perished. The earliest MSS of the New Testament that exhibit breathings and accents are in any case too degenerate in orthography and in substantive text alike to be followed with any confidence, even were it possible to regard them as having inherited these marks from an unbroken succession of ancestral MSS. But in truth they have no authority derived from ancestral transmission at all, the accessory marks having been doubtless chosen or placed, when they were first inserted, in conformity with the pronunciation or grammatical doctrine of the time. They are the expression of a tradition, but not of a tradition handed down through transcription, nor a tradition belonging to the New Testament more than to any other book containing any of the same words. The one exception to this statement is made by the conversion of a preceding hard consonant, κ, π, or τ, into an aspirate consonant, which thus carries in itself the impress of the rough breathing. The opportunity for such conversion of course arises only in ἀντί, ἀπό, ἐπί, κατά, μετά, ὑπό, where the final vowel suffers elision, in verbs compounded with these prepositions, and in the particle οὐκ.
406. The problem therefore, as limited by the evidence, is to discover not what the apostles wrote, but what it is likely that they would have written, had they employed the same marks as are now in use, mostly of very ancient origin: and the only safe way to do this is to ascertain, first, what was the general Greek usage, and next, whether any special usage of time, place, or other circumstances has to be further taken into account. The evidence at the command of modern grammarians for this purpose consists partly of the statements or precepts of ancient grammarians, partly of the records of ancient grammatical practice, that is, the marks found in such MSS as contain marks. To this second class of evidence the later uncials and earlier cursives of the New Testament make an appreciable contribution, which has not yet received due attention from grammarians: but their testimony respecting ancient Greek usage, though it has thus its use, in combination with other evidence, when marks have to be affixed to the text of the New Testament, must not be confounded with a direct transmission of affixed marks from primitive times.
407. Some few unusual Breathings indicated by aspiration of the preceding consonant occur in good MSS of the New Testament; but their attestation is so irregular