The history of the variants of the text of these verses is quite worthy of notice. The majority of texts have simply “the law,” without the addition, “and the prophets,” thus avoiding a false interpretation in the sense of the written law. In other texts, notably that of Tischendorf, and in the canonical versions, we find the word “prophets” used, not with the conjunction “and,” but with the conjunction “or,”—“the law or the prophets,”—which also excludes any question of the written law, and indicates, as the proper signification, the law eternal. In several other versions, not countenanced by the Church, we find the word “prophets” used with the conjunction “and,” not with “or”; and in these versions every repetition of the words “the law” is followed by the phrase, “and the prophets,” which would indicate that Jesus spoke only of the written law.
The history of the commentaries on the passage in question coincides with that of the variants. The only clear meaning is that authorized by Luke,—that Jesus spoke of the eternal law. But among the copyists of the Gospel were some who desired that the written law of Moses should continue to be regarded as obligatory. They therefore added to the words “the law” the phrase “and the prophets,” and thereby changed the interpretation of the text.
Other Christians, not recognizing to the same degree the authority of the books of Moses, suppressed the added phrase, and replaced the particle καί, “and,” with ἤ, “or”; and with this substitution the
