(I) It furnished a pretext to those heretics who maintained that Christ was 'Man' _before_ He came into the World. This heresy came to a head in the persons of Apolinarius[538] and Photinus; in contending with whom, Greg. Naz.[539] and Epiphanius[540] are observed to argue with disadvantage from the mutilated text. Tertullian[541], and Cyprian[542] after him, knew no other reading but 'secundus homo de Caelo,'--which is in fact the way this place stands in the Old Latin. And thus, from the second century downwards, two readings (for the Marcionite text was speedily forgotten) became current in the Church:--(1) The inspired language of the Apostle, cited at the outset,--which is retained by all the known copies, _except nine_; and is vouched for by Basil[543], Chrysostom[544], Theodotus[545], Eutherius[546], Theodorus Mops.[547], Damascene[548], Petrus Siculus[549], and Theophylact[550]: and (2) The corrected (i.e. the maimed) text of the orthodox;--[Greek: ho deuteros; anthropos ex ouranou]: with which, besides the two Gregories[551], Photinus[552] and Apolinarius the heretics were acquainted; but which at this day is only known to survive in [Symbol: Aleph]*BCD*EFG and two cursive copies. Origen[553], and (long after him) Cyril, employed _both_ readings[554]. (II) But then, (as all must see) such a maimed exhibition of the text was intolerable. The balance of the sentence had been destroyed. Against [Greek: ho protos anthropos], St. Paul had set [Greek: ho deuteros anthropos]: against [Greek: ek ges]--[Greek: ex ouranou]: against [Greek: choikos]--[Greek: ho Kyrios]. Remove [Greek: ho Kyrios], and some substitute for it must be invented as a counterpoise to [Greek: choikos]. Taking a hint from what is found in ver. 48, some one (plausibly enough,) suggested [Greek: epouranios]: and this gloss so effectually recommended itself to Western Christendom, that having been adopted by Ambrose[555], by Jerome[556] (and later by Augustine[557],) it established itself in the Vulgate[558], and is found in all the later Latin writers[559]. Thus then, _a third_ rival reading enters the field,--which because it has well-nigh disappeared from Greek MSS., no longer finds an advocate. Our choice lies therefore between the two former:--viz. (a) the received, which is the only well-attested reading of the place: and (b) the maimed text of the Old Latin, which Jerome deliberately rejected (A.D. 380), and for which he substituted another even worse attested reading. (Note, that these two Western fabrications effectually dispose of one another.) It should be added that Athanasius[560] lends his countenance to all the three readings.