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L . shall be perfectly welcome , while he leaves us in possession of a few competent and approved witnesses . Our readers will do well to make themselves masters of the Professor ' s statement of his reasons for printing oV in his text . In receiving- it as genuine , he submits to competent judges
the evidence of its being such—salvo ¦ uniuscujusque lectoris j udicandi facilitate pollentis judicio . He alleges that his decision is formed agreeably to the established principles of criticism : and of the deductions which he draws from
his researches one is that antiquity cannot here be claimed for the vulgar reading , of which he adds , numero et recentiorum patrum grceconan ancipzti fide nititui ' y nee in uLLo antiquitatis monumentOy seculo quarto exeunte
anteriore ^ reperin pot int . Cyrill , the Remarker concedes , 75 , ** quotes the passage more than once ; yet , " says this gentleman , " although the printed copies of that le ather ' s works have S"foc , it is maintained that
the context requires a different reading . If we do not perceive a little wire-drawing in this species of proof , which , bem ° r ingeniousl y deduced
from the very materials furnished by the adverse party , was commenced by Wetstein , and completed by Griesbach , we cannot surely admit it as direct and decisive evidence of a reading attributable to the Alcxaudrine
fathers . " . It is sufficient evidence : whether it be direct a ? id decisive , or whether evidence strictly so termed be attainable on such a subject , arc questions practically unimportant . With regard to C ^ rill , docs \^> v . Laurence brlieve in the immaculateness of llie editions of
this father , us well ab in the antiquity of the B ) zantiue text ? If his belief , or rather his credulity , extend > so far , reasoning cannot impress his mind . On the other hnnd , if his power of iiiyestiny the crambe recocta of a scholastic literature and theology be not quite so strong , justice uud decorum , united with taste , should have preserved him from the use of such
invidious language as " a little wire-drawlay . " We refer the Biblical student to tl * e Symbol . Critic ; T . 1 . xliii . ivc . Of' tjie ancient versions it is remarkable that not one reads Qeoc : whether
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c $ or o be the rgadiug of some of them , is an inquiry of far less moment—and in their answers to it Griesbach and Dr . Laurence differ . A noteoccur . % in p . 83 , which causes us to suspect that Griesbach ' s censor is little of a proficient in the history and the exercise of Biblical Criticism .
" Griesbach supposes that OI was mistaken for OS , because the transcriber knew that the passage was usually interpreted of God , the word . But surely , " proceeds Dr . L ., " transcribers by profession ( and such , before the invention of printing , were those who transcribed manuscripts ) are never in the habit of reasoning
upon the sense of what they copy . Ask a law-stationer of the present day , after he has engrossed the conveyance of an estate with a long description of the title , whether that title accrued by descent or purchase ; and he will perhaps be puzzled to answer the question . "
The ca . ses are not analogous to each other . •* A law-stationer of the present day" is not a student or practitioner of the law , but owes his name and his subsistence to his ability of
writing " a fair round hand" or of engrossing . On the contrary , and from the very nature of the thing , the copyists of ancient manuscripts of the N . T . were men conversant with the
theology and literature of the age , and personally or ecclesiastically interested in the determinations of Biblical and Scriptural Criticism . Such individuals could and did reason upon the sense of what they transcribed : and many of them must be included in the
following description , u Saj pissiine et librarii et editores in transeribendis vel recensendis alleg-atis e bibliis sacris tain fuere vel iieglig * entes ve ! temeraiii . ut in locum lection is crenuinob
subderent uliain , cum eo textu , cui ipsi adsueti essent , eoiisentieittem , aut e discrepantibus plurium codicum lectionibus earn deligerent auetorique suo supponerent ^ quam textui S . 8 . recepto pia ? ca : teris conseiitaneam esse viderent . " * .
Dr . JLaurence recollects the occasion of this statement , and has not forgotten Cyrill of Alexandria , and his editors ! The willing censor of Griesbach , * Symb . Crit . T . I . xliii . &c .
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362 Review—Laurence ' on GfriesbacJis Greek Testament .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1817, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2465/page/42/
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