ON THE WANT OF VERBAL EXACTNESS IN THE REPORTS OF OUR SAVIOUR'S LANGUAGE BY THE EVANGELISTS; PRELIMINARY NOTES. I. ON THE TEXT OF THE GOSPELS, AND ON THE CHARACTER AND IMPORTANCE OF THE VARIOUS READINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. IN the First Part of the "Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels," it has been proved that they remain essentially the same as they were originally composed. But this proposition requires some explanation. The following remarks are taken from the first chapter of the work just referred to. "In regard to St. Matthew's Gospel, the proposition is to be understood in a particular sense. This Gospel, it is probable, was originally composed in Hebrew; and we possess only a Greek translation, made at a very early period. This translation, it will be my purpose to show, has been faithfully preserved. To this alone, the general remarks and arguments respecting the correct transmission of the Gospels, advanced in the present chapter, must be considered as directly applying. But no reason has ever been adduced for suspecting that the translation was not intended to be a faithful representative of the original. "The Gospels, I have said, remain essentially the same as they were originally written. In common with all other ancient writings, they have been exposed to the accidents to which works preserved by transcription are liable. In the very numerous authorities for determining their text, we find a great number of differences, or various readings. But, by comparing those authorities together, we are able, in general, to ascertain satisfactorily the original text of the last three Gospels, and of the Greek translation of St. Matthew. There are, however, a few passages admitted into the Received Text (the text in common use before the publication of Griesbach's edition), some extant in a majority of our present manuscripts, and some even in all, the genuineness of which is still questionable. Various considerations, arising from some of these passages not being found in manuscripts of the highest authority, from direct historical evidence concerning them in the writings of the Fathers, from their unsuitableness to the context, from the nature of their contents, and from the want of correspondence between their style and that of the Evangelist in whose work they now stand, may lead us to disbelieve or doubt that they proceeded from him. In mentioning such as are extant in all our present manuscripts, I refer particularly to certain passages in the Greek Gospel of Matthew. This translation was made, probably, either from one or from a very few manuscripts of the Hebrew Gospel; and however faithfully the translator intended to represent his original, he may have erred in mistaking additions or interpolations, found in the copy or copies which he followed, for portions of the genuine text. "I will here mention the more important passages in the Received Text of the Gospels, which, from such causes as I |