Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/338

300 earliest Greek MSS containing it, except the Western Codex Bezae, are of the eighth century. It is absent from the better MSS of all the Oriental versions except the Æthiopic, and apparently from the earliest form of the Old Latin. In the West it was well known in the fourth century, and doubtless long before. It has no right to a place in the text of the Four Gospels: yet it is evidently from an ancient source, and it could not now without serious loss be entirely banished from the New Testament. No accompanying marks would prevent it from fatally interrupting the course of St John's Gospel if it were retained in the text. As it forms an independent narrative, it seems to stand best alone at the end of the Gospels with double brackets to shew its inferior authority, and a marginal reference within &#x22A3; &#x22A2; at John vii 52. As there is no evidence for its existence in ancient times except in Western texts, we have printed it as nearly as possible in accordance with Western documents, using the text of D as the primary authority, but taking account likewise of the Latin evidence and of such later Greek MSS as appear to have preserved some readings of cognate origin. The text thus obtained is perhaps not pure, but it is at least purer than any which can be formed on a basis supplied chiefly by the MSS of the Greek East.

389. The short Section on the Man working on the Sabbath bears a curious analogy to the preceding, and is not unlikely to come from the same source. As however it is at present known only from the Codex Bezae, in which it replaces Luke vi 5, transposed to the end of the next incident, we have with some hesitation relegated it to the Appendix.

390. The double interpolation in John ν 3, 4 has been for other reasons consigned to the same receptacle.