Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881.djvu/44

 xxxvi INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

2. THE AXCIENT VERSIONS.

Next to the study of the MSS., the most important aids in textuil criticism are the ancient versions, or translations of the Scriptures from the Hebrew and Greek into vernac- ular languages. They are, however, only indirect sources, as we must translate them back into the original, except in omissions and additions, which are apparent at once. If, for instance, the Latin versions in Rom-, v. 1 translate ha- beamus, it is plain that they read in their Greek MSS. the subjunctive t-^ut^tv (let us have), and not the indicative i-Xpp.tv (habemus, we have); or if they read in John i. 18 unigenitus Filius, they support the reading V'IUQ instead of &o'e (Deus). In point of age, some versions, being made in the second century, antedate our oldest Greek MSS., which are not earlier than the fourth. But they have undergone the same textual corruptions, and no MS. copy of a version is earlier than the fourth century. Some of them are as yet imperfectly edited. Even a satisfactory critical edition of the Vulgate is still a desideratum. As Dr. Wcstcott says, " While the interpreter of the New Testament will be fully justified in setting aside without scruple the authority of early versions, there are sometimes ambiguous passages in which a version may preserve the traditional sense (John i. 3, 9 ; viii. 25, etc.), or indicate an early difference of trans- lation ; and then its evidence may be of the highest value. But even here the judgment must be free. Versions sup- ply authority for the text, and opinion only for the ren- dering." * It matters comparatively little whether they

"Vulgate."
 * Smith's Diet, of the Bibk, Amer. ed. vol. iv. p. 3479, art.

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