a given reading from, for instance, a Western origin, ultimate or immediate, we are not contradicting the known fact that they have numerous ancient Non-Western readings, when it is equally known that they contain numerous Western readings. If in some places their aggregation in opposition to the primary MSS appears too great to be explained by accidental coincidence of several separate mixtures with Western or other sources, we have to remember, first, that none or almost none of them are without a large Syrian element, and secondly, that there is no reason to suppose the Syrian to have been the only eclectic text which had a wide influence about the fourth century.
E. 269—273. Absence of Versions from Groups containing Primary Greek MSS
269. Respecting Versions, it is to be observed at the outset that the large extent to which they have either from the first or at some later time participated in Western corruption must lead us to expect from them but scanty support to the true reading in a large proportion of Pre-Syrian variations. Of the versions more ancient than the times of general mixture, the Old Latin being wholly Western, and the Old Syriac, as now extant for not quite half of the Gospels and for no other books, being almost wholly Western, there remain only the two closely related Egyptian versions, of which the Thebaic, itself preserved only in fragments, contains so large a Western element that earlier critics reckoned it as wholly Western. It is certain, on evidence already given (§§ 120, 217), that the original Memphitic version became ultimately corrupted from common Greek sources, and the
