§ 4
St. Paul129 in his Epistle to Titus [ii. 5] directs that young women shall be ‘keepers at home,’ οικουρους. So, (with five exceptions,) every known Codex130, including the corrected [Symbol: Aleph] and D,—HKLP; besides 17, 37, 47. So also Clemens Alex.131 (A.D. 180),—Theodore of Mopsuestia132,—Basil133,—Chrysostom134—Theodoret135,—Damascene136. So again the Old Latin (domum custodientes137),—the Vulgate (domus curam habentes138),—and Jerome (habentes domus diligentiam139): and so the Peshitto and the Harkleian versions,—besides the Bohairic. There evidently can be no doubt whatever about such a reading so supported. To be οικουρος was held to be a woman’s chiefest praise140: καλλιστον εργον γυνη οικουρος, writes Clemens Alex.141; assigning to the wife οικουρια as her proper province142. On the contrary, ‘gadding about from house to house’ is what the Apostle, writing to Timothy143, expressly condemns. But of course the decisive consideration is not the support derived from internal evidence; but the plain fact that antiquity, variety, respectability, numbers, continuity of attestation, are all in favour of the Traditional reading.
Notwithstanding this, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, because they find οικουργους in [Symbol: Aleph]*ACD*F-G, are for thrusting that ‘barbarous and scarcely intelligible’ word, if it be not even a non-existent144, into Titus ii. 5. The Revised Version in consequence exhibits ‘workers at home’—which Dr. Field may well call an ‘unnecessary and most tasteless innovation.’ But it is insufficiently attested as well, besides being a plain perversion of the Apostle’s teaching. [And the error must have arisen from carelessness and ignorance, probably in the West where Greek was not properly understood.]
So again, in the cry of the demoniacs, τι ‘ημιν και σοι, Ιησου, ‘υιε του Θεου; (St. Matt. viii. 29) the name Ιησου is omitted by B[Symbol: Aleph].
The reason is plain the instant an ancient MS. is inspected:— ΚΑΙΣΟΙΙΥΥΙΕΤΟΥΘΥ:—the recurrence of the same letters caused too great a strain to scribes, and the omission of two of them was the result of ordinary human infirmity.
Indeed, to this same source are to be attributed an extraordinary number of so-called ‘various readings’; but which in reality, as has already been shewn, are nothing else but a collection of mistakes,—the surviving tokens that anciently, as now, copying clerks left out words; whether misled by the fatal proximity of a like ending, or by the speedy recurrence of the like letters, or by some other phenomenon with which most men’s acquaintance with books have long since made them familiar.
Footnotes
96 St. Mark xi. 4. See Revision Revised, pp. 57-58.
97 St. Mark vii. 19, καθαριζων for καθαριζον. See below, pp. 61-3.
98 St. Luke ii. 14.
99 St. Luke xxiii. 42.
100 St. Matt. xx. 9. See also St. Mark xi. 9, 10.
101 ‘Quae quidem orationis prolixitas non conveniens esset si ‘οτε legendum esset.’
102 iv. 577: ‘quando.’
103 Dem. Ev. 310, 312, 454 bis.
104 i. 301.
105 ii. 488, and ap. Gall. vi. 580.
106 Trin. 59, 99, 242.
107 viii. 406, 407. Also ps.-Chrysost. v. 613. Note, that ‘Apolinarius’ in Cramer’s Cat. 332 is Chrys. viii. 407.
108 Ap. Chrys. vi. 453.
109 iv. 505, 709, and ap. Mai iii. 85.
110 ii. 102: iv. 709, and ap. Mai iii. 118.
111 v1. 642.
112 Unfortunately, though the Dean left several lists of instances of Itacism, he worked out none, except the substitution of ‘εν for εν in St. Mark iv. 8, which as it is not strictly on all fours with the rest I have reserved till last. He mentioned all that I have introduced (besides a few others), on detached papers, some of them more than once, and λουσαντι and καθαριζον even more than the others. In the brief discussion of each instance which I have supplied, I have endeavoured whenever it was practicable to include any slight expressions of the Dean’s that I could find, and to develop all surviving hints.
113 λουσαντι.
114 λυσαντι.
115 ‘ουτως. BCEFGHLMXΔ. Most cursives. Goth.
ουτος. KSUΓΛ. Ten cursives.
Omit [Symbol: Aleph]ADΠ. Many cursives. Vulg. Pesh. Ethiop. Armen. Georg. Slavon. Bohair. Pers.
116 E.g. Thuc. vii. 15, St. John iv. 6.
117 See St. John iv. 6: Acts xx. 11, xxvii. 17. The beloved Apostle was therefore called ‘ο επιστηθιος. See Suicer. s. v. Westcott on St. John xiii. 25.
118 24. απολωλως. [Symbol: Aleph]aABD &c. απολωλος. [Symbol: Aleph]*GKMRSXΓΠ*. Most curs. 32. απολωλως. [Symbol: Aleph]*ABD &c. απολωλος. [Symbol: Aleph]cKMRSXΓΠ*. Most curs.
119 Pp. 179, 180. Since the Dean has not adopted καθαριζων into his corrected text, and on account of other indications which caused me to doubt whether he retained the opinion of his earlier years, I applied to the Rev. W. F. Rose, who answered as follows:—‘I am thankful to say that I can resolve all doubt as to my uncle’s later views of St. Mark vii. 19. In his annotated copy of the Twelve Verses he deletes the words in his note p. 179, “This appears to be the true reading,” and writes in the margin, “The old reading is doubtless the true one,” and in the margin of the paragraph referring to καθαριζων on p. 180 he writes, “Alter the wording of this.” This entirely agrees with my own recollection of many conversations with him on the subject. I think he felt that the weight of the cursive testimony to the old rending was conclusive,—at least that he was not justified in changing the text in spite of it.’ These last words of Mr. Rose express exactly the inference that I had drawn.
120 ‘The majority of the Old Latin MSS. have “in secessum uadit (or exiit) purgans omnes escas”; i (Vindobonensis) and r (Usserianus) have “et purgat” for “purgans”: and a has a conflation “in secessum exit purgans omnes escas et exit in rivum”—so they all point the same way.’—(Kindly communicated by Mr. H. J. White.)
121 Dem. xv. (Graffin)—‘Vadit enim esca in ventrem, unde purgatione in secessum emittitur.’ (Lat.)
122 iii. 764. ‘Et in secessum exit, purgans omnes escas.’
123 Galland. iii. 319. ‘Cibis, quos Dominus dicit perire, et in secessu naturali lege purgari.’
124 iii. 494. ελεγε ταυτα ‘ο Σωτηρ, καθαριζων παντα τα βρωματα.
125 i. 206. εκκαθαριζων παντα τα βρωματα.
126 Galland. iii. 400. αλλα και ‘ο Σωτηρ, παντα καθαριζων τα βρωματα.
127 Evan. 2. See Hoskier, Collation of Cod. Evan. 604, App. F. p. 4.
128 [The following specimens taken from the first hand of B may illustrate the kakigraphy, if I may use the expression, which is characteristic of that MS. and also of [Symbol: Aleph]. The list might be easily increased.
I. Proper Names.
Ιωανης, generally: Ιωαννης, Luke i. 13*, 60, 63; Acts iii. 4; iv. 6, 13, 19; xii. 25; xiii. 5, 25; xv. 37; Rev. i. 1, 4, 9; xxii. 8.
Βεεζεβουλ, Matt. x. 25; xii. 24, 27; Mark iii. 22; Luke xi. 15, 18, 19.
Ναζαρετ, Matt. ii. 23; Luke i. 26; John i. 46, 47. Ναζαρα, Matt. iv. 13. Ναζαρεθ, Matt. xxi. 11; Luke ii. 51; iv. 16.
Μαρια for Μαριαμ, Matt. i. 20; Luke ii. 19. Μαριαμ for Μαρια, Matt. xxvii. 61; Mark xx. 40; Luke x. 42; xi. 32; John xi. 2; xii. 3; xx. 16, 18. See Traditional Text, p. 86.
Κουμ, Mark v. 41. Γολγοθ, Luke xix. 17.
Ιστραηλειται, Ιστραηλιται, Ισραηλειται, Ισραηλιται.
Ελεισαβετ, Ελισαβετ.
Μωσης, Μωυσης.
Δαλμανουνθα, Mark viii. 10.
Ιωση (Joseph of Arimathea), Mark xv. 45. Ιωσηφ, Matt. xxvii. 57, 59; Mark xv. 42; Luke xxiii. 50; John xix. 38.
II. Mis-spelling of ordinary words.
καθ’ ιδιαν, Matt. xvii. 1, 19; xxi v. 3; Mark iv. 34; vi. 31, &c. κατ’ ιδιαν, Matt. xiv. 13, 23; Mark vi. 32; vii. 33, &c.
γενημα, Matt. xxvi. 29; Mark xiv. 25; Luke xxii. 18. γεννημα, Matt. iii. 7; xii. 34; xxiii. 33; Luke iii. 7 (the well-known γεννηματα εχιδνων).
A similar confusion between γενεσις and γεννησις, Matt. i, and between εγενηθην and εγεννηθην, and γεγενημαι and γεγεννημαι. See Kuenen and Cobet N. T. ad fid. Cod. Vaticani lxxvii.
III. Itacisms.
κρεινω, John xii. 48 (κρεινει). κρινω, Matt. vii. 1; xix. 28; Luke vi. 37; vii. 43; xii. 57, &c.
τειμω, τιμω, Matt. xv. 4, 5, 8; xix. 19; xxvii. 9; Mark vii. 6, 10, &c.
ενεβρειμηθη (Matt. ix. 30) for ενεβριμησατο. ανακλειθηναι (Mark vi. 39) for ανακλιναι. σειτος for σιτος (Mark iv. 28).
IV. Bad Grammar.
τωι οικοδεσποτηι επεκαλεσαν for τον οικοδεσποτην εκαλ. (Matt. x. 25). καταπατησουσιν for —σωσιν (Matt. vii. 6). ‘ο αν αιτησεται (Matt. xiv. 7). ‘οταν δε ακουετε (Mark xiii. 7).
V. Impossible words.
εμνηστευμενην (Luke i. 27). ουρανου for ουρανιου (ii. 13). ανηζητουν (Luke ii. 44). κοπιουσιν (Matt. vi. 28). ηρωτουν (Matt. xv. 23). κατασκηνοιν (Mark iv. 32). ‘ημεις for ‘υμεις. ‘υμεις for ‘ημεις.]
129 This paper on Titus ii. 5 was marked by the Dean as being ‘ready for press.’ It was evidently one of his later essays, and was left in one of his later portfolios.
130 All Matthaei’s 16,—all Rinck’s 7,—all Reiche’s 6,—all Scrivener’s 13, &c., &c.
131 622.
132 Ed. Swete, ii. 247 (domos suas bene regentes); 248 (domus proprias optime regant).
133 ii. (Eth.) 291 a, 309 b.
134 xi. 750 a, 751 b c d—‘η οικουρος και οικονομικη.
135 iii. 704.
136 ii. 271.
137 Cod. Clarom.
138 Cod. Amiat., and August. iii1. 804.
139 vii. 716 c, 718 b (Bene domum regere, 718 c).
140 κατ’ οικον οικουρουσιν ‘ωστε παρθενοι (Soph. Oed. Col. 343).—‘Οικουρος est quasi proprium vocabulum mulierum: οικουργος est scribarum commentum,’—as Matthaei, whose note is worth reading, truly states. Wetstein’s collections here should by all means be consulted. See also Field’s delightful Otium Norv., pp. 135-6.
141 P. 293, lin. 4 (see lin. 2).
142 P. 288, lin. 20.
143 1 Tim. v. 13.
144 οικουργειν—which occurs in Clemens Rom. (ad Cor. c. 1)—is probably due to the scribe.
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