Appendix VI. The Peshitto And Curetonian

[The Rev. C. H. WALLER, D.D., Principal of St. John's Hall, Highbury.]

A careful collation of the Curetonian Syriac with the Peshitto would I think leave no doubt on the mind of any one that the Curetonian as exhibited by Cureton himself is the later version. But in order to give full effect to the argument it would be necessary to shew the entire Curetonian fragment side by side with the corresponding portions of the Peshitto. Otherwise it is scarcely possible to realize (1) how entirely the one version is founded upon the other—(2) how manifestly the Curetonian is an attempt to improve upon the other; or (3) how the Curetonian presupposes and demands an acquaintance with the Gospels in general, or with views of Gospel history which belong to the Church rather than to the sacred text.

Even in those brief passages exhibited by Dr. Scrivener from both editions this can be made out. And it is capable of still further illustration from almost every page of Dr. Cureton's book.

To take the fragments exhibited by Dr. Scrivener first. (a) In St. Matt. xii. 1-4, where the Peshitto simply translates the Textus Receptus (not altered by our Revisers), saying that the disciples were hungry “and began to pluck ears of corn and to eat,” the Curetonian amends thus:—“and the disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears of corn, and break them in their hands, and eat,” introducing (as it frequently does, e.g. St. Matt. iv. 11, “for a season”; St. Matt. iv. 21, “laying his hand”; St. Matt. v. 12, [293] “your fathers”; St. Matt. v. 47, “what thank have ye?”) words borrowed from St. Luke vi. 1.

[294] 318 The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels

But in the next verse of the passage, where the words “on the Sabbath,” are absolutely required in order to make the Pharisees' question intelligible to the first readers of St. Matthew, “Behold, thy disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath” (Textus Receptus and Peshitto; not altered by our Revisers), the Curetonian must needs draw on the common knowledge of educated readers by exhibiting the question thus, “Why are thy disciples doing what is not lawful to do?” an abbreviated reading which leaves us ignorant what the action objected to might be; whether to pluck ears in another man's field, or to rub the grain from them on the Sabbath day? On what possible ground can such emendations as this have the preference of antiquity in their favour?

Again, the shewbread in ver. 4 of this passage is, not as we have it in the Peshitto,“the bread of the table of the Lord,”[Syriac letters], a simple phrase which everyone can understand, but the Old Testament expression, “face-bread,” [Syriac letters], which exhibits the translator's knowledge of the earlier Scriptures, as do his emendations of the list of names in the first chapter of St. Matthew, and, if I mistake not, his quotations also. (b) Or, to turn to St. Mark xvi. 17-20 (the other passage exhibited by Dr. Scrivener). Both the Peshitto and Curetonian shew their agreement, by the points in which they differ from our received text. “The Lord Jesus then, after He had commanded His disciples, was exalted to heaven and sat on the right hand of GOD”—is the Curetonian phrase. The simpler Peshitto runs thus. “Jesus the Lord then, after He had spoken with them, ascended to heaven, and sat on the right hand of GOD. ” Both alike introduce the word “Jesus” as do our Revisers: but the two slight touches of improvement in the Curetonian are evident, and belong to that aspect of the matter which finds expression in the Creed, and in the obedience of the Church. Who can doubt which phrase is the later of the two? A similar slight touch appears in the Curetonian addition to ver. 17 of“them that believe on Me”instead of simply

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“them that believe.”

The following points I have myself observed in the collation of a few chapters of St. Matthew from the two versions. Their minuteness itself testifies to the improved character of the Curetonian. In St. Matt. v. 32 we have been accustomed to read, with our Text Received and Revised and with all other authorities, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication. ” So reads the Peshitto. But whence comes it that the Curetonian Syriac substitutes here adultery for fornication, and thereby sanctions,—not the precept delivered by our Lord, but the interpretation almost universally placed upon it? How is it possible to contend that here the Curetonian Syriac has alone preserved the true reading? Yet either this must be the case, or else we have a deliberate alteration of a most distinct and precise kind, telling us, not what our Lord said, but what He is commonly supposed to have meant.

Not less curious is the addition in ver. 41, “Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him two others. ” Our Lord said “go with him twain,” as all Greek MSS. except D bear witness. The Curetonian and D and some Latin copies say practically “go with him three. ” Is this again an original reading, or an improvement? It is no accidental change.

But by far the most striking 'improvements' introduced by the Curetonian MS. are to my mind, those which attest the perpetual virginity of our Lord's Mother. The alterations of this kind in the first chapter form a group quite unique. Beginning with ver. 18, [295] we read as follows:—

In the Peshitto and our Greek Text without any variation. In the Curetonian.

320 The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels

Ver. 16. “Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus, who is called Messiah.” Ver. 18. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise (Peshitto, and Textus Receptus: Revised also, but with some uncertainty).” Ver. 19. “Joseph her husband being a just man,” &c.

Ver. 20. “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. ” Ver. 24. “Joseph ... did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife. Ver. 25. “And knew her not until she brought forth [her firstborn] a son.” “Jacob begat Joseph to whom was espoused Mary the virgin, which bare Jesus the Messiah. ” “The birth of the Messiah was thus.”

Ver. 19. “Joseph, because he was a righteous man,” &c. [there is no Greek or Latin authority with Cn. here].

“Mary thine espoused” (Cn. seems to be alone here).

“and took Mary” (Cn. seems alone in omitting “his wife”).

“And purely dwelt with her until she bare the son” (Cn. here is not alone except in inserting the article).

The absolute omission from the Curetonian Syriac of all mention of Joseph as Mary's husband, or of Mary as his wife is

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very remarkable. The last verse of the chapter has suffered in other authorities by the loss of the word “firstborn,” probably owing to a feeling of objection to the inference drawn from it by the Helvidians. It seems to have been forgotten (1) that the fact of our Lord's being a “firstborn” in the Levitical sense is proved by St. Luke from the presentation in the temple (see Neh. x. 36); [296] and (2) that His being called a “firstborn” in no way implies that his mother had other children after him. But putting this entirely aside, the feeling in favour of Mary's perpetual virginity on the mind of the translator of the Curetonian Syriac was so strong as to draw him to four distinct and separate omissions, in which he stands unsupported by any authority, of the word “husband” in two places, and in two others of the word “wife.”

I do not see how any one can deny that here we have emendations of the most deliberate and peculiar kind. Nor is there any family of earlier readings which contains them, or to which they can be referred. The fact that the Curetonian text has some readings in common with the so-called western family of text (e.g. the transposition of the beatitudes in Matt. v. 4, 5) is not sufficient to justify us in accounting for such vagaries as this. It is indeed a “Western” superstition which has exalted the Virgin Mary into a sphere beyond the level of all that rejoice in God her Saviour. But the question here suggested is whether this way of regarding the matter is truly ancient; and whether the MS. of an ancient version which exhibits such singular phenomena on its first page is worthy to be set above the common version which is palpably its basis. In the first sentence of the Preface Dr. Cureton states that it was obtained from a Syrian Monastery dedicated to St. Mary Deipara. I cannot but wonder whether it never occurred to him that the cultus of the Deipara, and the taste which it indicates, may partly explain why a MS. of a certain character and bias was ultimately domiciled there. [See note at the end of this Chapter.]

[297] 322 The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels

Shall I be thought very disrespectful if I say that the study which I have been able to devote to Dr. Cureton's book has impressed me with a profound distrust of his scholarship? “She shall bare for thee a son,” says he on the first page of his translation;—which is not merely bald and literal, but absolutely un-English in many places.

In Matt. vi. in the first verse we have alms and in the third and fourth righteousness. An explanation.

In ver. 13 the Cn. has the doxology, but with power omitted, the Peshitto not.

In ver. 17. Cn. wash thy face and anoint thy head instead of our text.

In ver. 19. Cn. leaves out £ˆ ¬ “rust” and puts in “where falleth the moth.”

In x. 42. The discipleship instead of disciple.

In xi. 2. Of Jesus instead of Christ.

In xiii. 6. Parable of Sower, a Targum-like alteration. ver. 13 a most important Targum. ver. 33 a wise woman took and hid in meal. xiv. 13 leaves out “by ship,” and says “on foot,” where the Peshitto has “on dry land,” an odd change, of an opposite kind to some that I have mentioned.

In St. John iii. 6, Cn. has: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, because of flesh it is born; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, because God is a spirit, and of God it is born. ” And in ver. 8: “So is every one that is born of water and of the Spirit.” This is a Targum-like expansion: possibly anti-Arian. See Tischendorf's Gr. Test. in loco. All the above changes look like deliberate emendations of the text.

[It is curious that the Lewis Codex and the Curetonian both break off from the Traditional account of the Virgin-birth, but in opposite directions. The Lewis Codex makes Joseph our Lord's actual Father: the Curetonian treats the question as described above. That there were two streams of teaching on this subject,

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which specially characterized the fifth century, is well known: the one exaggerating the Nestorian division of the two Natures, the other tending in a Eutychian direction. That two fifth-century MSS. should illustrate these deviations is but natural; and their survival not a little remarkable.]

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