ancient authority were admitted into the slightly modified Erasmian texts that reigned by an accidental prescription, and the very late date at which ancient authority was allowed to furnish not scattered retouchings but the whole body of text from beginning to end; and lastly the advantage enjoyed by the present generation in the possession of a store of evidence largely augmented in amount and still more in value, as well as in the ample instruction afforded by previous criticism and previous texts.
C. 20—22. History of this edition
20. These facts justify, we think, another attempt to determine the original words of the Apostles and writers of the New Testament. In the spring of 1853 we were led by the perplexities of reading encountered in our own study of Scripture to project the construction of a text such as is now published. At that time a student aware of the untrustworthiness of the 'Received' texts had no other guides than Lachmann's text and the second of the four widely different texts of Tischendorf. Finding it impossible to assure ourselves that either editor placed before us such an approximation to the apostolic words as we could accept with reasonable satisfaction, we agreed to commence at once the formation of a manual text for our own use, hoping at the same time that it might be of service to others. The task proved harder than we anticipated; and eventually many years have been required for its fulfilment. Engrossing occupations of other kinds have brought repeated delays and interruptions: but the work has never been laid more than partially aside, and the intervals during which it
