Enaton, much discussed in the past, has now
been more fully elucidated by F. M. Abel, TO ENNATON, Oriens Christianus,
vol. i., 1911, pp. 77-82. The term (or its equivalent Nonum ) is found
in various parts of the world (Italy and Gaul, as well as Syria and Egypt)
denoting one of the relay-posts (mutationes) established for remounts and
changes of beasts of burden at suitable intervals on the road between two main
* stations (mansiones). The mansiones were usually at larger towns, and
distant from one another about one day s journey. Between them relays
(mutationes) were strung along at an average distance of twelve Roman miles,
but in a number of instances, apparently as a matter of habitual regulation,
the first mutatio is known to have been situated nine miles from the mansio.
Around the stables and stable-men s quarters of such a relay-post would spring
up a small village with taverns and shops, sometimes with barracks, and (as is
known from a variety of other definite testimonies) at the Alexandrian Nonum
a monastery was situated. It may be noted that in 613 Athanasius s host, the
monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Anastasius Apozygatius, was not allowed
within the city limits, and is stated to have received his guests " in a monastery
by the eastern seashore." Other views are mentioned in Gwynn s full note in
art. Paulus Tellensis, Diet, of Christian Biography, vol. iv., 1887, p. 267.
For references to the Nonum, or Ennaton, of Alexandria, see H. Rosweyd,
Vitae patrum, Antwerp, 1628, lib. V, libell. vii., par. 7 ; libell. xi., num. 11 ;
libell. xii., num. 9. It was by Professor Burkitt that my attention was called
to Rosweyd, who (pp. 1043 f., cf. pp. 1028 and 1055 f.) was himself in complete
confusion as to the meaning of the term. See also Wright, Catalogue of Syriac
Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1870, Part I., cols. 34, 586, 641, where
will be found convincing evidence that the Syrians knew the correct vocaliza
tion and aspirate of the Greek word. J. Maspero, op. cit. p. 48 note 3, points

VEKSIONS : HARCLEAN civil

instance of Athanasius, Paul with assistance from others
translated the Old Testament from the Greek hexaplaric and
tetraplaric text of a copy made by Eusebius and Pamphilus.
Successive parts of the translation are dated in the years 616
and 617. A certain Thomas (doubtless Thomas of Harkel) was
his chief assistant in translating Kings. We may assume that
it was likewise at the instance of Athanasius, and as part of a
comprehensive plan for a new translation of the Bible, that at
the same date Thomas of Harkel with certain associates produced
his revision of the Philoxenian New Testament (including all the
twenty-seven books), which was completed in 616. The two
Testaments are translated in exactly the same manner * a
painfully exact imitation of Greek idiom and order of words,
often in disregard of Syriac modes of expression, and so com
pletely and conscientiously carried through that doubt scarcely
ever arises as to the Greek text intended by the translator. 2
The purpose of this great undertaking must have been to
provide for Syrian monophysites a Bible agreeing with that
used and approved by their Greek fellow-believers. Made with
this intent it was a fitting part of the policy of reconciliation
which Athanasius is known to have been pursuing at this time.

out that another monastery referred to by the same term seems to have been
situated within Alexandria in the Ninth Quarter ; but the famous and im
portant monastery, so often mentioned in the sources, was the one (El Zadjadj)
nine miles out from the city. Hither, on a 6th of December, were trans
ferred the venerated remains of St. Severus, patriarch of Antioch (f538), and
here dwelt the monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Peter IV. (575-577), as
well as his vigorous successor Damian (578-604), himself a monk of the
Enaton. On the identification of the monastery and the Arabic references,
see J. Maspero, op. cit. pp. 158-160 note 5; cf. also Enaton in his Index;
also Evetts and Butler, Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, 1895, p. 229 n. 1.

1 Other Jacobite works, such as the Hymns of Severus, as revised in 675
by James of Edessa, are translated in much the same way. See E. W. Brooks,
James of Edessa : the Hymns of Severus of Antioch and Others (Patrologia
Orientalis, vi. 1 ; vii. 5), Paris, 1911. In this collection of hymns the text
of Acts used was not the Peshitto, and deserves investigation. This reference
is due to Professor Burkitt.

2 For a detailed account of this peculiar Harclean style, see Gwynn, Apoca
lypse, pp. xxvii-xxxv ; Diet, of Christian Biography, vol. iv. p. 1016 ; Marsh s
transl. of Michaelis s Introduction to the New Testament, 1802, chap. vii. sect. xi.

clviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The Harclean Syriac of the Gospels is found in many manu
scripts, including several of great relative antiquity, at least one
being ascribed to the seventh century itself, while another is dated
757. A critical examination of all these MSS. ought to be made,
and White s edition (1778, based on the two New College, Oxford,
MSS.) supplemented by the additional knowledge now available.

Of the Acts and Epistles (the seven Catholic as well as the
Pauline) two manuscripts are known : x

Oxford, Library of New College, 333 (now deposited in the
Bodleian Library). Eleventh century. Lacks Heb. xi. 28-
xiii. 25 and the subscription to the Pauline epistles. This
was the source of White s edition (1799, 1803). 2

Cambridge, University Library, add. 1700. The "Mohl
Manuscript." A.D. 1170. From this the missing close of
Hebrews and the subscription to the Pauline epistles have
been published by Bensly. 3

These two copies do not appear to differ substantially in
text, but the Cambridge copy lacks the diacritical signs and the
marginal readings with which the Oxford copy is furnished.

In addition a twelfth-century fragment, containing Acts i.
1-10, is included in Codex canon, or. 130 of the Bodleian Library,
Oxford.

For the Apocalypse several MSS. (all late) are known, from
one of which (Leyden, University Library, cod. scalig. 18) the

1 In addition one MS. (belonging to Dr. J. Ren del Harris) contains the four
minor Catholic epistles in the Harclean, and one other (British Museum, add.
14,474 ; eleventh or twelfth century) contains 2 Peter in that version. In
both cases the rest of the text is Peshitto. Gwynn, Remnants of the Later
Syriac Versions, Part I., Appendix II. pp. 146-153. Gregory s statements about
the Harclean MSS. of Acts and Epistles are beset with inextricable confusion.

2 So far as is known, this New College, Oxford, MS. is unique for the Book
of Acts, and a facsimile publication is highly desirable. A complete set of
photographs of the pages containing Acts, of full size, is in the Library of
Harvard University.

3 R. L. Bensly, The Harklean Version of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Chap. xi.
28-xiii. 25, now edited for the first time with Introduction and Notes on this Version
of the Epistle, Cambridge, 1889.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clix

text was published by De Dieu in 1627, and has thus passed into
all later editions of the Peshitto.

Subscriptions by the editor have been preserved for three of
the four sections of the New Testament in one or more of the MSS.,
and there is convincing evidence that a similar subscription once
existed for the Apocalypse. 1 To these the statements of Bar
Salibi (who used the Harclean version as the basis of his com
mentary on the Apocalypse, Acts, and seven Catholic epistles 2 ),
Bar Hebraeus, and other Syriac writers add scarcely anything
for our present purpose.

The subscription to Acts, substantially in the translation of
White (pp. 274 f.), is as follows :

Explicit liber sanctus Actuum Apostolorum et Epistulae Catho-
licae septem. 3

Descriptus est autem ex exemplari accurate eorum qui versi sunt
diebus (memoriae piae) sancti Philoxeni confessoris, episcopi Mabog.
Collatus est autem diligentia multa mea Thomae pauperis ad
exemplar Graecum valde accuratum et probatum in Enaton Alex-
andriae, urbis magnae, in monasterio Antonianorum, sicut reliqui
omnes libri, socii ejus. 4

The other subscriptions are to the same purport, 5 but con
tain some further statements, including the date 508 for the

1 J. Gwynn, On the Recovery of a Missing Syriac Manuscript of the
Apocalypse, Hermathena, vol. x., 1898, pp. 227-245.

2 The commentary of Bar Salibi is edited with translation by J. Sedlacek
in Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium, Series II., vol. ci., 1909, 1910.
An examination of it with reference to the text of Acts might be instructive ;
cf. Gwynn s observations, Apocalypse, pp. Ixxxiv f.

3 These last three words do not seem to be in the genitive in the Oxford MS.
as published by White.

4 The other associated books seem to be the other sections of the New
Testament. A similar reference to the associates of the section in hand is
found in the Harclean subscription to the Gospels in several MSS. (not, as it
happens, in that followed by White in his edition, but see White, pp. 644 f.,
647, 649 f.). Likewise in the subscription to the Pauline Epistles express
mention is made of the work of Thomas and his associates on " the Gospel and
Acts." On the interpretation of these subscriptions see J. G. Eichhorn, Uber
den Verfasser der hexaplarisch-syrischen t)bersetzung, in Repertorium fur
Biblische und Morgenlandische. Litteratur, Theil vii., 1780, pp. 225-250.

6 The subscriptions to the several parts of the Syro-hexaplar Old Testament
of Paul of Telia are of the same general type.

clx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Philoxenian version and 616 for the work of Thomas. While Acts
and the Catholic Epistles were compared with one accurate copy,
the Gospels are stated to have been compared with three (other
MSS. read * two ), and the Pauline epistles with two. In the sub
scription to the Pauline epistles it is said that the present edition
has been made " for the study and use ... of those who are
zealous to learn and preserve the accuracy of the apostolic (that
is, the divine) words and meanings." *

Text. These subscriptions make it clear that the Harclean Syriac
text was a revision of the Philoxenian, and was made in 616 with
the aid of accurate and approved Greek copies accessible at
Alexandria. The Harclean text itself, in so far as it has been
studied, does not belie this. In the Apocalypse it has been
largely, though not completely, conformed to the Antiochian
text (represented by Q and most minuscules) ; in the Gospels 2
and Acts, likewise, apart from certain words and phrases marked
with an asterisk, it appears to give substantially the Antiochian
text ; 3 and this seems to be the view of Hort with regard to the
epistles also. 4 It would thus appear that the accurate and
approved Greek copies (which, be it noted, are nowhere said to
have been ancient) were manuscripts of the Antiochian text.
Nothing in Thomas s statement implies that they were used for

1 Similar phrases are found in the subscription to the Gospels, as given in
some MSS. ; see J. G. C. Adler, Novi Testamenti versiones Syriacae, Copenhagen,
1789, pp. 46 f.

2 Gwynn, Diet, of Christian Biography, vol. iv. p. 1018 : in the Gospels
" the text represents (on the whole) a Greek basis akin in the main to the Con-
stantinopolitan or Received Greek text, while the margin inclines strongly
to the Western Greek text, as represented by D and the Old Latin, and not
seldom (though less decisively) towards that of the other older uncials, mostly
B and L, sometimes A, C, and others."

3 For instance, in Acts i., of all those departures of the Antiochian text from
that of Codex Vaticanus which are capable of ready expression in Syriac, only
one (vs. 14, the addition of /ecu rrj deijaei) fails to appear in the Harclean. More
over, in so far as I have made examination, the departures of the Harclean from
the text common to the Old Uncials and the Antiochian are few and trivial,
although occasionally a striking ancient reading, not marked (in our single
annotated copy) by an asterisk, will stand out conspicuously against the general
Antiochian background.

* Compare what is said by Hort, Introduction, p. 156.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxi

any other purpose than to bring the Syriac text into substantial
conformity with that current and approved in the seventh century
in Alexandria. No hint is given which suggests that they were
made a source for marginal glosses or for the insertion of asterisks
and obeli.

The evidence of the four minor Catholic epistles and the
Apocalypse, where the two versions can be compared, makes it
probable, as is explained below, that in the Harclean text not
only turns of Syriac expression, but also renderings which imply
a non-antiochian Greek text, have in some cases survived from
the Philoxenian. The general style, however, of the peculiar
Harclean mode of expression has been imposed by the reviser
upon the whole, including asterisked phrases.

The influence of the Peshitto, clearly observable even in the
extant books of the Philoxenian, where no direct dependence
was possible because the Peshitto did not contain them, was un
doubtedly strong in those parts where the Peshitto had preceded
the Philoxenian ; and through the latter, and perhaps directly
also, it reached the Harclean. But, for these books, it is im
possible to say how far the Harclean version was derived from
the Philoxenian.

As merely reproducing an Antiochian text, mixed with some Asterisks
ancient (often Western ) readings, the Harclean version can marginal
claim but little interest, far less than the Philoxenian (if that n
could be recovered). But the apparatus which was attached to
it by Thomas has made it, at least for the book of Acts, one of
the most important witnesses to the Western text that have
come down to us. This apparatus consists of two parts. (1) In
the text itself many words, parts of words (such as pronominal
suffixes), and phrases, with a few longer sentences, are marked
with an asterisk (&gt;&lt;) or with an obelus ( ), the termination of
the reference being exactly indicated by a metobelus (^). The
probable significance and origin of these will be discussed pres
ently. (2) In the margin, with points of attachment in the
text marked by various characters, are found a great number of

VOL. in I

notes.

clxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

notes. 1 These vary in nature. Some are variant renderings
not affecting the Greek text. In the four minor epistles and the
Apocalypse several cases of this kind occur, where the Harclean
margin seems to give the rejected rendering of the Philoxenian
(notably 2 Peter ii. 4 ; 3 John 6), 2 and that may well be the
source of the marginal variant renderings in other books. In
Acts i. 25 the margin renders \apelv by the use, characteristic
of the Philoxenian, of the future with the prefix &gt;, while the text
uses the infinitive with the prefix ii in accordance with the

regular Harclean custom. 3 In Acts i. 3 the margin gives ^9JL ^ for
Sid as a substitute for the unidiomatic and literal f -&gt; of the text.
In other cases the margin gives explanations or statements of
various kinds. Thus on Acts i. 20 the margin gives a reference
to Psalm Ixviii. (i.e. according to the Syriac enumeration) and
quotes the verse in question in a text corresponding, as would
be expected, not to the Peshitto but to the Syro-hexaplar of Paul
of Telia, from which it differs only in a more pedantic imitation
of the Greek than is exhibited by the extant Syro-hexaplaric MS.
On Acts x. 1 the note gives the derivation of the name Kopvrj\Los
as Koprjv TJ\LOV. Sometimes a Greek word, rarely a Hebrew one,
is written in the margin or between the lines, to justify the
rendering or explain a transliteration, but these may not all be
from the same source as the other notes, and are negligible for
any further critical purposes. 4 Other notes are of what may be
called a Masoretic character, and relate to deliberate omission of
plural points, to spelling, and to pronunciation.
Longer Longer notes sometimes occur, some of which are instructive.

1 The best account of these notes is that given by G. C. Storr, Von der
philoxenianisch-syrischen t)bersetzung der Evangelien, in Repertorium fur
Biblische und Morgenlandische Litteratur, Theil vii., Leipzig, 1780, pp. 15-48.
On the Harclean see also G. C. Storr, Supplemente zu Wetsteins Varianten
aus der Philoxenischen Ubersetzung, Repertorium, Theil x., 1782, pp. 1-58.

2 Gwynn, Remnants, pp. xxxvii f., Apocalypse, p. Ixxxiv.

3 Gwynn, Apocalypse, p. xxix.

4 G. C. Storr, in Repertorium, vii., 1780, pp. 15-18, gives a list of many of
these, and points out that in some cases in the Gospels the Greek notes do not
correspond with the actual Syriac of the text.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxiii

In quoting these and the words from the continuous text with
which they are connected by the scribe, it will be convenient to
use White s Latin translation (slightly corrected).

Matt. ii. 17. The text reads per Jeremiam, to which a note is
attached : Graecum dicit a Jeremia, non per.

Matt. xxv. 1. The text reads -x- et sponsae ^. On this the
note : Sponsa non in omnibus exemplaribus invenitur, et
nominatim (A~*J^-M*) in Alexandrino.

Matt, xxvii. 35. The continuous text includes the quotation
from Psalm xxii. 18, with the marginal note : Haec periocha pro-
phetae non inventa est in duobus exemplaribus Graecis, neque in
illo antiquo Syriaco.

Matt, xxviii. 5. The text reads Jesum -x- Nazarenum ^, with
the note : In tribus exemplaribus Graecis et uno Syriaco, illo
antiquo, non inventum est nomen i Nazarenum

Mark viii. 17. The text reads : -x- in cordibus vestris pusilli
fide ^, with the note : In cordibus vestris pusilli fide non in
ventum est in duobus exemplaribus Graecis neque in illo antiquo
Syriaco.

Mark x. 48. To the words fill Davidis of the text is attached
the note : In duobus exemplaribus Graecis fili filii Davidis in
ventum est.

Mark xi. 10. The text reads : patris nostri Davidis * pax in
caelo et gloria in excelsis &lt;/. hosanna in excelsis, with the note
attached at the word pax : Pax in caelo et gloria in excelsis non
in omnibus exemplaribus Graecis invenitur neque in illo Mar
Xenaiae ; in nonnullis autem accuratis, ut putamus, invenimus
illud.

Mark xii. 14. The text reads * die nobis igitur ^, with
he note : Die nobis igitur non invenimus in Graeco.

Luke vi. 1. To the words sabbatho secundo primi of the text is
attached the note : Secundo primi non in omni exemplari est.

Luke viii. 24. The text has tranquillitas -x- magna ^, with
he note : Magna non in omnibus exemplaribus invenitur.

Luke viii. 52. The text reads non -x- enim ^ mortua est

clxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

x- puella v% with the note: Enim, paella* non in omni
exemplari invenitur.

Luke ix. 23. The text reads -x- quotidie &lt;/, with the note :
Quotidie non in omnibus exemplaribus invenitur.

Luke ix. 50. The text reads -x- non enim est adversus vos ^,
with the note : Non enim est adversus vos non in omnibus
exemplaribus invenitur.

Luke xix. 38. The text reads * benedictus est rex Israelis x%
with the note : Benedictus est rex Israelis non in omnibus exem
plaribus invenitur.

Luke xix. 45. The text reads * et mensas numulariorum effudit
et cathedras eorum qui vendebant columbas ^, with the note :
Et mensas numulariorum effudit et cathedras eorum qui vendebant
columbas non in omni exemplari est ita Me.

Luke xx. 34. To the woidfilii of the text is attached the note :
In exemplari antiquo est gignunt et gignuntur et in Graeco
non est.

Acts iv. 30. To the words per nomen of the text is attached
the note : Sunt exemplaria in quibus non est no-men. 9

Acts ix. 4. The text reads : -x- durum est tibi calcitrare ad
stimulos ^ with the note : Durum est tibi calcitrare ad stimulos
non est Me in Graeco sed ubi enarrat Paulus de se.

Jude 12. To the words in refectionibus of the text is attached
the note : ez&gt; rats ayaTraw. In Graeco * in dilectionibus est.

Philippians iii. 18. The text reads aliter ^ ambulant, with
the note : In duobus exemplaribus accuratis Graecis non invenitur
f aliter.

Colossians ii. 1. The text reads Us qui Laodicaeae -x- et Us qui
Hieropoli v with the note : ev lepoirdXei, Qui Hieropoli non
in omni exemplari invenitur.

In these careful notes the editor calls attention to differences
between the reading which he has allowed to stand in his text
(usually with an asterisk) and some or all of the Greek copies
which he is using for correction. In some instances he also refers j
to " the old Syriac," " the old copy," phrases which are to be

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxv

interpreted in the light of the note on Mark xi. 10 as referring
to the Philoxenian basis of his revision. Nothing in these notes
need suggest a direct comparison with the Peshitto ; any
agreement with the Peshitto in readings adopted or referred to
is fully accounted for by the fact that the Philoxenian must have
derived many of its renderings from that translation, and at
many points may well have coincided with it in underlying Greek
text. Every one of the notes (except those on Mark x. 48,
Luke vi. 1, and Acts iv. 30, and the exegetical note on Jude
12) relates to a reading allowed to stand (usually under
asterisk) in the Harclean text but at variance with the
Antiochian Greek text to which the great mass of the
Harclean version corresponds. In nearly all the cases the
word or phrase is found in the Harclean and absent from the
Antiochian. The very close similarity of the Greek copies
used by Thomas as a standard may be seen from the fact
that the readings in Mark x. 48 and Acts iv. 30 which he
attributes respectively to two copies and some copies are
not found in any Greek MS. known to us.

In other cases, not very numerous, the margin adds a word or other
phrase, not attested in other versions or in any Greek text, such
as might naturally be supplied by a translator to complete the
sense in Syriac a pronoun with its preposition (so Acts iii. 6 ad
eum), or a word amply suggested by the context (for instance,
vi. 7 evangelii, vii. 60 Jesu). These are closely similar to
the words and phrases marked in the text by obeli and to the
lesser portion of those marked by asterisks, as will presently be
explained.

But more numerous than the various types of notes hitherto
mentioned (especially in Acts) are the great number of marginal
notes which simply give without comment the Syriac rendering
of a Greek reading different from that followed in the continuous
Syriac text of the editor s version. In the Book of Acts these,
taken together with the portions of the continuous text marked
with an asterisk, constitute a delectus of Western readings of

clxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

great purity and of a value for the reconstruction of the Western
recension second only (and in some respects superior) to Codex
Bezae. The question why in a few cases the editor chose to add
a special comment to these variants cannot be answered. Before
discussing further their significance and origin it is necessary
to speak of his use of asterisks and obeli.

Asterisks The meaning of these signs has been much discussed ever

since the publication of White s edition, which contains them.
The earliest assumption that the signs indicated some relation
to the Peshitto was mistaken, 1 and made satisfactory conclusions
impossible, in spite of a great amount of careful work ; and the
observation that the Peshitto should be left wholly out of account
in the study of the signs has greatly facilitated the investigation.
Difference A further embarrassment arose from the supposition that the
Eaxapia signs were used by Thomas in exactly the same way as by Origen
in the Hexapla. That Thomas was familiar with the hexaplaric
signs is unquestionable, and from them he probably derived the
suggestion for his own practice ; but it is not certain that he
understood the purpose of Origen exactly as we do, and indeed
Origen s own use is not perfectly simple. 2 In any case the
different conditions prescribed some differences of application. 3
As his subscriptions show, the primary task of Thomas, unlike
that of Origen, was to revise the existing translation so as to
bring it into accord with the best current MSS. of the original.
The Philoxenian version can have inspired no such reverence as
Origen seems to have had for the LXX, 4 and to have followed

1 A good example is Acts xxviii. 14, where Harclean reads -X- apud eos /.
The phrase is also found in the Peshitto, but that such asterisks as this were
meant to indicate cases of agreement with the Peshitto would be obviously
an absurd hypothesis. In fact this asterisk calls attention to the retention of
the older reading (Trap airrois) in addition to eir avrois of the Antiochian text.
That Hcl. text has also retained eiri/ieiyajres (614, cf. gig) for the Antiochian
eTTi/uieivai is not brought to the reader s notice.

2 Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, p. 71.

3 An interesting attempt by a mediaeval Lathi editor to use Origen s signs
for a similar purpose in a different way is described by Rahlfs, Der Text des
Septuaginta-Psalters, pp. 130-134.

4 Origen, Ad Africanum, 4 f.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxvii

Origen s example by trying to record all the points at which the
Syriac exemplar of Thomas had been improved would have been
a useless, as well as a desperate, undertaking. His asterisks and
obeli are to be interpreted, as well as may be, from the facts,
not from the rules followed by Origen. 1

Such an examination of the facts shows certain general
tendencies for both margin and signs, but some confusion. The
latter, although it must probably fall in part to the account of
Thomas, is partly to be explained by our lack of a critical edition
of the Harclean Gospels, where alone the available material
makes such an edition possible. Concerning the two Oxford
MSS. of the Gospels much information is given in White s Notes,
and something is known of the Paris MS. It appears that not
seldom text and margin have exchanged places in one or another
MS. (so Luke xviii. 9 ; John xix. 3), while in some cases the fact
that the margin offers a stricter rendering than that of the text
gives rise to the suspicion that such an exchange has taken
place. Occasionally the Western character of the reading in
the text, where the Antiochian reading is given in the margin,
suggests the same conclusion. 2 In the Paris MS. at Matt. i. and
Luke iii. 23 ff. it is expressly stated that the grecizing readings
there found in the margin are the Harclean. 3 It is also possible
that some inconsistencies in the use of asterisks and obeli are
due to a scribe s lack of care in a very complicated matter. 4 It
would be almost a miracle if no signs had been omitted from the
text ; and what were originally marginal notes may now appear

1 Storr s painstaking and instructive discussion, Repertorium, Theil vii.,
1780, pp. 1-77, which is still valuable, is vitiated by both the errors mentioned
above. The view of Wetstein, who supposed a comparison with the Peshitto
to be indicated, was effectively disproved by White in the Praefatio to his
edition of the Gospels, pp. xxvii ff., but White was himself led astray by his
use of Origen s practice as a guide.

2 So, for instance, Acts xviii. 5, where the marginal reading in spiritu is
Antioc-h n.

3 Storr, I.e. pp. 22-26, from J. G. C. Adler, Novi Testamenti versiones
Syriacae, pp. 56 f.

4 In some MSS. of the Syro-hexaplar Old Testament asterisks have been
substituted for obeli and vice versa ; Gwynn, Dictionary of Christian Biography,
vol. iv. p. 1018.

clxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

in the text designated with an asterisk or obelus. 1 The MSS.
also vary greatly in the completeness with which the apparatus
is supplied. In the very carefully written Cambridge MS. of the
Acts and Epistles there is no vestige of it. 2 Moreover, some of
the marginal notes may be (in a few cases they certainly are)
from a date later than that of Thomas.

Between the marginal notes and the words in the text dis
tinguished by an asterisk, or even all of the words marked with
an obelus, it is not possible to make a complete distinction.

Obeli in In the Book of Acts obeli are found in about forty-five in

stances in chaps, i.-xviii. (none in chaps, xix.-xxviii.), marking ofi
a single word, or in a few cases two words. In virtually every
case 3 the word or words are mere supplements required by
Syriac idiom or desirable in order to complete the phrase
exactly like the italicized words of the English Bible. The
obelus is, indeed, here used, as by Origen, to denote words of the
version to which nothing in the original corresponds, but it is
negligible for textual criticism. One half of the cases are single
pronouns, and although many of these find parallels in one
or other Latin or Egyptian version, only seldom does any
Greek MS. show the same expansion of phrase. Three-quarters
of these little supplements are found in the Peshitto also, and it
may be assumed that most of them stood in the Philoxenian.

Asterisks Asterisks B.IQ found in the Book of Acts in about 150 places,

in Acts.

1 A case where this seems almost demonstrable is Acts ix. 6. Here the long
gloss in the text under asterisk ends with surge, followed by the metobelus.
The continuous text then proceeds, sed surge,, etc. The gloss is plainly in
tended as a substitute for these following words of the text, not as a part of the
same continuous text with them.

2 For similar confusion and omission in the hexaplaric signs see Rahlfs,
Studie uber den griechischen Text des Buches Ruth, pp. 54-67.

3 Two exceptions only appear. In Acts x. 25 we read : et procidit ^ ad
pedes ejus. This is evidently a mistake of some kind, for the words are in
dispensable to the sense, and no text in any language omits them. Perhaps the
sign originally applied only to the conjunction et. In Acts xiii. 25 we read :
calceamentum pedum ipsius / solver e. For this (on which no Greek text or
version throws any direct light) no explanation is forthcoming, although it is
worth mentioning that the Peshitto here reads, by harmonization with Mark i. 7
and Luke iii. 16, the thongs of his shoes instead of the sandal of his feet.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxix

and are applied usually to a word or brief phrase, but sometimes
to a long sentence. In all but two cases (xix. 35, where * civi-
tatis ^ and * ejus ^ are fragments of the free rendering of the
Peshitto that have survived in the Harclean) they indicate
what is, or might be, a variation of underlying text, not merely
of rendering. But on scrutiny it appears that about 30 of the
additions thus marked are small expansions, chiefly pronouns,
made incidentally to the translation for the sake of smoothness
of Syriac idiom, so that in these cases the use of the asterisk is
not to be distinguished from the characteristic use of the obelus
just described, and is equally negligible for our purpose. 1 All
but four of the cases of this type were already present in the
Peshitto. This use of the asterisk does not seem to yield any
parallel whatever to Origen s practice. 2 But the large bulk
about 95 of the words or phrases marked with an asterisk are
substantial additions to the editor s Antiochian text, and are of
* Western origin.

Rarely the words under asterisk have been so introduced as
to make a conflation with the neighbouring continuous text ; 3
for the most part they are sheer additions, and the glosses which
are direct substitutes for words of the text are commonly relegated
to the margin.

Again we see that the Harclean use of asterisks 13 not the same

1 A. V. V. Richards, in a valuable review (Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. IL, 1900-1, pp. 439-447) of A. Pott, Der abendldndische Text der Apostel-
geschichte und die Wir-quelle, 1900, points out (p. 443) the suggestive fact that
the obeli do not occur in our MS. after the close of chap, xviii., and that all but
a small number of the asterisks used in the same way as obeli are found after
that point.

2 A few of these little additions are also attested in Greek or in some version,
and might be regarded as the product of Greek variants. The two processes of
translating and of corrupting a text work alike at this point, and either might
be responsible for the result ; and translators into different languages will
independently duplicate each other. It is safer to ascribe the whole of these
thirty cases to a translator s activity.

3 For instance, xiii. 19 eorum -x- alienigenarum yf ; xvi. 39 ; also xii. 21 and
xv. 11, in both which passages the repeated autem makes an awkward succes
sion. In xv. 5 the difficulty created by the mention of the Pharisees in both
vs. 1 and vs. 5 lies deeper, for it is present also in Codices 383 and 614. On
Acts ix. 6 see above, p. clxviii note 1.

clxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

as that of the Hexapla. The more common use of the Harclean
asterisks, as just described, is not to show the excess of the
original over a standard translation, but to preserve on the page
of the translation those readings of another (the Western ) type
of text side by side with those of the (Antiochian) standard
adopted by the editor. It is also evident that the obeli and the
greater part of the asterisks pertain to two wholly distinct systems
of annotation, each having its own purpose the obeli to exhibit
differences of the version from the original, the asterisks to record
differences between two types of the original. This is well
illustrated by xi. 1, where, in the middle of a long passage covered
by an asterisk, a single word (et, evidently added in the trans
lator s reconstruction of the sentence) is marked with an obeli
That in thirty cases the force of the asterisks does not diffei
from that of obeli is either a mark of inconsistency on the editor s
part, not surprising in so elaborate an undertaking, or the result
of the work of copyists, who through failure of understands
confused what may originally have been an integral system. 11
is to be borne in mind that we are dependent on a single MS. of
a date more than four centuries later than that of Thomas oi
Harkel.

But besides the two classes of asterisks already explain(
nearly twenty cases remain which show various peculiarities.
Of these seven (ix. 37, xv. 30, xv. 36, xv. 37, xxi. 31, xxvii.
41, xxviii. 7) are glosses similar to the Western, and may b&lt;
true Western additions which have survived only here. In
eight other instances (vii. 10, xxv. 10, xxv. 16, xxvi. 30, xxvii. 7,
xxviii. 16, xxviii. 29, xxviii. 30) we find under asterisk readings
of the Antiochian text which are absent either from B and other
Old Uncials or from some of the witnesses whose peculiarities
are usually Western. This phenomenon may be due to the
fact that Thomas had a slightly different Antiochian text from
ours, or it may be that in these cases he had no other way of
indicating that his standard contained what others omit or
some other explanation may be the true one. The two or three

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxxi

still remaining instances of peculiarity in the use of the asterisks
need not be discussed.

Finally, our attention is again claimed by the marginal Marginal
readings. The bulk of these, as described above (pp. clxv-vi),
cannot be distinguished in character from the ninety-five aster
isked phrases of the text. This conclusion is unavoidable, as is
made especially clear in such a passage as Acts xviii. 26, 27,
where Codex Bezae has a long expansive paraphrase. The
greater part of this expansion is found in the margin of the
Harclean, but the words et? rrjv A^aiav (in the later position,
vs. 27), which plainly belong to the same paraphrastic text, are
included in the Harclean continuous text under an asterisk, with
the result that the same phrase occurs twice in the same verse.
Similarly, in Acts xxiii. 24 a long addition in the text under an
asterisk is a part of the same reading as the marginal gloss to
vs. 25, which gives a brief paraphrastic substitute for the first
words of that verse.

The exactness of the translation of these Western readings
and their large extent make them, next to Codex Bezae, the most
important single witness to the Western text of Acts. With
the aid of the parallel, less complete, witnesses, chiefly Greek
and Latin, it is almost always possible to make a trustworthy
reconstruction of the Greek from which the Harclean asterisked
and marginal readings were drawn. In many instances the
Harclean evidence is better than that of Codex Bezae. Not
only does it cover the whole book, including the long sections
lacking in D, but it gives a text free from conflation with the
Antiochian or Old Uncial text and from adjustment to a parallel
Latin those two traits which everywhere mar the text of Codex
Bezae and diminish the student s confidence in its witness.
Examples of Western fragments lacking in D but attested by
the Harclean apparatus and confirmed by Greek mixed MSS. may
be found in xii. 12, xii. 25, xiii. 43, xiii. 47, xv. 23, xx. 32, and
many other places. In other instances, such as xi. 17, the
Harclean apparatus has preserved Western readings attested

clxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

in no Greek MS., but in the Old Latin rendering. In such cases
as xvi. 4, xvi. 39, it gives the Western text in a form free from
the conflation found in D. In a large number of these cases
the Greek corresponding to the Syriac of the Harclean apparatus
is found in Codex 614 or in others of the group of minuscules
which contain Western elements, and in the parts where D is
lacking nearly every gloss of the Harclean, as will be seen in
the text of the present volume, can be matched from these
codices by the corresponding Greek. With what degree of com
pleteness the Harclean apparatus gives the Western readings,
and what relation its selection of these readings bears to the
selection found most fully in 614 but in parallel fashion in other
minuscules, is a problem which could be worked out. Thomas
clearly had at hand a larger body of * Western readings than is
found in any one of the extant mixed MSS. so far examined. The
study of these questions would throw light on the dissemination
and locality, and possibly on the origin, of the Western text.

In this connexion it is not to be overlooked that a number of
Western readings are to be detected in the continuous text
of the Harclean unmarked by any sign. Such cases as I have
observed will be found mentioned in the Harclean apparatus of
the present volume. There are doubtless many others which I
have not noted. Possibly some of these readings were once
marked by asterisks now omitted, but this can hardly be true
of all.

The important question which now presents itself is what
was the source from which these Western readings came into
the Harclean. An answer commonly given is that Thomas of
Harkel found these readings in the " accurate and approved
copy " of the Greek text of Acts and the Catholic Epistles (or,
respectively, in one or more of the two or three " approved and
accurate copies " of the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul) which
he mentions in his subscriptions as having been used for his work.
But this view is forbidden by several decisive objections. In
the first place, the language of the subscriptions does not natur-

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxxiii

ally suggest it. The verb used (^ ~ Q?)) means made like,
f compared, collated, and seems to refer to the construction of
his text, 1 not to the apparatus of variants, of which the subscrip
tion gives no definite explanation. The statement of Thomas is
fully accounted for by the observation of his procedure, demon
strable in the Apocalypse (where we have at hand for com
parison the Philoxenian text which he was revising) and in the
other books made probable by the character of his continuous
text ; he was revising the older text to bring it more closely into
agreement with the Greek Antiochian text used in the seventh
century. Moreover, the approved copies are nowhere stated
to be old, and it is difficult to believe that a scholar writing
in 616 in Alexandria would have described copies of the New
Testament containing a Western text as notably approved
and accurate. The presumption from his language is that
these were good current MSS., such as were produced by the best
scriptoria of the period.

A further reason against the explanation mentioned is to be
drawn from the express statement of the note to Philippians iii. 18,
already cited (p. clxiv), that a certain reading (aliter) put under
an obelus in the text (and not, in fact, found in any other witness
known to us) was not found "in (the) two accurate Greek copies."
The two copies are therein implied to be those used for comparison
(as stated in the subscription to the Pauline Epistles), and we find
that they are expressly not used for the apparatus but that the
apparatus here represents a reading drawn from another source.
From this it may be inferred that " the Greek copies " or " the
Greek " referred to in other notes means the copies used for com
parison and mentioned in the subscriptions. Of the twenty-one
notes cited above, all but two 2 refer to the absence of the reading
in question (almost always a reading under asterisk) from " the
Greek," or from some of the Greek copies. In four notes it is

1 This corresponds to the regular use of dvre^\r]drj by Greek scribes.

2 That on Mark x. 48, which relates to a meaningless corruption of the Greek
text, and that on Jude 12, which gives a different and more exact rendering of
the same Greek word translated differently in the Syriac continuous text.

clxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

stated that the reading is also absent from the Syriac (always
described as " the old Syriac " or as " the copy of Mar Xenaia "),
and in one that the reading is found in " the old copy " (i.e.
the Syriac). These notes make it practically certain that the
apparatus of margin and asterisks was not constructed in order
to contain the readings in which the Greek " approved copies "
departed from the text adopted by Thomas, but rather to exhibit
readings known to him, of which he wished to preserve some
record, but which were not found in the approved copies/
and therefore not adopted into his continuous text. As Corssen
points out, the reference in the note on Matt. xxv. 1 to " the
Alexandrian copy " (and general probability as well) makes it
altogether likely that these notes all proceed from Thomas
himself.

If the Harclean apparatus was not drawn from the approved
copy, the obvious alternative suggestion is that it represents
rejected readings of the Philoxenian, which Thomas was revising
and to which several of the notes cited above (pp. clxiii-iv) refer,
expressly or probably. 1 This view is on the whole supported by
what can be observed in his treatment of the four minor Catholic
Epistles and the Apocalypse, although the light they shed is less
abundant than could be desired. In the four epistles the amount
of text is small, and the inquiry is embarrassed by the lack of a
clearly defined Western text in these books for comparison,
but the Harclean is clearly dependent on the Philoxenian, and
seems to have been in some cases assimilated to the Antiochian
text. The apparatus (including both asterisks and margin)
contains several readings which seem certainly to have come
from the Philoxenian, and in nearly all cases its readings (with
some of the variant marginal renderings) are capable of such an
explanation. 2 In the Apocalypse the text of the Philoxenian

1 This is the conclusion which seems to be suggested by P. Corssen in his
acute and instructive article, Die Recension der Philoxeniana durch Thomas
von Mabug, Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. n., 1901, pp.
1-12. Corssen, however, inclines to the unlikely view that the readings now
found under asterisk in the text originally all stood in the margin.

2 Gwynn, Remnants of the Later Syriac Vertioris, Part I. pp. xl-xli.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxxv

includes two elements, one, less extensive, agreeing with the
presumably Antiochian text of 046 (formerly B, or Q) and most
minuscules, the other, more pervasive, agreeing with the Old
Uncials, and in a conspicuous degree with the very ancient
African Latin ; x that the two elements had already been com
bined in the Greek copy used by Polycarp for the Philoxenian
would seem to me a likely supposition. The Harclean has
extensively revised this Philoxenian text so as to produce a
Syriac version largely agreeing with the Antiochian. In the
Apocalypse but one marginal reading of the Harclean has been
reported ; yet that gives a variant known elsewhere only in
the Philoxenian. 2 For the asterisks no full statement is avail
able, 3 but Gwynn observes : "In much the greater part of the
places where the asterisk occurs in 5 I [i&gt;e- the Leyden MS. of the
Harclean Apocalypse], it can be understood as referring to
something inserted in, or omitted from, the text of 2 as compared
with that of S [i.e. the Philoxenian Apocalypse of the Crawford
MS.]. In one or two of these places it cannot be accounted for
by comparison with any other known textual authority." 4

At least once in the four epistles (2 Peter ii. 13), where the
Harclean margin seems to represent the Philoxenian, the facts
show that the later (Harclean) translator was guided in his work
by a Greek text which also contained the reading ; and in two
of the three reported cases of asterisks in the Apocalypse the
Philoxenian reading preserved under asterisk has plainly been

1 Gwynn, Apocalypse, pp. Ixx-lxxi.

2 Rev. i. 10 *% A -s f ~~j_ which seems to refer to the unique reading
of the Philoxenian | ** ^ **&gt; r ~~j ; cf. Gwynn, Apocalypse, p. Ixxxiv, who
also points out that the comments of Bar Salibi on the Apocalypse seem
occasionally to rest on Philoxenian renderings learned from the now lost
Harclean margin. The Dublin MS. contains a few marginal notes ; a
marginal apparatus is found in the Florence MS. and in the Vatican MS. ;
see Gwynn, Hermathena, vol. x., 1898, p. 227.

8 About forty asterisks are present in the Leyden MS. ; the British Museum
MS. (Nitrian) contains one asterisk.

4 Gwynn, Apocalypse, p. Ixxxiii. The three cases mentioned by Gwynn are as

follows : Apoc. viii. 9, t /^X^ -x- (Philoxenian,

(Philoxenian, 1); v. 5, ^^.J9J OOf-x- (Philoxenian, ^

clxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

modified to conform to the grecizing manner of the Harclean.
In the two cases last mentioned this can have been done without
any actual reference to a Greek manuscript.

The evidence from the books in which the Philoxenian is
extant is thus in accord with the supposition that the Harclean
apparatus in the other epistles and in the Gospels and Acts is
largely derived from the Philoxenian ; but the array of facts is
too meagre to furnish convincing proof. 1 If this view be held,
however, it does not follow that the Western material, liberally
assembled in the Harclean margin and under the asterisks, came
ultimately from the Old Syriac used by Ephrem nearly two

1 The interesting view adopted by Theodor Zahn and made the basis of his
treatment of the text of Acts in Die Urausgabe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas
(Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, ix.), 1916, would
accept the apparatus of the Harclean as giving direct information of the Old
Syriac text which preceded the Peshitto. Zahn thinks that a copy of this lay
before Thomas, and was the one referred to in his notes as " the old Syriac."
This conception of the matter rests chiefly on the view that the work of Thomas
was to copy exactly, and annotate, the Philoxenian Syriac text, not to revise it.
This view, however, which was that of White and other older scholars, is not
required by the language of the subscriptions. Especially the subscription to
the Pauline Epistles shows the non- technical character of the expressions

employed ; the same word ( ^Q. ^K| collatus est) is there used to denote
Thomas s use both of the Philoxenian from which, and of the Greek MSS. according
to which, his text was written. Moreover, the idea that the Philoxenian and
Harclean texts were substantially identical is contradicted by Bar Hebraeus,
who speaks of the Harclean as the third translation, the Peshitto and Phil
oxenian being the first two. And, finally, the idea is made impossible for all
who have been convinced by the patent evidence adduced by Gwynn that the
Philoxenian is still extant for the four minor epistles and the Apocalypse,
and that the Harclean was a drastic revision of it. That Zahn s discussion of
the purpose and nature of the Harclean apparatus is thus at many points open
to criticism does not diminish the great value of the textual discussions in
connexion with which he uses it, although it often influences the form in which
he couches these. Zahn s theory that the Harclean marginal and asterisked
Western readings were drawn from the Old Syriac direct can, indeed, be
held even on the usual view that a considerable revision of the Philoxenian
was made by Thomas and appears in the Harclean text. But under such a
theory it has to be assumed, as explained below, that the Old Syriac renderings
were completety reconstructed and grecized by Thomas, so that the free style
of the Old Syriac has disappeared. For this process it is probable that he
would have required the aid of a Greek MS. containing these readings. That
being so, the theory that Thomas used also an Old Syriac MS. becomes otiose,
for he could equally well have drawn his Western * readings from his Greek
MS. alone.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxxvii

centuries before the time of Philoxenus. The probability
would rather be that Polycarp had made his translation from
a Greek MS. either completely Western in character or else
combining, as does 614, much Western matter with a text of
the more usual type. 1 That such a manuscript should have been
found in Mesopotamia at that period does not seem to be rendered
impossible by anything that is known.

A natural interpretation, then, of the facts would be as
follows : (1) The Philoxenian translation of the New Testament
of 508 was made at Mabog from a Greek text containing a great
number of Western readings, the question being indetermin
able whether the copy from which Acts was drawn was con
sistently and completely Western or contained a mixed text.
The translation was written in free and idiomatic Syriac. (2)
Thomas of Harkel revised it in 616 by the aid of Greek MSS. of
the Antiochian type, putting into his margin or marking with an
asterisk some of the Syriac renderings, together with many words
and sentences which were inconsistent with the Greek copies
used for his revision. Although he and his associates did not
succeed in making their main text (apart from the asterisked
portions) in all respects a perfect equivalent of their Greek
standards, yet an essential part of their aim was to make the
Syriac represent in detail with slavish literalness the Greek
Itext, including the order of words. Where Syriac idiom seemed
jto require an added pronoun or other word, Thomas marked
these with an obelus, or sometimes (if our MS. of Acts can be

1 That the Western readings of Acts now found in the Harclean apparatus
jvere, if contained in the Philoxenian, drawn by the latter from the Old Syriac
ather than from a Greek MS. used by Polycarp, is unlikely. For (1) the
tent Syrian tradition, beginning within a century of the date at which
he Philoxenian version was made, held that Polycarp made it from the Greek.
2) In the books not previously translated, Polycarp clearly had for the
pocalypse a Greek MS. containing a strong Western element and for the
3ur Catholic epistles a Greek text that was at any rate unusual. It is natural
suppose that the Greek text he used in the other books was of similar
bancter. In our ignorance of the actual Philoxenian text it is impossible to
i iy with confidence what sources besides the Peshitto (with which he was
i horoughly imbued) and a Greek MS. Polycarp may have used, but nothing at
mt known seems to point to his use of the Old Syriac Acts.

VOL. in m

clxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

trusted) with the same asterisk ordinarily used by him for a
different purpose. Of this threefold apparatus a large part has
been preserved for us in one of the two known MSS. of his Acts,
how accurately and completely we cannot fully judge. The
conditions in the other books show that there the apparatus was
only imperfectly transmitted in the copies now known, although
the oldest copies of the Gospels do not seem as yet to have been
studied with reference to this question.

Such a view as this would entitle us to regard the Western
readings in the margin and asterisked portions of the Harclean
Acts as derived from a Greek MS. used in Mabog in 508. 1 But to
this conclusion a serious objection presents itself. The Western
glosses of the Harclean apparatus are written, at any rate in
certain details, in the same peculiar grecizing style as the Harclean
text itself. It is evident that in the form which they now wear
they could not have stood in the original Philoxenian. One of
the most pervasive traits of Thomas s mode of translation is the
use of of \M, etc., for avrov, etc., instead of the mere pro
nominal suffix. This separate genitive pronoun is, indeed, found
in the Philoxenian correctly enough where special emphasis is
intended, and an appeal to that explanation would account for
many of the cases where it appears in the Harclean margin, but
it is also there found in contexts where no emphasis at all is
required or permissible (e.g. Acts xii. 3). Similarly, the use of
fL L ~-^ for Sid in Sia VVKTOS, Acts xxiii. 24 margin, and in Sia
Ltcavov %povov, Acts xi. 1 -x-, is a glaring grecism. And the
characteristic preferences of the Harclean appear in the apparatus.
In Acts xvi. 39 * ^ Ao) ; ^OOJL^^) ; 5 . alof all belong
to the expressions which in the Apocalypse Thomas regularly
substitutes for the corresponding words of the Philoxenian.
In Acts xix. 1 mg \ with the infinitive is used, rather than j
with the finite verb, just as in the Harclean Apocalypse. So, Acts
xi. 5 mg, ***. J is used for \a/jiirp6&lt;;, just as, in the Apocalypse,!

1 With such a view would agree the facts relating to the Syriac Euthalian :
apparatus to the Pauline epistles mentioned above, p. civ note 1.

VERSIONS : HARCLEAN clxxix

Thomas has substituted it for the Philoxenian *-+o)\ as the
rendering of that Greek word ; and likewise, Acts xiv. 1 mg,
)Ll - ^ is used, not the Philoxenian f ^^ ^ In the margin of
Acts xiv. 18 et? ra ISia is represented by oofiX^ ^.i\&lt;H\ and

xiv. 19 \ ^**i\ . oJy seems intended to imitate the Greek article

in rovs o^Xof9. In Acts xxiv. 14 the Harclean attaches a mark
to the word ^.jkJo); and in the margin writes e&gt;, evidently with
reference to a Greek reading Xeyovcrw KCLI (so the Greek codex
1611) ; in Syriac idiom the meaning of the Greek could not be
so expressed, but .3) ( also ) would be required. These are but
illustrations. 1

This evidence of grecizing, however, which has been sufficiently
illustrated in the last paragraph, does not positively prove that
the Harclean apparatus was merely added by Thomas from
Greek sources, independently of the Philoxenian. Our best guide
is to be found in the facts of the Philoxenian books which have
come down to us. In the four minor epistles and the Apocalypse,
although the material is meagre and the apposite cases few, yet
it is clear that the Harclean margin and asterisked words in many
cases certainly do, and in nearly all cases may, owe their origin
to the Philoxenian text, and at the same time that some among
them, whose Philoxenian origin is unmistakable, have been
grecized. The grecizing process in those five books may have
been applied either under the influence of a corresponding Greek
MS. or, without the use of such a MS., merely by making the
language conform to the general principles of Harclean grecizing
style. 2 Whether the far more extensive Harclean apparatus in
Acts requires the assumption that Thomas used a Greek MS. in
preparing it is a question which can only be answered by Syriac
scholars. There are three possibilities : Either (1) this apparatus

1 Some of these illustrations I owe to Professor F. C. Burkitt and Mr. Norman
[ c Lean.

2 In one of the cases from the Apocalypse (Rev. v. 5) tho grecizing seen in
addition of OO}, avros, is unmistakable, but seems not to have been guided.

ay a Greek MS., for no known Greek MS. has that reading.

clxxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

consists of Philoxenian readings transformed into the Harclean
grecizing style on general principles, without the aid of a Greek
MS. ; or (2) the readings of the Philoxenian adopted for preserva
tion in the apparatus were modified by the aid of a Greek MS. ;
or (3) the readings in question were not in the Philoxenian, and
are drawn solely from collation with a Greek MS. of utterly
different type from that " accurate and approved copy " which
Thomas adopted as a standard for his text. Whether the first
or the second of these three possibilities is to be adopted is not
certain. The third, however, I am disposed to reject, and that
for two reasons : first, because of the facts observable in the case
of the Apocalypse and the four epistles, and secondly, because it
is hard to see why Thomas in the seventh century in Alexandria,
having adopted the Antiochian text as a standard, should have
gone out of his way to preserve in Syriac a record of Western
readings, unless something in the Syriac version which he was
revising suggested such a procedure and made it seem desirable.
Harclean Interesting as it would be to have this question settled, an

reading answer to it is not an indispensable prerequisite to the use of

^ readings. They are certainly Western, and were
certainly in existence in the early seventh century. Yet they
do not testify to a text used by Alexandrians. There is no
evidence, and it is not likely, that Poly carp s Greek MS. was
produced or preserved in Alexandria ; and, since the source of
the Harclean apparatus of Acts was not the Greek MS. referred
to in the subscription, and since thus no evidence exists that the
1 Western readings of Thomas s apparatus were drawn from any
MS. which he obtained in Alexandria, the Harclean version
indicates nothing as to the currency of the Western Greek text
in Alexandria in the early seventh century. Thomas s Western
Greek MS., if he had one, he may have brought with him from
Mesopotamia ;. for aught we know, it may have been the identical
copy used a century earlier by Poly carp.

VERSIONS: PALESTINIAN, ARMENIAN clxxxi

(e) PALESTINIAN

In (probably) the sixth century, pursuant to the proselytizing
activities begun by the Emperor Justinian, translations from
the New Testament, intended for the use of Aramaic-speaking
Christians of Palestine, were made into the dialect used by
Palestinian Samaritans and Jews. A few fragments of Acts in
this translation, doubtless made from the current Greek text of
Byzantium, have come down to us in the form of church-lessons,
in MSS. of which the oldest are ascribed to the sixth century. 1
The published fragments from Acts cover i. 1-14 ; ii. 1-36 ;
xiv. 5-13, 15-17 ; xvi. 16-35 ; xix. 31-xx. 14 ; xxi. 3-14, 28-30,
38-39 ; xxiv. 25-xxvi. 1 ; xxvi. 23-xxvii. 27. 2

5. OTHER VERSIONS

(a) ARMENIAN 3

An Armenian version of the New Testament is said to have
been made not later than A.D. 400. A translation of the Gospels
may have been in existence in the days of St. Gregory the
Illuminator (f 332), but it would not follow that the Acts had
been translated at that time. As might be expected, the trans
lation of the Gospels, Pauline epistles, and Acts was made from

1 F. C. Burkitt, Christian Palestinian Literature, Journal of Theological
Studies, vol. n., 1900-1, pp. 174-183 ; cf. also ibid. vol. vi., 1904-5, pp. 91-98.

2 The texts are to be found in J. P. N. Land, Anecdota Syriaca, iv., Ley den,
1875, Syriac p. 168 ; G. Margoliouth, The Liturgy of the Nile, Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1896, pp. 702 f., 718-720 ; A. S. Lewis, A
Palestinian Syriac Lectionary (Studia Sinaitica, vi.), London, 1897, pp. 131-135 ;
H. Duensing, Christlich-paldstinisch-aramdische Texte und Fragmente, Gottingen,
1906, pp. 149-151 ; A. S. Lewis, Codex Climaci Rescriptus (Horae Semiticae,
vui.), Cambridge, 1909, pp. 84-101.

3 F. C. Conybeare, art. Armenian Version of N.T., in Hastings s Dictionary
of the Bible, 1898 ; F. C. Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New
Testament, 2nd ed., 1912, pp. 172-174 ; J. A. Robinson, Euthaliana (Texts and
Studies, iii.), 1895, pp. 72-98 ; H. Gelzer, art. Armenien, in Protestantiache
Realencyklopddie, vol. ii., 1897, pp. 75-77. F. Macler, Le Texte armenien d apres
Matthieu et Marc (Annales du Musee Guimet, Bibliotheque des etudes, xxvni.),
Paris, 1919, presents new materials and fresh views for the Armenian text of
the Gospels ; cf. R. P. Blake, Harvard Theol Review, xv., 1922, pp. 299-303.

clxxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

the Syriac, which in Acts presented, at any rate largely, a
form of the Western text. Later, after the Council of
Ephesus (431), the Armenian version was revised by the aid of
Greek MSS. brought, it is said, from both Constantinople and
Alexandria, and this revision is doubtless the version known to
us from later copies. 1 The revision, it is clear, left unchanged a
large number of ancient Western readings.

The Armenian Bible was edited by Oscan, Amsterdam, 1666,
and again by Zohrab, Venice, 1805. The latter edition is the
source of the readings cited by Tischendorf , who obtained them
from Tregelles. An edition with critical use of older MSS. than
those employed by Zohrab, or at least with a critical investigation
of the MSS. and a comparison with his edition, is greatly needed ;
all the more because of the importance of the Armenian transla
tion of the Commentary of Ephrem on Acts, of which a translation
is printed in the present volume.

(b) GEORGIAN

Another version, neighbour to the Armenian, from which
also, if it were adequately studied, profit might be derived for
the textual criticism of Acts, is the Georgian, as used by the
Georgians (also called Grusinians and Iberians) of the Caucasus,
north-west of Armenia. 2 The Christian Church of Georgia is
alleged to date from the early fourth century, the first translation
of the Bible from the fifth. The translation has been subjected
to later revision, and moreover the printed editions do not well

1 The present Armenian text is said to show that the revision was made
with the use of a Greek text resembling that of BK ; F. C. Burkitt, Encyclo
paedia Biblica, col. 5011. Compare what is said below of the Georgian version
of Acts.

2 F. C. Conybeare in The Academy, February 1, 1896, pp. 98 f. ; id., The
Georgian Version of the N.T., Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft,
vol. XL, 1910, pp. 232-249 ; id., The Old Georgian Version of Acts, ibid.
vol. xn., 1911, pp. 131-140 ; Theodor Kluge, Die georgischen Ubersetzungen
des "Neuen Testamentes," ibid. vol. xn., 1911, pp. 344-350; H. Goussen,
Die georgische Bibeliibersetzung, Oriens Christianus, vol. vi., 1906, pp.
300-318 ; Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums, 4th ed., vol.
ii., 1924, pp. 761 f.

VERSIONS: ARABIC clxxxiii

represent the oldest extant MSS. Whether the version was
originally made from Armenian or Syriac is disputed, but at
least in certain parts of the Bible it is closely akin to the
Armenian, although in its present form bearing evident traces of
revision from the Greek. 1 The text of Acts in older MSS. seems
to be very close to the Old Greek Uncials, with occasional
Antiochian divergences. In a minute proportion of instances its
departures from the Old Uncials may possibly be derived from
a Western text, but the small number of these, and the
intrinsic unimportance of most of them, make it impossible to
draw any inference whatever from them. 2

The Arabic versions, although found in many MSS., apparently
yield but little for the purposes of textual criticism. All are
comparatively late. " It was not till after the success of the
Koran had made Arabic into a literary language, and the con
quests of Islam had turned large portions of Christian Syria
and Egypt into Arabic-speaking provinces, that the need of
translations of Scripture in the Arabic vernacular was really
felt." 4

Of the Acts the following versions are known :

(1) A Sinai MS. of the ninth century contains a text which
is a free translation from the Peshitto ; published in Studia
Sinaitica, No. VII., Cambridge University Press, 1899.

(2) A version in two different recensions is found in the

1 See the important article of F. C. Conybeare, The Growth of the Peshitta
Version of the New Testament illustrated from the Old Armenian and Georgian
Versions, American Journal of Theology, vol. I., 1897, pp. 883-912.

2 The portions examined on which these statements rest are Acts v. 37-vii. 23,
vii. 38-viii. 20, as rendered into Greek by Conybeare from an Athos MS. of
A.D. 965 (not 13th century as Conybeare supposed), together with Acts xviii.,
of which Professor Robert P. Blake has furnished me with a translation from a
tenth-century Tiflis MS. (Library of the Georgian Literary Society, No. 407).

3 F. C. Burkitt, art. Arabic Versions, Hastings s Dictionary of the Bible,
vol. i. pp. 136-138 ; Gregory, Prolegomena, pp. 928-932.

4 Burkitt, op. cit. p. 136.

clxxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

Arabic New Testament of Erpenius, Ley den, 1616, and in that
of Faustus Nairomis, Rome, 1703. The former was chiefly drawn
from an Egyptian MS. dated 1342-43 ; the latter was derived
from a MS. brought from Cyprus, is in the Carshunic writing,
and was intended for the use of the Maronites. This version is
said to be from the Coptic, supplemented by readings drawn from
the Peshitto and from the Greek.

(3) The Arabic text printed in the polyglots (Paris, 1645 ;
Walton s, London, 1657) is said to be taken from a MS. brought
from Aleppo, and to be a version made from a Greek text.

3. GREEK FATHERS

THE chief Latin and Syriac writers whose quotations come
under consideration for the text of Acts have already been dis
cussed in connexion with those versions. It remains to speak
of the early Greek writers. For many of them no thorough
investigation of their biblical text is available, and although the
material to be examined is abundant, the student has at present
to content himself with incomplete, merely general, or tentative,
statements.

(a) EPISTLE OF BARNABAS ; POLYCRATES OP EPHESUS ;
JUSTIN MARTYR ; DIDACHE

Barn. 5, 8-9 Trepa? ye TOI bibdaicwv TOV 1 Icrpar)\ xal Barnabas.
Trj\L/cavra repara Kal arjjjLela TTOL&V e/crjpvo-crev, Kal virep-
rjyaTrrjo-ev avrov. ore Se TOU? tStov? a r jroorro\ov&lt;; row?
(jL6\\ovra&lt;; tcrjpva-o-ew TO 6vayye\iov avrov efeXefaro, 6Wa9
Traaav aftaprlav avo/juwrepov^, Iva Selgrj on ov/c rj\6ev
t/catou? d\\a d/j,apTCt)\ov&lt;&gt;, Tore &lt;j)avepa)crv eavrov
vlov eov.

It seems likely that this is an allusion to the * Western text
of Acts i. 2, which (as retranslated from Augustine s quotation
in Contra Felicem) seems to have read : eV rjpepa rj
aTTOo-ToXou? e ^eXefaro 8ta TrvevfAaros dyiov /cal
Krjpva-creiv TO

In the letter of Polycrates of Ephesus on the paschal contro- Poiycrates.
versy, written in the last decade of the second century (Eusebius,

1 This was pointed out by J. Chapman, Barnabas and the Western Text
of Acts, Revue Benedictine, vol. xxx., 1913, pp. 219-221.

clxxxv

clxxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

H.e. v. 24, 7), the sentence from Acts v. 29 is quoted in the usual
form TreiOap^elv Bel 6e&lt;*&gt; fjia\\ov rj avOpMTrots, not in the
interrogative form of the Western text (fully attested only in
Latin witnesses, see Textual Note, below, pp. 50 f.).

Justin. Justin Martyr has left no express quotations from Acts, but

his references to historical events and certain apparent reminis
cences of phrases confirm the presumption afforded by his
abundant use of the Gospel of Luke that he was acquainted with
the book. Since in the Gospels he uses the Western text, 1
the same would be expected in Acts, and some measure of
evidence of this may perhaps be found in the circumstance
pointed out by Zahn 2 that (Apol. i. 40) he treats Psalms i. and ii.
as a single piece (cf. Acts xiii. 33, Western ), and (Dial. 87 fin.)
cites Joel ii. 28 f. as eV erepa Trpo^reia, without naming the
prophet, as in the Western text of Acts ii. 16. 3 Justin s
well-known practice of drawing his Old Testament quotations
from Paul without acknowledgment lends probability to the
view that in these instances he is dependent on the Western
text of Acts.

Didache. In the Didache the (negative) Golden Rule is quoted (Did.
1, 2) in a form corresponding not to Tobit iv. 15 but to the
Western text of Acts xv. 20, 29 : irdvra Be oora lav 0e\tfo-r)&lt;i
/jurj yiveorOai aoi /cal av a\\&lt;p /JLTJ iroiei (cf. also Theophilus, Ad
Autol. vi. 34, and the conflate form in Const. Apost. vii. 1). It
is not unlikely that the .Didache drew the Rule from Acts ;
similarly Didache 9 corresponds with the Western (and

1 E. Lippelt, Quaefuerint Justini Martyris A.irofj.vrj/j.ovev^aTa quaque ratione
cum forma evangeliorum syro-latina cohaeserint (Dissert, philol. Halenses xv.),
1901.

2 Zahn, Urausgabe, pp. 234-236. For Justin s use of Acts see Zahn,
Oeschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, vol. i. 2, 1889, pp. 579-581.

8 It should, however, be noticed that our text of Justin, Dial. 87, has the
addition to the Old Testament of the words /ecu Trpo^revcrovo-i (as in Acts ii.
18), which are not found in D or in Old Latin witnesses, nor in the chief
LXX MSS., and which may be a Western non-interpolation ; see Textual
Note, below, p. 17.

GREEK FATHERS clxxxvii

probably original) text of Luke xxii. 17-19 in putting the cup
before the bread at the Lord s Supper. 1

(6) IRENAEUS (ca. 185)

The copy of Acts used by Irenaeus was, like his copies of the
Gospels and the Pauline epistles, a Greek manuscript with a
thorough-going Western text, showing but few departures
from the complete Western type. If we can trust the present
text of the Latin translation of Irenaeus, his copy occasionally
omitted a Western gloss, for instance, x. 39, the Jews rejected
and ; x. 41 KOI o-vvavedTpa^jjiev, r^epa&lt;; reacrepaKovra ;
xv. 26 et? TTCLVTCL TreLpacrfiov ; xvii. 28 TO Kaff rjpepav *, and in
rare instances contained a reading positively of the non-western
type, as in iii. 8, where airibulans et saliens et does not belong
to the * Western text, or in iii. 17, scio for eVtcrrayLtefla of D h
arm. codd.

The date of the Latin translation of Irenaeus s great work is
disputed, as between the second or early third century and the
latter half of the fourth or early fifth, but probability seems to
lie with the view that it was made between 370 and 420, in North
Africa. 2 The first writer who certainly used it is Augustine. In
the citations from the Bible the translator, as has been proved,
followed closely the Greek text as quoted by Irenaeus,
but is thought to have aided himself by the use of an
Old Latin version, which in Acts appears to have been " a copy
closely related to h, which had sustained revision and had also

1 Lake, Classical Review, vol. XL, 1897, pp. 147 f.

2 So A. Souter in Novum Testamentum Sancti Irenaei (Old-Latin Biblical
Texts, No. VII.), 1923, see esp. pp. xv-xviii, Ixv-cxi. In this work will
be found full discussion from various points of view of the questions relating to
the Latin of Irenaeus. The quotations of Irenaeus from Acts are given in full
in the present volume from the text of Novum Testamentum Sancti Irenaei,
through the generous courtesy of the surviving editor, Professor C. H. Turner,
and of the publishers. See B. Kraft, Die Evangelienzitate des heiligen Irendus
(Biblische Studien, xxi.), 1924, who is inclined to assign the translation to
about the year 300 (p. 47), and points out certain precautions which need to
be observed in the use of the biblical quotations of Irenaeus.

clxxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

been later to some extent brought into line with gig." * It
is, however, relatively seldom that the translator is generally
believed to have been drawn away from the biblical text of
Irenaeus s Greek by that of the Latin Bible which he used.

With regard to Irenaeus s text of the Old Testament, all that
is known seems to be that in 1-4 Kingdoms, for which the evidence
is meagre but distinct, Irenaeus goes with B, the Ethiopic, and
the ancient base of the Lucianic text, against both the hexaplaric
text and the common text of the later MSS. 2

The few, but distinct, direct quotations from Acts found in
the writings of Clement of Alexandria follow a text substantially
like that of BK, but with occasional variations from those nss. 3
In several instances of divergence Clement s text had a reading
similar to, though not always quite identical with, that attested
by one or more of the extant Western witnesses. Thus, Acts
x. 11 (Paedag. ii. 1, Potter, p. 175), e/cSeSepevov (where the
Western text seems to have read SeSe/Aevov), xvii. 23 (Strom.
i. 19, Potter, p. 372), Icrropwv for dva0ecap)v (D Bita-Topwv) ,
xvii. 26 (ibid.), 761/09 (614 minn), xvii. 27 (ibid.) TO Oelov (D gig

1 Souter, I.e. pp. clxiii-clxv. Souter suggests (p. xcvi) that the translation
of Irenaeus is by the same hand (a Greek) from which we have the Latin of
Origen s Commentary on Matthew. J. Chapman, Did the Translator of St.
Irenaeus use a Latin New Testament ? Revue Benedictine, vol. xxxvi., 1924,
pp. 34-51, holds that the translator always rendered the Greek text as quoted
by Irenaeus, and never altered the text under the influence of any Latin version,
although he knew a Latin version (but one wholly indeterminable by us), and
it " occasionally, but rarely, ran in his head " ; our MSS. of Irenaeus, according
to Chapman, have all been somewhat influenced by the Vulgate.

2 Rahlfs, Lucians Eezension der Konigsbucher, pp. 116-118, 138.

3 P. M. Barnard, The Biblical Text of Clement of Alexandria in the Four
Gospels and the Acts of tJie Apostles (Texts and Studies v.), 1899, with * Intro
duction by F. C. Burkitt (esp. p. xvii) ; the passages from Clement are given
in full, pp. 62-64. The quotations by Clement on which the statements in the
text above are founded are Acts i. 7 (Strom, iii. 6), ii. 26-28 (Strom, vi. 6), ii. 41
(Strom, i. 18), vi. 2 (Paedag. ii. 7), vii. 22 (Strom, i. 23), x. 10-15 (Paedag. ii. 1),
x. 34 f. (Strom, vi. 8), xv. 23 (Paedag. ii. 7), xv. 28 f. (Paedag. ii. 7 ; Strom, iv.
15), xvii. 22-28 (Strom, i. 19, v. 11-12), xxvi. 17 f. (Strom, i. 19).

GKEEK FATHERS clxxxix

Iren). The most noteworthy citation is that of Acts xv. 28 f .
(Paedag. ii. 7, Potter, p. 202 ; Strom, iv. 15, Potter, p. 606),
where Clement s text is closely like Bs* and almost identical
with A. This passage is the earliest witness to the inclusion of
Kal TTVIKT&V, and seems to show that Clement did not read in
his text the (negative) Golden Rule.

In the Gospels Clement s text was predominantly, but not
completely, Western, not that of BK ; l in the Pauline epistles,
as in Acts, it corresponds in general with the type of Bx. 2

For the Old Testament, in Judges Clement follows the older
text of A, not the Egyptian revision found in B ; 3 in 1-4 King
doms his text has close contact with B ; 4 in the Psalter his text
shows clear agreement both with that of Upper Egypt (see above,
pp. xciii-v) and with B, although, as found in our MSS. (tenth
and eleventh centuries), it seems also to have been in part
corrected to agree with the Psalter of the later minuscules. 5
Since the text of Upper Egypt in the Psalter bears somewhat the
same relation to the text of B as does the base of the Western
text in the New Testament (see above, p. xciv), the analogy
of the combination of ancient elements in Clement s Psalter with
the well-known corresponding combination in his Gospels is
striking. 6

(d) OEIGEN (ca. 185-254)

Origen s text of Acts 7 was that of the Old Uncials (Btf AC 81).

1 Burkitt, I.e. pp. vii-xix.

2 Souter, Text and Canon of the New Testament, p. 81.

3 G. F. Moore, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges, p. xlvi.

4 Rahlfs, Lucians Eezension der Konigsbucher, pp. 118-122, 138.

5 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta- Psalters, 1907, pp. 208-210.

6 The general conclusion of Otto Stahlin, Clemens Alexandrinus und die
Septuaginta, Nurnberg, 1901, p. 77, is : " Durchweg zeigt sich eine Verschieden-
heit zwischen dem Bibeltext bei Clemens und dem Codex B." Of this conclusion
Rahlfs would make some qualifications for certain books of the Old Testament.

7 The evidence as to Origen s text of Acts can be gathered by the aid of the
full indexes of the Berlin edition and of De la Rue. It is carefully given by
Tregelles ; Tischendorf s statements are not always coi rect. The observations
of von Soden (Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, pp. 1836 f.) are not substan
tially different from the judgment stated above, when translated into language
not framed from his own theory. He holds that Origen in the Acts (as in the

cxc THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

This is clear, notwithstanding his freedom of citation l and the
brevity of most of his citations from Acts. Thus (Contra Celsum,
ii. 1) he quotes Acts x. 9-15 in a text which consistently follows
BttAC 81 against both Western and Antiochian readings,
and numerous other citations and allusions, mostly brief but
occurring through a wide range of his works, evince the same
source.

A few cases of trifling importance where his citation agrees
with the Antiochian text (for instance, Comm. in Matt. x. 18,
Acts i. 8 fjboi for pov, Trdcrrj for eV irdarj ; De oral, xxvii. 12, Acts
x. 12 epTrera KOI Orjpia) are not significant exceptions; they
sometimes stand in free summaries, and may be explained on
any one of several theories. His text shows no specific Western
character, although here and there it agrees with D or d against
the Old Uncials (for instance, Contra Celsum, i. 5, vi. 11, Acts
v. 36 /jLeyav , Horn, in Jerem. xiii. 3, Acts vii. 39 om avrwv), but
these agreements are very few in number, and most of them are
explicable as inaccuracies of quotation or the combination in
memory of two parallel passages. Moreover, the currency of
such a reading as Acts v. 36 ^&^ a v was by no means limited to
the circle of Western authorities (cf. A corr minn Cyril Alex.).

As between the texts of the several Old Uncials, no close
relation of Origen to any one can be certainly shown in view of
the scantiness of the evidence. But his reading frequently
agrees with B.

Gospels, pp. 1510-1520) used the I-H-K text, that is (p. 1520), the text current
in the third century, in distinction from the special recensions which can he
recognized.

1 The idea of differences of text in the copies of the Bible used by Origen s
several amanuenses has been shown by E. Klostermann, Gottingische gelehrte
Anzeigen, 1904, pp. 267-269, to lack the support which E. Preuschen, Zeitschrift
fur die neutesl. Wissenschaft, vol. iv., 1903, pp. 67-74, and Origenes Werke,
IV. Der Johannes kommentar, 1903, pp. Ixxxviii-ci, thought he had found
for it ; and it is in itself highly improbable that a critical student of the text
like Origen should have failed to regulate the copies provided in his own scrip
torium for his assistants, or their practice in the use of them. Streeter s
discovery (see below) of the use of two distinct texts by Origen (Old Uncial
and Caesarean) has put this whole matter in a new light.

GREEK FATHERS cxci

A few instances are here given, of which the most noteworthy
is the first :

ii. 44 (Comm. in Matt. torn. xv. 15) om rjo-av, om

/cai before el^ov . . . . B min
:vi. 17 (Comm. in Joh. torn, xxviii. 16) om T&&amp;gt;

before TLav\rp . . . . . B

xxi. 23 (De orat. iii. 4) a$ for e&lt;/&gt; . . . Bx

vii. 43 (Contra Celsum, v. 8) om VJL&V . . . BD

po/ji&lt;f)a . . BS

xii. 13 (Comm. in Matt. torn. xiii. 28 ; De la Rue,

iii. p. 608) 7rpoo-^\0v .... B*A 81 D

ii. 44 (Comm. in Matt. torn. xv. 15) TncrreiWre? . AC 81 D

In the Gospels Origen used for some purposes an Old Uncial
text, but for others, after his removal from Alexandria, employed
the Caesarean text (the so-called fam J. 1 In the Old
Testament, in so far as Origen does not quote his own hexa-
plaric text, he uses in 1-4 Kingdoms a text closely like that
of B (with which agree the Ethiopic, the ancient base of the
Lucianic, and in a less measure the Sahidic), 2 in the Psalter a
text like that of B (and the Bohairic). On the text used by
Origen as the basis for the Septuagint column of the Hexapla,
see above, pp. xci-xcvii.

(e) DIDASCALIA APOSTOLORUM ; APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS i.-vi.

The Didascalia Apostolorum (third century ; Syria or
Palestine) is the source which has been expanded, interpolated,
and corrected by a writer of ca. 400 (Syria) to produce Books
I.-VI. of the Apostolic Constitutions. 3

1 See the highly significant investigation of B. H. Streeter, The Four Gospels :
A Study of Origins, 1924, pp. 78-102, 585-589 ; also Souter, Text and Canon of
the New Testament, p. 83. E. Hautsch, Die Evangclienzitate des Origenes (Texte
und Untersuchungen, xxxiv.), 1909, p. 4, from a study of the Gospel quota
tions, reached the conclusion that in his several works, written under varving
conditions, Origen used different copies of the New Testament.

2 Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbucher, pp. 129 f. ; Studien zu den
Konigsbuchern (Septuaginta-Studien, i.), pp. 47-87.

3 F. X. Funk, Didascalia et Constitutions Apostolorum, Paderborn, 1905,
contains a full index of Scripture passages.

cxcii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The Didascalia contains a number of citations from Acts, of
which the most important occur in vi. 12, where the writer has
curiously interwoven parts of Acts x. and xv. His text of Acts
was plainly not the Antiochian. Thus for xv. 17 f., xv. 23, he
clearly is not using that text, and he nowhere uses any reading
certainly distinctive of the Antiochian text. Of Western
readings positive traces are to be observed, for instance :

Acts x. 11 the omission of Karaftalvov from its proper place early

in the phrase ; 1
xv. 1 e except ye be circumcised and walk according to the

law of Moses (D hcl.mg sah) ;
xv. 10 * the necks, plural (d vg. codd) ;
xv. 11 through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (CD) ;
xv. 23 writing by their hands this letter (cf . D hcl.mg sah) ;
xv. 29 Trpdgare for Trpafere (CD).

It must not be overlooked that virtually all our knowledge
of the Didascalia comes from a Syriac, and from a fragmentary
Latin, translation of a Greek text, and that the amount of
evidence is small at best. Occasional non- western readings are
found in the Syriac Didascalia, but in at least three such passages
(and those the most important), Acts x. 9, 11, xv. 1-5, and xv. 20
(all found in Didascalia vi. 12, where the Latin is not available),
there are reasons for suspecting that the original reading of the

properly belongs only in the text (Old Uncial) in which the
sheet-like vessel is said to be lowered by the four corners. In the Western
text the vessel was said to be tied by the four corners and lowered (jcaftl/teiw).
This latter was clearly the basis of the text found in the Didascalia, but from
the other text the word Karafialvov (with the necessary Kat preceding) has been
added redundantly after Ko.6t.tiJ.evov in the Didascalia. By the Antiochian
revisers, with a similar, but different, conflation, .the Old Uncial text adopted
by them as their basis was modified by adding the Western dede/me vov (with
following KCU) before Ka.8itfj.evov. It would seem that the reviser of the Didas
calia whose hand we detect in the Syriac version, did not venture completely
to substitute the Antiochian text (with its wholly different structure) for the
Western which he found in his exemplar, but tried by his addition to produce
a text which should be in substantial (although not formal) agreement with
the Antiochian. The method which he employed made it impossible to com
plete the process by inserting the en avrbv with which the Antiochian revisers
had supplemented Kara^alvov. See below, pp. cxciii, cxcviii, 93.

GREEK FATHERS cxciii

Didascalia has been modified so as partially to accord with a
non-western (probably Antiochian) text.

These reasons depend on the well-established fact that the
Didascalia is the source which the author of the Apostolic Con
stitutions has expanded to form Books I. -VI. of his comprehensive
work, and may be presented as follows :

(a) In Acts x. 11 such tampering with the text is disclosed
by the fact that the present text of the Didascalia is not the
true non- western, but is both defective (in omitting &&amp;gt;? oOovrjv
/jLejaXrjv) and confused (through the introduction of /caraffalvov
not in its proper place, but after KaOie^evov, as has been
explained at length in the note on p. cxcii). 1

(b) Acts xv. 1-5. The facts here can best be made clear by
parallel columns.

1 In view of the other instances it is natural to suspect that when the Syriac
Didascalia reproduces Acts x. 9, I went up on a roof to pray, in language
closely like that of the usual text, the original form was, as in the Constitutions,
fy tv T$ U7i ept6y Trpoo-evxbM-evos (or something closely like it), but of this hypo
thesis no particular confirmation suggests itself from eithre document.

[TABLE

VOL. ni n

rl-f

M ^N

H b

H J=-

S s.

1C b
i

-d

I..

" 5 h

1 ii

|T2tj

fe o.^

3 I

s^
14 N

GREEK FATHERS cxcv

Here for Acts xv. 1 the Didascalia has a free paraphrase,
obviously based on the expanded Western text, but still
further enlarged by the noteworthy phrase and be cleansed from
meats and from all the other things, this being apparently the
original (and not at all unsuitable) addition of the writer of the
Didascalia himself. The author of the Constitutions, with his
summary /cal rot? aXXot? eOeo-iv ot? Sterafaro, made this more
conventional and less striking, and further, in conformity to
his Antiochian standard, connected TG&gt; eOei, Mwvcrecos with
irepiT^rjOfiTe (notice, however, the aorist tense, as in the Old
Uncials and D), but has not wholly eliminated the influence of the
Western text due to the Didascalia. At the opening of verse 5
the Syriac Didascalia (like Codex Bezae) has added (doubtless
from the Antiochian text) the reference to the converted
Pharisees, which the Constitutions do not have and which (see
below, p. 140) probably was not a part of that verse in the
Western text. Further, in verse 5, where the closing phrase
of the Didascalia is and to keep the law of Moses, just as in the
ordinary text of Acts (except for the omission of
the Constitutions present the remarkable paraphrase -ra?
dyveias TrapafyvKaTrew (without TrapayyeXkeiv). These words
are in no way derived from the Antiochian, or any other, text
of Acts, and hence are unlikely to be an original alteration
by the author of the Constitutions ; their obvious resemblance
to the enlargement introduced at verse 1 in the Didascalia
gives the key. Probably words closely like those now found
in the Constitutions originally stood in the Didascalia, and were
left with little or no change by the author of the Constitutions,
while in the Didascalia itself the Syriac translator (or possibly a
preceding Greek reviser) substituted for the original paraphrase
a phrase drawn from the current biblical text of his day.

(c) In the reproduction of Acts xv. 20 in the Didascalia, and
what is strangled stands in its usual (third) place among the
four provisos, while the Constitutions, by the unusual position of
Kal TTVLKTOV at the end of the list, betray that these words are

cxcvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

an addition. 1 It is impossible to suppose that the order of the
Didascalia, which is in accord with the general custom, was altered
by the Constitutions so as to produce a unique text. We must
conclude either that the peculiar order was found in the original
Didascalia and taken over by the Constitutions, or else (what is far
more likely) that the Didascalia originally contained the * Western/
text with only three provisos, and that this was modified by the
author of the Constitutions, who made the sentence conform in
substance, though not in order, to the Antiochian text that he
was following as his standard. In either case the text of the
Syriac Didascalia is seen to be an alteration of the original Greek.

Thus every one of these passages leads to the conclusion that
the text of the quotations from Acts in the Didascalia was
originally completely Western, and has been occasionally
modified in our Syriac version. The conclusion needs to be
further investigated as to its applicability to quotations drawn
from other books of the Bible. 2

In the Old Testament the Didascalia in 1-4 Kingdoms likewise
shows itself not under the influence of the Lucianic text, and
here again the Constitutions have in one case (4 Kingdoms
xxi. 13) preserved portions of the old text which are not certainly
to be identified in the Syriac and Latin Didascalia. 3 The
Didascalia quotes Ezek. xxxiv. 4 from Theodotion, doubtless from
an hexaplaric Greek manuscript. 4 The quotation is not changed
in the Constitutions (ii. 18 and 20).

1 Later (vi. 12, 15), in quoting the words of the decree itself, Acts xv. 29,
both Didascalia and Constitutions observe the usual order of the four
specifications.

2 Flemming, in H. Achelis and J. Flemming, Die syrische Didaskalia
ubersetzt und erkldrt (Texte und Untersuchungen, xxv.), 1904, p. 251, expresses
the conviction that in not a few cases, other than in biblical quotations, it is
possible to emend the text of the Didascalia from the corresponding reading
of the Constitutions. This method was employed in an exaggerated manner
by Lagarde in his reconstruction of the Greek text of the Didascalia in Bunsen s
Analecta Ante-Nicaena, vol. ii., 1854, but the validity of it within suitable
limits has not been sufficiently recognized by many later scholars.

3 Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbucher, pp. 130-137, esp. pp. 136 f.

4 E. Nestle, Zeitschrift fur die neutestameniliche Wissenschaft, vol. i., 1900,
pp. 176 f.

GREEK FATHERS cxcvii

In the Apostolic Constitutions, Books I.-VL, evidence as to
the text of Acts employed by the interpolator and editor is to be tions.
found in some briefer citations, but especially (as in the Didas-
calia) in the extensive quotations from Acts x. and xv. in Const,
vi. 12, where the interpolator has added much biblical matter
not found in the Didascalia which he had before him. The
interpolator lived in a time and country in which, we are told by
St. Jerome, the Lucianic text of the LXX was dominant, and it
is natural that his work should show that he had at hand an
Antiochian text of Acts, for instance, in Acts xv. 18 (eVrt rw Oew
irdvra ra epya avrov, where the Didascalia rests on a text that
lacked the sentence). But other passages of the Constitutions,
probably derived from the Didascalia, show the influence of the
Western text. In Acts x. 11 the Constitutions (vi. 12, 6) quote
in full, and almost exactly, the Western text which, in agree
ment with d, must have stood on the lost page of D. 1 Other
specifically Western readings (see above) are :

viii. 19 wa + /caya&gt; (Const, ap. vi. 7, 3 ; D perp) ;

viii. 21 TW \6&lt;yw rovrw] rrj Trio-ret, ravry (Const, ap. vi. 7, 4 ; cf.
perp gig Aug pesh).

xv. 1 Mojucreo)? + /cal rot9 d\\oi&lt;&gt; eOeaiv 0*9 Stera^aro irepi-
Trarrjre (Const, ap. vi. 12, 2 ; cf . D hcl.mg. sah).

xv. 20 The very unusual, and probably unique, position of /cal
TTVIKTOV (note the singular, which is Antiochian) at
the end of the list in Const, ap. vi. 12, 13 suggests
that it may have been added to a Western text
including only the three provisos.

In its abridgment of Acts xv. 1-5 the account in the Con
stitutions (like the Western text) does not involve the incon
sistency of the ordinary text (here by contamination found
also in Codex Bezae), in which the controversy seems to be
initiated first at Antioch (v. 1) and again independently at
Jerusalem (v. 5).

1 See Textual Note, below, p. 93.

cxcviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The most natural explanation of all the facts is clearly that
stated above, that the Western readings and allusions of the
Constitutions are due to Western readings in the underlying
Didascalia (of the original Greek of which we have but imperfect
knowledge) which the interpolator, using for himself the Anti-
ochian text, failed to eliminate. 1 This fully accounts for the
otherwise most surprising citation of the pure Western text
of Acts x. 11 by the Constitutions alone among Greek sources.
But the evidence is meagre.

(/) EUSEBIUS ; CYRIL OF JERUSALEM ; EPIPHANIUS

These three writers show, at least in some parts of the New
Testament, a certain relation to the Western text, but evidently
in a weakened form.

Eusebius (ca. 265-340), who used in the Gospels a text with
distinctly Western character, 2 had a text of Acts lacking
Antiochian tendency, but for the most part (so far as his quota
tions permit a judgment) agreeing with one or more of the Old
Uncials against the Western in both these respects much
like the text of Origen.

Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315-386) is said to show for Acts the
use of a text of Western affinities. 3

Of Epiphanius (ca. 315-403) the same can be said, but his
text occasionally agrees with the Antiochian readings. 4

(g) ATHANASIUS ; DIDYMUS ; CYRIL OP ALEXANDRIA ;
COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES

Of these writers all except Cosmas are known to have had their
birth, education, and activity in Alexandria, while the merchant,

1 A similar situation seems to be present in the Old Testament citations
from the books of Kingdoms ; Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbucher,
pp. 136 f. 2 Hort, Introduction, p. 113.

3 Von Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, p. 1759.

4 Ibid. It is not impossible that a renewed study of the text of these writers
would throw fresh light on the locality and history of the text contained in
the various groups of manuscripts designated as I by von Soden.

GREEK FATHERS cxcix

and later monk, Cosmas, chiefly notable as a traveller, was
perhaps a native of that city, at any rate found in it the stable
centre of his roving earlier period, and spent his later years of
devout retirement at no very great distance from it. All four
used an Alexandrian text of the Bible similar to that of our Old
Uncials, and from their citations, if these are ever thoroughly
studied, fuller knowledge than is now at hand may be expected
with regard to the history of that text. Such knowledge would
furnish instruction for the study of the codices themselves, and
ought to throw light on the very important questions of how far
the text of the Old Uncials and their minuscule successors is to
be attributed to learned recensions, and of the significance of
Antiochian readings in the Old Uncials.

The demonstrated relation of Codex Vaticanus to Athanasius
(295-373) invites the hope that a study of his citations, made
with due regard to the problem of the text of Athanasius s own
writings, would be of value. He uses for Acts, as elsewhere, the
Old Uncial text, in clear distinction from the Antiochian and the
* Western. Of his relation to our several extant codices nothing
appears to be known. 1 The same statement seems to be the only
one that can be made at present with regard to his contemporary
Didymus (313-398), and to Cyril of Alexandria (f 444). 2

Cosmas Indicopleustes (wrote 547) likewise uses a text of the
Old Uncial type in his extensive quotations from Acts. The copy
from which these were taken was not specially related to any
one of the group BttAC 81, and shows nothing whatever of the
peculiarities of B, with which he never agrees except in company
with one or more of the other members of the group. Antiochian
readings seldom occur except when they are found in one or

1 Von Soden, pp. 1672 f. Von Soden s mention of Migne s edition ol
Athanasius seems to imply that he used that only in his study ; if so, this puts
an unfortunate limitation on the sufficiency of his results. A similar question
arises with reference to Didymus and Cyril.

2 Von Soden, pp. 1673 f. Hort, Introduction, p. 141, says : " At Alexandria
itself the Alexandrian tradition lives on through the fourth century, more or
less disguised with foreign accretions, and then in the early part of the fifth
century reappears comparatively pure in Cyril."

cc THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

another of the Old Uncial group. For the Gospels Cosmas is
said to have used " a late Alexandrian type of text, like L." *

Early in the seventh century Alexandria became the prey of
the Arabs, and Greek Christian writers, who might have used
the text of the Old Uncials, no longer appear.

(h) CHRYSOSTOM

The text of the Gospels and Pauline Epistles used by
Chrysostom was substantially, but not exclusively, Antiochian.
The other element seems to have come from the late text (the
I-text of von Soden) found in mixed minuscules, 2 not from the
Old Uncial text (the * H-text ). In the Acts, Chrysostom s text
is likewise mainly Antiochian, 3 but his homilies on Acts (delivered
ca. 400) show abundant reference to characteristic Western
glosses.

The homilies are found in two forms, and these may go back
to distinct originals ; it is possible that we have reports written
down by two different hearers. One form is found in the New
College, Oxford, MS., used by Savile for his edition (1612, vol. v.) ;
the other was printed by Fronto Ducaeus and his successors
(Paris, 1609-1636), and reprinted by Montfaucon (Paris, 1718-
1738, vol. ix.) and Migne. The excerpts from Chrysostom of the
Armenian Catena on Acts (Venice, 1839) 4 represent the same
text as the New College MS., possibly somewhat reinforced by
Western readings drawn from Ephrem. This text contains
more allusions to * Western readings than does that of Fronto
Ducaeus. The text used by Chrysostom as found in the homilies
calls for further investigation. 5

1 Souter, Text and Canon of the New Testament, p. 85.

2 Von Soden, pp. 1460 f.

3 Hort, * Introduction, p. 91.

4 The same Catena of which the sections drawn from Ephrem are printed in
the present volume, pp. 381 ff.

5 F. C. Conybeare, On the Western Text of the Acts as Evidenced by
Chrysostom, American Journal of Philology, vol. xvn., 1896, pp. 135-171. In
this article (pp. 149-170) the full evidence from the Armenian Catena and
from Savile s Greek is given in the case of many readings of Acts. See also

GKEEK FATHERS cci

The text of Acts used by some others of the Greek fathers
would doubtless, if better known, give aid in understanding the
relations of our best MSS. and in determining their value. The
most ancient of these MSS. are hardly, if at all, older than the
works of Alexandrian, Palestinian, Antiochian, and Constantino-
politan writers whose works are extant but whose evidence as
to the New Testament text has been largely neglected. The
Cappadocian fathers, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and
others, 1 as well as those of whom something has been said above,
need to be investigated in order that the history of the text after
the rise of the Antiochian recension in the fourth century may be
understood. Only through knowledge, or at least through a
detailed and well-grounded theory, of that history can the
wilderness of the later New Testament MSS., into which von
Soden s great work has now cut some vistas, be adequately
explored and mapped.

Conybeare s notes to the translation of the Commentary of Ephrem, below.
It is to be observed that the views presented by Conybeare in 1896, that
Chrysostom used the commentary of an older father to whom the Western
readings were due, and that the Armenian rests on a fuller text than that of the
New College MS. and Savile, are withdrawn in his later discussion, as now
published.

1 Possibly Eustathius, patriarch of Antioch, ca. 323-330, used a Western
text ; see H. C. Hoskier, Concerning the Date of the Bohairic Version, London,
1911, pp. 118 f.

II. THE CRITICISM AND HISTORY OF THE
GREEK TEXT

1. INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS

THE witnesses to the text described above fall naturally, for
Acts as for the other chief books of the New Testament, into
three major groups, the members of each of which so often agree
with their fellows within the group as to make it certain that the
group draws its text largely from a common Greek ancestor. The
three texts to which these groups point are called in this volume :

(a) the Old Uncial text ;

(b) the Western text ;

The first two take their name from the most important extant
representatives of the text ; the third from the place where the
text was definitely formed. The term Old Uncial is used to
cover what Westcott and Hort included in their " Neutral " and
their " Alexandrian " text ; the term Antiochian has been
preferred to their name " Syrian " as less likely to cause confusion.
The unsatisfactory nature of the term Western is acknowledged,
but a more convenient, and at the same time exact, name for the
text in question does not present itself.

Within each of these major groups sub-groups disclose
themselves, marked by participation in definite series of variant
readings. To elicit these sub-groups and determine their relation
to one another constitutes a large part of the work (much of it
not yet performed) of preparing the material for the history of

CRITICISM AND HISTORY OF GREEK TEXT cciii

the text of the New Testament. Fortunately textual criticism
properly so called, the determination of what are to be accepted
as the original words of the authors, can generally be pursued
with sound results by observing merely the major grouping of the
witnesses. With hardly an exception the difficulty arising from
the mixed character of the text in our witnesses of older and
middle date is to be met, as Westcott and Hort pointed out, by
dealing primarily with the common readings of notable groups,
not with the evidence of single witnesses. But in order that
criticism may be thoroughly convincing, it requires to be rein
forced by a well-established view of textual history, adequate for
the rational explanation of the origin of the various types and of
their relation to the supporting witnesses. The task will not be
completely absolved until in this way the whole history of the
text has been elucidated, including the later development down
to the period of the printed New Testament. Only when all the
late witnesses are fully understood and explained will the study
of textual criticism lose its significance. The practical import
ance, however, of the study of the later forms of the text is chiefly
to ensure that all out-of-the-way survivals of ancient texts which
may conceivably be genuine readings, have been discovered and
registered.

In the text of the Greek Bible, in both Testaments, the forces Phases in
at work in producing the existing situation have been two : (1) of^h
free variation (both accidental and deliberate) and rewriting ; text *
(2) learned recension intended to produce a definite, and in some
cases an authoritative, text, together with the influence of
scholars who have preferred some definite type of text and pro
moted its use. In both Testaments some of these recensions or
preferred texts can be recognized and identified ; others will no
doubt be determined by future inquiry. From the point of view
of the study of these forces the following brief sketch of the
listory of the text of Acts is here outlined. The aim is to direct
attention in the history to the succession of what may be called
phases of the text. These are not exactly chronological stages

cciv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

or events, following one another (although they correspond in
part to such stages), for the documents in each group in many cases
had their actual origin at dates separated by long intervals of time.
Many strokes in such a picture have to be guided by knowledge
as yet imperfect, and in its details the sketch is presented with due
reserve. Yet the general lines are, I believe, true to the history.
It differs from Westcott and Hort s account chiefly in its method
of grouping, rather than in the judgments of fact on which it
rests.

For other books of the New Testament than Acts the sketch
would require some modification. It will be observed that the
classification reached in this way is different from that stated
above, and it is presented as historically significant and suggestive,
not as a practical classification of texts, adapted for direct use in
textual criticism proper. For the latter purpose the familiar
distribution into families noted by Bengel designated by
Griesbach as Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine, and carried
further by Westcott and Hort through their division of the
Alexandrian family into Neutral and Alexandrian is appropriate
and, indeed, necessary.

(1) The Primitive Phase. In this phase the text was subject
to free variation, both accidental and deliberate, and to elaborate
rewriting ; many variants were present in different documents ;
and the actual copying was far less subject to control than at a
later time, and was often very inaccurate. 1 Here substantially
belong most of the papyrus fragments, Codices BtfD, the Greek

1 J. L. Hug, Einleitung in die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, 4th ed., 1847,
pp. 121-127, recognized this phase of the history of the text, and applied to it
the term KOIVTJ &c5o&lt;ns, which he drew from the Alexandrian grammarians (cf.
also Jerome, Ep. 106, ad Sunniam et Fretelam, 2). To it he referred Codex Bezae,
but he failed to see that D represents a rewriting (though not in the proper sense
a learned recension ) within this primitive phase and period. The term KQIVT]
properly designates the unrevised text (like Westcott and Hort s name,
neutral ) in contrast to a definite recension or recensions. The use of K(oine)
by von Soden to denote the Antiochian text was not in accord with ancient
usage, although, as it happens, Jerome (Ep. 106) states that many applied the
name Lucianic to the common text of the LXX, both terms alike serving to
mark a distinction from the hexaplaric recension ; see Rahlfs, Der Text des
Septuaginta-Psalters, pp. 170 f.

CRITICISM AND HISTORY OF GREEK TEXT ccv

text underlying the African Latin, the text, partly conformed to
a standard, from which the Sahidic was drawn, and the text used
by Clement of Alexandria and (in somewhat less degree) that of
Origen. 1 Attempts at recension were doubtless made within
the limits of this phase ; in some centres standard copies were re
cognized ; and the early mixture which is unmistakable thus arose.
But such early recensions have not as yet been identified by clear
evidence. The Western text is included in this phase ; it was
an ancient rewriting, not, like the later recognizable recensions,
an attempt to select the best among extant variants, only inci
dentally accompanied by occasional improvement on the editor s
own part. The * Western text and what may for convenience
be called the B-text are two divergent types of this phase, and
both go back to a very remote antiquity.

This phase of the history of the text was not brought to
an end by the Antiochian recension. The most valuable single
representative of it is Codex Vaticanus, which, with the Bohairic
version, offers in Acts a non-western text of great freedom
from Western readings, and, on the other hand, shows fewer
traces than any of its kin probably, indeed, none of influence
from the Antiochian text. On these two characteristics, as has
already been remarked above, not on any unique purity within
its own non-western and non-antiochian field, rests, in Acts, the
pre-eminence of this codex. Its relation to early, free, non-
western variation, and the question whether its text was created
by a recensional process in which the shorter reading was con
sistently preferred, have not as yet been determined. This
position of Codex B both explains its superiority and accounts
for its many recognizable individual faults. Many other faults,
shared with other MSS. of its own type, it may also be suspected
;o contain, but no internal criticism enables us to detect
hem.

1 Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta- Psalters, p. 201, remarks that the evidence
f Clement of Alexandria shows that in ancient times a greater number of
lifferent types of text of the Greek Psalms were current than have been
reserved for us.

ccvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

(2) The Antiochian Recension and its Successive Modifications.
The formation of the Antiochian recension in the fourth century
constituted a fateful epoch in the history of the text both of Old
and New Testaments. Through all the centuries beginning with
the ninth the great bulk of Greek MSS. contain this text, mostly
in a fair degree of purity. The most important question with
regard to it is how far it has preserved non-western readings
derived from the earlier stage of free variation and otherwise
unknown to us or insufficiently attested.

(3) The Phase of Later Mixture and Supplementary Recension.
Here belong Codices AC 81, most of the MSS. assigned by von
Soden to his H-text and I-text, and probably the Greek copies
underlying the Latin gigas-recension and the Latin Vulgate.
Whether the Greek MS. from which came the marginal and
asterisked readings of the Harclean Syriac was of this nature
or was a pure Western text cannot be determined in the present
state of knowledge. The extant Greek MSS. here mentioned show
a character of their own. They make the impression of having
been written under definite control of various kinds ; in ortho
graphy and grammar they are more accurate by the standards of
the grammarians than those of the earliest phase ; and, apart from
mere accidents, they contain relatively few individual readings
peculiar to the several codices.

In this great and heterogeneous mass many distinct types of
mixture can be identified, and now that the fundamental spade-
work of von Soden has been done, their relations and history will
probably be more and more accurately and instructively elucidated
as the laborious research required for this study makes further
progress. Within this phase will probably be discovered the text
of Pamphilus and Eusebius ; if so, that will form an excellent
illustration of what took place at many centres. Some of these
texts had as one of their component elements noteworthy readings
of great antiquity in considerable abundance, and it is here that
the chief use of the minuscule codices, when fully investigated, i
will lie. Which are the useful minuscules will appear when all j

CRITICISM AND HISTORY OF GREEK TEXT ccvii

those codices that are incapable of such use (constituting, in fact,
the great majority) are removed from the critic s horizon.

The textual history of the New Testament and that of the Comparison
Septuagint have been parallel. In both Testaments the period of old Testa-
Origen and that of Lucian of Antioch are the great landmarks. n
In both, a phase, or period, of free variation was interrupted, but
not fully terminated, by the effect of great recensions ; and in
both the critic s task is to determine the best extant text which
preceded these recensions, and, as well, to discover and adopt any
sound readings preserved in the recensions, though lacking strong,
or even any, attestation outside them. In both cases the con
clusion of criticism advises the adoption of Codex Vaticanus as in
large measure, but only in large measure and to a degree varying
greatly in different groups of books, the best single survivor of
the earliest phase of textual development.

But there are important differences. Thus in the Septuagint
the Lucianic text appears to contain many precious readings
drawn from its ancient base and sometimes known to us from no
other source, while in the New Testament it is capable of rendering
a similar service, if at all, only within narrow limits. 1

Moreover, Origen made no recension of the New Testament,
and the difference between the fortunes of the Septuagint and of
the New Testament in his period is the cause of a far-reaching
difference in the later history of the two texts. The outcome may
have been partly due to Origen in the New Testament as well as
in the Old, but in the latter case his new and powerful recension
entered at this time on its career as an active power, whereas in
the New Testament what happened was that an ancient but
neglected type of text was brought to new prominence, and the
primitive phase of the text prolonged. In the Septuagint,
well before the middle of the third century the recension put
forth in the fifth column of the Hexapla provided a restrictive

1 Even von Soden s method of criticism, which allows one vote out of three
to the Antiochian text, does not permit that text to outweigh the combined
votes of the H-text and the I-text.

ccviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

force to check free variation, although it became in itself the
source of a fresh type of mixture. No similar great repressive
force was at work in the New Testament at anything like so early a
date. For the Book of Acts, to limit the statement to the special
field of our present inquiry, what we seem to see is that not long
after Origen s date a change in usage took place. In the second
century the text of Acts commonly used had been the Western.
It penetrated to the Latin - speaking world and to the Syrian
church, was long used in Palestine, and is found in Egypt at
Oxyrhynchus in the third or fourth century, while the traces of it
in the copy from which the Sahidic was made likewise attest its
use in Egypt. But under some influence (we may guess that this
was not unconnected with Origen), and before the time of Athana-
sius, the old B-text won the day in Alexandria over the old
Western text, was used as the chief basis of the recension made
at Antioch, was employed by Jerome for the revision of the Latin
translation, and later showed its position of full authority in
Egypt, where it provided the copy from which the Bohairic version
was made. One effect of this change of public favour must have
been that many Western copies were corrected over to a B-
standard, and so gave rise, by reason of incomplete correcting, to
a progeny of descendants with a mixed text. In the codex from
which the Sahidic was translated many remnants of the f Western
base survived here and there, chiefly in unimportant minor details,
amid the general mass of B-readings.

Another fact of Septuagint history to which the New Testa
ment offers no counterpart is that the influence of the Hexaplaric
and of the Lucianic recensions in the Old Testament can be easily
detected. Their readings stand out conspicuous against any
alien background. In the New Testament the Western text
has something of that quality, but it belongs to the phase of
primitive, free rewriting, not to that of learned recensions.
Hardly any other type can be recognized by familiar features in
any single sentence taken alone. The Antiochian selection of
readings is, indeed, easily recognized in any considerable passage,

CRITICISM AND HISTORY OF GREEK TEXT ccix

but for a given single reading it is hardly ever possible to say
whether it is Antiochian or merely a part of the older text
( Western or, more often, Old Uncial) which the Antiochian
revisers used. No one will be able to tell what the text of the
Codex of Pamphilus, followed in Eusebius s copies, was like, until
by some external evidence it shall be determined what that text
was. 1

Other important differences between the two Testaments can
be pointed out. Except in the Psalms, nothing in the textual
history of the Old Testament corresponding to the Western text
of the New Testament is known to us. And in the later phases of
the Old Testament text the most commonly adopted type was not
(again with the exception of the Psalms) the Lucianic recension,
but rather a modified form of the older current text.

1 Hesychius need not be mentioned here. He is a figure shadowy enough
even for the Old Testament, and for the New Testament we know nothing
whatever about his work.

VOL. Ill

2. PAPYRI AND OTHER FRAGMENTS

ALTHOUGH no essential difference separates papyrus MSS. from
others, yet in the present state of our knowledge of the text the
papyri and certain associated fragments require separate mention.
This is partly because a large proportion of them are of great
antiquity, partly because their place of origin or currency is in
most cases known to be Egypt.

1. PAPYKI AND EGYPTIAN FRAGMENTS

In the Acts the following fragments from Egypt come in
question (for fuller statements see pp. xvii-xxi). Only the four
specifically so designated (Pap.) are papyri.

Pap. 29 (Oxyrhynchus 1597 ; third or fourth century).

Pap. 8 (Berlin, P 8683 ; fourth century).

057 (Berlin, P 9808 ; fourth century).

0165 (Berlin, P 271 ; fourth or fifth century).

0166 (Heidelberg 1357 ; fifth century ; bought at Akhmim,
but of uncertain provenance).

0175 (Florence, Oxyrhynchus fragment, vol. ii. No. 125 ; fifth
century).

076 (Amherst VIII ; fifth or sixth century).

Wess 590 (Vienna ; Sahidic and Greek ; sixth century).

Pap. 33 (Vienna ; Pap Wess 190 ; sixth or seventh century).

Pap. Wess 237 (Vienna ; graeco- sahidic ; eleventh or twelfth
century).

Of these the earliest (Pap. 29) is certainly older than our oldest
codices. The text of the fragment is given in full below, pp.
235, 237 ; its chief variants from B are :

PAPYRI AND FRAGMENTS ccxi

xxvi. 7 eAm^ei] eAm8t. This implies a finite verb instead of
Xarpevcov B ; so deserviunt in spe pervenire gig ; whether in Pap. 29
the noun was preceded by ev cannot be known.

8 Seems to have omitted /3acriAeu TI CLTTLCTTOV Kpiverai Trap v^iv.

20 le/oo cro Allots] + /cat. The editors suggest, in view of the space,
that what followed was rrj touSata for nacrous re rrjv ^ajpav TT]S
touSata? B ; the reading judaeis of c and perp corr suggests also the
possibility of tou8atot?.

aTn^yyeAAov] Kr]pva (cf . praedicavi h, annunciavi gig, instead
of the usual annuntiabam).

These indications are meagre, but decisive ; they prove the
presence of * Western readings in Oxyrhynchus as late as the
third or fourth century. The rest of the MS. would beyond reason
able doubt furnish abundant parallels to D and the Old Latin.
The fragment includes only verses which ,are now lacking
inD.

The other nine fragments mentioned above represent texts
current in different centuries, from the fourth to the seventh, and
in various Egyptian localities. For all except 057 the text is
known, and so far as practicable their readings are included at
the proper places in the apparatus below. In view of the broken
condition of most of them, inferences from the silence of the
apparatus in any verse need to be verified from the published
texts of the fragments (see above, pp. xvii-xx).

No one of the fragments (except the minute bit designated
1066) agrees perfectly with any known MS., but it is nevertheless
plain that all of them, except Pap. 29, represent forms of what
in this volume is called the Old Uncial text. They are con
spicuously different from the Antiochian type of text, and show
hardly anything that is capable of being ascribed even to sporadic
Antiochian influence. In several cases (notably Pap. 8, 0165, 076)
their readings show special agreement with B, but none of them
shares any of the peculiar idiosyncrasies of B against all other
uncials. In Pap Wess 237 (from the Fayoum, eleventh or twelfth
century) a distinct Western element is included in the text.

ccxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The fragments are too limited in extent to justify at present
any conclusions as to the history of the Old Uncial text in
Egypt from the time of Athanasius to the date of the Arab
conquest.

From the study of the Gospel papyrus fragments of the third
and fourth centuries (mostly from Oxyrhynchus) it has been
observed that, although these conform to the Old Uncial type,
they never agree perfectly with any one uncial, and that in the
passages (brief as those are) where the fragments overlap, they do
not agree perfectly with one another. 1 It is further remarked
that most of the papyri contain some unique readings, as well
as not a few which elsewhere find support only in very late
copies. 2 With these findings the facts of the Egyptian frag
ments of Acts, so far as they permit a judgment, are not out of
accord.

2. OTHER FRAGMENTS

Ten other fragments of varying date, origin, and character
are known as follows (see pp. xvii-xxi).

At Petrograd are three palimpsests, the upper writing being
Georgian :

066 (P; fifth century),

096 (I 5 ; seventh century),

097 (I 6 ; seventh century).

1 Victor Martin, Les papyrus du Nouveau Testament et 1 histoire du texte,
Revue de TMologie et de Philosophic, N.S., vol. vin., 1919, pp. 43-72.

2 A similar situation is found in papyrus MSS. of classical writers ; B. P.
Grenfell, Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xxxix., 1919, pp. 16-36 ; The Oxyrhyn
chus Papyri, vol. iii., pp. 119 f. ; vol. v. pp. 243 f. ; vol. xi. pp. 156-164. Grenfell
says that the changes took place before the second century after Christ, and to
but small extent after that. On the corrupt text of a papyrus of the Phaedo of
Plato written within a century of Plato s death, as compared with the Bodleian
Plato dated 895, and the causes of the superiority of the later manuscript, see
H. Usener, Unser Platontext, Nachrichten, Gottingen Academy, 1892, pp. 25-
50, 181-215. For a like view for the New Testament see E. von Dobschiitz,
Eberhard Nestle s Einfiihrung in das griechische Neue Testament, 4te Auflage,
1923, p. 8.

PAPYRI AND FRAGMENTS ccxiii

Also at Petrograd :

095 (G ; seventh century ; from the binding of a Syriac MS.),
0123 (Apl 70 b ; eighth century).

At Sinai are :

077 (fifth century),
0140 (tenth century).

There remain :

048 (i ; fifth century, palimpsest, from Rossano),

093 (sixth century, from the Cairo genizah),

0120 (G b ; ninth century, palimpsest, from Grotta Ferrata).

Of the above the text of 0140 and 048 has not been published ;
0123 and 077 are too fragmentary to be used.

The Petrograd fragments from Georgia, 066, 096, 097, come
from texts of varying type. 066 (fifth century) has an Old Uncial
text, which, so far as revealed by the fragment, is virtually
identical with that of 81 (von Soden, p. 1672) ; 096 is Old Uncial
with a slight Western trace (von Soden, p. 1672) ; 097 is from
a mixed text including a strong Antiochian element, and is
assigned by von Soden to his I - group (p. 1687). The other
Petrograd fragment 095 has an Old Uncial text, with noticeable
resemblance to AC. The most instructive observation at present
to be made on these oriental fragments is of the contrast their
variety affords to the distinctive, relatively homogeneous, Old
Uncial character of most of the fragments found in Egypt.

The two remaining fragments 093 and 0120 both give the
Antiochian text. 0120 is of the ninth century, and adds nothing
of consequence to the testimony of the other Antiochian MSS. of
the same period, although it occasionally departs from them to
agree with the Old Uncials. But 093, though but a single leaf,
is of great value, for, being of the sixth century, it is the oldest
known piece of pure Antiochian text of Acts. 1 The fragment

1 Codex Laudianus (E) of about the same date is mainly Antiochian, but has
a Greek text largely conformed to its parallel Latin columns.

ccxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

was found in the genizah at Cairo, but need not have been
produced in Egypt.

The main use of these fragments is to enrich the background of
knowledge in which the oriental non-antiochian MSS. of Acts
are to be set. From the earliest of the fragments, with the
similar fragments of the Gospels, we can see that in the third
century the New Testament was copied with constant minor
variation, so that hardly ever can two copies have been identical.
The tendencies of variation perceptible are those commonly
attributed to copyists, and due to carelessness in omission and
alteration, and to small additions, rearrangements of order, and
other changes, in accordance with personal taste. Yet in Egypt
from the earliest time known to us and during the whole period of
Christian domination of that country, and indeed for long after
the Arab conquest, a definite but not rigidly fixed type of text
was widely used by Greek - speaking Christians. Our oldest
example of this text, and probably our best, is Codex Vaticanus.
The type as a whole does not show signs of being a recension,
although doubtless recensions were from time to time attempted
within it, and from one or more of these some of our extant
witnesses may come. Mingling with this text are traces of the
ancient Western text, of which purer copies lingered here and
there, such as Pap. 29, perhaps of the third century, from
Oxyrhynchus ; and of the Antiochian recension also copies were
brought to Egypt. For no other region is an equal amount of
evidence available.

3. THE WESTERN TEXT

1. WITNESSES

OF the Western text of Acts we have no pure representative
for any large part of the book, if indeed any one of our witnesses
can be called pure. The authorities may be arranged in three
groups : 1. The chief witnesses, with a substantially Western
text. 2. Mixed texts with definite and considerable * Western
elements. 3. Mixed texts with occasional Western survivals.

1. Codex Bezae stands alone as the only continuous Greek MS. Codex
containing nearly the whole book in a substantially e Western
text ; but the defects and limitations of D have already been
sufficiently illustrated in the general description of the codex Latin;
(above, pp. Ixix-lxxxiii). It is disfigured by errors ; and in using it
the possibility of conformation to the accompanying Latin and of
contamination from the non-western text must be kept in mind
at every stage. Such facts as the frequent agreement against
D of Peshitto and h, or Peshitto and gig, seem to show a greater
degree of degeneration in the ( Western text of D than has
usually been suspected. Next in importance to D are the readings
under asterisk and in the margin of the Harclean Syriac. These
are almost purely Western, are sometimes obviously better than
the readings of D, and come in some cases from chapters where
D is defective ; but they are not continuous, although they
contain a very large proportion of the most important Western
variants, especially in the way of addition. The African Latin
version, again, was almost purely * Western, and where we have
the evidence of Codex h, Cyprian, or Augustine, the critic is on

ccxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

firm ground, but this is the case for only a small part of the
book.

These three D, Harclean apparatus, African Latin may be
called the chief witnesses to the Western text, and their read
ings, in the absence of special indications to the contrary, are
generally to be taken as representing it. With them may be put
the readings implied in the Armenian version of the commentary
of Ephrem Syrus, as printed below (pp. 380 ff.). The use of
these is subject to some limitations because of the probability of
influence from the Armenian New Testament, but they serve at
least to confirm readings known from other and more trustworthy
sources.

The papyrus MS. from which the fragment Pap. 29 (Oxyrh.
1597) has been preserved would probably also show itself as
belonging to this group, if we had more of it.

2. Next to these chief witnesses come two groups of mixed
documents, Greek and Latin, which also contain definite Western
elements of great importance.

(a) A large number of Greek MSS. are included by von Soden
in his I-group, and many of these, especially those of the sub
groups I C1 and F 2 , contain a larger or smaller number of Western
readings. The codex containing the largest number appears to be
614 (formerly 137 ; a 364), now at Milan, which is included in the
apparatus of Tischendorf, Hilgenfeld, and von Soden. Of im
portance is also 383 (formerly 58 ; a 353 ; Oxford, Bodleian
Library, clark. 9), in which the Western readings are found
almost exclusively in chapters xvii.-xxii. 1 The other codices of
the groups I cl and P 2 are named above (pp. xxviif.) in the order of
value assigned by von Soden. A full investigation of these mixed
texts containing Western readings, most of which are easily

1 August Pott, Der abendldndische Text der Apostelgeschichte und die Wir-
quelk, Leipzig, 1900, has tried to explain the Western readings of 614 and
383 as due to the persistent influence of the We -source on the text of the
completed Book of Acts. For effective criticism of his theory see H. Coppieters,
De historia textus Actorum Apostolorum, Louvain, 1902, pp. 60-68, and A. V. V.
Richards, Journal of Theological Studies, vol. H., 1900-1, pp. 439-447.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxvii

accessible, is one of the greatest needs of the textual criticism of
Acts. 1 The impression made by them, so far as they are known,
is that their character is due to the introduction of striking
Western readings into an Antiochian text, while they also show
a certain Old Uncial element of which the precise nature and
channel has not been at all determined. 2 That the minutiae of
the text are almost perfectly Antiochian makes it difficult to
believe that we have the remains of a Western base incom
pletely corrected to an Antiochian standard. Such a theory
would imply an Antiochian corrector meticulously careful about
introducing every minor detail of his new text and yet so careless
as to leave standing a great number of glaring readings of a
character obviously foreign to it. 3 In some cases, for instance
in codex 614 in Acts xxii. 29 f., xxiii. 24 f., 34, xxiv. 27, the
Western reading stands by conflation side by side with the
other reading for which it was intended as a substitute. In such
a case as xix. 9 the Western addition rwv eOvcov, properly
attached to rrkyOovs in D e pesh hcl *, is in 614 383 misplaced
and connected with the previous rtz/e?. 4 These Western
readings might have stood in the margin of the exemplar, which
would thus have been a copy constructed somewhat after the
ashion of the Oxford MS. of the Harclean Syriac.

1 It is understood that Mr. A. V. Valentine Richards of Christ s College,
Cambridge, is engaged on an edition and investigation of 614. His work will
hrow greatly needed light on the origin and significance of this group of Greek

MSS. A. Schmidtke, Festlegung der Evangelienausgabe Zion, Neue Frag-
mente und Untersuchungen zu den judenchristlichen Evangelien (T.U. xxxvu.),

911, pp. 1-21, is an instructive discussion of one group of I-codices of the Gospels.
A. Vaccari, La Grecia nelV Italia meridionale (Orientalia Christiana, iii.), Rome,

925, treats of the Calabrian MSS. of LXX and N.T.

2 Streeter, The Four Gospels, 1924, pp. 79-107, 572-584, has shown that for
he Gospels Caesarea was probably the centre of diffusion of at least one type
)f the I-text (that chiefly used by Origen in his later period). So perhaps
with Acts, for which Origen does not supply much evidence. On this text in
the Gospels see also K. Lake and R. P. Blake, The Text of the Gospels and

he Koridethi Codex, Harvard Theological Review, vol. xvi., 1923, pp. 267-286.

3 Cf. H. Coppieters, op. cit. pp. 60-68 ; also A. V. V. Richards, I.e. p. 445.

4 What has happened is made specially evident in 614, where rorc follows
Qvw in the gloss although it would be appropriate only if ruv edvuv stood in
he later position which the words actually occupy in D.

ccxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

The Western fragments contained in these mixed codices
represent a line of transmission of Western readings wholly
distinct from that represented by D, and the I-manuscripts often
agree with the Harclean apparatus against D. 1 As has been seen
above, this does not imply any connexion of the I-group with
the Old Syriac of the second, third, and fourth centuries, but
rather that either the Philoxenian revision of the sixth century
or the Harclean of the following century, or both, used a Greek MS.
containing I-readings. On the other hand, D belongs to the same
line of transmission which has produced the Old Latin Western
text. Both lines, that of D and that of the Harclean apparatus
and the I-group, go back to a common * Western original, but
the two lines show types of mixture of quite different characters,
and independent the one of the other. 2 Among the questions
which cry for an answer are those as to the components of the
non-western element of the text of the I-manuscripts, and as to
their grouping, their centre (or centres) of dispersion, and the later
history and locality of their text. A primary question is whether
they represent a single mixture, which has been disfigured and
partly obliterated by later conformation to standard types, or
whether they represent several similar mixtures of * Western
readings with a non-western text, made from similar motives but
at different places and times. This ought to be discoverable from
the relations subsisting between the selection of Western
readings still found in the different codices. It would require as
complete as possible an assembling of the I-texts for comparison,

1 Examples of agreement of 614 or kindred texts with the Harclean
apparatus against D are to be found in the following places among others:
v. 33 ; vii. 43 ; xii. 11, 12, 25 ; xiii. 43, 47 ; xiv. 18, 19, 25 ; xv. 1, 23 ; xvi.
39 ; xvii. 11 ; xx. 32 ; xxii. 5, 7. Similarly, where D is lacking, hcl.mg some
times agrees with minuscules of the I-groups in Western readings for which
no Latin attestation presents itself, e.g. Acts xxiv. 27.

2 A certain analogy may be seen here, valuable in principle but incom
plete, to Burkitt s observation of the sharp distinction between the Old Syriac
and the Old Lathi (and Bezan) Western text of the Gospels, as seen in the two
different series of interpolations which these have received. In Acts the salient
characteristics of the Western text in the two lines of transmission go back
to a single common origin more definitely and completely than in the Gospels.
See Burkitt, The Old Latin and the Itala, pp. 17, 46-53.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxix

, but this would now present no insuperable difficulties, except for
s a few hardly accessible codices.

Valuable use can, even at present, be made of these Western
readings, many of which will be found recorded in von Soden s
! apparatus. In the passages where Codex Bezae is mutilated,
! they are given in the pages below, and throughout the rest of Acts
they can be used both to confirm and to supplement Codex Bezae.
; Comparison with the Harclean apparatus and with the Old Latin
jand the other versions throws into clear relief much of the
Western element of the Greek I-codices ; in some cases, the
positive character of readings serves even by itself as a criterion. 1
The Western readings of these MSS. are not infrequently better
than those of D, which has suffered by scribal corruption and
otherwise, and from which, in particular, Western glosses not
represented by the Latin text used in constructing the MS. were
likely to be omitted (for instance Acts xviii. 21, 22, and elsewhere).
JI apparatus showing to just what extent these Greek readings
onfirm, correct, or supplement the continuous text of Codex
Bezae would not be difficult to print and would be highly instruct-
ve. It is one of many supplements for which, it is hoped, the
resent volume will offer a convenient instrument and an incentive.

(6) The Old Latin and mixed Vulgate manuscripts described Old Latin.
Dove (pp. cvi-cxii) may be classed with the Greek I-codices, for
icy all contain definite Western elements, and are important
urces of information as to the Western text. In nearly every
nstance, however, they seem to have acquired their Western
ement by a process the opposite of that which has produced the
codices. The latter may be thought to represent a non-western
ext into which Western readings of interest have been intro-
uced. The Latin MSS., on the other hand, represent the remains
; a sound Western base which has gradually lost by correction

1 Examples of readings which look Western but have only isolated
testation, and may be merely similar expansions by a later hand, are
cts viii. 36 + ffvfrrovvTes per aXA^Xow 467 ; xxiii. 27 clamantem et dicentem se
se civem romanum gig. Others could easily be gathered by a little research
i the apparatus of von Soden and of Wordsworth and White.

ccxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

its Western character, and been assimilated to the ordinary
Greek text. In Spain and Languedoc and in Ireland the
Western readings of Acts were valued, and the sharp conflict of
various types of text yielded highly composite mixtures retaining
various proportions of Western survivals of every sort. The
daughter versions into several vernaculars preserved this character,
and owe to it alone their interest for our investigation.

It thus appears that the I-codices and the Latin version have
like uses. Of mixed ingredients, they are ordinarily incapable,
each by itself, of furnishing any presumption in favour of the
Western character of readings, but their Western elements
can be elicited by noticing variation from the non-western text
and observing the groups of witnesses which support such variants.
To careful critical judgment they offer a large and trustworthy
supply of knowledge of the Western text.

other 3. In addition to these two classes of witnesses those of

survival" tolerable purity and the mixed sources numerous other witnesses
contain occasional Western elements, the channels for which
sometimes can be guessed, sometimes elude our inquiry. This is
true of the Old Uncial codices A and C. Thus A has the
Western reading in Acts viii. 39, xv. 18, xx. 4, 18, xxi. 22, to
mention but a few examples. C seems to be still more tinctured
with Western colour both in minor details and in longer glosses ;
thus Acts ix. 22, x. 32, xiv. 10, xiv. 18 f., xv. 4, 23 f., xx. 16,
24, xxi. 22, 25. In xiv. 18 f., xv. 24, C has the Western
reading where D has received the non- western. These illustrations
can easily be supplemented from the apparatus and notes of the
present volume, where further evidence as to the more restricted j
Western elements in K and 81 will be found. These Western
readings of the Old Uncial group have as yet received no adequate
study or explanation. It does not seem certain that Codex
Vaticanus has any strictly Western readings in Acts, but it has
many in the Pauline epistles, and no one ought to be surprised if
some appear elsewhere. Finally, it is not to be forgotten that
the Antiochian text contains a distinct Western element (see

THE WESTEKN TEXT ccxxi

below, pp. cclxxxv-vii) ; something of it can perhaps be elicited
by the aid of the versions.

The Sahidic version contains frequent Western readings,
especially in minor details. The Greek MS. which it carefully
followed seems to have been derived, as stated above, from a
Western MS. which had been corrected to the Old Uncial
standard. The Peshitto exhibits many Western readings in
: spite of its general non- western colour. 1 The Armenian also
shows Western readings ; and some are found unmarked by
any asterisk in the continuous text of the Harclean Syriac.
A systematic and judicious comparison of the Sahidic, Peshitto,
and Old Latin versions with one another, with A and C, with
the Antiochian text, and with the I-manuscripts, would yield
evidence of many Western readings hitherto unrecognized,
especially in the portions of Acts where Codex Bezae is defective. 2
In addition to these witnesses, Greek MSS. here and there
ontain many isolated Western readings, as do the patristic
writings, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Armenian. They are of
ttle service in constituting a text, but they indicate the range
f Western influence, and, meagre as they are individually,
eserve close study, for they provide the means of understanding
lie history of the text contained in the manuscripts and versions.

2. THE TEXT

A careful reading of any approximate form of the Western The
ext of Acts, such as that of Codex Bezae, or of the reconstruc-
ion by Zahn, will be likely to convince the student that on the definite

J origin.

1 In such a case as Acts iv. 13 f. the Peshitto has retained fragments of the
Western text found in full in the Latin h, while D has nothing but the non-
western text. This is a good example of the kind of use to which this whole
lass of witnesses can be put.

a The evidence of Peshitto and h, of Peshitto and gigas, and perhaps of
ahidic an.l Latin, seems to be valuable. The agreement of Peshitto and
Vntiochian also may prove valuable as a guide to Western readings, at least
n Acts, in spite of the common assumption of a different origin of their
ommon element. So far as I have observed, the agreements of Peshitto and
ahidic are not very fruitful of results. The other possible combinations
eserve careful study.

ccxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

whole, and apart from inevitable minor blemishes due to later
hands, he has before him a definite integral text, not explicable as
the mere accumulation of scribal errors and incidental modifica
tions. 1 That such a text would have been modified in divers
ways in its early history is to be expected, and we can assume
that it varied from copy to copy, as did the rival text, but the
great mass of the variations which we can identify as belonging
to it show unmistakable signs of proceeding from a single
hand with his own characteristic method of work. 2 More
over, the period before ca. 150 is too brief to have permitted
the great number of successive copyings which have to be
assumed under the theory that the c Western text owes its
origin to the fortuitous assemblage of natural variants. Either
the Western text represents substantially the original, from
which the text of BtfAC 81 as a definite recension was derived,
or vice versa the Western is a rewriting of the original Old
Uncial, or else they are both from the original writer, different
stages of his own work. To suppose that the bulk of the varia
tions proceed not from one but from many hands is a wholly
unnecessary complication and multiplication of hypotheses, and
runs counter to the clear indications of unity furnished by style
and method in each text. Regarded as a paraphrastic rewriting

1 Like others in the past (especially J. L. Hug, Einleitung in die Schriften
des Neuen Testaments, 4th ed., 1847 ; B. Weiss, Der Codex D in der Apostel-
geschichte [T. U. xvii.], 1897, pp. 2-4), E. von Dobschiitz, Literarisches Central-
blatt, 1895, col. 605, held that the Western text was an archaic text
now " in einem Zustande naturwuchsiger Verwilderung," and due to mere
accumulation, of corruptions, not to a rewriting ; and he seems to hold sub
stantially this view in his fourth edition of Eberhard Nestle s Einfilhrung in das j
griechische Neue Testament, 1923, p. 28. These views receive more support in
the facts of the Western text of the Gospels, for which it must at least be
admitted that several types of Western text were current at a very early
date. The relation of the text used by Irenaeus in the Gospels to other

Western types is here instructive ; see B. Kraft, Die Evangelienzitate des
Heiligen Irendus (Biblische Studien, xxi.), 1924, pp. 69-112. Cf. also F. C.
Burkitt, The Old Latin and the Itala, 1896, pp. 16 f., 46-53. For references to
the views of various critics on the unity of the Western text see H. Coppieters,
op. cit. p. 76.

2 A good example of one sort of unity of method may be seen by comparing j
the Western text in Acts xiv. 7 and xv. 34.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxxiii

of the original, the Western text, indeed, would in kind
not be different from the free divergence of early copyists, 1
although a highly exaggerated example of that freedom ; but
it must in the main have been due to a single editor trying to
improve the book on a large scale.

With due qualifications, then, the Western text of Acts can Date,
be treated as a real entity, which came into being at some definite
place and time, was diffused from some single centre, had its own
history, became mixed with other texts by various processes,
some easily intelligible, others more mysterious, and was finally
embodied in the many documents from which we try to recover it.
Its date of origin must have been very early. It may have been
used by the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, and so perhaps
before the middle of the second century. It certainly was the
text in the hands of Irenaeus about 185, and presumably the one
which as a young man he learned to know in Asia Minor before
L50. That he had at first used a different text which at some
time he exchanged for the Western text of the later part of his
ife is not intrinsically impossible, but with such a man we should
expect the change to betray itself somewhere, in his numerous
quotations or elsewhere in his voluminous work, and such a
suggestion is in fact made impossible by the emphasis with
which he expresses confidence in the unfalsified text of the
Scriptures (Contra haer. iv. 33. 8). 2 Before the time of Tertullian
the African Latin seems to have had a considerable history, and
already to have attained some fixity of rendering for various
Greek words in their Christian use. 3 Tertullian s intense
asseveration of the trustworthiness of the text used by the
Church (De praescriptione haereticorum 38) would have been
mpossible if the Greek text which he used had been known
bo him as a new edition introduced within his lifetime or within

1 On the parallel to be seen in the highly divergent Greek text of the Psalms
current in Upper Egypt, see pp. xciii-xciv.

2 See Zahn, Oeschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, vol. i. pp. 1 15 note, 441 f .

3 H. J. Vogels, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der lateinischen Apokalypse-
ubersetzungcn, 1920, p. 130.

ccxxiv THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

any period of wliicli he had knowledge. In the Gospels the
Western text, which can hardly be dissociated in origin from
the corresponding text of Acts, appears about the middle of
the second century in Marcion and Tatian. Thus the date of
origin of the Western text of Acts must be set as early as the
first half of the second century. At a very early time it was
present in Egypt and was brought to Africa and to Syria. As to
its place of origin there is no knowledge ; of possible conjectures
something will be said below.

inferiority The differences between the Western and the Old Uncial
Western ^&gt; QX ^ are so extensive and complicated that it is possible to make
instructive comparison only by large sections ; the question of
whether the * Western form as a whole represents the original
type or a rewriting of it cannot be decided by comparing single
readings and summing up the results. 1 It is the general effect
which counts. And here the Old Uncial seems decisively to
evince itself as on the whole the original and the Western as on
the whole due to recension. The Western fulness of words, the
elaboration of religious expressions, such as the names for Christ
and the plus of conventional religious phrases, the fact that the
difference in language and mode of narration can often be ex
plained as due to superficial difficulties in the other text, occasional
misunderstanding, as would appear, or at least neglect, of the
meaning of the other text (for instance Acts xx. 3-5), the relative
colourlessness and a certain empty naivete of the Western, all
contrast unfavourably with the greater conciseness, sententious-
ness, and vigour, and occasionally the obscurity, of the Old Uncial
text. 2 And even more decisive is the fact that in all the excess of
matter which the Western text shows, virtually nothing is to

1 On the importance in textual criticism of considering a larger context, see
the instructive observations on Zusammenhange unter den Lesarten by H. J.
Vogels, Handbuch der neutestamentlichen Textkritik, 1923, pp. 204-224. Vogels
adduces Acts v. 22 f. and xi. 1-2 as good illustrations.

2 An interesting contrast is offered by the abbreviation of the Syriac
Didascalia in Codex h (Harris s MS. of 1036), where the abridging process results
in a thinner and less clear sense ; see Flemming, Die syrische Didaskalia (Texte
und Untersuchungen, xxv.), 1904, p. 255.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxxv

be found beyond what could be inferred from the Old Uncial
text. Of the small number of substantial additions mentioned
below, three may be original, lost from the other text, the
rest, few as they are, are all capable of explanation under the
theory that they proceed from an editor later than the author.
If a reviser had had the Old Uncial text of Acts at his disposal,
and had wished to rewrite it so as to make it fuller, smoother, and
more emphatic, and as interesting and pictorial as he could, and
if he had had no materials whatever except the text before him
and the inferences he could draw from it, together with the usual
religious commonplaces, it must be admitted that moderate
ingenuity and much taking of pains would have enabled him to
produce the Western text. On the other hand, the reverse of
this process is difficult to make reasonable. We should have to
suppose that a reviser, having the Western text, undertook to
condense it, and in so doing was prepared to make some sacrifice
of easy pictorial amplitude of expression and of the current,
favourite religious names and phrases, but was determined to
omit nothing that later generations were likely to value as con
taining substantial information, or that could not be inferred
from what he left standing. In some cases, we should have to
conclude, he modified the picture ; often he made it less complete
and superficially less consistent ; the general effect of his work
was to deepen the intensity of colour by compression of style,
never to heighten it by addition, and he strangely succeeded in
giving a false semblance of archaic brevity and compactness.

If this account of the matter be just, it can hardly be denied
that the former process supposed is one easily comprehensible
under the conditions of the second century, but that the latter
one is, to say the least, highly improbable. It would be tedious
to try to prove by illustrations the justice of the contrast here
drawn ; to reach a decision the student must make a broad
comparison of the two texts as wholes ; 1 to provide the means

1 As a single good illustration of some of these characteristics reference
may be made to Acts xiii. 38 f., where D and the Harclean apparatus, with
VOL. Ill p

ccxxvi THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

for such an examination, not otherwise so easily obtainable, is the
purpose for which the present volume exists. If choice has to be
made between the theory that the Western text was the original,
later condensed and altered so as to produce the Old Uncial text,
and the theory that the Old Uncial was the original, later ex
panded so as to produce the Western, the answer seems to me
clearly in favour of the latter.

This does not exclude the occurrence of Western readings
still recognizable, in spite of the rewriting, as having been part of
the very ancient base on which the Western reviser worked,
and which evince themselves by internal evidence as superior to
those of the Old Uncial text. The surprising fact is, not that
these exist, but that in Acts they are so few. 1

In connexion with the conclusion thus reached it may be
appropriate to mention here the view of A. C. Clark, which was
suggested to that scholar by certain analogies in the transmission
of the Latin text of Cicero. 2 He holds that since, at one period,
the Gospels appear to have been transmitted in manuscripts
written in columns with very short lines of 10-12 letters each,
and the Acts in columns written in irregular sense-lines, most of
the cases where one form of the text has a shorter reading are
to be accounted for by the accidental omission of such lines or
of groups of them. Consequently the Western text, being
longer than the B-text, is to be regarded as the original, which

fragmentary Latin support, agree in adding jut-erdvoia, odi&gt;, and Trapa 6eu, all
part of the same process and producing a painful weakening of the sense. Good
examples of weakening of expression, and padding, are Acts xv. 38 f., xvii. 15,
but these are mere random illustrations, not more worthy of note than in
numerable others. Acts ii. 37 is a good example of a Western change made
in the interest of greater definiteness and clarity ; Acts x. 24-27 has been re
written with a view to a more complete continuity of the narrative. In both
cases it would be difficult to find a motive for changing the Western to pro
duce the usual text. For the harmonizing with parallels characteristic of the
Western text see the description of Codex Bezae, above, p. Ixxi.

1 The readings of this class which, with more or less confidence, I have
thought myself able to recognize, are mentioned in the Apparatus of * Editors
attached to the text of Codex Vaticanus in the present volume.

2 Albert C. Clark, The Primitive Text of the Gospels and Acts, Oxford, 1914.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxxvii

has suffered accidental mutilation on a great scale in the texts
which prevailed after the second century. But, apart from the
inherent improbability of such an explanation for the compli
cated and various phenomena of the New Testament text, the
theory, so far as Acts is concerned, does not account for the facts,
as stated above, which show a rational, not merely an accidental,
difference between the two types of text. The plus of the
Western text, if due, in accordance with the view which finds
it to be secondary, to addition to the original, would necessarily
often consist of phrases and clauses naturally constituting single
lines and groups of lines in a MS. written in sense-lines ; but, as
every page of Codex Bezae shows, the vast majority of the
peculiarities of the Western text are not of this nature.

But a third theory has been proposed which is not open to all Biass s
of the objections which make it impossible to regard the Old
Uncial text as a revision of the ( Western by a later hand. Since
the latter part of the eighteenth century it has more than once
been suggested that we have for Acts two editions, both alike
from the original author of the book. 1 This view was again
urged with great energy and acumen by Blass, beginning in 1894,
and was adopted by Zahn and made the basis of his monumental
work, Die Urausgabe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas, 1916. A
priori it is indeed well imaginable that the original author might
have done what would be inconceivable for any one else. He
might first have written the book in the * Western form, and
then been led to revise his work so as to give it greater conciseness

1 Semler, /. /. Wetstenii libelli ad crisin atque interpretationem Novi Testa-
menti, Halle, 1766, p. 8 (cited in full by Blass, Acta Apostolorum, 1895, p. viii) ;
J. B. Lightfoot, On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament, 1871, p. 29 ; Hort,
* Introduction, 1881, p. 177 (where the idea is rejected). Biass s successive
writings in advocacy of the view are named by J. Moffatt, Introduction to the
Literature of the New Testament, 1911, p. 310, and M. Goguel, Introduction au
Nouvean Testament, t. iii., Le Livre des Actes, 1922, p. 79 (neither list is
complete). For mention of many discussions of the theory see Moffatt, I.e.,
Goguel, pp. 81 f., and Engelhard Eisentraut, Studien zur Apostelgeschichte,
Wiirzburg, 1924. Eisentraut has gathered interesting facts with regard to
the view of Clericus, tending to show that that scholar at any rate did not
take very seriously the theory of a double edition, ascribed to him by Semler.

ccxxviii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

and vigour. Understanding, as he would have done, exactly what
it was necessary to say and what was unimportant elaboration,
he could have produced a form of the book having the general
character of the Old Uncial text. And he alone could have
done this. Instances of sections where the two forms are well
explicable by this theory are pointed out and urged with much
plausibility by Blass and others.

Nothing in this theory is inherently unreasonable. Many
cases of two differing editions of ancient works, both proceeding
from the author himself, are known to us. A writer of taste
might well have seen that compression could, with advantage, be
applied to the Western form, and might have applied it in the
partial way here supposed. It is, to be sure, a little strange that
both editions should have circulated side by side, but it is by no
means impossible, and Blass provided an ingenious and perfectly
admissible conjecture to account for this. Nor is it an insuper
able objection that in the Gospel of Luke the critic found the
relation of the two types of text reversed, and that several
scholars who accepted the theory for Acts rejected it for the
Gospel, although Blass had been able to find an equally ingenious
and admissible conjecture to account for the facts there. But
at least two considerations present themselves which seem to me
to be fatal to the theory.

In the first place, a considerable number of the variants of the
8 Western text, which are supposed to have been excised by the
author in his revised copy, fall into groups with a common
character. 1 Thus, whereas in the non- western text the journey
of xvi. 6 is said to have been guided in its course by the Holy
Spirit, the i Western text similarly mentions divine guidance for
journeys at xvii. 15, xix. 1, xx. 3. Again the l Western text
repeatedly has in excess, as compared with its rival, such phrases
as $ia TOV ovofAdTos rcvpiov Irjcrov ^LpicrTOv, ev T&&amp;gt; OVO^CLTI
so vi. 8, viii. 39, xiv. 10, xvi. 4, xviii. 4, xviii. 8,

1 See the brief but weighty criticism of Blass by T. E, Page, Classical
Review, vol. XL, 1897, pp. 317-320.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxxix

cf. also viii. 37. Likewise, the simple name Jesus is found
expanded into Irjaovv rov Kvpuov (vii. 55), rov tcvpiov Irjaovv
Xpio-rov (xiii. 32), Irjaov Kpca-rov (xx. 21). And repeatedly a
reference to the Holy Spirit is found which the non- western text
lacks ; so viii. 39, xv. 7, xv. 29 fyepopevot, ev ro&gt; ay la Trvevfjuan,
xv. 32 7rX?7pefc9 Trvevfjuaros ayiov, xx. 3, xxvi. 1. These several
groups of generally harmless variants seem to be intended to
heighten, and perhaps in some cases slightly to alter, the religious
colour of the narrative. That they could be added is easy to see,
and this might conceivably have been done by the original author,
although such a habit would be a curious trait ; but Blass s
theory requires us to suppose that at these points the author was
led in his revision to reduce to a lower degree the serious and
religious tone which at first he had adopted. This seems so un
likely as to approach the impossible. A similar, but perhaps less
convincing, argument may be found in the great number of
Western variants which have for their plain purpose to give a
good connexion between phrases or sentences, to strengthen
emphasis, to make a statement or reference quite explicit, or to
provide not wholly necessary explanations. Examples of all
these can easily be gathered from almost any chapter of the book.
The motive for removing them would seem to imply a positive
change of literary taste and preference of ear on the part of the
writer, and is not easily attributable to the mere purpose of
condensation.

The other, and decisive, argument against Blass is that in
many passages the conception of the event described, the mental
picture of what took place, is different in the two forms of the text,
and that in some the Western text plainly rests on a mis
understanding of the non-western.

Of this the following examples may be given. 1 On some of
them the Textual Notes may be consulted.

1 For discussion of cases where Blass s theory does not explain the variants
well or at all, see M. Goguel, op. cit. pp. 85-104 ; P. Corssen, Gottingische gelehrte
Anzeigen, 1896, pp. 425-448 ; and especially H. Coppieters, op. cit. pp. 125-206.
Among the chief discussions of Blaas s theories that of P. W. Schmiedel, art.

ccxxx THE BEGINNINGS OF CHKISTIANITY

xi. 17. After the reference to the gift of the Holy Spirit by
God to these Gentile converts as actually accomplished, the
suggestion that the refusal of baptism by Peter would have
prevented God from giving them the Holy Spirit is inappropriate.

xiv. 2-5. According to the non-western text there was one
outburst of persecution, according to the Western two such.

xv. 1-5. According to the Western text not the Antiochian
church, but the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, urged Paul and
Barnabas to go to Jerusalem ; and at Jerusalem it was these
same persons, not a new group, who made trouble for the
missionaries.

xv. 20, 29 ; xxi. 25. The two inconsistent forms of the Apos
tolic Decree can hardly have been transmitted by the same writer.
Zahn is able to escape this consequence only by supposing the
Western reading to be no part of the original Western
text.

xv. 34. The * Western text is more complete, but seems
inconsistent with the briefer text.

xvi. 8. The Western SteX&We?, after going about in, is
the exact opposite of Trape\96vTe&lt;;, l neglecting, unless SteX&Wes
is used without understanding of the specific meaning which it
commonly has in such statements in Acts, and should here be
taken as meaning passing through. Under either explanation
Blass s theory is unacceptable, for the author is not likely to
have substituted the difficult TrapeKdovres for the unobjectionable

xvii. 4. The non- western text speaks of two classes of persons :
(1) godfearing Greeks and (2) leading women ; the Western
contemplates three : (1) * godfearing persons, (2) Greeks/ and
(3) wives of the leading men.

xviii. 7. For e/ceWev, referring to the synagogue, the Western
text, by a misunderstanding, has CLTTO rov A/cv\a.

xviii. 19-22. The non -western text is unskilfully arranged

Acts of the Apostles, Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. i., 1899, cols. 50-56, is of
importance for the whole problem of the Western text.

THE WESTEKN TEXT ccxxxi

but perfectly intelligible ; the Western text (as reconstructed)
is complete and regular. It cannot have been an earlier form
which the same writer deliberately and without motive partly
disorganized.

xviii. 18, 26. Some reason led to putting the name of Priscilla
first, and the divergent practice of the two types of text in this
respect is not easily explained by Blass s theory.

xix. 6. The whole conception of speaking with tongues found
in Acts ii. makes it hard to think that the writer of that chapter
would have introduced here the idea of the * interpretation of
the tongues by the speakers.

xix. 9. In the non-western text rov 7r\r)0ov&lt;? refers to the
congregation in the synagogue. In the l Western text, TOV
ir\ri6ovs TWV &lt;i6vwi&gt;, the reference is to the body of heathen
in the town.

xx. 3-5. The two texts give very different accounts of the
motives of Paul in planning his journey, and appear to have
understood in quite different senses the movements of his travelling
companions ; see the Textual Note.

xxiv. 6-8. The presence of vs. 7 ( Western ) makes a differ
ence in the antecedent of Trap ov in vs. 8 ; in the Western
form the relative probably refers to Lysias, in the non-western
definitely to Paul.

The facts thus seem to show that the Western text is not
from the hand of the same author as the non- western text, and
that it is a rewritten text, in general inferior to the other text.
If these conclusions may be taken for granted, it is possible to
treat more definitely of the character of the Western text, and
to speak further of its origin.

The purpose of the Western reviser, as shown by his work, Literary
was literary improvement and elaboration in accordance with his western
own taste, which was somewhat different from that of the author. rewri ting.
He aimed at bettering the connexion, removing superficial in
consistency, filling slight gaps, and giving a more complete and

ccxxxii THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

continuous narrative. 1 Where it was possible he liked to intro
duce points from parallel or similar passages, or to complete an
Old Testament quotation. 2 Especially congenial to his style were
heightened emphasis and more abundant use of religious common
places. This effort after smoothness, fulness, and emphasis in his
expansion has usually resulted in a weaker style, sometimes show
ing a sort of naive superabundance in expressly stating what
every reader could have understood without the reviser s diluting
supplement. Occasionally it relieves a genuine difficulty and is
a real improvement. In the speeches he naturally found less
scope, on the whole, for extensive addition than in the narratives.
His text is nearly one-tenth longer than that of the Old Uncials.
In his language he uses a vocabulary notably the same as that of
the original author, but with a certain number of new words
about fifty. 3 One trick of his style is the frequent introduction of
rore as a particle of transition an observation which may convey
useful warning against accepting these added words as cases of
original Aramaic colour lost in the non- western text. The
debasement of the Western text in Codex Bezae, from which
our impressions of it are primarily and chiefly derived, advises
caution in judgment, but to most modern readers the Book of Acts
in its Western dress will seem inferior to the original in dignity,
force, and charm. That the rewritten form so promptly gained
popularity in the second century is perhaps not surprising for a

1 For detailed description of the Western text see the instructive and
careful classification of its glosses in H. Coppieters, op. cit. pp. 77-92 ; also, for
the added notes of time and place, Harnack, Die Apostelgeschichte (Beitrage
zur Einleitung in das Neue Testament, in.), 1908, pp. 50-53, 97-100. Complete
discussion of all the readings of D will be found in B. Weiss, Der Codex D in der
Apostelgeschichte (Texte und Untersuchungen, xvii.), 1897. Weiss s criticism
is acute, but he does not always do justice to the great complication of the
history of the text as now found in Western witnesses.

2 Yet the Western reviser by no means follows the principle of bringing
the text regularly into closer conformity to the LXX. He is more interested
in his own improvements, as is illustrated, for instance, in Acts ii. 17-20,
xiii. 47.

3 On the vocabulary of the Western text see the Index Verborum in
Blass s larger edition, 1895, pp. 301-334, also his Evangelium secundum Lucam,
1897, pp. xxvii f., and Schmiedel, Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. i. col. 55.

THE WESTERN TEXT ccxxxiii

generation which in many regions seems to have preferred the
Epistle of Barnabas to the Epistle to the Hebrews. 1

Of any special point of view, theological or other, on the part Emphasis
of the Western 5 reviser it is difficult to find any trace. In one interests.
or two passages (notably xiv. 5 where for op/jur) r&v eOvwv re
real lovSaioov is substituted ol lovSaioi crvv rot? Wvecnv) the
hostile attitude of the Jews receives special stress, and xxiv. 5,
in the speech of Tertullus, the change from KLvovvra ardo-eis
Trdo-Lv ro9 louSduot? To?9 Kara rrjv oLKovfjbevrjv to concitan-
tem seditiones non tantum generi nostro sed fere universo orbe
terrarum et omnibus Judeis (gig) betrays a Gentile s feeling that
any statement is inadequate which implies that Christianity in
the Apostolic age was limited to Jewry. 2 This motive may also
have been at work in ii. 17, where a certain emphasis attaches to
the Western change of V/JLWV to avrcov in two instances, and to
the omission of the pronoun altogether in the other two. The
reference is thus thrown back to Trdcras o-dpKas (D), and the
universal purpose of God for all mankind, in distinction fr