Biblical Literature, I have run my eye over every one of the 12,000 columns contained in those two works, and have examined every single reference to this Gospel which I have detected: it is surprising how much important illustration has thus been obtained from articles where I should never have thought of looking for it, and it is much to be regretted that the publishers of these works do not issue indexes of the Biblical texts referred to in them.

A list of all the books which from first to last I have used, were I able to recollect them all, would fill some pages, and would after all be no guarantee to the reader of the attention bestowed on each. The following list of the books which have been of most use to me contains very few which are not well known to the critic, and not many which are unknown to the student. Many less familiar but most valuable books are not mentioned because the bulk of the illustration they contain had before I consulted them been drawn already from these more familiar sources.

For general illustration. Next to the works named above, Dr. W. M. Thomson's The Land and the Book has been the most useful.

For Jewish illustration. Lightfoot's Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae (the English version), Schoettgen's book with the same title (Latin, 1733-42), Wünsche's Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrasch (Göttingen, 1878-a book which ought to have been translated into English before this): these three are regular commentaries. Edersheim's admirable books, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ and The Temple, its Ministry and Services, at the Time of Jesus Christ I look with much interest this writer's forthcoming 'Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Dr. Ginsburg's articles in Kitto's' Cyclopadia, which far surpass anything of their kind which I have read in English / And the Talmud for the Mishnah geng An

ally, Surenhusius's Hebrew and Latin edition, 1698-1703, De Sola and Raphall's selections in English, 1843, and Barclay's

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selections for the single treatise Pirqe Aboth, Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers; for the Jerusalem Gemara (and the Babylonian of Berachoth) Schwab's French translation as far as published; for Abodah Zarah (Mishnah and Gemaras), Ewald's German translation. My references to the folios of the Gemaras follow the practice of the authority from whom I quote. Thus Shabbath, fol. 10. 1,' would be a quotation probably derived by me from Lightfoot or Schoettgen; Shabbath, fol. 10 a,' a quotation probably derived by me from Wünsche.

For various readings. The apparatus criticus of Tischendorf is the basis of my collation, reference, where he is ambiguous, having also been made to that of Alford. The readings of Tregelles I have taken from Dr. Scrivener's variorum edition; the readings of Westcott-and-Hort mainly from Eyre and Spottiswoode's exceedingly valuable Variorum Teacher's Bible, to which a provisional text had been communicated—but the definitive text has been published just in time to enable me to collate it, and to give in Appendix D some important alterations and additions. I have of course used all the works on textual criticism mentioned in The Chief Authorities for the Text,'

For corrected renderings, The Greek text has been carefully studied,* with of course the help of Bruder's Concordantiae and Moulton's ed. of Winer's Grammar of New Testament Greek, I trust that the Greek student, before forming a judgement on the rendering which I have sometimes. given to the aorist, will read my appendix on the subject. Bp. Lightfoot's book On a Fresh Revision of the English New Testament has been of much use to me, and I am also indebted to the Variorum Teachers' Bible above mentioned, and to Eadie's The English Bible.

My corrected renderings are only a very small selection

* I wish to explain what may seem to some my triviality in altering 'multitude' everywhere to crowd': the reason is that the Greek ochlos may mean 2.000 persons or 20, but that multitude' always conveys to modern ears the idea of a very large crowd,

from those which I should have adopted had I been offering a completely amended translation, The Revised Version has appeared in time for me to read through its text of this Gospel, but I have found no reason to alter in substance any one of my renderings, though, where the difference between them and the Revised Version is only one of the choice of words, I might here and there (by no means always) have preferred the wording of the revisers. While setting the highest value on a very great part of their work, I earnestly hope that their edition is considered by them only provisional. It is clear that in this Gospel alone not a few points have escaped them, and that they have been much too timid about touching the old version in certain cases for instance, they have not only kept the ambiguous rendering in ii. 2 and the passages there noted by /ing me, but have declined to insert in the margin the undisputably correct explanation desired by the American Committee.*

Current,

I

For illustrations of the English of the Authorized Version. Eastwood and Wright's Bible Word Book was very useful. have tried to get parallels from Shakspeare where possible.

سلسل

For marginal references. Tischendorf's last Greek edition (with many mistakes, some serious, in its references), the (ital Speaker's Commentary, and that most ingenious and laborious work, which creates a new epoch in the higher criticism' of

the Gospels, Mr. Rushbrooke's Greek Synopticon.

The text has been printed, without the change even of a stop, from an ordinary Oxford New Testament; but my quotations in cases where its rendering is incorrect or insufficient.

*I am as far from suspecting the revisers of having intended the unfair removal of a difficulty in the narrative as I am sure all readers of this commentary will be from suspecting me of desiring its unfair retention. But I feel that they erred gravely in critical judgement when they not only rejected the name 'Lebbæus' from their text in x. 3, but declined to allow it a place among the host of various readings in their margin, although (i.) it is found in 15 out of the 17 oldest MSS. containing the passage (not to speak of almost all later MSS.), and is vouched for by other strong authority; (ii.) its absence, if genuine, from the other authorities is instantly explicable; (iii.) its presence in Matthew, if false, has (I believe) never yet been satisfactorily accounted for.

I have not printed the text in paragraphs, merely because I cannot afford to disregard what I believe to be the popular dislike of them-a dislike which I hope the Revised Version may speedily break down.

As readers are apt to be frightened at books which display the characters of unknown languages, and as this commentary is meant just as much for those who do not know Greek as for those who do, I have printed any Greek words in English italics. By this means indeed I have often been able to illustrate to such readers some point of translation or of reading whfel illustration they would otherwise have missed.

The same reason has led me to avoid printing the title of the Sinaitic MS. as , and to substitute for that and the title of the Vatican MS. the initials SV used by Tischendorf in his English New Testament. And I have altered the names of the two chief Egyptian versions to South Egyptian' and 'North Egyptian,' because I know how long the use of the four terms Sahidic, Thebaic, Coptic, Memphitic, by different textual editors kept me in a confused state of mind as to which was which, which was Southern and which Northern, which earlier and which later. Such changes will offer not the slightest hindrance to skilled students, and will materially help those who are making their first acquaintance with textual criticism.

I had intended to furnish this volume with very complete indexes, but the long delay which their preparation would have involved, and the amount which would have been added to the cost of the book, have deterred me. To any future edition I may perhaps add such indexes and a map.

I have now to acquit myself of the thanks which I owe to others.

My friend Mr. J. Theodore Dodd, barrister, the author of Sayings ascribed to our Lord, &c., suggested to me in the summer of 1871, when we were fellow-students at Oxford, the joint composition of a short notebook on the Gospels and Acts, which should be a sufficient guide for the ordinary 'pass'

examination in them, and which should be ready within a very
few months. But we yielded to the temptation of inserting
additional matter/which we thought would interest the reader,
and kept on at work together until the autumn of 1872,

after/ from which Mr. Dodd's legal work prevented his further co

operation. The fact that this volume is now many times larger
than it was then, and has been so often practically re-written
that hardly anything of our joint composition remains, does not
diminish my great debt to Mr. Dodd for having many years ago
voluntarily presented to me his entire interest in it.

To the Rev. Dr. Hermann Adler, the Rabbi of the Bayswater
Synagogue and deputy of his father the Chief Rabbi, some of
the most distinguished writers of the English Church have been
indebted for his kindness in giving them information on Jewish
subjects. The frequent visits of Dr. Adler to the London In-
stitution have given me an opportunity of making like appeals
to him of which I have very often availed myself, and I cannot
enough thank him for the pains which he has taken, sometimes
I fear when he has been overburdened with work, to satisfy
my enquiries. As I have tried to be fair to ancient Judaism
throughout this commentary, it might be suspected that my
views on some points had been influenced by my communica-
tions with him. It is therefore well to say that, except in the
two particulars mentioned in my supplementary note (Appendix
D) on v. 34 he has never suggested the slightest modification
of any of my own views, which have otherwise been formed
entirely from printed authorities.

I have also to thank the Rev. W. H. Lowe, Hebrew Lecturer of Christ's College, Cambridge, for sending me a copy of his Fragment of Talmud Babli Pesachiff, which has been useful to me in several points; the veteran scholar Mr. Samuel Sharpe for giving me his Chronology of the Bible, the section of which on the regnal year materially helped me in my note on the date of the birth of Jesus; and Mr. Rushbrooke for furnishing me with some readings of Westcott-and-Hort/which I had not been able to obtain.

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