Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/243

Rh taken into consideration. Western readings, it will be remembered, are abundant in Clement and Origen, much more in Eusebius; and these are the only Ante-Nicene Fathers, represented to us by more than petty fragments, whose texts are not approximately Western. Now the readings of primary Greek MSS with which we are here concerned have opposed to them D in the Gospels and Acts, D2G3 in the Pauline Epistles and almost always other Western documents as well, making up a clear Western element in the attestation, whether the origin be 'Western' or not. If therefore even Clement or Origen swell the array, the source of their readings in these passages, as in many others where no doubt is possible, may be Western; and if so, they contribute nothing towards shewing that these readings were only preserved by the Western text, not originated by it. Nevertheless, since the greater part of the texts of the Alexandrian Fathers is Non-Western (see § 159), their certified opposition to a reading of the primary Greek MSS ought to forbid its unqualified acceptance except after the fullest consideration.

G.&ensp;280.&emsp;Absence of Versions and Fathers from Groups containing Primary Greek MSS

280. We have spoken separately of the absence of Versions and of Fathers from the company of the primary Greek MSS: it remains to consider the rare and extreme cases in which Versions and Fathers are absent together. Independently of the special utility of versions and patristic quotations in supplying the landmarks of textual history their certified testimony has a high corroborative worth. The unknown Greek MSS