Textual Criticism of the Greek New Testament

2 Versions

Versions.

Our second source of material for the reconstruction of the text of the New Testament is the early Versions. The value of their testimony depends on their age and fidelity. When did the first versions originate? This question reminds us of the Inscription on the Cross, a portion of which is still exhibited in Rome. It was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. But we may get further back still. Palestine at the time of Christ was a country where the most diverse languages and dialects came into contact with each other. In the last century B.C. a transformation had occurred, which might be regarded as a counterpart to the supplanting of Norman French by English, or of Low by High German. Aramaic had already taken the place of the old Hebrew, and after the time of Alexander came the intrusion of Greek, and later still of Latin. Some of the disciples of Jesus bore old Hebrew names, like James (Ἰάκωβος) and John (Ἰωάννης); others had names wholly or partly Aramaic, as Cephas (= Peter), the cognomen of Simon, and Bartholomew; while others, again, had Greek names, as Philip (Φίλιππος) and Andrew (Ἀνδρέας). To the question what language Jesus Himself spoke, the most probable answer is that it was Aramaic with a Galilean colouring. “Thou art a Galilean, thy speech bewrayeth thee,” said the Jerusalem girl to Peter. The Galileans, like the Babylonians and the Samaritans, were recognisable by their not distinguishing the gutturals so sharply as the pure Jews did. At the same time, Jesus certainly understood the Hebrew of the Old Testament. But those words of His that have been preserved are Aramaic—talitha, abba, and so is sabaqtani in Matthew xxvii. 46, and Mark xv. 34, if that is the original form of the text, and not asabthani, as a number of manuscripts show.

In what language, however, the first record of the preaching of the Gospel was made, whether it was in the classic Hebrew of the Old Testament or in the Aramaic of the time, is still subject of dispute.81 But as this question is of moment only for the original sources, and even then for only a certain part of the New Testament—viz. the Gospels—it does not fall to be considered here. We have to do only with those versions that are derived from the Greek, and again with those of them only that are important for the criticism of the text, which are the oldest.

The versions which are of consequence here may be placed under three or four heads.

East.

In the East, Antioch, with its semi-Greek, semi-Syrian population, very early became the centre of the new faith, which, indeed, obtained its name there, and must very soon have established itself in Damascus and Mesopotamia. In that region the form of Aramaic now commonly known as Syriac was spoken.

West, South.

In the West, Greek was mostly spoken and understood, even in Rome. Paul consequently, and others as well as he, wrote to Rome in Greek. At the same time, the need must have existed, even in the second century, of having the Gospel in the Latin language in parts of Africa, in the north of Italy, and in the South of Gaul. Quite as early, perhaps, the new faith spread to Egypt, which at that time was a kind of centre of religious culture, and so we find in Egypt not one but several versions in various dialects.

The Gothic version of Ulfilas deserves special mention as being the oldest monument of Christianity among the Germanic people, and valuable too in the criticism of the text.

L. J. M. Bebb, Evidence of the Early Versions and Patristic Quotations, etc., in Studia Biblica, ii., Oxford, 1890. Lagarde, De Novo Testamento ad Versionum Orientalium fidem edendo. Berlin (1857); with slight alterations in his Ges. Abhandlungen, 1886, pp. 84-119. Reprinted 1896. Urtext (see p. 7). Copinger (see p. 6). An earlier bibliographical work is the Bibliotheca Sacra post... Jacobi Le Long et C. F. Boerneri iteratas curas ordine disposita, emendata, suppleta, continuata ab A. G. Masch. Halle, 1778-90, 4to. Pars I., De editionibus textus originalis. Pars II., De versionibus librorum sacrorum (3 Vols.). R. Simon, Histoire critique des versions du N. T., 1690. Nouvelles observations sur le texte et les versions du N. T., 1695.

(A.) Syriac Versions

Peshitto.

The Bible used in the Syrian Church has long and deservedly borne the honourable appellation of “the Queen of the Versions.” It was first published in 1555 at the expense of the Emperor Ferdinand I. by J. Albert Widmanstadt with the assistance of a Syrian Jacobite called Moses, who came from Mardin as legate to Pope Julius III. The type for this edition was beautifully cut by Caspar Kraft of Ellwangen. All the branches into which the Syrian church was divided in the fifth century have used the same translation of the Scriptures. To this day the Syriac New Testament wants the five so-called Antilegomena—viz. 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and the Apocalypse—a sufficient proof that it goes back to a time and a region in which these books were not yet reckoned in the Canon of the New Testament. In place of these it contained in early times an alleged Third Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and an Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul (cf. below, p. 142). To distinguish it from other Syriac translations, this Version has been called by Syriac scholars, since the tenth century, the Peshiṭto—i.e. the “Simple” or perhaps the “Common,” which is sometimes pronounced Peshiṭtå (פְשִׁיטתָא) and spelt simply Peshitto.

When and where was this translation made? An ancient Syrian tradition asserts that it was done by the Apostle Thaddaeus, who came on a mission to Abgar Uchama—i.e. Abgar the Black—King of Edessa, after the death of Jesus, which mission, they say, arose out of a correspondence that Abgar had previously had with Jesus. Another tradition ascribes it to Aggaeus (Aggai), the disciple of Thaddaeus, and it is even attributed to Mark the Evangelist. It is also said that Luke was by birth a Syrian of Antioch, a tradition which may preserve an element of truth.

The earliest notice of a Syriac Gospel is found in Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, iv. 22. That historian mentions that Hegesippus (c. 160-180) quotes certain things from the Gospel of the Hebrews—i.e. of the Palestinian (?) Jewish Christians, and from the Syriac (sc. Gospel), and particularly from the Hebrew dialect, showing that he himself was a convert from the Hebrews (ἔκ τε τοῦ καθ’ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγελίου καὶ τοῦ Συριακοῦ καὶ ἰδίως ἐκ τῆς Ἑβραΐδος διαλέκτου τινὰ τίθησιν, ἐμφαίνων ἐξ Ἑβραίων ἑαυτὸν πεπιστευκέναι). This can hardly be understood otherwise than as implying that a Syriac version was already in existence. Whether it contained all the four Gospels or only one of them, or Tatian’s Harmony of the Gospels, as Michaelis supposed and as Zahn has recently shown some ground for believing, or whether it contained a primitive Gospel, now perished, cannot be established with certainty.

From the middle of the present century manuscripts of this version have found their way into European libraries in great numbers. Some of these are inestimable. At least ten date from the fifth, and thirty from the sixth century. This is somewhat remarkable when we remember how small a remnant of the Greek manuscripts has been preserved. G. H. Gwilliam is at present engaged on an edition of the Syriac Tetraevangelium for the University of Oxford on the basis of forty manuscripts. The task might seem to be an easy one, considering that these Syriac manuscripts display a far greater unanimity in their text than is found in any written in Greek. The difficulty in their case lies in another direction.

Curetonian.

In the year 1842 a Syriac manuscript containing considerable portions of the Gospels was brought from Egypt and deposited in the British Museum. It was afterwards published by Dr. Cureton in 1858 with the title “Remains of a very antient recension of the four Gospels in Syriac hitherto unknown in Europe.” Cureton himself thought he had discovered the original of St. Matthew’s Gospel in this version. While this was easily shown to be a mistake, the question as to the relationship between the Curetonian Syriac and the Peshitto, whether the two texts are independent of each other, or if not, which is the earlier and which the recension, is not yet decided.

Lewis.

It seemed as if the solution of the problem was in sight when fragments of a Syriac palimpsest were discovered on Mount Sinai in February 1892 by Mrs. Lewis and her sister, Mrs. Gibson. These they perceived to be part of a very old manuscript of the Gospels, and Professor Bensly of Cambridge recognised that their text was closely related to that of the Curetonian. (See Plate V.) A second expedition was made to Sinai in the spring of 1893, when the fragments were transcribed by Professor Bensly, F. C. Burkitt, and J. R. Harris. As Bensly died three days after their return, the manuscript was published by the others in 1894, with an introduction by Mrs. Lewis. On a third visit to Sinai this lady completed the work of the triumvirate, and also published an English translation of the whole. How, then, is this Sinai-Syriac or Lewis-Syriac, as it is called, related to the Curetonian and to the Peshitto? The problem becomes more complicated still by the introduction of a fourth factor, the most important of them all.

Tatian.

From early sources it was known that Tatian,82 a Syrian and a pupil of Justin Martyr, composed a harmony of the Gospels called the Diatessaron—i.e. τὸ διὰ τεσσάρων εὐαγγέλιον, an expression which may be taken either as referring to the four Gospels or as a musical term equivalent to harmony or chord. This Harmony was in use among the Syrians till the fifth century. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, informs us that he destroyed 200 copies of it in his semi-Syriac, semi-Greek diocese.83 About the same time Bishop Rabbulas of Edessa (407-435) instructed his presbyters and deacons to see that all the churches possessed and read a copy of the Distinct Gospel—i.e. not mixed or harmonised. The Lewis-Syriac bears this very title, Gospel of the Distinct or Divided, which is found also as the title of Matthew’s Gospel in the Curetonian version. Tatian’s Harmony has not yet been discovered in Syriac, but a Latin Harmony of the Gospels derived from it has long been known, and in 1883 a Harmony in Arabic was published by Ciasca which proves to be a translation from the Syriac made by Ibn et-Tabib (d. 1043) or a recension of it. Again, in 1836 the Armenian version of a Syriac Commentary by Ephraem of Edessa (d. 373) was printed, and translated into Latin in 1876. [Evangelii concordantis expositio facta a S. Ephraemo doctore Syro. In Latinum translata a J. B. Aucher, ed. G. Moesinger. Venetiis.] Finally Theodor Zahn discovered in the works of the Syriac writer Aphraates, who wrote between 337 and 345, quotations which must be derived from this Harmony of Tatian; and isolated quotations from Tatian are also found in later Syriac authors. And so the materials are provided for deciding the question whether or not Tatian made use of an earlier Syriac version in the preparation of his Harmony, and how T^(atian), Syr^cu(reton), Syr^sin and Syr^sch(aaf)84 are related to each other. The most probable view perhaps is that T is the earliest form in which the Gospel came to Syria, that in Syr^cu and Syr^sin we have two attempts to exhibit T in the form of a version of the separate Gospels which were not generally accepted, while Syr^sch actually succeeded and passed into general use.

The interest attaching to this question may be learned from the form in which the text of Matthew i. 16 is given in these witnesses. Syr^sch agrees exactly with our present Greek text, but Syr^cu presents a form which, when translated into Latin, reads, Joseph cui desponsata virgo Maria genuit Jesum Christum. Now, the only Greek manuscripts that present a form corresponding to this are four minuscules, 346, 556, 624 and 626, which differ in this respect even from the other members of the Ferrar Group to which they belong. In these four manuscripts the verse reads, Ἰωσὴφ ᾧ μνηστευθῆσα (sic) παρθένος Μαριὰμ ἐγέννησεν Ἰησοῦν τὸν λεγόμενον Χριστόν. In the Latin, however, this text is represented by a number of the oldest manuscripts, seven at least, one of which omits the word virgo, while two have peperit instead of genuit, and τὸν λεγόμενον is omitted. But in Syr^sin we find: Joseph: Joseph autem cui desponsata (erat) virgo Maria genuit Jesum Christum. The passage is similarly cited in the recently published Dialogue of Timotheus and Aquila,85 along with two other forms, thus:—Ἰακὼβ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωσὴφ τὸν ἄνδρα Μαρίας, ἐξ ἧς ἐγεννήθη Ἰησοῦς ὁ λεγόμενος Χριστὸς, καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν λεγόμενον Χριστόν.

The exact wording of Tatian can no longer be determined, but it is evident that of these three forms in which the verse is found, only one or none can be the original. If we had no more than our oldest uncials or the great body of our minuscules to go by, no one could have the slightest suspicion that in our Greek text all is not in perfect order. But here, in an old Syriac fragment from the far East, there suddenly appears a reading which is also found in Latin witnesses from the far West, and which is confirmed by four solitary Greek manuscripts, written probably in Calabria at the close of the Middle Ages. How are these facts connected, and how do they stand to the other two readings, that of the common Greek text, and that of the Lewis-Syriac? The history of the text of the New Testament presents many such problems.

Philoxenus-Polycarp.

But Syrian scholars were not satisfied with those forms of the New Testament already mentioned. In the year of Alexander 819 (A.D. 508),86 a new and much more literal version was made from the Greek at the desire of Xenaia (Philoxenus), Bishop of Mabug87 (488-518), by his rural Bishop Polycarp. Part of this version was published in England by Pococke in 1630—viz. the four Epistles in the Antilegomena not included in the Peshitto, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. Unfortunately this edition was prepared from a somewhat inaccurate manuscript, which is now in the Bodleian Library. The later European editions of the Syriac New Testament took the text of these Epistles from Pococke’s edition, which was also the one used for critical editions of the Greek text. In 1886 Isaac H. Hall published a phototype edition of another manuscript of this version (the Williams MS.), the property of a private gentleman in America, and corrected from it the text of the Syriac New Testament issued by the American Bible Society. The other parts of this version have not yet been found, but the same American scholar thought he discovered the Gospels in a ninth century manuscript belonging to the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, and deposited in the Library of the Union Theological Seminary in New York.88 Bernstein thought he made the same discovery in 1853 in a manuscript belonging to the Angelica Library in Florence.

Thomas of Heraclea.

On the basis of four manuscripts sent from Diarbeker in 1736 to Dr. Gloucester Ridley, Joseph White published, between 1778 and 1803,89 a version which he designated by the name of Versio Philoxenia, and which still passes under this title. But this so-called Philoxenian version is not the identical version made for Philoxenus by Polycarp, but a revision undertaken by Thomas of Heraclea (Charkel), in the year 616-7. This revision was made at Alexandria with the object of making the Syriac text represent the Greek as closely as possible, even to the order of the words and the insertion of the article. The critical symbols used by Homeric commentators, the asterisk and the obelus, as well as numerous marginal notes, were employed to indicate the various readings found in the manuscripts. And it is very remarkable to observe that there were manuscripts in Alexandria at the beginning of the seventh century which were regarded by Thomas of Harkel as particularly well authenticated, but which deviate in a marked degree from the bulk of our present manuscripts, and which, especially in the Acts, agree almost entirely with Codex D, which occupies so singular a position among Greek manuscripts. A new edition of the Syriac text is necessary before any further use can be made of it in the criticism of the New Testament. Mr. Deane set himself to this task, going on the basis of sixteen manuscripts in England alone, but unfortunately he was unable to bring it to a conclusion.

Apocalypse.

The Apocalypse was first edited in 1627 by de Dieu at Leyden, from a manuscript that had been in the possession of Scaliger. It is found in a few other manuscripts, in one, e.g., that was transcribed about this same time for Archbishop Ussher from a Maronite manuscript at Kenobin on Mount Lebanon. It is not found in the Syriac New Testament, but the later editions insert it from de Dieu. In Apoc. viii. 13, instead of “an eagle in the midst of heaven” (ἐν μεσουρανήματι), the Syriac translator took it as “in the midst with a bloody tail” (μεσος, ουρα, αιμα). Another Syriac version, in which this error is avoided, was discovered in 1892 by J. Gwynn in a Codex belonging to Lord Crawford, and published by him as the first book printed in Syriac at the Dublin University Press. Still more interesting is it to know that in a manuscript, once the property of Julius Mohl, and now in Cambridge, both the so-called Epistles of Clement are found after the Catholic Epistles. This manuscript, part of which was published by Bensly in 1889 (see above, p. 79), contains a note at the end to the effect that it was derived, so far as the Pauline Epistles are concerned, from the copy of Pamphilus.90

About the same time and in the same region, Paul of Tella translated one of the best Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament into Syriac almost as literally as Thomas of Harkel, thereby doing immense service in the construction of the Syriac Hexapla, a work of inestimable value for the textual criticism of the Old Testament.

Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum.

Mention may be made here of another Syriac version of the New Testament, the so-called Jerusalem or Palestinian Syriac (Syr^hr or Syr^hier). This version, hitherto known almost solely from an Evangeliarium in the Vatican of the year 1030, was edited by Count Miniscalchi Erizzo at Verona in 1861-4, and an excellent edition was published in 1892 in Bibliothecae Syriacae a Paulo de Lagarde collectae quae ad philologiam sacram pertinent. And now not only have two fresh manuscripts of this Evangeliarium been discovered on Mount Sinai by J. R. Harris and Mrs. Lewis, and edited by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, but fragments of the Acts and Pauline Epistles have also been found and published, as well as portions of the Old Testament and other Church literature.91 The dialect in which these fragments are written is quite different from ordinary Syriac, and may, perhaps, bear a close resemblance to that in which Jesus spoke to His disciples. At what time and in what region this entire literature took its rise is not yet determined with certainty. The Greek text on which the Evangeliarium is based has many peculiarities. In Matthew xxvii. 17, e.g., the robber is called Jesus Barabbas, or, rather, Jesus Barrabbas, a fact known to Origen, but now recorded only in a few Greek minuscules by the first or second hand.

What used to be called the Versio Karkaphensis or Montana is not really a version, but merely the Massoretic work of a monastery school intended to preserve the proper spelling and pronunciation of the text of the Bible.

No other branch of the Church has taken such pains as the Syrian, faithfully to transmit and to circulate the Gospel. From the mountains of Lebanon and Kurdistan, from the plains of Mesopotamia and the coast of Malabar, and even from distant China there have come into the libraries of Europe Syriac manuscripts of the utmost value for the textual criticism of the New Testament.

Literature on the Syriac Versions:—

J. G. Christian Adler, Novi Testamenti Versiones Syriacae, Simplex, Philoxeniana, et Hierosolymitana. Denuo examinatae et ad fidem codicum manu scriptorum... novis observationibus atque tabulis aere incisis illustratae. Hafniae, pp. viii. 206. With eight Plates. 1789, 4to. For the complete list of editions up to 1888, see my Litteratura Syriaca (Syr. Gr., 2nd edition, pp. 20 ff.). Appendix thereto in Urt., 227 ff.; R. Duval, La Littérature Syriaque. Paris, 1899, pp. 42-67; TiGr., 813-822; Scrivener, fourth edition, ii. 6-40, with the help of Gwilliam and Deane; The Printed Editions of the Syriac New Testament, in the Church Quarterly Review, 1888, July, 257-297; G. H. Gwilliam, in the Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica (Oxford), ii. 1890, iii. 1891; F. C. Conybeare, The growth of the Peshitta Version of the New Testament, in the American Journal of Theology, 1897, iv. 883-912; Burkitt, in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. (July 1900), 569 ff., referring to his forthcoming edition of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, says that he has had to go over the Gospel quotations of St. Ephraem, and closes by saying, “I confess that I am unconvinced that what we call the New Testament Peshitta was in existence in St. Ephraem’s day, and I believe that we owe both its production and victorious reception to the organizing energy of the Great Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa from 411 to 435 A.D.”

1. Till Gwilliam’s edition of the Gospels appears, which has been promised since 1891, the best edition will be the Editio Princeps of Widmanstadt, 1555; then that of Leusden and Schaaf, Novum Domini nostri Jesu Christi Testamentum Syriacum cum versione latina cura et studio J. Leusden et C. Schaaf editum. Ad omnes editiones diligenter recensitum et variis lectionibus magno labore collectis adornatum. Lugd. Bat., 1709, 4to. Acc. Schaaf, Lexicon Syriacum concordantiale. The text reprinted by Jones at Oxford, 1805; the editions of the London Bible Society, 1816 and 1826, and better still, the Syriac and New-Syriac editions of the American Mission in Urmia, 1846, and of the American Bible Society of New York, 1868, 1874, and frequently (with the Nestorian vocalisation). An edition is promised from the Jesuit Press at Beyruth, Nouveau Testament Syriaque en petits caractères, d’après plusieurs manuscrits anciens, éd. par le P. L. Cheikho.

The New Testament part of the Peshitto has been very much neglected in the present century. On the O.T., investigations, chiefly in the form of dissertations on most of the books, have been published, establishing the relation of the Syriac to the Massoretic text, the Septuagint, and the Targum. But almost nothing of this sort has been done for the N.T., at least in Germany, since the time of Michaelis and Löhlein. The question has never once been taken up how many translators’ hands can be distinguished in the N.T.

J. D. Michaelis, Curae in Versionem Syriacam Act. Apost. cum consectariis criticis de indole, cognationibus et usu versionis Syriacae tabularum Novi Foederis. Göttingen, 1755. C. L. E. Löhlein, Syrus Epistolae ad Ephesios interpres in causa critica denuo examinatus, Erlangen, 1835.

2. Cureton’s Remains (1858) is now out of print. Till Burkitt’s new edition appears its place will be taken by Baethgen’s Retranslation into Greek (Evangelienfragmente. Der griechische Text des Curetonschen Syrers wiederhergestellt, Leipzig, 1885); and more especially by Albert Bonus’s Collatio codicis Lewisiani rescripti evangeliorum Syriacorum cum codice Curetoniano, Oxford, 1896; and by Carl Holzhey’s Der neuentdeckte Codex Sinaiticus untersucht. Mit einem vollständigen Verzeichnis der Varianten des Codex Sinaiticus und Codex Curetonianus, Munich, 1896. See A. Bonus, The Sinaitic Palimpsest and the Curetonian Syriac, in the Expository Times, May 1895, p. 380 ff. The publications of T. R. Crowfoot, Fragmenta Evangelica, Pars I., II., 1870, 1872, and Observations on the Collations in Greek of Cureton’s Syriac Fragments, 1872, contain useful material, but there are a good many mistakes.

3. The Editio Princeps of the Lewis text is, of course, that of Bensly, Harris, and Burkitt, The Four Gospels in Syriac, transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest... Cambridge, 1894. To this must be added its complement by Mrs. Lewis, Some Pages of the Four Gospels retranscribed (with or without an English translation), London, 1896; further, Last Gleanings from the Sinai Palimpsest, Expositor, Aug. 1897, pp. 111-119; also, An Omission from the Text of the Sinai Palimpsest, Expositor, Dec. 1897, p. 472. On the discovery of the manuscript, see Mrs. Gibson, How the Codex was found,... Cambridge, 1893, and Mrs. Lewis, In the shadow of Sinai,... Cambridge, 1898; also Mrs. Bensly, Our Journey to Sinai,... With a chapter on the Sinai Palimpsest. London, 1896. See also Mrs. Lewis, The Earlier Home of the Sinaitic Palimpsest, Expositor, June 1900, pp. 415-421. The text has been translated into German by Adalbert Merx, who has added a brief but valuable critical discussion. Berlin (Reimer), 1897. The second part, comprising the commentary, has not yet appeared. See also Gwilliam’s notice of the editio princeps in the Expository Times, Jan. 1895, p. 157 ff.

4. On Tatian, the latest and best is Zahn, Evangelienharmonie, PRE³, v. (1898), 653 ff.; also his Forschungen, i. (1881), Tatian’s Diatessaron, ii. p. 286 ff. (1883), iv. (1891); Gesch. des Kanons, i. 387-414, ii. 530-556. J. H. Hill, The earliest Life of Christ ever compiled from the Four Gospels, being the Diatessaron of Tatian (c. A.D. 160), literally translated from the Arabic Version. Edinburgh, 1893. J. R. Harris, The Diatessaron of Tatian, a Preliminary Study. Cambridge, 1890. The Diatessaron, a Reply, in the Contemporary Review, Aug. 1895, in answer to W. R. Cassels, in the Nineteenth Century, April 1895; also by the same writer, Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon the Diatessaron. London, 1895.... J. H. Hill, A Dissertation on the Gospel Commentary of S. Ephrem the Syrian... Edinburgh, 1896. J. A. Robinson, Tatian’s Diatessaron and a Dutch Harmony, in the Academy, 24th March 1894. Hope W. Hogg, The Diatessaron of Tatian, with introduction and translation, in the Ante-Nicene Library. Additional Volume... edited by Allan Menzies. Edinburgh, 1897, pp. 33-138. W. Elliott, Tatian’s Diatessaron and the Modern Critics. Plymouth, 1888. I. H. Hall, A Pair of Citations from the Diatessaron, in the Journal of Biblical Literature, x. 2 (1891), 153-155. J. Goussen, Pauca Fragmenta genuina Diatessaroniana, appended to the Apocalypsis S. Joannis Versio Sahidica, 1895. See also Bäumer in the Literarischer Handweiser, 1890, 153-169; the article Tatian in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 697 f.

5. On the later Syriac versions, see Urt., 228, 236 f.; Gwynn, The older Syriac Version of the four Minor Catholic Epistles, Hermathena, No. xvi. (vol. vii.), 1890, 281-314. Merx, Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testamentes in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Uebersetzung... Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xii. 240 ff., 348 ff., xiii. 1-28. Bensly, The Harklean Version of the Epistle to the Hebrews,... Cambridge, 1889. In this edition will be found the subscription mentioned above, connecting the manuscript with that of Pamphilus. See Addenda, p. xv.

6. On the Jerusalem Evangeliarium, see Urt., 228, 237. Zahn, Forschungen, i. 329 ff. Lagarde, Mitteilungen, i. 111, iv. 328, 340. A. de Lagarde, Erinnerungen an P. de Lagarde, p. 112 ff. Lewis and Gibson, The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels re-edited from two Sinai MSS. and from P. de Lagarde’s edition of the Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum, London, 1899. The Lectionary published in the Studia Sinaitica, vi., contains, in the N.T., passages from Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Cor., Gal., Ephes., Philip., Col., 1 Thess., 1 and 2 Tim., Heb., James. See notice in the Expository Times, Jan. 1898, p. 190 ff. The Liturgy of the Nile, published by G. Margoliouth, 1896 (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Oct. 1896, 677-731, and also published separately), contains Acts xvi. 16-34. See also Woods, The New Syriac Fragments in the Expository Times, Nov. 1893.

(B.) Latin Versions

Jerome.

The name most closely associated with the Latin Versions of the New Testament is that of Jerome (Hieronymus). This scholar was born at Stridon, on the borders of Dalmatia,92 about the year 345, and educated at Rome. After leading for some time a hermit life in Palestine, Jerome returned to Rome, and it was during his residence there, in the year 382, that he was urged by Pope Damasus to undertake a revision of the Latin version of the New Testament then in use. This he did, and in 383 sent the Pope, who died in the following year, the first instalment of the work, the Four Gospels, accompanied with a letter beginning thus:—“Thou compellest me to make a new work out of an old; after so many copies of the Scriptures have been dispersed throughout the whole world, I am now to occupy the seat of the arbiter, as it were, and seeing they disagree, to decide which of them accords with the truth of the Greek; a pious task, verily, yet a perilous presumption, to pass judgment on others and oneself to be judged by all.” He anticipates that everyone, no matter who, learned or ignorant, that takes up a Bible and finds a discrepancy between it and the usual text will straightway condemn him as an impious falsifier who presumed to add to or alter or correct the ancient Scriptures. But he comforts himself with the reflection that it is the High Pontiff himself that has laid this task upon him, and that the testimony of his jealous opponents themselves proves that discrepancies are an indication of error (verum non esse quod variat, etiam maledicorum testimonio comprobatur); for if they tell us we are to rest our faith on the Latin exemplars, they must first say which, because there are almost as many versions as manuscripts (tot enim sunt exemplaria paene quot codices); if it is to be the majority of these, why not rather go back to the Greek original which has been badly rendered by incompetent translators (a vitiosis interpretibus male edita), made worse instead of better by the presumption of unskilful correctors (a praesumptoribus imperitis emendata perversius), and added to or altered by sleepy scribes (a librariis dormitantibus aut addita sunt aut mutata). In a letter to his learned friend Marcella, written in the year 384, he gives instances of what he complains of, citing, e.g., Romans xii. 11, where tempori servientes had hitherto been read instead of domino servientes (καιρῷ instead of κυρίῳ), and 1 Tim. v. 19, “against an elder receive not an accusation,” where the qualifying clause, “except before two or three witnesses,” was dropped, and also 1 Tim. i. 15, iii. 1, where humanus sermo was given in place of fidelis. In all three instances, our most recent critical editions decide in favour of Jerome, against the Old Latin Version. In the last instance cited, we know of only one Latin-Greek manuscript that has ἀνθρώπινος instead of πιστός, and that only in c. iii. 1, viz. D*. Jerome accordingly issued an improved version of the New Testament, beginning with the Gospels. For this purpose he made a careful comparison of old Greek manuscripts (codicum Graecorum emendata conlatione sed veterum). In his version he was also careful only to make an alteration when a real change of meaning was necessary, retaining in all other cases the familiar Latin wording. The Gospels were in the order which has been the prevailing one since his day—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

Augustine.

We learn from the great Church Teacher Augustine, who lived in Africa about the same time (354-430), that there was an endless variety and multitude of translators (latinorum interpretum infinita varietas, interpretum numerositas). He tells us that while it was possible to count the number of those who had translated the Bible—i.e. the Old Testament—from Hebrew into Greek, the Latin translators were innumerable; that in the early age of the Christian faith (primis fidei temporibus), no sooner did anyone gain possession of a Greek Codex, and believe himself to have any knowledge of both languages, than he made bold to translate it (ausus est interpretari). |Itala.| The advice he himself gives is to prefer the Italic version to the others, as being the most faithful and intelligible (in ipsis autem interpretationibus Itala praeferatur; nam est verborum tenacior cum perspicuitate sententiae. De Doctrina Christiana, ii. 14, 15). |Vulgate.| On the ground of this passage, the pre-Jeromic versions have been comprehended under the title of the Itala, as distinguished from Jerome’s own work, which is called the Vulgate, seeing that it became the prevailing text in the Church of the Middle Ages. By the Itala, Augustine himself, however, must have referred to a particular version, and, according to the usage of that time, the word cannot mean anything else than a version originating in or prevalent in Italy—i.e. the North of Italy, what is called Lombardy. It is not difficult to understand how it came to pass that Augustine used such a version in Africa, seeing that he was a pupil of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. In recent times Burkitt has revived the opinion that by Itala Augustine means neither more nor less than Jerome’s Revision of the Gospels. He demonstrates that Augustine’s De Consensu, written about the year 400, is based on Jerome’s revised text. In this, Zahn93 agrees with him on grounds that admit of no question so far as this point is concerned. But Wordsworth-White94 will not admit the inference that Augustine must have meant this Revision when he spoke of Itala in the year 397, seeing that in his letter to Jerome,95 written in 403, he thanks God for the interpretation of the Gospel, “quasi de opere recenter cognito,” while in his earlier letters to Jerome96 he makes no mention of it: “quod mirandum esset si in opere ante sex annos publici iuris facto eam collaudasset.”97

(1.) Latin Versions before Jerome.

Old Latin Texts.

Where, when, and by whom was the New Testament, or at least were parts of it, first translated into Latin? From the passage in Augustine quoted above, we learn that it was done by all and sundry in the very earliest times of the Christian faith. Rome used to be regarded as the place where the Latin versions took their rise. But it was observed that Greek was very commonly employed as the written language at Rome, especially among Christians. The first Bishops of Rome have pure Greek names, and even the first representative of the Roman Church with a Latin name, the Clement that wrote the Epistle to the Corinthians about the year 95, even he wrote in Greek. Moreover, when the relics of the Old Latin Bibles began to be examined, it was observed that their language, both in vocabulary and grammar, entirely agreed with that found in African writers of that age, and in some things agreed with these alone. |African Latin.| It is, of course, a fact that the majority of the writers of that age known to us are African. Till quite recently, therefore, it was held to be tolerably well made out that the birthplace of the Latin Bible is to be found in Africa. It was regarded by many as equally certain, that in spite of the statements of Jerome and Augustine, and in spite too of the various forms in which the Old Latin Bible now exists, these all proceed from a common origin, or at most from two sources, so that it was not quite correct to speak of a “multitude of translators” in the very earliest times. The settlement of this question is rendered more difficult by the fact that, while the extant copies of the pre-Jeromic Bible are undoubtedly very early, they are few in number, and for the most part mutilated. The reason of this is not far to seek. For, as time went on and Jerome’s new version came to be more and more exclusively used, manuscripts of the earlier version lost their value, and were the more frequently used for palimpsests and book covers. One has also to take into account how liable the text of both was to be corrupted, either by the copyist of an Old Latin Bible inserting in the margin, or even interpolating in the text, various passages from Jerome’s translation that seemed to him to be a decided improvement, or conversely, by the scribe who should have written the new rendering involuntarily permitting familiar expressions to creep in from the old. It is estimated that we have about 8000 manuscripts of Jerome’s recension, of which 2228 have been catalogued by Gregory. Samuel Berger, the most thorough investigator in this field, examined 800 manuscripts in Paris alone. But on the other hand, only 38 manuscripts of the Old Latin Version of the New Testament are known to exist. The credit of collecting the relics of these pre-Jeromic versions of the Old and New Testament, so far as they were accessible at that time, belongs to Peter Sabatier the Maurist (Rheims, 1743, 3 vols. folio).

In critical editions of the New Testament the manuscripts of the pre-Jeromic versions are indicated by the small letters of the Roman alphabet. They are the following:—

1. Gospels.

a. Vercellensis: according to a tradition recorded in a document of the eighth century this manuscript was written by Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, who died in the year 370 or 371. Recent scholars, however, date it somewhat later. It is written on purple with silver letters. The order of the Gospels is that found in most of these Old Latin MSS.—viz. Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. The manuscript is defective in several places.

The codex was edited by Irico in 1748, and by Bianchini in 1749 along with some of the others in his Evangeliarium Quadruplex. This latter edition was reprinted, with some inaccuracies, in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol. xii. The manuscript was again edited by Belsheim; Codex Vercellensis. Quatuor Evangelia ante Hieronymum latine translata ex reliquiis Codicis Vercellensis, saeculo ut videtur quarto scripti, et ex Editione Iriciana principe denuo ededit (sic) Jo. Belsheim. Christiania, 1894.

b. Veronensis: of the fourth or fifth century, also written with silver on purple. In this Codex, John vii. 44-viii. 12 has been erased. The manuscript is defective.

Edited by Bianchini (see above). A Spagnolo, L’Evangeliario Purpureo Veronese. Nota (Torino, 1899. Estratta dagli Atti dell’ Accademia Reale delle Scienze di Torino).

c. Colbertinus: in Paris, written in the twelfth century, but still containing the Old Latin text in the Gospels, though exhibiting Jerome’s version in other parts.

Edited by Sabatier, and again by Belsheim; Codex Colbertinus Parisiensis. Quatuor Evangelia ante Hieronymum latine translata post editionem Petri Sabatier cum ipso codice collatam denuo edidit Jo. Belsheim. Christiania, 1888.

d. The Latin part of Codex D; see p. 64 ff.

e. Palatinus: of the fourth or fifth century, written like a b f i j on purple with gold and silver letters: now in Vienna, with one leaf in Dublin.

Two other fragments were published in 1893 by Hugo Linke from a transcript made for Bianchini in 1762. The entire codex was edited by Belsheim, Christiania, 1896. See von Dobschütz in the LCbl., 1896, 28.

f. Brixianus, of the sixth century, in Brescia. In their new edition of the Vulgate, Wordsworth and White printed the text of this manuscript underneath that of Jerome for comparison’s sake as probably containing the text most nearly resembling that on which Jerome based his recension. But see Burkitt’s Note in the Journal of Theological Studies, I. i. (Oct. 1899), 129-134, and the note to p. 139 in Addenda.

ff₁. Corbeiensis I., contains the Gospel according to Matthew alone. The manuscript formerly belonged to the Monastery of Corbey, near Amiens, and with others was transferred to St. Petersburg during the French Revolution.

ff₂. Corbeiensis II., written in the sixth century and now in Paris: contains the Gospels with several lacunæ.

On Belsheim’s editions of ff₁ and ff₂ (1881 and 1887), see E. Ranke in the ThLz., 1887, col. 566, and S. Berger, Bull. Crit., 1891, 302 f.

g₁. Sangermanensis I., of the ninth century, in Paris, exhibits a mixed text. The manuscript was used by Stephen for his Latin Bible of 1538.

g₂. Sangermanensis II., written in an Irish hand of the tenth century, has a mixed text: in Paris (Lat. 13069).

h. Claromontanus, of the fourth or fifth century, now in the Vatican: has the Old Latin text in Matthew only. The manuscript is defective at the beginning down to Matt. iii. 15 and also from Matt. xiv. 33-xviii. 12.

Edited by Mai in his Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio, iii. 257-288, and by Belsheim, Christiania, 1892.

i. Vindobonensis, of the seventh century, contains fragments of Luke and Mark written on purple with silver and gold.

Edited by Belsheim, Codex Vindobonensis membranaceus purpureus... antiquissimae evangeliorum Lucae et Marci translationis Latinae fragmenta edidit Jo. Belsheim. Lipsiae, 1885 (cum tabula).

j (z in TiGr.). Saretianus or Sarzannensis, of the fifth century, contains 292 verses from John written on purple. The manuscript was discovered in 1872 in the Church of Sarezzano, near Tortona, and is not yet completely edited.

Compare G. Amelli, Un antichissimo codice biblico Latino purpureo conservato nella chiesa di Sarezzano presso Tortona. Milan, 1872.

k. Bobiensis, of the fifth century, is perhaps the most important of the Old Latin manuscripts, but unfortunately contains only fragments of Matthew and Mark. It is said to have belonged to St. Columban, the founder of the monastery of Bobbio, who died in the year 615. It is now preserved at Turin. See Burkitt on Mark xv. 34 in Codex Bobiensis in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. 2 (Jan. 1900), p. 278 f.

l. Rehdigeranus, in Breslau, purchased in Venice by Thomas von Rehdiger in 1569. Matthew i. 1-ii. 15 and a good deal of John wanting.

Edited by H. Fr. Haase, Breslau, 1865, 1866: Evangeliorum quattuor vetus latina interpretatio ex codice Rehdigerano nunc primum edita.

m. Does not represent any particular manuscript and should properly be omitted here. It indicates the Liber de divinis scripturis sive Speculum, a work mistakenly ascribed to Augustine, consisting of a collection of proof-passages (testimonia) from the Old and New Testaments. All the books of the latter are made use of except Philemon, Hebrews, and 3 John, but the Epistle to the Laodicæans is cited among the number.

Fragmenta Novi Testamenti in translatione latina antehieronymiana ex libro qui vocatur Speculum eruit et ordine librorum Novi Testamenti exposuit J. Belsheim. Christiania, 1899.

n o p. Are fragments at St. Gall: published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts, see below, p. 131 f.

n. Written in the fifth or sixth century, has probably been in the Library at St. Gall since its foundation. It contains portions of Matthew and Mark, with John xix. 13-42.

o. Written in the seventh century, possibly to take the place of the last leaf of n, which is wanting, contains Mark xvi. 14-20.

p. Two leaves of an Irish missal written in the seventh or eighth century.

a₂. Is part of the same manuscript as n. It consists of a leaf containing Luke xi. 11-29 and xiii. 16-34. It was found in the Episcopal archives at Chur, and is preserved in the Rhætisches Museum there.

q. Monacensis, written in the sixth or seventh century, came originally from Freising. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.

r or r₁ and r₂. Usserianus I. and II., are both in Dublin. The former is written in an Irish hand of the seventh century, and has several lacunæ. r₂ belongs to the ninth or tenth century and has an Old Latin text in Matthew resembling that of r₁. It shows affinity with Jerome’s text in Mark, Luke, and John, of which, however, only five leaves remain.

Edited by T. K. Abbott, Evangeliorum versio antehieronymiana ex codice Usseriano (Dublinensi), adjecta collatione codicis Usseriani alterius. Accedit versio Vulgata.... Dublin, 1884, 2 Parts.

s. Four leaves with portions of Luke, written in the sixth century. The fragments came originally from Bobbio, and are now in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.

t. A palimpsest very difficult to decipher, containing portions of the first three chapters of Mark, written in the fifth century, and now at Berne. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.

v. Bound in the cover of a volume at Vienna entitled, Pactus Legis Ripuariæ: exhibits John xix. 27-xx. 11. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.

aur. Aureus or Holmiensis, written in the seventh or eighth century, exhibits the Gospels entire, with the exception of Luke xxi. 8-30. An inscription in old English states that the manuscript was purchased from the heathen (the Danes?) by Alfred the Alderman for Christ Church, Canterbury, when Alfred was King and Ethelred Archbishop (871-889). It was afterwards in Madrid, and is now at Stockholm. It is really a Vulgate text with an admixture of Old Latin readings. Published by Belsheim in 1878.

δ. Is the interlinear Latin version of Δ (see p. 72), and is interesting on account of its alternative readings given in almost every verse—e.g. uxorem vel conjugem for γυναῖκα, Matt. i. 20. Compare Harris, The Codex Sangallensis, Cambridge, 1891.

On the Prolegomena found in many Old Latin and Vulgate manuscripts of the Gospels, see Peter Corssen, Monarchianische Prologe zu den vier Evangelien. Leipzig, 1896 (TU., xv. 1). This has been supplemented by von Dobschütz’s Prolog zur Apostelgeschichte. See also Jülicher in the GGA., 1896, xi. 841-851. J. S. in the Revue Critique, 1897, vii. 135 f. H. Holtzmann in the Th. Lz., 1897, xii. col. 231 ff. A. Hilgenfeld, Altchristliche Prolegomena zu den Evangelien in the ZfwTh., 1897, iii. 432-444.

2. Acts.

d m As for the Gospels.

e. The Latin text of E. See above, p. 75.

g. Gigas Holmiensis, the immense manuscript of the entire Latin Bible preserved at Stockholm. The text is Old Latin only in the Acts and Apocalypse, the rest of the New Testament exhibiting Jerome’s version. The manuscript was brought to Sweden from Prague as a prize of war in 1648, along with the Codex Argenteus.

The Acts and Apocalypse were edited by Belsheim, Christiania, 1879. On this see O. v. Gebhardt in the ThLz., 1880, col. 185. A new collation of this manuscript was made for W.-W. by H. Karlsson in 1891.

g₂. In Milan, is part of a Lectionary written in the tenth or eleventh century, and contains the pericope for St. Stephen’s day, Acts vi. 8-vii. 2, vii. 51-viii. 4.

Published by Ceriani in his Monumenta Sacra et Profana, i. 2, pp. 127, 128. Milan, 1866.

h. Floriacensis, a palimpsest formerly belonging to the Abbey of Fleury on the Loire, and now in Paris, written probably in the seventh century. It contains fragments of the Apocalypse, Acts, 1 and 2 Peter, and 1 John, in this order. (Tischendorf’s reg.: Blass’s f.)

The latest and best edition is that of S. Berger: Le Palimpseste de Fleury. Paris, 1889.

p₂, written in the thirteenth century, exhibits a text with an admixture of Old Latin readings in the Acts only. The manuscript came originally from Perpignan, and is now in Paris, No. 321. It was used by Blass.

Published by Berger: Un ancien texte latin des Actes des Apôtres, etc. Paris, 1895. See von Dobschütz in the ThLz., 1896, 4; Haussleiter in the Th. Lbl., no. 9; Schmiedel in the L. Cbl., no. 33; E. Beurlier, Bull. Crit., 1896, 32, p. 623.

s₂. Bobiensis, a palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century at Vienna, containing fragments of Acts xxiii., xxv.-xxviii., and of James and 1 Peter.

x₁. Written in the seventh or eighth century, contains the Acts with the exception of xiv. 26-xv. 32. The manuscript is preserved at Oxford and is not completely published.

w. Is the symbol given by Blass to a paper manuscript of the New Testament written, it seems, in Bohemia in the fifteenth century, and now at Wernigerode. In the main it exhibits Jerome’s text even to a greater extent than p, but preserves elements of the Old Latin, particularly in the latter half of the Acts. The mixture is similar to that observed in the Provençal New Testament,98 which is derived from a Latin manuscript of this nature, and to that in the pre-Lutheran German Bible. (See Urt., p. 127 f.)

On Acts, see especially P. Corssen, Der Cyprianische Text der Acta Apostolorum. Berlin, 1892.

3. Catholic Epistles.

h m s. As above.

ff. Corbeiensis, at St. Petersburg, of the tenth century, contains the Epistle of James.

Edited by Belsheim in the Theologisk Tidsskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske Kirke i Norge (N.S. Vol. ix. Part 2); also by J. Wordsworth, The Corbey St. James, etc., in Studia Biblica, i. pp. 113-150. Oxford, 1885.

q. Written in the seventh century, and preserved at Munich, contains fragments of 1 John, and of 1 and 2 Peter. The text exhibits the passage of the Three Heavenly Witnesses in 1 John v., but verse 7 follows verse 8.

Published by Ziegler in 1877, Bruchstücke einer vorhieronymianischen Uebersetzung der Petrusbriefe.

4. Pauline Epistles.

m. As for the Gospels.

d e f g. The Latin versions of the Greek Codices D E F G.

gue. Guelferbytanus, of the sixth century, contains fragments of Romans cc. xi.-xv., found in the Gothic palimpsest at Wolfenbüttel. See p. 69.

Published by Tischendorf in his Anecdota Sacra et Profana, 1855, pp. 153-158. See Burkitt, in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. 1 (Oct. 1899), p. 134, and compare the note to p. 139 in the Addenda, p. xv.

r. Written in the fifth or sixth century, came originally from Freising, and is now at Munich: contains portions of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Timothy, and Hebrews.

Ziegler, Italafragmente der paulinischen Briefe. Marburg, 1876. Wölfflin, Neue Bruchstücke der Freisinger Itala (Münchener Sitzungsberichte, 1893, ii. 253-280).

r₂. Also at Munich, a single leaf, with part of Phil. iv. and of 1 Thess. i.

r₃. In the Benedictine Abbey of Göttweih on the Danube: fragments of Romans v. and vi. and of Galatians iv. and v., written on leaves used as a book cover.

Published by Rönsch in the ZfwTh., xxii. (1879), pp. 234-238.

x₂. At Oxford, of the ninth century, contains the Pauline Epistles: defective from Heb. xi. 34-xiii. 25.

See also Fr. Zimmer, Der Galaterbrief im altlateinischen Text, als Grundlage für einen textkritischen Apparat der Vetus Latina in the Theologische Studien und Skizzen aus Ostpreussen. Königsberg, i. (1887), pp. 1-81.

5. Apocalypse.

The only manuscripts are m as for the Gospels, and g and h as for the Acts, h exhibits only fragments of cc. i. and ii., viii. and ix., xi. and xii., and xiv.-xvi.

For the Old Latin Biblical Texts edited by Wordsworth and White, see below, p. 131.

Latin Fathers.

On account of the small number of these manuscripts the quotations of the Latin Fathers are valuable, especially those of Cyprian of Carthage,99 and after them the recently discovered citations in Priscillian, who was the first to suffer death as a heretic in the year 385. In the Apocalypse we have the quotations of Primasius, Bishop of Hadrumet (ca. 550), who used in his commentary on the Apocalypse not only his own Old Latin Bible but also a revised version the same as that used by the African Donatist Tyconius. In attempting to classify these witnesses it was found that the text of certain manuscripts coincided with that of the Bible used by Cyprian—viz., in the Gospels k especially, in Acts h, and in the Apocalypse Primasius and h. This family has accordingly been designated the African.

Tertullian, a still earlier African Father, undoubtedly refers to the existence of a Latin Version in his time, but the quotations found in his Latin works cannot be taken into account, for this reason, that in citing the New Testament he seems to have made an independent translation from the Greek for his immediate purpose.100

As for the quotations in Augustine, they are found to resemble the text of f and q in the Gospels, particularly the former, and that of q, r, and r₃ in the Epistles. To this group, therefore, the name Italian has been given. It has, however, been deemed necessary to regard this Italian family as being itself a revised and smoother form of a still earlier version styled the European, which is thought to be represented by g, g₂, and s in the Acts, by ff in the Epistles, and by g in the Apocalypse.

Old Latin Texts.

As illustrating the way in which the various forms deviate from each other, take the text of Luke xxiv., verses 4, 5, 11, and 13 as exhibited by a b c d e f and the Vulgate (vg).

v. 4.—All the seven agree in the opening words, Et factum est dum; but after that there follows:—

(1) stuperent a c, mente consternatae essent b, vg; mente consternatae sunt e, aporiarentur d, haesitarent f.

(2) de hoc a c f, de facto b, de eo d, de isto e, vg.

(3) ecce a c d f, vg; et ecce b e.

(4) viri duo a f, duo viri b c d e, vg.

(5) adstiterunt a f, astiterunt c, adsisterunt d, steterunt b e, vg.

(6) iuxta illas a f, secus illas b c e, vg; eis d.

(7) in veste fulgenti a f, vg; in veste fulgente b c e, in amictu scoruscanti d.

(8) v. 5: timore autem adprehensae inclinantes faciem ad terram a; cum timerent autem et declinarent vultum in terram b e f, vg; conterritae autem inclinaverunt faciem in terram c; in timore autem factae inclinaverunt vultus suos in terra d.

(9) v. 11: et visa sunt a b c (visae) e f, vg; et paruerunt d.

(10) illis a, ante illos b, vg; apud illos c e, in conspectu eorum d, coram illos f.

(11) tanquam a, sicut b e, vg; quasi c d f.

(12) delira a, deliramentum b e f, vg; (b spells -lirr-, and f -ler-), deliramenta c, derissus d.

(13) v. 13: municipium a, castellum b c d e f, vg.

(14) stadios habentem LX ab hierusalem a, quod aberat stadia sexaginta ab hierusalem b, quod abest ab ierosolymis stadia sexag. c, iter habentis stadios sexag. ab hierus. d, quod est ab hierosolymis stadia septem e, quod aberat spatio stadiorum LX ab hierus. f, quod erat in spatio stadiorum sexaginta ab hierusalem vg.

(15) cui nomen a, nomine b c d e f, vg.

(16) ammaus a, cleopas et ammaus b, emmaus c f, vg; alammaus d, ammaus et cleopas e.

Is not this almost exactly as Jerome said: tot exemplaria, quot codices? And when we take into account that all this variety in the Latin manuscripts is not simply due to a difference in translation, but that a similar diversity exists in the Greek,101 we can easily understand what a task it is to extricate the original text from out these conflicting witnesses. At the same time, we have evidence of the singular position in which D stands to all the others; while the last example also affords an illustration of the way in which mistakes might arise. The reading ᾗ ὄνομα in verse 13 would preclude any possibility of misunderstanding. But suppose the reader or the translator had before him a manuscript like D, in which the reading was ὀνόματι. What happened, we shall suppose, was this. The phrase, “Emmaus by name,” was taken as referring, not to the village, but to the subject of the sentence; the other name, Cleopas, was then inserted from verse 18, and in time placed even before Emmaus by a later copyist. And accordingly we find, even in Ambrose of Milan, that the two travellers are regularly called Ammaon et Cleopas. It was just as Jerome said: a vitiosis interpretibus male edita, a praesumptoribus imperitis emendata perversius, a librariis dormitantibus aut addita aut mutata.

(2.) The Latin Version of Jerome.

Codex Epternacensis.

It is a comparatively easy task to restore the work of Jerome; first of all because all our present manuscripts are derived from one and only one source, secondly because the number of existing manuscripts is very great, and lastly because some of them at least go back to the sixth century. There is a Codex in Paris which formerly belonged to the Church of St. Willibrord at Echternach, written by an Irish hand of the eighth or ninth century, and containing a subscription copied from its original to the following effect: proemendavi ut potui secundum codicem in bibliotheca Eugipi praespiteri quem ferunt fuisse sci Hieronymi, indictione VI. p(ost) con(sulatum) Bassilii u. c. anno septimo decimo. That must have been in the year 558. |Codex Amiatinus.| Codex Amiatinus, now in Florence, was formerly supposed to belong to the same time, but this turns out to be a mistake, because it has been proved that it was written for Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth, who died at Langres on the 25th September 716, on his way to Rome, where he intended to present this Codex to the Pope. |Codex Fuldensis.| One of the oldest and most valuable manuscripts of the Vulgate is at Fulda, where it has been preserved, perhaps, from the time of Boniface. This Codex Fuldensis was written between 540 and 546, by order of Bishop Victor of Capua, and corrected by himself. It contains the whole of the New Testament according to Jerome’s version, only in place of the four separate Gospels it has a Harmony composed by Victor, who followed Tatian’s plan, using the Latin text of Jerome. Victor’s Harmony in turn became the basis of the so-called Old German Tatian.

Wordsworth and White.

The task of restoring the original text of Jerome’s version has been undertaken in England by the Bishop of Salisbury, who has been at work on all the available material for more than fifteen years. The edition bears the title, Novum Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi ad codicum manuscriptorum fidem recensuit Johannes Wordsworth in operis societatem adsumpto Henrico Juliano White. Five parts of the first volume have already appeared, containing the four Gospels with an Epilogus ad Evangelia.102 In France, J. Delisle, the Director of the Paris National Library, has rendered great service by his work upon the manuscripts under his care; while Samuel Berger has constituted himself pre-eminently the historian of the Vulgate by bringing fresh testimony from the early Middle Ages and the remotest provinces of the Church to bear upon the history of the Vulgate and its text as well as on the origin and dissemination of the different forms. In his compendious Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siècles du moyen âge (Paris, 1893), he has, e.g., indicated no fewer than 212 different ways in which the books of the Old Testament were arranged in the manuscripts that he examined, and thirty-eight varieties in the order of the New Testament books. In Germany Bengel applied himself to the reconstruction of the Latin text of the Bible in the last century, and in this he was followed by Lachmann in the present century, while Riegler, van Ess, and Kaulen have added to our knowledge of the history of the Vulgate. Dr. Peter Corssen has followed up the labours of Ziegler and Rönsch in the particular field of the pre-Jeromic Bible and its text with a methodical examination of the earlier editions, and E. v. Dobschütz has begun to publish Studies in the Textual Criticism of the Vulgate. The valuable researches of Carlo Vercellone (1860-64) were concerned almost exclusively with the Old Testament, and do not seem to have been followed up in Italy. “Utinam Papa Leo XIII.,” says Gregory, “tanta scientia tanta magnanimitate insignis curam in se suscipiat textus sacrosanctorum Bibliorum Latini edendi; cura, opus ecclesia et Papa dignum.” Meanwhile Wordsworth and White appear to have accomplished as much as is possible at present in the field of the Gospels.103

MSS. used by Jerome.

The principles on which Jerome went in his revision of the text have been already referred to, but what the early Greek manuscripts were that he employed is not yet clearly made out. The relics of the material he used are as scanty as those of his own work. He must, however, have been able to make use of manuscripts that went back to Eusebius, seeing that he adopted the Eusebian Canons in his New Testament. But there are certain readings in Jerome which we have not yet been able to discover in any Greek manuscript that we know. For instance, he gives docebit vos omnem veritatem in John xvi. 13, where our present Greek editions read ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πάσῃ, so that he would seem to have read διηγήσεται ὑμῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν πᾶσαν. As a matter of fact, this reading does occur in two passages of Eusebius and in Cyril of Jerusalem, as well as in the Arabic version of Tatian, but it has not been discovered in any Greek manuscript.104 In the other parts of the New Testament, the revision of which was perhaps completed by the year 386, Jerome inserted hardly any new readings from the Greek, but contented himself with improving the grammar and diction of the Latin. His work on the Old Testament was much more comprehensive, but does not fall to be discussed here.

History of the Vulgate.

It was only by degrees that Jerome’s recension gained ground. In Rome, Gregory the Great (d. 604) for one preferred it to the old, though at the same time he says expressly: sedes apostolica, cui auctore Deo praesideo, utraque utitur. |Alcuin.| Owing to the use of both forms the diversity of copies grew to such an extent that in 797 Charles the Great ordered Alcuin to make a uniformly revised text from the best Latin manuscripts for use in the Churches of his Empire. For this purpose Alcuin sent to his native Northumbria for manuscripts, by which he corrected the text of the Bible, and he was able to present the first copy to the Emperor at Christmas 801. A good many of the superb Carolingian manuscripts, as they are called, which are found in our libraries, contain Alcuin’s Revision, as for instance the Bible of Grandval near Basel, which was probably written for Charles the Bald, and which is now in the British Museum (see Plate VII.); the Bible presented to the same monarch by Vivian, Abbot of St. Martin of Tours, which was sent by the Chapter of Metz from the Cathedral treasury there to Colbert in 1675, and is now in Paris (B. N., Lat. 1); another written in the same monastery of St. Martin, and now at Bamberg; and that in the Vallicellian Library of the Church of Sta. Maria in Rome, which is perhaps the best specimen of the Alcuinian Bible.

Theodulf.

Another revision was introduced into France by Alcuin’s contemporary Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans (787-821). He was a Visigoth, born in the neighbourhood of Narbonne, and the type of text he introduced was taken essentially from Spanish manuscripts. We have his revision in the so-called Theodulfian Bible, which formerly belonged to the Cathedral Church of Orleans, and is now in Paris (Lat. 9380); in its companion volume, formerly in the Cathedral of Puy, and now in the British Museum (24142); and in the Bible of St. Hubert, which came from the monastery of that name in the Ardennes.

Harding.

A further revision was made by Stephen Harding, third Abbot of Citeaux. About the year 1109 he prepared a standard Bible for his congregation, in which the Latin text of the New Testament was corrected by the Greek. At the same time the Old Testament was revised from the Hebrew with the help of some Jewish scholars. Harding’s copy of the standard Bible, in four volumes, is still preserved in the Public Library at Dijon. A similar work was done for his monastery by William, Abbot of Hirsau.

Correctoria.

Attempts were also made to settle the text by means of the so-called Correctoria Bibliorum, in which those readings which were supposed to be correct were carefully collected and arranged. The University of Paris in particular did a great deal in this way, and such was its influence, that by the middle of the fifteenth century the Parisian text was the one most commonly followed in manuscripts, and the invention of printing gave it a complete ascendancy over the others.

Printed text.

The first fruits of the printing press are understood to be the undated “forty-two line Bible,” usually called the Mazarin Bible, seeing that it was the copy in the library of Cardinal Mazarin that first attracted the attention of bibliographers. The first dated Bible is of the year 1462. Copinger estimates that 124 editions were printed before the close of the fifteenth century, and over 400 during the sixteenth. The first edition in octavo, “for the poor man,” was issued at Basel in 1491 from the Press of Froben, the same printer who prompted Erasmus to prepare the first Greek New Testament. The first edition in Latin with various readings was printed in 1504. In the following year Erasmus published the Annotationes which Laurentius Valla had prepared for the Latin Bible as early as 1444. The year 1528 saw the first really critical edition. It was brought out by Stephen, who used in its preparation three good Paris manuscripts—the Bible of Charles the Bald already referred to, that of St. Denis, and another of the ninth century, the New Testament portion of which has now disappeared. He afterwards published in 1538-40 another edition, for which he employed seventeen manuscripts, and which became the foundation of the present authorised Vulgate. |Henten.| About the same time John Henten published a very valuable edition [1547] on the basis of thirty-one manuscripts, in the preparation of which he was assisted by the theologians of Louvain. This was followed in 1573 and 1580 by two further editions containing important annotations by Lucas of Brügge. |Authorised Vulgate.| In the year previous to that in which Henten’s edition appeared, the Council of Trent, in its fourth sitting of the 8th April 1546, decided “ut haec vetus et vulgata editio in publicis lectionibus, disputationibus, praedicationibus et expositionibus pro authentica habeatur,” and at the same time ordained “posthac sacra scriptura, potissimum vero haec ipsa vetus et vulgata editio quam emendatissime imprimatur.”

Sixtine.

The latter part of this decree was carried into effect in the papacy of Sixtus V. His predecessor, Pius V., began the work of revising the text of the Bible, and a “Congregatio pro emendatione Bibliorum” gave twenty-six sittings to it in the year 1569. His successor seems to have allowed the work to lapse, but Sixtus V. appointed a new commission for the purpose under the Presidency of Cardinal Caraffa. The Pope himself revised the result of their labours, which was printed at the Vatican Press that he had founded. This edition, which takes its name from him, was issued under the Bull “Aeternus ille” of the 1st March 1589, and published in the following year. It is the first official edition of the Vulgate. Sixtus died on the 27th August 1590, and was succeeded by four Popes in the space of two years. |Clementine.| His fourth successor in the Chair of Peter, Clement VIII., issued a new edition under the name of the old Pope, accompanied by the Bull “Cum sacrorum” of the 9th November 1592. This edition, containing a preface written by Cardinal Bellarmin, was substituted for the former, and has continued from that day without any alteration as the authorised Bible of the entire Roman Church. The text of this second edition approximated more closely to that of Henten, for which the Commission of Pope Sixtus had also expressed their preference, though their printed edition went rather by that of Stephen. The number of the variations between these two editions has been estimated at 3000. For our purpose both alike are superseded by the edition of Wordsworth and White. It may be added that the first edition to contain the names of both the Popes upon the title page is that of 1604. The title runs: “Sixti V. Pont. Max. iussu recognita et Clementis VIII. auctoritate edita.” Those printed at Rome at the present day are entitled: “Sixti V. et Clementis VIII. Pontt. Maxx. iussu recognita atque edita.” See below, p. 132.

An enumeration of all the manuscripts of the Vulgate mentioned by Tischendorf in his eighth edition, or even of the earliest and most important of them, cannot be attempted. Those, however, mentioned by Gebhardt in his Adnotatio Critica are given here, with the notation adopted by Wordsworth and White.

The best manuscripts, in the judgment of the English editors, are Codex Amiatinus, Codex Fuldensis, and the one in the Ambrosian Library at Milan (C 39 inf.), written in the sixth century. (M in W.-W.; not cited by Tischendorf.)

am. Amiatinus (vide supra, p. 122), written ca. 700, is an excellent manuscript, and particularly interesting as containing in the introduction a double catalogue of the Books of the Bible resembling that of the Senator Cassiodorus. See Westcott, Bible in the Church, Appendix B; Canon, Appendix D. (A in W.-W.) (See Plate VI.)

bodl. Bodleianus, of the seventh century, formerly belonging to the Library of St. Augustine at Canterbury. (O in W.-W.)

demid. Demidovianus, belonging to the thirteenth century, but copied from an earlier exemplar; formerly at Lyons; present locality unknown; not cited in W.-W.

em. Emeram, written in the year 870, in gold uncials with splendid miniatures: at Munich, Cimelie 55: not cited in W.-W.

erl. Erlangen, of the ninth century (Irmischer’s Catalogue, 467): used only indirectly by Tischendorf, and not cited in W.-W.

for. Foroiuliensis, written in the sixth or seventh century, and now at Cividale, Friuli: fragments of it at Venice and Prague. (J in W.-W.)

fos. Of the ninth century: from St. Maur des Fossés, now in Paris. (Lat. 11959.)

fu. Fuldensis (vide supra, p. 122), written between 540 and 546: contains the Epistle to the Laodicaeans after Colossians: edited with facsimiles by E. Ranke. (F in W.-W.)

gat. Gatianus, from St. Gatien’s in Tours: written in the eighth or ninth century: stolen from Libri: purchased by Lord Ashburnham and now in Paris: not cited in W.-W.

harl. Harleianus 1775, of the sixth or seventh century: in the British Museum, formerly in Paris 4582: stolen from there by John Aymont in 1707. (Z in W.-W.)

ing. Ingolstadt, of the seventh century, now in the University Library at Munich: defective. (I in W.-W.) See von Dobschütz, Vulgatastudien (with two facsimiles).

mm. Of the tenth or eleventh century, from Marmoutiers, near Tours: in the British Museum, Egerton 609. (E in W.-W.)

mt. Of the eighth or ninth century, from St. Martin’s, and still at Tours: written in gold letters. (M̅, in W.-W.)

pe. A very old purple manuscript of the sixth century at Perugia, containing Luke i. 1-xii. 7. (P in W.-W.)

prag. The fragments cited under for. (see above).

reg. Regius, of the seventh or eighth century, a purple manuscript inscribed in gold, containing Matthew and Mark, with lacunæ: at Paris 11955: not cited in W.-W.

rus. The so-called Rushworth Gospels, written by an Irish scribe who died in the year 820: has an interlinear Anglo-Saxon version. (R in W.-W.)

san. At St. Gall, a fragment containing Matthew vi. 21-John xvii. 18, written by a scribe who says that he used two Latin and one Greek manuscripts. In the Epistles san. is a palimpsest at St. Gall containing Ephes. vi. 2 to 1 Tim. ii. 5, the Biblical text being the uppermost.

taur. Of the seventh century, at Turin, contains the Gospels beginning at Matthew xiii. 34: not cited in W.-W.

tol. Written in the eighth century: this manuscript, which was written by a Visigoth, was given by Servandus of Seville to John, Bishop of Cordova, who presented it to the See of Seville in 988: it was afterwards at Toledo, and is now at Madrid. It was collated for the Sixtine Recension by Palomares, but reached Rome too late to be of use. (T in W.-W.)

In addition to the eleven manuscripts mentioned above as cited by Wordsworth and White, twenty-one others are regularly used by them, and a great number are cited occasionally. For these reference must be made to their edition, and for further particulars to Berger’s incomparable work.

On the Latin Versions compare TiGr., 948-1108, 1313, and especially Scrivener. The chapter on The Latin Versions in the Fourth Edition of the latter work (c. iii.) was re-written by H. J. White, the collaborateur of Wordsworth. See also Urt., 85-118, which deals with the Old Testament as well, and the article on the Old Latin Versions in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, iii. 47-62.

1. G. Riegler, Kritische Geschichte der Vulgata, Sulzbach, 1820; Lean. van Ess, Pragmatisch-kritische Geschichte der Vulgata im Allgemeinen und zunächst in Beziehung auf das Trientische Decret, Tübingen, 1824; Kaulen, Geschichte der Vulgata, Mainz, 1868; Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siècles du moyen âge, Paris, 1893 (List of the chief works dealing with the history of the Vulgate given on p. xxii. ff.).

2. On the subject of the Itala see Ziegler, Die Lateinischen Bibelübersetzungen vor Hieronymus und die Itala des Augustinus, Munich, 1879; Zycha, Bemerkungen zur Italafrage, in the Eranos Vindobonensis, 1893, 177-184; Burkitt, The Old Latin and the Itala (Texts and Studies, vol. iv., No. 3, 1896).

3. On the language see Rönsch (d. 1888), Itala und Vulgata, 2nd Edition, 1875; also Die ältesten lateinischen-Bibelübersetzungen nach ihrem Werthe für die lateinische Sprachwissenschaft, by the same writer in the Collectanea Philologa, Bremen, 1891, 1-20; Kaulen, Handbuch zur Vulgata, Eine systematische Darstellung ihres Sprachcharakters, Mainz, 1870. Saalfeld, De Bibliorum S. Vulgatæ Editionis Graecitate, Quedlinburg, 1891.

4. Editions of the Text:—Among the earlier works the most important is that of Sabatier, which is not yet superseded, in the Old Testament at least, Bibliorum sacrorum Latinæ Versiones antiquæ, seu Vetus Italica, et cæteræ quæcunque in codicibus MSS. et antiquorum libris reperiri potuerunt, etc., opera et studio D. Petri Sabatier, 3 vols. folio,105 Rheims, 1743. Jos. Bianchini (Blanchinus), Evangeliarium Quadruplex, 2 vols. folio, Rome, 1749 (copies now cost about £4). After a long interval work in this field has been resumed in the Old Latin Biblical Texts, published at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, of which four parts have appeared:—1. The Gospel according to St. Matthew from the St. Germain MS. (g₁), now numbered Lat. 11553 in the National Library at Paris, with Introduction and five Appendices, edited by John Wordsworth, D.D., 1883 (6/-). 2. Portions of the Gospels according to St. Mark and St. Matthew from the Bobbio MS. (k), now numbered G. VII. 15 in the National Library at Turin, together with other fragments of the Gospels from six MSS. in the Libraries of St. Gall, Coire, Milan, and Berne (usually cited as n, o, p, a₂, s, and t). Edited, with the aids of Tischendorf’s Transcripts and the printed Texts of Ranke, Ceriani, and Hagen, with two facsimiles, by J. Wordsworth, D.D.,... W. Sanday, D.D.,... and H. J. White, M.A., 1886 (21/-). 3. The Four Gospels, from the Munich MS. (q), now numbered Lat. 6224 in the Royal Library at Munich, with a Fragment from St. John in the Hof-Bibliothek at Vienna (Cod. Lat. 502). Edited, with the aid of Tischendorf’s Transcript (under the direction of the Bishop of Salisbury), by H. J. White, M.A., 1888 (12/6). 4. Portions of the Acts of the Apostles, of the Epistle of St. James, and of the First Epistle of St. Peter from the Bobbio Palimpsest (s), now numbered Cod. 16 in the Imperial Library at Vienna. Edited, with the aid of Tischendorf’s and Belsheim’s printed Texts, by H. J. White, M.A., with a Facsimile, 1897 (5/-). (See notice in the Expository Times, April 1898, p. 320 ff.)

5. Wordsworth and White’s edition of the Vulgate is noticed by Berger in the Bull. Crit., 1899, viii. 141-144. It may be added here, as that critic observes, that insufficient regard is paid to the later history of the Latin text in this edition. At least one representative of a recension so important as that of the University of Paris in the thirteenth century might have been collated, and perhaps also the first printed edition, “the forty-two line” Bible.

On the authorised edition of 1590 and 1592, see Eb. Nestle, Ein Jubiläum der lateinischen Bibel. Zum 9 November 1892, in Marginalien und Materialien, 1893; also printed separately.

An exact reprint of the Latin Vulgate has recently been published by M. Hetzenauer from his Greek-Latin New Testament (see above, p. 25), entitled Novum Testamentum Vulgatae Editionis. Ex Vaticanis Editionibus earumque Correctorio critice edidit Michael Hetzenauer. Oeniponte, 1899. As an introduction to this edition reference may be made to the same writer’s Wesen und Principien der Bibelkritik auf katholischer Grundlage. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der offziellen Vulgataausgabe dargelegt. Innsbruck, 1900.

(C.) Egyptian Versions

Next in importance to the Syriac versions from the East and the Latin from the West are the Egyptian versions from the South. Here too we find not one early version but several.

Dialects.

What used till lately to be called Coptic106 is merely one of the dialects into which the language of ancient Egypt was divided. And here we must distinguish three main branches—the Bohairic, the Sahidic, and the Middle Egyptian.

Bohairic.

(1) Bohairic107 is the name given to the dialect that was spoken in the Bohaira—i.e. the district by the sea and therefore Lower Egypt, the neighbourhood of Alexandria. It was the principal dialect, and being that used for ecclesiastical purposes over the whole country, and, moreover, that with which European scholars first became acquainted, the versions written in it were described as the Coptic simply. The term Memphitic, which was preferred for a time, is incorrect, because it was not till the eleventh century that the Patriarchate was transferred to Cairo—i.e. the district of Memphis, and in early times a different dialect was spoken there.

Sahidic.

(2) Sahidic is the name used to describe the dialect of Upper Egypt. It is sometimes and not improperly spoken of as the Thebaic in distinction to the Memphitic.

Middle Egyptian.

(3) Under the Middle Egyptian108 we have to distinguish—

(a) The Fayumic, spoken in the Fayum—i.e. the district to the S.W. of the Delta, watered by the Joseph Canal, and separated from the valley of the Nile by a narrow strip of the desert. It was in this district that those recent papyrus discoveries were made which have enriched the libraries and museums of Europe.

(b) The Middle Egyptian proper, or Lower Sahidic, a dialect which has its home on the site of ancient Memphis.

(c) The dialect of Achmim, which preserves a more primitive form of early Egyptian than any of those already referred to.

In the eleventh century the Coptic Bishop Athanasius specifies three dialects of the Coptic language—the Bohairic, the Sahidic, and a third which he says was already extinct, and to which he gives the name of Bashmuric; but whether this last is to be identified with the dialects included above under the name of Middle Egyptian, is not quite certain.

(1.) The Bohairic Version.

Bohairic.

This version, formerly designated as the Coptic, was first used for the New Testament by Bishop Fell of Oxford, who was indebted for his knowledge of it to Marshall. It was afterwards employed by Mill for his edition of 1707. It was first published in 1716 by Wilkins (or rather Wilke), a Prussian who had settled in England, with the title, “Novum Testamentum Aegyptium vulgo Copticum.” His edition was accompanied with a Latin translation. In 1734 Bengel obtained a few particulars regarding this version from La Croze, the Berlin Librarian. An edition of the Gospels by Moritz Schwartze appeared in 1846-47, and after his death the Acts and Epistles were published (1852) by Paul Boetticher, afterwards distinguished under his adopted name of de Lagarde. About the same time Tattam prepared a wholly uncritical edition of the entire New Testament, including the Apocalypse which did not originally form part of this version.109 Steindorff is of opinion that the Bohairic version originated in the Natron Valley during the fourth or fifth century, but others affirm that it is older, or at all events rests on an older foundation. The order of the New Testament books was originally: (1) the Gospels, in which John stood first, followed by Matthew, Mark, Luke, (2) the Pauline Epistles, with Hebrews between 2 Thess. and 1 Tim., (3) the seven Catholic Epistles, and (4) the Acts. More than fifty Bohairic manuscripts are preserved in the libraries of Europe, and from these an edition has been prepared for the Clarendon Press in two volumes, with exhaustive Introduction by G. Horner (1898).

The Greek text on which this version is based is regarded by present critics as particularly pure, and free from so-called Western additions.

(2.) The Sahidic Version.

Sahidic.

It was a long time before this version attracted any attention. In his New Testament, Wilkins mentioned two manuscripts, “lingua plane a reliquis MSS. Copticis diversa,” and Woide in 1778 announced his intention of editing certain fragments of the New Testament “iuxta interpretationem superioris Aegypti quae Thebaidica vocatur,” which were afterwards published by Ford in 1799. At the close of last century and the beginning of this, various other fragments were issued by Tuki, Mingarelli, Münter, Zoega, and Engelbreth, but it was not till more recent times that really important parts of the Old and New Testaments were published by Amélineau, Ciasca (in two vols.), Bouriant, Maspero, Ceugney, and Krall. In 1895 Goussen gave us a large part of the Apocalypse.110 This version, like the former, contained the entire New Testament, with the exception of the Apocalypse, and originally exhibited the Gospels in the same order—John, Matthew, Mark, Luke. Hebrews, however, stood between 2 Corinthians and Galatians. Its Greek original was quite different from that of the Bohairic version. (See Plate VIII.)

(3.) The Middle Egyptian Versions.

Middle Egyptian.

Of these only fragments are as yet known to exist. Portions of Matthew and John, and of 1 Cor., Ephes., Phil., Thess., and Hebrews in the Fayumic, or, as it used to be called, the Bashmuric dialect, were first published by Zoega in 1809, by Engelbreth in 1811, and especially by Bouriant (1889) and Crum (1893).

Fragments in the Lower Sahidic have been published in the Mitteilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus des Erzherzogs Rainer.

In the Achmim dialect, James iv. 12, 13 and Jude 17-20 are the only fragments that have been discovered as yet, and these have been published by Crum. Whether these fragments are really parts of a separate version, or merely dialectical modifications of the Sahidic, is not quite certain.111

As to the date of these versions we have no definite information. It has been understood from certain passages in the Life of St. Anthony, who was born about the year 250, that in his boyhood he heard the Gospel read in Church in the language of Egypt, but that need not imply the existence of a written version, as the translation may have been made by a reader who interpreted as he read. In the third century, however, versions may have arisen, and it was certainly in the South that the first attempts at translation were made. Our oldest known manuscripts, a Sahidic containing 2 Thess. iii., and one in Middle Egyptian of Jude 17-20, date from the fourth or fifth century. The Sahidic version seems to have been made first, then the Middle Egyptian, and finally the Bohairic. To what extent the one influenced the other is a question requiring further investigation.

A correct edition and a critical application of these Egyptian versions is, next to a fresh examination of the minuscules, the task of most importance at present for the textual criticism of the New Testament. For the Sahidic version in particular represents a type of text found hitherto almost exclusively in the West, and looked upon as the outcome of Western corruption and licence, whereas it may really bear the most resemblance to the original form. In the Acts especially its agreement with the text of Codex D is remarkable. One might instance, e.g., the mention of Pentecost in Acts i. 5, the insertion of the Golden Rule in its negative form in xv. 20, 29, the relation of the vision in xvi. 10, and the description of the stone which twenty men could not roll away in Luke xxiii. 53, all of which are now found in a Greek-Sahidic manuscript. The Sahidic version, like the Bohairic, is well represented in European libraries, and the manuscripts are dated as a rule in the Egyptian fashion according to the years of the Martyrs—i.e. according to an era reckoned from August or September 284 A.D.

TiGr., 859-893. Scrivener⁴, ii. 91-144, revised by Horner, with additions by Headlam. H. Hyvernat, Étude sur les Versions Coptes de la Bible (Revue Biblique, v. (1896) 427-433, 540-569; vi. 1 (1897) 48-74.) Urt., 144-147. Forbes Robinson, Egyptian Versions, in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i. (1898) 668-673. W. E. Crum, Coptic Studies from the Egypt Exploration Fund’s Report for 1897-1898, 15 pp. 4to. For the Gospels, Horner’s edition eclipses all others. It is entitled, The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern dialect, otherwise called Memphitic or Bohairic, with Introduction, Critical Apparatus, and literal English Translation. Vol. I. Introduction, Matthew and Mark, cxlviii. 484. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1898; Vol. II. Luke and John, 548 pp., 1898. See notice by Hyvernat in the Revue Biblique, 1899, pp. 148-150, and also W. E. Crum, lib. cit., where reference is also made to the Manuscrits Coptes au Musée... à Leide, 1897. As Horner’s edition as yet only covers the Gospels, the remaining portions of the New Testament must still be sought in the two parts published by Lagarde after Schwartze’s death, Acta Apostolorum coptice (1852), and Epistulae Novi Testamenti coptice (1852). On Brugsch’s Recension in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vii. (1853) pp. 115-121, see ibid., p. 456, and Lagarde, Aus dem deutschen Gelehrtenleben, pp. 25-65, 73-77. Tattam’s Bohairic-Arabic edition was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

The first fragments of the New Testament in Sahidic appeared in Tuki’s Rudimenta in 1778, and Woide’s editio princeps, announced in the same year, was brought out after his death by Ford in 1799. Amélineau’s Fragments Thébaines inédits du Nouveau Testament were published in vols. xxiv.-xxvi. of the Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache (1886-1888). Considerable portions of the Apocalypse were issued in facsimile by Goussen in the first Fasciculus of his Studia Theologica (Lipsiae, 1897). Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical writings have also been discovered in recent times, as, for example, the Acta Pauli in a manuscript of the seventh century, written in Sahidic consonants with Middle Egyptian vocalisation. These are to be published by A. Schmidt. See Addenda, p. xv.

See also Amélineau, Notice des manuscrits coptes de la Bibliothèque Nationale renfermant des textes bilingues du Nouveau Testament, in the Athenæum, No. 3601, p. 599.

The foregoing versions are those of most importance in the criticism of the text. There are, however, one or two others which, though inferior in value, are still interesting. Among these is—

(d.) The Gothic Version

Gothic.

This is the work of Ulfilas—i.e. Wölflin—a Cappadocian by descent, who in the year 340 succeeded Theophilus, the first Bishop of the Goths.112 While the tribe was still settled in the Crimea, he is said to have invented an alphabet, and translated both the Old and the New Testament for their use. In the Old Testament Ulfilas followed the Septuagint according to the Recension of Lucian of Antioch (d. 312), which circulated in the diocese of Constantinople. In the New Testament the text is likewise essentially that of Chrysostom. The traces of Latin influence which were supposed to be discernible in the version, and which may either have existed from the first or been introduced at a later time, relate at most, perhaps, to matters of orthography.

(1) The Gothic version first became known through the so-called Codex Argenteus which Ant. Morillon, Granvella’s secretary, and Mercator the geographer saw in the Monastery of Werden in the sixteenth century. It was afterwards seen at Prague by Richard Strein (d. 1601). In 1648 it was brought to Sweden as a prize of war, and presented to Queen Christina, or her librarian, Isaac Voss. It was purchased by Marshall de la Gardie in 1662, bound in silver, and deposited in the library at Upsala, where it has since remained. Ten leaves were stolen from the manuscript between 1821 and 1834, but restored, after many years, by the thief upon his deathbed. This magnificent Codex was written in the fifth or sixth century on purple with gold and silver lettering. It now comprises 187 leaves out of 330, and contains fragments of the four Gospels in the order, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. It was published for the first time in 1665, from a transcript made by Derrer ten years before.

(2) Codex Carolinus, the Wolfenbüttel palimpsest already referred to as Q of the Gospels (see p. 69 above) and the Old Latin gue of Paul (see p. 118), contains some forty verses of the Epistle to the Romans. It was first published in 1762.

(3) Fragments of seven palimpsests in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, discovered by Cardinal Mai in 1817. Like Codex Carolinus, they are in all probability from the Monastery of Bobbio. They exhibit part of the Pauline Epistles and fragments of the Gospels. A few quotations from Hebrews are also found in a theological work. No portion of Acts, (Hebrews), Catholic Epistles, or Apocalypse has as yet been discovered. Editions of the Gothic version have been published by Gabelentz and Löbe (1836-1843), Stamm (1858), Heyne ⁵(1872) ⁹(1896), Bernhardt (Halle, 1875, 1884), and Balg (Milwaukee, 1891). St. Mark was edited by Müller and Höppe in 1881, and by Skeat in 1882.

Literature.—On Ulfilas, see Scott, Ulfilas, the Apostle of the Goths, Cambr., 1885. Bradley, The Goths, in the “Story of the Nations” Series, 1888. Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism, 1882. Urt., pp. 119-120, where see literature, to which add Eckstein, Ulfilas und die gothische Uebersetzung der Bibel, in Westermann’s Illustr. Monatshefte, Dec. 1892, 403-407; Jostes, Das Todesjahr des Ulfilas und der Uebertritt der Gothen zum Arianismus (Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, xxii. i. 158 ff.). Jostes gives 383 as the date of Ulfilas’s death. On the other side, see Kauffmann, Der Arianismus des Wulfila in the ZfdPhil., xxx. (1897) 93-113; Luft, Die arianischen Quellen über Wulfila in the ZfdAltert., xlii. 4; Vogt, Zu Wulfilas Bekenntnis und dem Opus imperfectum, ibid. Kauffmann, Beiträge zur Quellenkritik der gotischen Bibelübersetzung in the ZfdPhil.; (ii.) das N. T. (xxx., 1897, 145-183); (iii.) das gotische Matthäusevangelium und die Itala; (iv.) die griechische Vorlage des gotischen Johannesevangeliums (xxxi., 1898, 177-198): also by the same author, Aus der Schule des Wulfila. Auxentii Dorostorensis epistula de Fide, Vita, et Obitu Wulfila im Zusammenhang der Dissertatio Maximini contra Ambrosium herausgegeben. Strassburg, 1899. P. Batiffol, De quelques homilies de St. Chrysostome et de la version gothique des écritures (Revue Biblique, Oct. 1899, pp. 566-572), see also ThLz., 1900, No. i.; LCbl., 1900, No. 28. On the relation of the Gothic version to the codex Brixianus (f), see Burkitt in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. p. 131 ff., and compare Addenda, p. xv.

On the Gothic language and writing, see Douse, Introduction to the Gothic of Ulfilas. London, 1886; the grammars of Braune and Skeat, and the dictionaries of Schulze, Heyne, and Bernhardt; see also Luft, Studien zu den ältesten germanischen Alfabeten, Gütersloh, 1898, viii. 115, who traces eighteen characters to the Greek alphabet and nine to the Latin and Ulfilas’s own invention. On R. Löwe’s Reste der Germanen am schwarzen Meer (Halle, 1896), see the story told by Melanchthon according to Pirkheimer (Th. St. und Kr., 1897, 784 ff.).

To what extent the remaining ancient versions were taken directly from the Greek or influenced by one or other of those already described is still subject of dispute.

(E.) the Ethiopic Version

According to the tradition of the Abyssinian Church, the Ethiopic version of the New Testament was made from the Greek previous to the fifth century. Dillmann accepts this as correct, but Gildemeister would assign it to the sixth or seventh century, and thinks that traces are discernible of Syrian Monophysitism. Guidi decides for the end of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century. In addition to the usual twenty-seven books, the Ethiopic New Testament has an Appendix consisting of a work on Canon Law in eight books called the Synodos, so that the Ethiopian Church reckons in all thirty-five books in the New Testament. In later times the version was undoubtedly corrected from Arabic and Coptic texts. The first edition appeared in Rome in 1548-1549, but neither it nor those issued since are of any real critical worth.

At least a hundred Ethiopic manuscripts, mostly of late origin, exist in the libraries of Europe. What is perhaps the oldest is preserved in Paris. It dates from the thirteenth century, and exhibits the Gospels in an unrevised text.

Literature.—See TiGr., 894-912. Scrivener, ii. 154 ff. re-written by Margoliouth. Urt., 147-150 (F. Praetorius). R. H. Charles, Ethiopic Version in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, i. 791-793. C. Conti Rossini, Sulla Versione e sulla Revisione delle Sacre Scritture in Etiopico, in the Z. für Assyriologie, x. 2, 3 (1895). The view of Lagarde (Ankündigung, 1882, p. 28; cf. also Gesammelte Abhandlungen, lxi. 113), that this version may have been made from the Arabic or Egyptian in the fourteenth century, is now generally rejected.

(F.) the Armenian Version

La Croze, the Berlin Librarian, thought this the “Queen of the Versions.”

Till the fifth century of the Christian era Syrian influence was supreme in Armenia, and the inhabitants of that region first received the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in the form of a translation from the Syriac. But in the year 433 two pupils of Mesrob, returning from the Synod of Ephesus, are said to have brought back with them from Constantinople a Greek Bible, and having learned Greek in Alexandria, to have translated it into Armenian. According to another account this was done by St. Sahak (390-428) about the year 406. The first edition of the Armenian New Testament was brought out in Amsterdam in the year 1666113 by Osgan of Eriwan, who had been sent to Europe four years previously by the Armenian Synod. It was edited from a defective manuscript, the missing portions of which Osgan supplied from the Vulgate. A better edition was published in 1789 by Zohrab, who used twenty manuscripts, and especially a Cilician Codex of the year 1310. He was of opinion that the Armenians did not receive the Apocalypse before the eighth century. Zohrab’s text was collated for Tregelles by Rieu, whom Tischendorf seems to have drawn upon in his editions.

The Armenian manuscripts display variations of several sorts. In some John’s Gospel precedes the Synoptists, in others it is followed by the Apocryphal “Rest of St. John.” The Apocalypse was not read in church prior to the twelfth century. In the oldest manuscript of the entire New Testament, at Venice, which dates from the year 1220, the order of the other books is Acts, Catholic Epistles, Apocalypse, Pauline Epistles, with the Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul. In Moscow there is a manuscript of the year 887, in Venice one dated 902, in Etschmiadzin one written in the year 986 and bound in ivory covers of the third or fourth century. In the last-mentioned Codex the words, “of Ariston the Presbyter,” are found after Mark xvi. 8, as the heading of what follows. (See Plate IX.) We learn from this, what is evidently correct, viz., that the present conclusion of Mark’s Gospel is due to a certain Ariston, who may perhaps be identified with Aristion, the teacher of Papias in the second century. The earlier Armenian version also contained the two verses Luke xxii. 43, 44, which were omitted in the later.

Literature.—TiGr., 912-922. Scrivener, ii. 148-154. F. C. Conybeare, Armenian Versions of N. T., in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, i. 153 f. See also J. A. Robinson, Euthaliana, c. v.; The Armenian Version and its supposed relation to Euthalius, in Texts and Studies, vol. iii. (1895). On Aristion see Expositor, 1894, p. 241, and below, p. 295.

(G.) the Georgian Version

This version, called also the Grusinian or Iberian, is thought to have been made from the Greek in the sixth century, though it may also be derived from the Armenian. It contains the pericope adulteræ (John vii. 53-viii. 11), but places it immediately after ch. vii. 44, which is the more remarkable, seeing that in the Old Latin Codex b, the passage from vii. 44 onwards has been erased. The Georgian version was first printed at Moscow in 1743.

Scrivener, ii. 156-158; re-written by F. C. Conybeare. TiGr., 922 f.

(H.) the Arabic Versions

Some of these were made directly from the Greek, others from the Syriac and the Coptic, while there are also manuscripts exhibiting a recension undertaken at Alexandria in the thirteenth century, The New Testament was even cast into that form of rhymed prose made classic by the Koran. As early as the eighth century we find Mohammedan scholars quoting various passages of the New Testament, particularly the sayings regarding the Paraclete in John xv. 26, 27, xvi. 13, which they understood of Mohammed. He himself, however, knew the Gospel narrative from oral tradition only. The oldest known manuscript is perhaps one at Sinai, written in the ninth century, from which Mrs. Gibson edited the text of Romans, 1 and 2 Cor., Gal., and Ephes. i. 1-ii. 9, in the Studia Sinaitica, ii. The four Gospels were published in 1864 by Lagarde from a Vienna manuscript, in which a number of various readings were cited from the Coptic, Syriac, and Latin, this last, e.g., being adduced in support of a reading hitherto found only in D, one Old Latin (g), and the Lewis-Syriac: οὔκ εἰσιν δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγμένοι... παρ’ οἷς οὔκ εἰμι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν (Matthew xviii. 20). The first edition of the Gospels appeared at Rome in 1591. |Other versions.| In common with the remaining versions of the New Testament, Persic, Old High German, Anglo-Saxon, Bohemian, and Slavonic, these secondary Arabic versions are not only exceedingly interesting from the point of view of the history of language and culture, but they are also valuable here and there for the restoration of the original text. In the present work, however, we cannot enter more fully into them.

Literature.—TiGr., 928-947. Scrivener, ii. 161-164. Urt., 150-155. F. C. Burkitt, Arabic Versions, in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, i. 136-138, where see literature. Burkitt thinks that the oldest monument of Arabic Christianity is the manuscript formerly belonging to the Convent of Mar Saba, now known as Cod. Vat. Arab. 13, and numbered 101 in TiGr., which is generally assigned to the eighth century. It originally contained the Psalter, Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, and is derived from the Syriac. Fragments of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and of the Pauline Epistles, are all that now remain. From the same convent come two manuscripts of the ninth century, containing a version made directly from the Greek, and perhaps ultimately derived from the Greek-Arabic manuscript cited as Θ^h, of which only four leaves have been preserved (see above, p. 72). On a Græco-Arabic MS. connected with the Ferrar Group (211^ev), see Lake in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. 117 ff. Most of the Coptic manuscripts are accompanied by an Arabic version. The one contained in Cod. Vat. Copt. 9 of the year 1202 is the best, and forms the basis of our printed editions. The first revision was undertaken in the year 1250, at Alexandria, by Hibat Allâh ibn el-Assâl, and a second towards the end of the thirteenth century, from which the variants in Lagarde’s edition are derived. An Arabic version of the Acts and all seven Catholic Epistles, found in a ninth century manuscript at Sinai, and numbered 154 in Mrs. Gibson’s Catalogue, is published by her in Studia Sinaitica, vii. (1899).

For the remaining versions of the N. T., see Scrivener, ii. pp. 158-166 (Slavonic, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, Persic). These minor versions will be treated in vol. iv. of Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, under the general heading of Versions. See also Urtext und Uebersetzungen der Bibel.