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.
3. MATT. xi. 19. The change of τέκνων of the Received text into ἔργων, as
made by Tischendorf, Tregelles (who retains τέκνων in his margin), by Hort
and Westcott, is quite destructive to the sense, so far as we can
perceive, for Jerome’s exposition (“Sapientia quippe non quaerit vocis
testimonium, sed operum”) could hardly satisfy any one but himself. The
reading ἔργων is supported by אB* (with τέκνων in the margin by the hand
B2), 124, the Peshitto Syriac (apparently; for all the older editions we
know punctuate ܠܒܕܘ (or ܘܕܒܠ) “doers,” not ܠܒܕܘ (or ܘܕܒܠ) “works”), the
Harkleian text (but not its margin), the Bohairic, some copies known to
Jerome, Armenian manuscripts, the Ethiopic (one MS. contains both forms),
and (after the Peshitto Syriac) the Persic of the Polyglott and its
codices. We can hardly question that the origin of the variation arose
from the difficulty on the part of translators and copyists to understand
the Hellenistic use of τέκνων in this place, and modern editors have been
tempted to accept it from a false suspicion that the present passage has
been assimilated to Luke vii. 35, where indeed Cod. א and St. Ambrose have
ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων ἀυτῆς. As we have alleged that Jerome’s explanation
is unsatisfactory in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we subjoin that of Ambrose,
which is certainly no less obscure, on the parallel place of St. Luke:
“Bene _ab omnibus_ quia circa omnes justitia servatur, ut susceptio fiat
fidelium, rejectio perfidorum. Unde plerique Graeci sic habent:
_justificata est sapientia ab omnibus operibus suis_, quod opus justitiae
sit, circa uniuscujusque meritum servare mensuram.” In the face of the
language of these two great Latin Fathers it is remarkable that all other
Latin authorities agree with the Curetonian Syriac and the mass of Greek
manuscripts in upholding τέκνων, which is undoubtedly the only true
reading.
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