age, he would identify himself, he
describes himself as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved; who also at the
Supper' (that memorable Supper!) 'lay ([Greek: anepesen][190]) on Jesus'
breast,' (literally, 'upon His chest,'--[Greek: epi to stethos autou]),
and said, 'Lord, who is it that is to betray Thee?' (ch. xxi. 20)....
Yes, and the Church was not slow to take the beautiful hint. His
language so kindled her imagination that the early Fathers learned to
speak of St. John the Divine, as [Greek: ho epistethios],--'the
(recliner) on the chest[191].'

Now, every delicate discriminating touch in this sublime picture is
faithfully retained throughout by the cursive copies in the proportion
of about eighty to one. The great bulk of the MSS., as usual, uncial and
cursive alike, establish the undoubted text of the Evangelist, which is
here the Received Text. Thus, a vast majority of the MSS., with [Symbol:
Aleph]AD at their head, read [Greek: epipeson] in St. John xiii. 25.
Chrysostom[192] and probably Cyril[193] confirm the same reading. So
also Nonnus[194]. Not so B and C with four other uncials and about
twenty cursives (the vicious Evan. 33 being at their head), besides
Origen[195] in two places and apparently Theodorus of Mopsuestia[196].
These by mischievously assimilating the place in ch. xiii to the later
place in ch. xxi in which such affecting reference is made to it,
hopelessly obscure the Evangelist's meaning. For they substitute [Greek:
anapeson oun ekeinos k.t.l.] It is exactly as when children, by way of
improving the sketch of a great Master, go over his matchless outlines
with a clumsy pencil of their own.

That this is the true history of the substitution of [Greek: anapeson]
in St. John xiii. 25 for the less obvious [Greek: epipeson] is certain.
Origen, who was probably the author of all the mischief, twice sets the
two places side by side and elaborately compares them; in the course of
which operation, by the way, he betrays the viciousness of the text
which he himself employed. But what further helps to explain how easily
[Greek: anapeson] might usurp the place of [Greek: epipeson][197], is
the discovery just noticed, that the ancients from the earliest period
were in the habit of identifying St. John, as St. John had identified
himself, by calling him '_the one that lay_ ([Greek: ho anapeson]) _upon
the Lord's chest_.' The expression, derived from St. John xxi. 20, is
employed by Irenaeus[198] (A.D. 178) and b