Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881.djvu/70

 Ixii INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

(3.) Substitutions of one word for another, similar in spelling or sound. Here belong the remarkable variations in John i. 18 (//oroyei'j/c 3iue, abridged 0C, or uoc, abridged YC), in Luke ii. 14 (evSou'a, or ei/cWae) ; in Rom. v. 1 (x- ftev, or txtuptv), > n 1 Tim. iii. 16 (e, OC, or &oc, 6C), in Apoc. xvii. 8 (Kaiwep eVr/r, for KOI Trapiarcn}.

Other substitutions are due to the aim of harmonizing passages, or of correcting a supposed error, as iv TOIQ raiQ for iv TU 'Horrify rw irpwftfjry, in Mark i. 2 ; Brj for Bij&m'a, in John i. 28 (due, perhaps, to the conjecture of Origcn) ; T>IV IcdUfOioi' rov Kvpiov for rov Stov, if not vice versa, in Acts xx. 28.

5. OBJECT OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM.

The textual variations necessitate textual criticism, which lias gradually grown to the proportion and dignity of a special branch of sacred learning. It was matured with the discovery and collection of the material during the eighteenth century, and reached its height within the last twenty years. It has been cultivated mostly by Protestant scholars Swiss, German, Dutch, and English. A few Cath- olics like Hug and Scholz, Vercellone and Cozza have nobly taken part in the work ; but, upon the whole, the Roman Church cares more for tradition than for the Bible, and is satisfied with the Latin Vulgate sanctioned by the Council of Trent. Protestant Bible Societies have been denounced as dangerous and pestiferous by several popes.

The object of textual criticism, as applied to the Greek Testament, is to ascertain and restore, as far as possible, the original text as it came from the pens of the apostolic au- thors. It aims to show not what they ought to have writ- ten, but what they actually did write.

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