In the great majority of existing MSS. this passage reads as in the RV., “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”. But in Codex Bezae, supported by Old Latin MSS. and by quotations in Justin and Clement, the passage reads, “_Thou art my Son: to‐day have I begotten Thee_”. Blass (_Philology of the Gospels_, p. 168 f.) believes this to be the genuine Lukan reading, and explains the common text as “a product of assimilation to the other Gospels”. Usener (EB., col. 3348) also accepts the “Western” reading, and says, “Thus the passage in Lk. was read, in the Greek Church down to about 300 A.D. and in the Latin West down to and beyond 360 A.D.” Dr. Moffatt (INT., 3rd ed., p. 269) goes so far as to say that the Lukan reading “undoubtedly was υἱός μου εἷ σύ· ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε”. He follows this reading in his _Translation of the New Testament_, and says (p. 74), “In the other MSS. it has been altered, for harmonistic reasons”. These opinions, and the arguments upon which they rest, have great weight. If the “Western” reading is accepted, a strong presumption is set up against the view that the Third Gospel originally contained the Virgin Birth; for it is very difficult to believe that the hand which wrote, “To‐ day have I begotten Thee”, had already described the miraculous birth. (Cf. also Harnack, _Sayings_, pp. 310 ff.) At first sight Blass’s argument would seem to show a way of escape from this conclusion. He defends the “Western” reading by showing the close connexion which it has with the following verse. “The ‘_to‐day_ have I begotten Thee’ stands in opposition to the ‘thirty years’, and the ‘Thou art _my_ Son’ likewise to ‘being as was supposed the son of _Joseph_’ ” (op. cit., p. 169). The phrase “as was supposed” (verse 23) will fall to be discussed next. Meanwhile we may observe that the connexion which Blass notes is actually strengthened if what St. Luke originally wrote was “being the son of Joseph”. This is the real point in the parallelism, as Blass himself indicates by printing the name Joseph in italics.