ng of the very strong
evidence wherewith they are attested--when taken in conjunction with the
natural tendency of copyists to omit words and passages, cannot but
confirm the general soundness of the position. How indeed can it
possibly be more true to the infirmities of copyists, to the verdict of
evidence on the several passages, and to the origin of the New Testament
in the infancy of the Church and amidst associations which were not
literary, to suppose that a terse production was first produced and
afterwards was amplified in a later age with a view to 'lucidity and
completeness[337],' rather than that words and clauses and sentences
were omitted upon definitely understood principles in a small class of
documents by careless or ignorant or prejudiced scribes? The reply to
this question must now be left for candid and thoughtful students to
determine.]

FOOTNOTES:

[258] It will be observed that these are empirical, not logical,
classes. Omissions are found in many of the rest.

[259] Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark's Gospel, chapter v. and Appendix
B.

[260] See Dr. Gwynn's remarks in Appendix VII of The Traditional Text,
pp. 298-301.

[261] The Revision Revised, pp. 42-45, 422-424: Traditional Text, p.
109, where thirty-eight testimonies are quoted before 400 A.D.

[262] The expression of Jerome, that almost all the Greek MSS. omit this
passage, is only a translation of Eusebius. It cannot express his own
opinion, for he admitted the twelve verses into the Vulgate, and quoted
parts of them twice, i.e. ver. 9, ii. 744-5, ver. 14, i. 327 c.

[263] Dr. Dobbin has calculated 330 omissions in St. Matthew, 365 in St.
Mark, 439 in St Luke, 357 in St. John, 384 in the Acts, and 681 in the
Epistles--3,556 in all as far as Heb. ix. 14, where it terminates.
Dublin University Magazine, 1859, p. 620.

[264] Such as in Cod. D after St. Luke vi. 4. 'On the same day He beheld
a certain man working on the sabbath, and said unto him, "Man, blessed
art thou if thou knowest what thou doest; but if thou knowest not, thou
art cursed and a transgressor of the law"' (Scrivener's translation,
Introduction, p. 8). So also a longer interpolation from the Curetonian
after St. Matt. xx. 28. These are condemned by internal evidence as well
as external.

[265] [Greek: kai ho peson epi ton lithon touton synthlasthesetai; eph'
on d' an pese, likmesei auton].

[266] iv. 25 d, 343 d.--What proves these two quotations to be from St.
Mat