Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-07-20
The CHRONICLE.
THE TAUCHNITZ NEW TESTAMENT,
BY PROF. S. C. BARTLETT, D. D.

]
The Tauchnitz edition of the New
/ Testament, edited by Tischendorf, i
having a wide circulation. 1t spread
before the multitudes, in palpable form
some of the manuscript variation
which have for centuries been know
to intelligent students of the Bible
We are heartily glad to have it So
The thorough knowledge of the fact
all the facts-wi1 prove, othe com
munity as it has proved to a grea
company of scholars already, the firm
est ground of confidence in the gen
eral integrity of our Scripture text
in the comparative unimportance o
the variations, and in the power o
ascertaining usually which is the trut
reading in cases of deviation. They
will find the total and the special
teachings of Gods word to be unaf.
fected, except as they are sometime:
presented in a more striking manner
or cleared of certain minor Difficult
ties.
1. How came the variations? They
are absolutely inevitable (withOut
miracle) in the process of copying
You put manuscript into the hands
of copyist or printer, and especi.
ally let it be copied from copies, and
you will soon find words changed,
omitted, repeated, misspelled. A man
sends an article to a review; and tho
it has passed two or three times under
the proof-readeI's eye, and perhaps
once or twice under his own, how al
most certain it is to contain some pro-
voking errors. Multiply this by the
thousand upon thousand times that
the New Testament was copied before
the art of printing, and one can see
how there must be a multitude of va
riations. A large gilt edged copy OF
the Bible published by the American
Bible Society in 1S4I which / read for
convenience at family prayers, con-
tai1s scores of misprints, some of
them very absurd, which l recognize
in an instant, and instantly kTolC tChdt
they a0ere intended for. L open the
second volume of Bekker's Aristotle,
and find an average of more than
twenty various readings to a page
throughout the volume. Yet that was
edited from seUen Greek manuscripts,
while the New Testament has been
examined in more than a thousand
manuscripts, besides versions and quo
tations in the early Fathers. "The
manuscripts of Terence's comedies,
which are but six in number, and
have been copied a thousand times
less frequently than the New Testa-
ment, contain thirty thousand varia-
tions." Shakspeare's plays have been
in existence but little over two and a
half centuries, and that too since the
art of printing. Yet if we compare
the various printed editions, and take
into account also the varieties of spell
ling as well as of readings, what in
differences! ! The New
Testament text is in comparison with
such works a marvel of stability.
2. How long have these differences
been observed? Certainly for sixteen
hundred years. In the first half of
the third century, the learned Origen
speaks of the diversity of copies"
others of the fathers speak of the diff
ferent readings in particular instances,
while the Oldest manuscripts are
marked with numerous emendations
1y different hands. The subject began
% attract special attention in cOnnec-
ion with the printed text. When
Erasmus first published the Greek
Testament in 1916, he had five manu-
scripts mot entire, however,, and
rom these he settled his text. By the
help of another manuscript he made
some 420 corrections and changes in
he second edition, and about $50 in
he third. As his nnuHusoFiFts were
,aoIara hfc Y,rs,o air,a1 onn haino Of fl,a
fifteenth century, the wonder is that
mis- edition was so good. Six years
ater (1522) appeared the Compluten-
'ian Polyglott in Spain, containing
,he New Testament edited probably
rom six oreight codices, also modern.
These two original editions, that of
Erasmus and the Comprehension,
iormed in general the basis of the
present Greek Text. They modified
ZACH other, and as successive editions
we're published at short intervals,
,ther manuscripts were compared, till,
IS early as 1850, Robert Stevens had
siXty-fve of them with the |
ext of Erasmus, and Theodore Beza,
thirty years later, many additional |
mes together with the Syriac and an |
Arabiac version. Numerous correc-
ions thus took place, and in 1888 was |
published the Greek text which then |
ook and has since retained the name |
# "the received text" the Elzevir |
edition. 1t is, with slight mOdifica-
ions, the text which until lately has |
'een commonly printed, and is SUBJ
tantially that to which King James
ersion conforms.
8. What amount of investigation
las since been expended upon the |
of the text? An amount un-
'aralleled in the history of literature.
'assing over all intermediate labors,
)r. John Mill devoted the labor of
biTty gears to the work of collecting
nd comparing manuscript, and lived
ut fourteen days after the publica-
ion. Then came John James Wet
tein, who spent another thirty years
4 the collation., making journeyings
D Germany, France, Holland and
England. 1t was work of marvel
US labor; his various readings and
uthorities constitute a million quota
ions. After him came Griesbaeh,
hose labors extended over nearly the
lme length of time, Schultz spent
welve years, and visited thirty libra
les scattered thro' Europe in accumu-
lting materials; and Tischendorf has
iven more than thirty years to this
Tork, visiting the libraries of Cam
ridge, Oxford, Rome, Florence We
ice, MOdena, Naples, Milan, Turin,
-erona, Basle, Zurich, Leipsic, Dres-
en-, Munich, Vienna, Wolfenbuttel,
ne convent of st. Gallees, the monas-
cries at Cairo and the Libyan desert,
lose at Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, and
ne Dead Sea, at PatmOs, Constantine
lie and Athens. Six years he spent in
alone. These fourmen thus
1ent more than one hundred years of
labor on this investigation
without mentioning the labors of
Talton, Fell, Bengel, ,Matthaei, Birch,
cholz, Laehmann, Knapp, Titmann,
cholt, and others.
AS the result there have been found,
nd more or less collated, nearly a
manuscripts, covering parts
: the whole of the New Testament,
'rty seven of which are more than a
lousand years old, others twelve
fourteen hundred, and two
he Sinaitic and Vaticanl fifteen
undred years old. Besides these, the {
lrly translations have been examin-
|, of which the Latin and the Syriac {
lte from the second century, the {
othic from the year 360, the Ethio- ]
c from, the fourth century, the Cop
C probably from the fourth, and the
lhidie probably from the third. The