two more instances of misuse in criticism of Assimilation.

St. Matthew (xii. 10), and St. Luke in the parallel place of his Gospel
(xiv. 3), describe our Lord as asking,--'Is it lawful to heal on the
sabbath day?' Tischendorf finding that his favourite authorities in this
latter place continue the sentence with the words 'or _not_?' assumes
that those two words must have fallen out of the great bulk of the
copies of St. Luke, which, according to him, have here assimilated their
phraseology to that of St. Matthew. But the hypothesis is clearly
inadmissible,--though it is admitted by most modern critics. Do not
these learned persons see that the supposition is just as lawful, and
the probability infinitely greater, that it is on the contrary the few
copies which have here undergone the process of assimilation; and that
the type to which they have been conformed, is to be found in St. Matt.
xxii. 17; St. Mark xii. 14; St. Luke xx. 22?

It is in fact surprising how often a familiar place of Scripture has
exerted this kind of assimilating influence over a little handful of
copies. Thus, some critics are happily agreed in rejecting the proposal
of [Symbol: Aleph]BDLR, (backed scantily by their usual retinue of
evidence) to substitute for [Greek: gemisai ten koilian autou apo], in
St. Luke xv. 16, the words [Greek: chortasthenai ek]. But editors have
omitted to point out that the words [Greek: epethymei chortasthenai],
introduced in defiance of the best authorities into the parable of
Lazarus (xvi. 20), have simply been transplanted thither out of the
parable of the prodigal son.

The reader has now been presented with several examples of Assimilation.
Tischendorf, who habitually overlooks the phenomenon where it seems to
be sufficiently conspicuous, is observed constantly to discover cases of
Assimilation where none exist. This is in fact his habitual way of
accounting for not a few of the omissions in Cod. [Symbol: Aleph]. And
because he has deservedly enjoyed a great reputation, it becomes the
more necessary to set the reader on his guard against receiving such
statements without a thorough examination of the evidence on which they
rest.

Sec. 6.

The value--may I not say, the use?--of these delicate differences of
detail becomes apparent whenever the genuineness of the text is called
in question. Take an example. The following fifteen words are
deliberately excluded from St. Mark's Gospel (vi. 11) by some critics