Chapter VII. The Antiquity Of The Traditional Text. III. Witness of the Western or Syrio-Low-Latin Text. There are problems in what is usually termed the Western Text of the New Testament, which have not yet, as I believe, received satisfactory treatment. Critics, including even Dr. Scrivener171 , have too readily accepted Wiseman's conclusion172 , that the numerous Latin Texts all come from one stem, in fact that there was originally only one Old-Latin Version, not several. That this is at first sight the conclusion pressed upon the mind of the inquirer, I readily admit. The words and phrases, the general cast and flow of the sentences, are so similar in these texts, that it seems at the outset extremely difficult to resist the inference that all of them began from the same translation, and that the differences between them arose from the continued effect of various and peculiar circumstances upon them and from a long course of copying. But examination will reveal on better acquaintance certain obstinate features which will not allow us to be guided by first appearances. And before investigating these, we may note that there are some considerations of a general character which take the edge off this phenomenon. Supposing that Old-Latin Texts had a multiform origin, they must have gravitated towards more uniformity of expression: intercourse between Christians who used different translations 171
Plain Introduction, II. 43-44. Essays on Various Subjects, i. Two Letters on some parts of the controversy concerning 1 John v. 7, pp. 23, &c. The arguments are more ingenious than powerful. Africa, e.g., had no monopoly of Low-Latin. 172
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