ding of the text. But in the Gospels, of which the
copies are so numerous as has been said, the case is far otherwise. We
are there able to convince ourselves in a moment that the supposed
'various reading' is nothing else but an instance of licentiousness or
inattention on the part of a previous scribe or scribes, and we can
afford to neglect it accordingly[14]. It follows therefore,--and this is
the point to which I desire to bring the reader and to urge upon his
consideration,--that the number of 'various readings' in the New
Testament properly so called has been greatly exaggerated. They are, in
reality, exceedingly few in number; and it is to be expected that, as
sound (sacred) Criticism advances, and principles are established, and
conclusions recognized, instead of becoming multiplied they will become
fewer and fewer, and at last will entirely disappear. We cannot afford
to go on disputing for ever; and what is declared by common consent to
be untenable ought to be no longer reckoned. That only in short, as I
venture to think, deserves the name of a Various Reading which comes to
us so respectably recommended as to be entitled to our sincere
consideration and respect; or, better still, which is of such a kind as
to inspire some degree of reasonable suspicion that after all it may
prove to be the true way of exhibiting the text.

The inquiry therefore on which we are about to engage, grows naturally
out of the considerations which have been already offered. We propose to
ascertain, as far as is practicable at the end of so many hundred years,
in what way these many strange corruptions of the text have arisen. Very
often we shall only have to inquire how it has come to pass that the
text exhibits signs of perturbation at a certain place. Such
disquisitions as those which follow, let it never be forgotten, have no
place in reviewing any other text than that of the New Testament,
because a few plain principles would suffice to solve every difficulty.
The less usual word mistaken for the word of more frequent
occurrence;--clerical carelessness;--a gloss finding its way from the
margin into the text;--- such explanations as these would probably in
other cases suffice to account for every ascertained corruption of the
text. But it is far otherwise here, as I propose to make fully apparent
by and by. Various disturbing influences have been at work for a great
many years, of which secular productions know absolutely nothin