This page has been validated.
xxii
CONTENTS OF INTRODUCTION
| PAR. | PAGES | |
| E. 269—273. Absence of Versions from Groups containing Primary Greek MSS | 197—201 | |
| 269. | Versions are liable to be found supporting wrong Western readings in consequence of the wide range of Western corruption among them; | 197 |
| 270. | and the versions most free from Western corruption are the versions oftenest found supporting the Primary Greek MSS | 198 |
| 271. | Apparent dissent of versions is not always a mark of difference of text, their apparent renderings being often due to inability to express Greek distinctions, or to freedom of diction, | 198 |
| 272. | or to love of paraphrase, found in translators even more than in scribes | 199 |
| 273. | The existence of true cases of opposition of all versions to genuine readings of Primary Greek MSS is consistent with the textual composition of the versions, as given above; and the absence of attestation by versions is not accompanied by suspiciousness of internal character | 200 |
| F. 274—279. Absence of Fathers frotn Groups containing Primary Greek MSS | 201—205 | |
| 274. | Negative patristic evidence irrelevant against a reading except in the few cases in which quotation would have been morally inevitable; | 201 |
| 275. | even when it is supported by positive Post-Nicene patristic evidence, the force of which is weakened by the prevalence of mixture in Post-Nicene patristic texts | 201 |
| 276. | The force of the apparent opposition of Ante-Nicene patristic evidence is weakened (1) by the assimilation of patristic texts to the current texts in transcription or printing, which is often indicated by varieties of reading or by the context; | 202 |
| 277. | or even in the absence of such marks, conscious or unconscious recollection of the current texts being virtually inseparable from transcription and editing: | 203 |
| 278. | (2) by laxity of quotation, which naturally follows in most cases the same lines as laxity of transcription: | 203 |
| 279. | and (3) by the large Western element in the texts of even the Alexandrian Fathers | 204 |
| G. 280. Absence of Versions and Fathers from Groups containing Primary Greek MSS | 205, 206 | |
| 280. | Versions and Fathers, as representative of lost MSS, are not generically different in ultimate authority from MSS: nor is there any inherent improbability in the supposition that all Versions and Fathers may occasionally coincide in complete defection from a right reading | 205 |
