o full that 'they were sinking' ([Greek: hoste bythizesthai
auta]) requires some qualification. Accordingly C inserts [Greek: ede]
(were 'just' sinking); and D, [Greek: para ti] ('within a little'):
while the Peshitto the Lewis and the Vulgate, as well as many copies of
the Old Latin, exhibit 'ita ut _pene_.' These attempts to improve upon
Scripture, and these paraphrases, indicate laudable zeal for the
truthfulness of the Evangelist; but they betray an utterly mistaken view
of the critic's office. The truth is, [Greek: bythizesthai], as the
Bohairic translators perceived and as most of us are aware, means 'were
beginning to sink.' There is no need of further qualifying the
expression by the insertion with Eusebius[437] of any additional word.

I strongly suspect that the introduction of the name of 'Pyrrhus' into
Acts xx. 4 as the patronymic of 'Sopater of Beraea,' is to be accounted
for in this way. A very early gloss it certainly is, for it appears in
the Old Latin: yet, the Peshitto knows nothing of it, and the Harkleian
rejects it from the text, though not from the margin. Origen and the
Bohairic recognize it, but not Chrysostom nor the Ethiopic. I suspect
that some foolish critic of the primitive age invented [Greek: Pyrou]
(or [Greek: Pyrrou]) out of [Greek: Beroiaios] (or [Greek: Berroiaios])
which follows. The Latin form of this was 'Pyrus[438],' 'Pyrrhus,' or
'Pirrus[439].' In the Sahidic version he is called the 'son of Berus'
([Greek: huios Berou]),--which confirms me in my conjecture. But indeed,
if it was with some _Beraean_ that the gloss originated,--and what more
likely?--it becomes an interesting circumstance that the inhabitants of
that part of Macedonia are known to have confused the _p_ and _b_
sounds[440].... This entire matter is unimportant in itself, but the
letter of Scripture cannot be too carefully guarded: and let me invite
the reader to consider,--If St. Luke actually wrote [Greek: Sopatros
Pyrrou Beroiaios], why at the present day should five copies out of six
record nothing of that second word?

FOOTNOTES:

[353] See The Traditional Text, pp. 51-52.

[354] St. Mark vi. 33. See The Traditional Text, p. 80.

[355] iii. 3 e: 4 b and c: 442 a: 481 b. Note, that the [Greek: rhesis]
in which the first three of these quotations occur seems to have been
obtained by De la Rue from a Catena on St. Luke in the Mazarine Library
(see his Monitum, iii. 1). A large portion of it (viz. from p. 3, lin