ons we are treated to any amount of apocryphal matter) would
persuade us that St. Peter only required that the information should be
furnished him by St. John:--'Say who it is of whom He speaks.' Sometimes
a very little licence is sufficient to convert the _oratio obliqua_ into
the recta. Thus, by the change of a single letter (in [Symbol: Aleph]BX)
Mary Magdalene is made to say to the disciples 'I have seen the Lord'
(St. John xx. 18). But then, as might have been anticipated, the new
does not altogether agree with the old. Accordingly D and others
paraphrase the remainder of the sentence thus,--'and she signified to
them what He had said unto her.' How obvious is it to foresee that on
such occasions the spirit of officiousness will never know when to stop!
In the Vulgate and Sahidic versions the sentence proceeds, 'and He told
these things unto me.'

Take another example. The Hebraism [Greek: meta salpingos phones
megales] (St. Matt. xxiv. 31) presents an uncongenial ambiguity to
Western readers, as our own incorrect A. V. sufficiently shews. Two
methods of escape from the difficulty suggested themselves to the
ancients:--(_a_) Since 'a trumpet of great sound' means nothing else but
'a loud trumpet,' and since this can be as well expressed by [Greek:
salpingos megales], the scribes at a very remote period are found to
have omitted the word [Greek: phones]. The Peshitto and Lewis
(interpreting rather than translating) so deal with the text.
Accordingly, [Greek: phones] is not found in [Symbol: Aleph]L[Symbol:
Delta] and five cursives. Eusebius[382], Cyril Jerus.[383],
Chrysostom[384], Theodoret[385], and even Cyprian[386] are also without
the word. (_b_) A less violent expedient was to interpolate [Greek: kai]
before [Greek: phones]. This is accordingly the reading of the best
Italic copies, of the Vulgate, and of D. So Hilary[387] and Jerome[388],
Severianus[389], Asterius[390], ps.-Caesarius[391], Damascene[392] and
at least eleven cursive copies, so read the place.--There can be no
doubt at all that the commonly received text is right. It is found in
thirteen uncials with B at their head: in Cosmas[393], Hesychius[394],
Theophylact[395]. But the decisive consideration is that the great body
of the cursives have faithfully retained the uncongenial Hebraism, and
accordingly imply the transmission of it all down the ages: a phenomenon
which will not escape the unprejudiced reader. Neither will he overlook
the fact that