Hence, it was modified so that the orixo were separated by points. From the seventh century the custom began to prevail to indicate the greater or less textual division by different location of the point. The kóμμa or briefest division was indicated by locating the (.) punctum at the base of the line; the kλov (.) or middle division, by interposing it midway between the base and top; while the full period was terminated by the punctum () at the top of the line. Although this was the most ordinary mode in those times, sometimes the point at the base designated the full period, and vice Our modern mode of punctuation did not come into use till after the invention of printing in the 15th century.

versa.

The autographs of the New Testament perished in the first centuries of the Christian era. There is almost a complete silence in tradition concerning any such original writings. Some adduce a passage from Tertullian to prove that the autographs were preserved in his day.

"Percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas, apud quas ipsae adhuc Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesident, apud quas ipsae Authenticae Literae eorum recitantur, sonantes vocem, et repraesentantes faciem uniuscujusque. Proximè est tibi Achaia, habes Corinthum. Si non longè es a Macedoniâ, habes Philippos, habes Thessalonicenses. Si potes in Asiam tendere, habes Ephesum. Si autem Italiae adjaces, habes Romam." (De Praescriptione Haereticorum, c. 36).

Attempts have been made, indeed, and that by very eminent writers, to reduce the term "Authenticae Literae" to mean nothing more than "genuine, unadulterated Epistles," or even the authentic Greek as opposed to the Latin translation.

Others defend that he evidently speaks of the autographs. But the weight of evidence is clearly in favor of the former opinion. Tertullian was not ignorant that the sacred writers did not commit their thoughts to writing with their own hands; and, therefore, faithful copies of the original documents, if faithfully executed, would be as authentic as the first documents. And for this cause also, greater care was not bestowed on the autographs, for the faithful copies were held in equal veneration.

The dissemination of the writings of the Apostles began immediately, by means of manuscript copies, and a great number of these was soon spread abroad through the churches. Owing to various causes, errors crept into the copied texts. Hence Origen complains: "Even now, through the inattention of certain transcribers, and the rash temerity

of those who would amend the Scriptures, and the arbitrary additions and suppressions of others, a great diversity has come into our Scriptures." As time went on the evil grew. In fact, those early Christians, attending mainly to the sense, were not deterred by an excessive reverence from slight textual changes, which affected not the sense. By comparative criticism, many of these variants have been brought to light. The English critic Mill estimated that the discovered different readings of the New Testament in his day amounted to thirty thousand; they probably to-day are four times that number. But the great mass of these variants leave intact the substantial correctness of the sacred text, so that the remark of Bently is just :

"The real text of the sacred writers does not now (since the originals have been so long lost) lie in any MS. or edition, but is dispersed in them all. 'Tis competently exact indeed in the worst MS. now extant; nor is one article of faith or moral precept either perverted or lost in them; choose as awkwardly as you will, choose the worst by design, out of the whole lump of readings.' Or again: 'Make your 30,000 [variations] as many more, if numbers of copies can ever reach that sum: all the better to a knowing and serious reader, who is thereby more richly furnished to select what he sees genuine. But even put them into the hands of a knave or a fool, and yet with the most sinistrous and absurd choice, he shall not extinguish the light of any one chapter, nor so disguise Christianity, but that every feature of it will still be the same."* Thus hath God's Providence kept from harm the treasure of His written word, so far as is needful for the quiet assurance of His Church and people."

Perhaps the gravest variants in the New Testament are in regard to Mark XVI. 9-16, and John VII. 53, VIII. 11. In our exegesis of these passages we shall defend the authenticity that was accorded these passages by the Council of Trent.

We here adduce several classes of errors from Scrivener (1. c.). The practical application of these heads to the text we reserve for our treatise on Exegesis of the New Testament.

"Sometimes, a shorter passage or mere clause, whether inserted or not in our printed books, may have appeared originally in a form of a marginal note, and from the margin have crept into the text, through the wrong judgment or mere oversight of the scribe."

*

Remarks upon a late Discourse of Free Thinking by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis," Part I. section 32.

"Or a genuine clause is lost by means of what is technically called Homœoteleuton (óμoloréλEUTOV), when the clause ends in the same word as closed the preceding sentence, and the transcribers's eye has wandered from the one to the other, to the entire omission of the whole passage lying between them. This source of error is familiar to all who are engaged in copying writing, and is far more serious than might be supposed, prior to experience.'

"Numerous variations occur in the order of words, the sense being slightly or not at all affected; on which account this species of various readings was at first much neglected by collators."

"Sometimes the scribe has mistaken one word for another, which differs from it only in one or two letters. This happens chiefly in cases when the uncial or capital letters in which the oldest manuscripts are written, resemble each other, except in some fine stroke which may have decayed through age. Hence in Mark V. 14 we find ANHгTEIAAN or AIHг. ΓΕΙΛΑΝ ; in Luke XVI. 20 ΗΛΚΩΜΕΝΟOC or ΕΛΚΩΜΕNOC; so we read ▲avid or Aaßid indifferently, as in the later or cursive character, B and u have nearly the same shape. Akin to these errors of the eye are such transpositions as EAABON for EBAAON or EBAAAON, Mark XIV. 65: omissions or insertions of the same or similar letters, as EMACCONTO or EMACONTO Apoc .XVI. 10; AгAAAIAΣΘΗΝΑΙ or ΑΓΑΛΛΙΑΘΗΝΑΙ John V. 35; ΠΡΟΕΛΘΩΝ or ПРОCEANN Matth. XXVI. 39; Mark XIV. 35: or the dropping or repetition of the same or a similar syllable, as EKBAAAONTAAAIMONIA or EKBAAAONTATAAAIMONIA Luke IX. 49; OTAEAEAOEACTAI or OTAEAOEACTAI II. Cor. III. 10; AПAEEEEAEXETO or AIEEEAEXETO I. Peter III. 20. It is easy to see how the ancient practice of writing uncial letters without leaving a space between the words must have increased the risk of such variations as the foregoing."

"Another source of error is described by some critics as proceeding ex ore dictantis, in consequence of the scribe writing from dictation, without having a copy before him. I am not, however, very willing to believe that manuscripts of the better class were executed on so slovenly and careless a plan. It seems more simple to account for the itacisms, or confusion of certain vowels and diphthongs having nearly the same sound, which exist more or less in manuscripts of every age, by assum

ing that a vicious pronunciation gradually led to a loose mode of orthography adapted to it. Certain it is that itacisms are much more plentiful in the original subscriptions and marginal notes of the writers of mediæval books, than in the text which they copied from older documents. Itacisms prevailed the most extensively from the eighth to the twelfth century, but not by any means during that period exclusively. In the most ancient manuscripts the principal changes are between and el, al and e: in later times ŋ and eɩ, noi and v, even o and w, n and € are used almost promiscuously. Hence it arises that a very large proportion of the various readings brought together by collators are of this description, and although in the vast majority of instances they serve but to illustrate the character of the manuscripts which exhibit them, or the fashion of the age in which they were written, they sometimes affect the grammatical form."

"A more extensive and perplexing species of various reading arises from bringing into the text of one (chiefly of the three earlier) Evangelist expressions or whole sentences which of right belong not to him, but to one or both the others. This natural tendency to assimilate the several Gospels must have been aggravated by the laudable efforts of Biblical scholars (beginning with Tatian's Atà Teoσápwv in the second century) to construct a satisfactory Harmony of them all. Some of these variations also may possibly have been mere marginal notes in the first instance.'

"In like manner transcribers sometimes quote passages from the Old Testament more fully than the writers of the New Testament had judged necessary for their purpose."

"Synonymous words are often interchanged, and from various readings, the sense undergoes some slight and refined modification, or else remains quite unaltered."

"An irregular, obscure, or incomplete construction will be explained or supplied in the margin by words that are subsequently brought into the text."

Hence, too, arises the habit of changing ancient dialectic forms into those in vogue in the transcriber's age."

"Trifling variations in spelling, though very proper to be noted by a faithful collator, are obviously of little consequence."

"A large portion of our various readings arises from the omission or insertion of such words as cause little appreciable difference in the sense."