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.
harmonizing the Gospels: and he would naturally betake himself for the
text of his fifty codices to the Library founded at his Episcopal city of
Caesarea by the martyr Pamphilus, the dear friend and teacher from whom he
derived his own familiar appellation _Eusebius Pamphili_. Into this
Library Pamphilus had gathered manuscripts of Origen as well as of other
theologians, and of these Eusebius made an index (τοὺς πίνακας παρεθέμην:
Eccles. Hist., vi. 32). From this collection Cod. H of St. Paul and others
are stated to have been derived, nay even Cod. א in its Old Testament
portion (_see_ vol. I. p. 55 and note), which is expressly declared to
have been corrected to the Hexapla of Origen. Indeed we know from Jerome
(Comment. in Epist. ad Tit.) that the very autograph (“ipsa authentica”)
of Origen’s Hexapla was used by himself at Caesarea, and Montfaucon
(Praeliminaria in Hexapl., chap. i. 5) cites from one manuscript the
following subscription to Ezekiel, Ὁ Εὐσέβιος ἐγὼ σχόλια παρέθηκα.
Πάμφιλος καὶ Εὐσέβιος ἐδιωρθώσαντο.
7. We are thus warranted, as well from direct evidence as from the analogy
of the Old Testament, to believe that Eusebius mainly resorted for his
Constantinopolitan Church-books to the codices of Pamphilus, which might
once have belonged to Origen. What critical corrections (if any) he
ventured to make in the text on his own judgement is not so clear. Not
that there is the least cause to believe, with Dr. Nolan (Inquiry into the
Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, p. 27), that Eusebius had either the power
or the will to suppress or tamper with the great doctrinal texts 1 John v.
7, 8; 1 Tim. iii. 16; Acts xx. 28; yet we cannot deny that his
prepossessions may have tempted him to arbitrary alterations in other
passages, which had no direct bearing on the controversies of his
age(279). Codd. אB are quite old enough to have been copied under his
inspection(280), and it is certainly very remarkable that these two early
manuscripts omit one whole paragraph (Mark xvi. 9-20) with his sanction,
if not after his example (_see_ below, Chap. XII). Thus also in Matt,
xxiii. 35 Cod. א, with the countenance only of Evan. 59, Evst. 6, 13, 222
(see under Evst. 222), discards υἱοῦ βαραχίον, for which change Eusebius
(_silentio_) is literally the only authority among the Fathers, Irenaeus
and even Origen retaining the words, in spite of their obvious difficulty.
The relation in which Cod. א stands to the other four chief manuscripts of
the Gospels, may be roughly estimated from analyzing the transcript of
four pages first published by Tischendorf(281), as well as in any other
way. Of the 312 variations from the common text therein noted, א stands
alone in forty-five, in eight agrees with ABCD united (much of C, however,
is lost in these passages), with ABC together thirty-one times, with ABD
fourteen, with AB thirteen, with D alone ten, with B alone but once (Mark
i. 27), with C alone once: with several authorities against AB thirty-nine
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