: kai elypethesan sphodra] (St. Matt. xvii. 23) comes to be
omitted in K and several other copies. The previous lesson ends at
[Greek: egerthesetai],--the next lesson begins at [Greek: proselthon].

Sec. 6.

Indeed, the Ancient Liturgy of the Church has frequently exercised a
corrupting influence on the text of Scripture. Having elsewhere
considered St. Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer[168], I will in this
place discuss the genuineness of the doxology with which the Lord's
Prayer concludes in St. Matt. vi. 13[169],--[Greek: hoti sou estin he
basileia kai he dynamis kai he doxa eis tous aionas. amen],--words which
for 360 years have been rejected by critical writers as spurious,
notwithstanding St. Paul's unmistakable recognition of them in 2 Tim.
iv. 18,--which alone, one would have thought, should have sufficed to
preserve them from molestation.

The essential note of primitive antiquity at all events these fifteen
words enjoy in perfection, being met with in all copies of the
Peshitto:--and this is a far weightier consideration than the fact that
they are absent from most of the Latin copies. Even of these however
four (k f g^{1} q) recognize the doxology, which is also found in
Cureton's Syriac and the Sahidic version; the Gothic, the Ethiopic,
Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, Harkleian, Palestinian, Erpenius' Arabic,
and the Persian of Tawos; as well as in the [Greek: Didache] (with
variations); Apostolical Constitutions (iii. 18-vii. 25 with
variations); in St. Ambrose (De Sacr. vi. 5. 24), Caesarius (Dial. i.
29). Chrysostom comments on the words without suspicion, and often
quotes them (In Orat. Dom., also see Hom. in Matt. xiv. 13): as does
Isidore of Pelusium (Ep. iv. 24). See also Opus Imperfectum (Hom. in
Matt. xiv), Theophylact on this place, and Euthymius Zigabenus (in Matt.
vi. 13 and C. Massal. Anath. 7). And yet their true claim to be accepted
as inspired is of course based on the consideration that they are found
in ninety-nine out of a hundred of the Greek copies, including [Symbol:
Phi] and [Symbol: Sigma] of the end of the fifth and beginning of the
sixth centuries. What then is the nature of the adverse evidence with
which they have to contend and which is supposed to be fatal to their
claims?

Four uncial MSS. ([Symbol: Aleph]BDZ), supported by five cursives of bad
character (1, 17 which gives [Greek: amen], 118, 130, 209), and, as we
have seen, all the Latin copies but four, omit these words