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Rh form of the paraphrastic tendency is shown in the interpolation of phrases extending by some kind of parallelism the language of the true text; as in Matt. xxv 1; between  in Luke xx 34; and  after  in Eph. ν 30. Another equally important characteristic is a disposition to enrich the text at the cost of its purity by alterations or additions taken from traditional and perhaps from apocryphal or other non-biblical sources; as (originating of course in Ps. ii 7) given as the words spoken from heaven at the Baptism in Luke iii 22; and a long interpolation (printed in the Appendix) beginning  after Matt. xx 28. The two famous interpolations in John v and viii, which belong to this class, will need special notice in another place. Under the present head also should perhaps be placed some of the many curious Western interpolations in the Acts, a certain number of which, having been taken up capriciously by the Syrian text, are still current as part of the Received text: but these again will require separate mention.

174. Besides these two marked characteristics, the Western readings exhibit the ordinary tendencies of scribes whose changes are not limited to wholly or partially mechanical corruptions. We shall accordingly find these tendencies, some of them virtually incipient forms of paraphrase, in other texts of the New Testament: but in the Western text their action has been more powerful than elsewhere. As illustrations may be mentioned the insertion and multiplication of genitive pronouns, but