28. (34) Quibus ait: a not infrequent 28. Ait illis: aio' occurs five times in

36. (45) relinquens populum: peculiar 36. dimissis turbis: the reading of a b,

40. (51) quoniam: probably corrupted 40. quomodo ergon: 'quomodo' is re

42. (52) fletus oculorum: a rendering 42. ploratio: the genuine African ren

The result of the examination will, I hope, be satisfactory. It is certainly far clearer than I had myself expected when it was begun. There are, it is true, a few instances where it may be doubted whether either document has preserved the true African reading. There are some others where the data are not sufficient to enable us to form a positive conclusion. But in the great majority of cases it is possible to lay the finger definitely on what was probably the original reading: and though the degree of probability varies from low to high, yet in many cases it amounts to practical certainty. The different instances might, perhaps, be roughly classified thus, in proportion to the strength of the evidence on which preference is given to the reading of e or k.

On the whole then it may be said that k comes out of the ordeal with flying colours. The standard set by the comparison with Cyprian is well maintained. Corruption in the sense of transmitted and aggravated blunders of the scribe it has suffered from severely enough, but the intrusive element derived from foreign texts is, so far as we have seen, comparatively small.

To this second, and in the eye of the critic, more serious kind of depravation e has been more exposed. In many of the places where it differs from k it is found to have gone over to the rival line. From this point of view some of its readings (e. g. ' voluntates,' 'maligni,' 'fletus oculorum') possess considerable interest. Their affinity seems to be not so much with the main stock of the European text as with some

side branch of greater or less antiquity and importance. To form a judgment upon it would need a wider investigation, and would take us too far away from our present subject. The relation of e to k in this part of St. Matthew's Gospel will have been sufficiently ascertained.

$ 12.

Relation of k to some other early texts in
St. Matthew.

Before quitting this part of the text of k it may be well to say a few words on two other texts which might seem likely to be in some sort of relationship to it: the texts used by Victorinus Afer, the rhetorician, about the middle of the fourth century, and by Optatus of Mileum (Milevum, Milevis, or Mileve, for the name is variously spelt), the historian of the Donatists, who wrote between 364-375.

The text of Victorinus is at first sight peculiar and striking. A rendering such as this of St. John vii. 39, 'Hoc autem dixit de Spiritu quem futuri erant accipere credentes in ipsum,' was one to attract attention. Then again he goes far to anticipate Jerome in the rendering 'panem consubstantialem' for åρтоv èπιоúσιov (ed. Migne, p. 1085). In St. John i. I he almost exhausts the prepositions in his attempts to translate ó óyos ν пρòs тòν Oeóv: circa Deum,' 'apud Deum,' 'ad Deum,' 'juxta Deum,' are all used in turn. A tract, entitled De Physicis, printed among his works, has in St. Luke ii. 14, what is to the best of my belief the unique rendering 'hominibus boni decreti.' All these were points to raise expectations, but so far at least as St. Matthew is concerned, the event has not justified them.

The passages quoted by Victorinus and also extant in k, are Matt. iii. 3, iv. 3, 6, vi. 11, x. 15, xi. 6, 24, 27, and xii. 28, 31, 32. An examination of these has yielded nothing of real importance for the illustration of k. The solitary coincidence in reading is 'isto saeculo' in Matt. xii. 32, where other MSS. have 'hoc.' Most of the readings present divergences from all the known texts, but divergences of such a kind as to make it probable that Victorinus is quoting from memory, or else (as in the case of consubstantialis') translating for himself directly from the Greek. 'Praecipiet' (for 'mandavit') in iv. 6, and 'commodius' (for 'tolerabilius') in x. 15, xi. 24, are, I believe, singular

readings, but there is nothing to give them a special stamp of antiquity: neither is there anything in any of the passages that could be set down as characteristically African. On the contrary, there is one reading that is distinctly non-African. For Matt. xii. 28 Victorinus has (p. 1050) in Spiritu Dei ego ejicio daemonia': but 'eicio' is the constant European rendering where k has 'expello' or 'excludo' (see Matt. vii. 5, viii. 16, 31, ix. 25, x. 1, 8, xii. 27, 28, and Matt. vii. 22, ix. 33, xii. 24). It would seem to follow from this that the nationality of Victorinus did not determine the text which he used. There was, indeed, no reason why it should do so, as a great part of his life was spent at Rome. It would be wrong, however, from these few passages in St. Matthew to prejudge the question as to the other Gospels. In any case the text in the treatise De Physicis is African, as is shown by a comparison of the long quotation (Migne, p. 1306) from St. Luke ii. 6-14, with e and a single verse adduced in Testim. ii. 7 by Cyprian.

Decidedly more of interest attaches to the comparison of k with the text of Optatus. It will be worth while to present the chief correspondences side by side, using the same differences of type as before to denote the relation to other MSS.

Thick type =

readings peculiar to k and Optatus.

Italics readings peculiar to the single MS. or writer.

=

Ordinary type = readings common to other MSS. or authorities. Small capitals = coincidences between Optatus and some other authority not k, or between k and some other authority not Optatus.

The collation is again confined to a bd, so that later readings which are borrowed from the African text may not be confused with original European readings naturally coinciding with it.

k

Matt. iii. 17 [k is not extant in this verse, but in Matt. xii. 18 has 'Filius meus . . . in quo bene sensit anima mea':] the quotation is, however, rather from Matt. xvii, 6, where e has also 'bene sensi.'

Optatus.

De Schism. Donatist. v. 7 (Migne, p. 1040). Hic est Filius meus de

quo bene sensi, hunc audite.