Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/121

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OLD LATIN PATRISTIC QUOTATIONS
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respond to the Greek, as they do habitually, it is impossible to tell how much of the accordance is original, and how much artificial; so that for the criticism of the Greek text the Latin reading has here no independent authority. The Latin texts of Δ of the Gospels and F2 of St Paul's Epistles are Vulgate, with a partial adaptation to the Greek. Besides the Græco-Latin MSS there are four Gothico-Latin leaves of Romans.

116. The relics of genuine Old Latin MSS of the books after the Gospels are as follows. For Acts: a few palimpsest leaves of an African text (h); a complete European copy (g), and also the story of Stephen from a Lectionary (g2), both agreeing closely with the quotations of Lucifer; and some palimpsest fragments of the later chapters (s), with a text of the same general type. For the Catholic Epistles: one (? European) MS of St James, and some fragments of the next three epistles in a later (? Italian) text (q): the palimpsest fragments of James and 1 Peter accompanying s of Acts are apparently Vulgate only. For the Pauline Epistles: considerable Italian fragments of eight epistles (r), with leaves from two other MSS having similar texts (r2 r3). For the Apocalypse: two palimpsest leaves of a purely African text (h), and a late European text of the whole book (g). Other portions of Ante-Hieronymic texts of different books are said to have been discovered in Italy; and doubtless others will in due time be brought to light.

117. This is the fitting place to speak of the quotations made by Latin Fathers, for they constitute a not less important province of Old Latin evidence than the extant MSS; not only furnishing landmarks for the investigation of the history of the version, but preserving numerous verses and passages in texts belonging to various ages and in various stages of modification. Even in the Gospels their aid is always welcome, often of the highest value; while in all other books they supply not only a much greater bulk of evidence than our fragmentary MSS, but also in not a few cases texts of greater antiquity. Some books and parts of books are of course much worse represented than others, more especially such books as formed no part of the original North African Canon. But in the Apocalypse Primasius, an African writer of the sixth century, has preserved to us an almost uninterrupted text, which is proved by its close similarity to the quotations of Cyprian to be African Latin of high purity. Thus, sin-