Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - Introduction and Appendix (1882).pdf/280

Β (? 31) lat.vg the (? aeth) arm. One text supplies the concluding adjectives with καρπόν (from the first clause) as a substantive (א 9 f me syr.hl.mg pp, with slight variations), another, the Syrian, with ὑeτόv (AK₂L₂P₂ cu^pl syr. vg-hl.txt pp^ser). Here the elliptic expression has manifestly given rise to two different corrections; and Β is the only certain Greek authority for the true text. This is an example of the simplest and most fundamental form of ternary readings, with the neutral text clearly exhibited.

322. Mark vi 43 καὶ ἦραν κλάσματα δώδεκα κοφίνων πληρώματα Β. The easier κλασμάτων of viii 20 (πόσων σφυρίδων πληρώματα κλασμάτων ἤρατε, where the necessary order enforces the genitive) is adopted by א 13-69-124-346 209 (1 omits). The Western (and Syrian) text, starting from this last reading, borrows κοφίνους πλήρεις, to replace the last two words, from viii 19; Matt. xiv 20 (AD unc¹¹ cu^pl latt syrr me); most Latins, with 33 and some secondary Greek MSS, introducing further assimilations to Matt. There are also two remarkable conflations: LΔ vary from Β only by adopting κοφίνους from the Western reading (or the antecedent parallel passages); 28, which has many relics of a very ancient text hereabouts, retains the κλάσματα of Β, but for the rest follows the Western and Syrian text. Here the choice clearly lies between three readings, those of B, of א and the lost early originals of two texts now partially preserved in cursives, and of LΔ; and the difficulty of accounting for the well attested κλάσματα is unfavourable to the second. The reading of LΔ, κλάσματα δώδεκα κοφίνους πληρώματα, which has no intrinsic probability, may be due to accidental mixture (in v. 31 they, and they alone, have the impossible εὐκαίρου): the reading of B, which has much intrinsic probability, was likely to be changed on account of the double accusative, even apart from the influence of parallel passages, and might easily give rise to all the other variants with the help of harmonistic assimilation. If we take the three parts of the composite variation separately, a good group is found supporting each of the three readings of Β; κλάσματα being attested by ΒLΔ 28, κοφίνων by אB 1-209 13-69-124-346, and πληρώματα by אBLΔ 1-209 13-69-124-346. This last specially certain attestation marks the virtual authority for the entire fundamental text from which the Western correction departed, the peculiar word πληρώματα being the turning-point of change; and evidently the common ancestor of א &c. altered one of the three preceding words,