Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/336

298 386. There remain, lastly, a considerable number of readings which had no sufficient claim to stand on the Greek page, but which for one reason or another are interesting enough to deserve mention. They are accordingly noticed in the Appendix, as well as the other readings having some peculiar notation. It did not appear necessary to define by marks their precise place in the text: but the line to which each belongs is indicated in the margin by Ap. unaccompanied by any other word or symbol. This class of rejected readings, which includes many Western readings along with many others of various origin, is of course, like the preceding, limited only by selection, and might without impropriety have been either enlarged or diminished.

387. The examination of individual readings in detail is reserved for the Appendix. In a few cases however a short explanation of the course adopted seems to be required here. First in importance is the very early supplement by which the mutilated or unfinished close of St Mark's Gospel was completed. This remarkable passage on the one hand may be classed among the interpolations mentioned at the end of § 384 as deserving of preservation for their own sake in spite of their omission by Non-Western documents. On the other it is placed on a peculiar footing by the existence of a second ancient supplement, preserved in five languages, sometimes appearing as a substitute, sometimes as a duplicate. This less known alternative supplement, which is very short, contains no distinctive matter, and was doubtless composed merely to round off the abrupt ending of the Gospel as it stood with for its last words. In style it is unlike the ordinary narratives of the Evangelists, but comparable to the four introductory