Page:A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges.djvu/55

Rh 59, 75, 82, which are frequently joined by others. A Leipzig palimpsest (uncial) published by Teschendorf also belongs to this group. This hitherto inedited recension exhibits the text of Theodoret. A third group (O) consists of the Venice manuscripts 120 and 121, with the Aldine edition, which is derived from them. Most of the translations made from the Greek follow this version; so the Old Latin (l), the Hexaplar Syriac of Paul of Telia (s), the Ethiopic (e), and the Armenian.

The Hexaplar codices (SP al.) and the Hexaplar Syriac show that this version was the basis of Origen's critical labours. It is, therefore, presumptively the oldest Greek translation of Judges; and in so far as "Septuagint" is equivalent to "the oldest Greek version," the text of A and its congeners might justly lay claim to that designation. It seems to me desirable, however, in the interests of clearness that the name, with all its misleading associations, should be banished from critical use.

The other version is found in the Vatican Codex (B), Cod. Musei Britannici Add. 20002 (G), and a considerable group of cursives in Holmes and Parsons (N); viz. 16, 30, 52, 53, 58, 63, 77, 85 (text), 131, 144, 209, 236, 237; the text printed in the