Modifications of this kind are not, however, the sort we have specially in mind. It is the second type, those which are interpolations proper, that we have particularly to consider. The existence of these has frankly to be admitted. It is beyond question that doctrinal insertions were introduced into the text of the Gospels by later scribes and readers. The one case of Mt. i. 16 is proof positive of this (see pp. 105 ff.). If the opinion, that the original ending of our Second Gospel was deliberately suppressed, is correct, Mk. xvi. 9‐20 may be cited as another instance.(47) An important qualification, however, requires to be made. In the two cases mentioned there is a conflict of textual evidence, and, as regards the latter, the objections are reinforced by the internal evidence, arising from the vocabulary, the style, and the subject‐matter. The present writer must needs conclude that _the presence of textual variation is an almost necessary condition in the case of a doctrinal insertion_. It is more difficult to say how far this requirement should be pressed in the other types of interpolation which have been mentioned, but as regards doctrinal modifications the test is thoroughly legitimate. Without going so far as to pronounce it absolutely impossible, we may say that _the theory, that doctrinal insertions may exist where the extant texts show no break, is improbable in the extreme_. In taking this view, we are not confined to the plea of the early and abundant nature of textual evidence, or to the effect of controversy in preserving the purity of the text, though these are arguments of very great weight. A sufficiently decisive factor is _the character of the existing textual variants_.(48) If authentic items of Jesus‐tradition and “explanatory words and phrases” have not been able to enter the textual stream unnoticed, can we suppose that doctrinal modifications have breasted the waters without leaving so much as a ripple? If even an insertion like “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” has not been able successfully to conceal itself, can we believe Lk. i. 34 f. to have succeeded in doing this? Can we think that, like Melchizedek, the passage is without father, mother, genealogy and beginning of life? In asking these questions we need to recall the character of the section. It is such as radically to transform the standpoint of the chapters in which it occurs. It speaks of matters which, for a considerable time at least, were not known among the mass of Christian believers, and were never accepted by some. To suppose, then, that it is a non‐Lukan doctrinal interpolation, is a flight of faith, for which those who can make it should receive the credit that is due, but of which the present writer must confess that he is not capable.