A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II.Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose
Religion
A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II.
Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose
Bible. New Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
found on the same page as the text of the New Testament” (Account of
Printed Text, p. 76). The critical portion of his work, however, is far
more valuable, and in this department Wetstein must be placed in the very
first rank, inferior (if to any) to but one or two of the highest names.
He first cited the manuscripts under the notation by which they are
commonly known, his list already embracing A-O, 1-112 of the Gospels; A-G,
1-58 of the Acts; A-H, 1-60 of St. Paul; A-C, 1-28 of the Apocalypse; 1-24
Evangelistaria; 1-4 of the Apostolos. Of these Wetstein himself collated
about one hundred and two(214); if not as fully or accurately as is now
expected, yet with far greater care than had hitherto been usual: about
eleven were examined for him by other hands. On the versions and early
editions he has likewise bestowed great pains; and he improved upon
quotations from the Fathers. His text is that of Elzevir (1633), not very
exactly printed(215), and immediately below it he placed such readings of
his manuscripts as he judged preferable to those received. The readings
thus approved by Wetstein (which do not amount to five hundred, and those
chiefly in the Apocalypse) were inserted in the text of a Greek Testament
published in London, 1763, 2 vols., by W. Bowyer, the learned printer,
with a collection of critical conjectures annexed, which were afterwards
published separately.
Wetstein’s Prolegomena have also been reproduced by J. S. Semler (Halle,
1764), with good notes and facsimiles of certain manuscripts, and more
recently, in a compressed and modernized form, by J. A. Lotze (Rotterdam,
1831), a book which neither for design nor execution can be much praised.
The truth is that both the style and the subject-matter of much that
Wetstein wrote are things of the past. In his earlier edition of his
Prolegomena (1730) he had spoken of the oldest Greek uncial copies as they
deserve; he was even disposed to take Cod. A as the basis of his text. By
the time his N. T. was ready, twenty years later, he had come to include
it, with all the older codices of the original, under a general charge of
being conformed to the Latin version. That such a tendency may be detected
in some of the codices accompanied by a Latin translation, is both
possible in itself, and not inconsistent with their general spirit; but he
has scattered abroad his imputations capriciously and almost at random, so
as greatly to diminish the weight of his own decisions. Cod. A, in
particular, has been fully cleared of the charge of Latinizing by Woide,
in his excellent Prolegomena (§ 6). His thorough contempt for that critic
prevented Wetstein from giving adequate attention to Bengel’s theory of
families; indeed he can hardly be said to have rejected a scheme which he
scorned to investigate with patience. On the other hand no portion of his
labours is more valuable than the “Animadversiones et Cautiones ad examen
variarum lectionum N. T. necessariae” (N. T., Tom. ii. pp. 851-74). In
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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