Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/229

Rh two or more MSS were deliberately compared for simultaneous use, or variations were noted in a margin and then at the next stage taken up into the text, or reminiscences of a text formerly heard or read became intermingled with the immediate impressions of eye and ear in transcription,—in all these cases a transcriber was making a conscious or unconscious selection of readings to insert into his fundamental text; and no two transcribers would make exactly the same selection. However great may be the superficial complexities of existing attestation, the primitive relations of text from which they are derived must have been simple; as otherwise each variation must have exhibited a much greater number of variants: and thus it is no wonder that after a while we find ourselves enabled to ascribe practical identity to groups not identical as to all their members.

B.&ensp;261—264.&emsp;Progressive limitation of Groups with reference to Primary Greek MSS

261. It might perhaps be imagined that the possible combinations of our numerous documents would constitute an intractable multitude of groups: but no such difficulty exists in practice. Genealogical possibilities make up the merest fraction of arithmetical possibilities; and of the combinations that actually occur only a small proportion deserve more than momentary attention. The Syrian text as a whole must, we believe, be condemned by Internal Evidence of Groups almost as surely as by the evidence connected with the history of texts; and texts supported by only a portion of the Syrian phalanx have still less claim to consideration. Greek manuscripts containing a large amount of Pre-Syrian text, early Ver-