Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/335

Rh than paraphrastic or assimilative impulses of an ordinary kind. On the whole it seemed advisable to place in the margin between peculiar marks &#x22A3; &#x22A2; a certain number of Western interpolations and substitutions containing some apparently fresh or distinctive matter, such as might probably or possibly come from an extraneous source or which is otherwise of more than average interest, but having no sufficient intrinsic claim to any form of incorporation with the New Testament. We wish it accordingly to be distinctly understood that readings so marked are in our judgement outside the pale of probability as regards the original texts, and that it is only necessities of space which compel us unwillingly to intermix them with true alternative readings. Except in so far as they are all Western, they form an indefinite class, connected on the one side by intermediate examples (as Luke ix 54f.; xxiv 42) with the doubly bracketed readings, and on the other including readings which might with equal propriety have been noticed only in the Appendix (see § 386), or even passed over altogether. From the nature of the case the line was hard to draw, and perhaps some inconsistencies may be found, too much, rather than too little, having doubtless been here and there included; but for the present a provisional course has much to recommend it. Ultimately the readings enclosed within &#x22A3; &#x22A2; may probably be omitted with advantage. The Epistles and Apocalypse contain no Western readings which have any distinct title to be so marked. The paraphrastic change to which such books are liable differs much from the variation in the record of facts and sayings which easily invades books historical in form, more especially if other somewhat similar writings or traditions are current by their side.