Page:A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges.djvu/54

xliv Much more important aid in the restoration of the text is given by the ancient versions. First among these in critical value as well as in age are the Greek versions. I say versions; for Lagarde has demonstrated in the most conclusive way, by printing them face to face through five chapters, that we have two Greek translations of Judges. It would probably be going too far to affirm that they are independent; the author of the younger of them may have known and used the older; but it is certain that his work is not a recension or revision of his predecessor's, but a new translation. One of these versions is represented by the great majority of manuscripts, including the uncials, Sarravianus (S), Alexandrinus (A), Coislinianus (P), Basiliano-Vaticanus (V), and many cursives. The latter form several well-defined groups, some of which may properly be designated as recensions. One of these (L) is represented in Judges by codd. 19, 108, 118 (Holmes and Parsons), the Complutensian Polyglot, and Lagarde's Librorum V. T. canonicorum pars prior, 1883; and is thought by many scholars to exhibit the recension of Lucian. The second (M) is a group whose most constant members are codd. 54,