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certain limited extent augmented, it has of course been frequently verified and re-examined, not only for the sake of clearing up ambiguities or doubts, but because the needful experience could hardly be otherwise acquired. The exigencies of our task demanded a personal acquaintance with the outward phenomena of MSS, with the continuous texts of individual MSS and versions, and with the varying conditions under which the New Testament is quoted and referred to by the Fathers; for no information at second hand can secure the conveyance of a correct and vivid impression of the true and complete facts by bare lists of authorities cited for a succession of detached and sharply defined various readings. But we have deliberately chosen on the whole to rely for documentary evidence on the stores accumulated by our predecessors, and to confine ourselves to our proper work of investigating and editing the text itself. Such a concentration of labour ought at least to favour an impartial survey of the entire field of evidence, and to give time and opportunity for prolonged consideration of the text and its history in various lights.

CHAPTER II.&emsp;RESULTS OF GENEALOGICAL EVIDENCE PROPER 129–255

SECTION I.&emsp;DETERMINATION OF THE GENEALOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE CHIEF ANCIENT TEXTS 129—168

129. After this short preliminary survey of the existing documents out of which the text of the New Testament has to be recovered, we have now to describe the chief facts respecting their ancestry and the character of their texts which have been learned by study of their contents or from any other sources, and which render it possible to deal securely with their numerous variations