The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1910-03-11

under the sun. Even the charitably
inclined cannot call the above quoted
assertion a misprint.
1t is not the purpose of the present
article to enter into lengthy details
not readily understood by the busy
and technically unframed reader.
| ~. The Gospel according to
Mark" is NOT the oldest of the rec
ords. st. Mark had a Greek transla-
ton of the Syro-chaldeic original of
st. Mathews Gospel before his eyes
when he wrote his own.
| (2). No autographs of the inspired
writings have been transmitted to us,
any more than have the originals of
profane works of the same period.
The manuscript copies of the holy
writings that have come down to US,
are, however, much older than stated
above. In the first centuries of the
Christian era the Greeks and the
Latlns used papyrus for their writ
lngs. That material which wore out
quickly and soon fell to pieces was re-
placed by parchment in the fourth
century. Instead of being rolled the
parchment manuscript was put to-
gether in leaf form, called codex.
Greek is the language of the earli
est manuscript copy of the scriptures
the Codex Vaticanus (Codex b
now belonging to the Vatican Library
God. Vat. 1909. 1t was written in
the first half of the fourth century,
consequently about 800 years before
the date set for the oldest manuscript
of the Gospel according to Mark" by
the consensus of modern Scholar
ship"-whatever that vague and in
correct phraseology may mean. U.
Benigni &c. c. vol. 4 p. 87) says this
Codex Vaticanus represents the text
of one of those recensions of the
Bible which were current in the Bird
century, and belongs to the family of
Manuscripts made use of by Origen
in the composition of his Hexapla."
Another Greek manuscript of either
the end of the FOURTH or the be-
ginning of the FIFTH century is the
Codex Alexandrinus, so called be-
cause it was brought from Alexandria
in Egypt. 1t is now one of the treas
ures of the British Museum.
A third, precious copy, also in the
Greek language, is the Codex Sinati-
Gus (Codex "Aleph" or s. discovered
by Const. Tischendorf in St. Gather
ines Monastery on Mount Sinai A. D.,
1874. 1t also dates back to the
FOURTH CENTURY.
These THREE goddess, or parch-
ment manuscripts in leaf form, all
coutain the FOUR GOSPELS, conse-
quently that of Mark
Who are those MODERN scholars
whose CONSENSUS assigns the
Manuscript from the Gospel accord
ing to Mark" is taken-to the
TWELFTH century? Fortunately,
, paper does not blush"
(3). What of the inaccuracies to
be found in the text of the Sacred
Scriptures? Nothing short of a con-
tinuous miracle could have brought
the text of the Scriptures down to
US without corruption or alterations.
Now, Almighty God who does not
needlessly multiply wonders, did not
intend or will such miracle. Anyone
will naturally concede that it is next
to maternal impossibility to accu-
rately transcribe the whole of long
work, such as the Bible is. Besides,
is it not, absolutely speaking, possible
that the original author may have
issued more than one addition of his
work?
Errors of copyists are numerous
They are classed as follows: In
voluntary errors, and those which are
wholly or partially intentional. The
involuntary errors may be errors of
sight, hearing and memory respect
lively. Tho intentional errors would
constitute a deliberate corruption OF
the text, which has always been very
rare. Marcion's case forms an ex-
ception. Hort (The New Testament
| in the Original Greek, London: 1896;
Introduction, p. 1922 states that:
"even among the unquestionably
spurious readings of the N. T. there
are no signs of deliberate falsifca-
ton of the text for dogmatic purpos-
es." (Cfr. C. C. v. 4. page 1887
Nevertheless it is true that the
scribe often selects from different
readings that which favors his person
al opinion or doctrine just then more
generally accepted. 1t also happens
that in perfectly good faith he
changes passages which seem to him
| corrupt because he fails tn under