sions, and early Fathers are not numerous, and to a great extent are fragmentary or discontinuous; and combinations into which none of them enter may evidently in most cases be safely neglected. A student soon becomes aware that the groupings which can by any possibility affect his judgement in doubtful variations are sure to contain one or more of a very small number of primary documents. If at any time in the examination of a specially difficult case his attention is attracted by a reading supported by a group hitherto neglected by him, he will naturally take fresh opportunities of observing its characteristics. But the whole operation is simpler than it seems on paper.
262. No one, we believe, who agrees explicitly or implicitly with the account which we have given of the Syrian text and its attestation would hesitate, after studying the Internal Evidence of Groups, to take אBCDL, 33 in the Gospels, אABCDE2, 13 61 in Acts, אABC 13 in the Catholic Epistles, and אABCD2G3 17 in the Pauline Epistles, as the primary documents in the sense just mentioned. This is of course entirely consistent with the assignation of substantial weight to numerous other documents in different degrees in the decision between rival readings. What is meant is that all groups containing none of these primary documents are found so habitually to support the obviously wrong variants where internal evidence is tolerably clear, that they must lie under the strongest suspicion in doubtful variations. Some few other Greek MSS, mostly fragmentary, might to a certain extent claim to be placed in the same class (see § 225): but it is safer to keep to these conspicuously preeminent and approximately complete copies. In strictness the African and European Latin,
