now extant may, we believe, be maintained with equal confidence for the text antecedent to the earliest extant variations, in other words, for the purest transmitted text, though here internal evidence is the only available criterion; and, as we have intimated above, any undetected discrepancies from the autographs which it may contain, due to other or ordinary causes, may safely on the same evidence be treated as insignificant. The books of the New Testament as preserved in extant documents assuredly speak to us in every important respect in language identical with that in which they spoke to those for whom they were originally written.
C. 371—374. Conditions of further improvement of the text
371. The text of this edition of course makes no pretension to be more than an approximation to the purest text that might be formed from existing materials. Much, we doubt not, remains to be done for the perfecting of the results obtained thus far. Even in respect of the discovery of new documents, and fuller acquaintance with the contents of some that have in a manner been long known, useful contributions to the better understanding of obscure variations may fairly be expected. It is difficult to relinquish the hope that even yet Lagarde may be able to accomplish at least a part of his long projected edition of the testimonies of the oriental versions, so that the New Testament may be allowed to enjoy some considerable fruits of his rare gifts and acquirements: a complete and critically sifted exhibition of the evidence of the Egyptian versions would be
