. 13 ... has created [Symbol: beta] out of
[Symbol: alpha].' But why should not the reminiscence have been our
Lord's? The passage appears like a quotation, or an adaptation, of some
authoritative saying. He positively advances no other argument than the
one just quoted, beyond stating two points in which the alteration might
be easily effected.

(5) St. Luke ix. 10. 'He took (His Apostles) and withdrew privately

[Symbol: alpha]. Into a city called Bethsaida [Greek: (eis polin
kaloumenen] B.).

[Symbol: beta]. Into a desert place ([Greek: eis topon eremon]),
or Into a desert place called Bethsaida, or of Bethsaida.

Trad. Text. Into a desert place belonging to a city called
Bethsaida.'

The evidence for these readings respectively is--

[Symbol: alpha]. BLX[Symbol: Xi], with one correction of
[Symbol: Aleph] (C^{a}), one Cursive, the Bohairic and Sahidic.
D reads [Greek: komen].

[Symbol: beta]. The first and later readings (C^{b}) of [Symbol:
Aleph], four Cursives?, Curetonian, some variant Old Latin
([Symbol: beta]^{2}), Peshitto also variant ([Symbol:
beta]^{3}).

Trad. Text. A (with [Greek: eremon topon]) C + twelve Uncials,
all Cursives except three or five, Harkleian, Lewis (omits
[Greek: eremon]), Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic, with Theophylact
(i. 33).

Remark the curious character of [Symbol: alpha] and [Symbol: beta]. In
Dr. Hort's Neutral Text, which he maintains to have been the original
text of the Gospels, our Lord is represented here as having withdrawn in
private ([Greek: kat' idian], which the Revisers shirking the difficulty
translate inaccurately 'apart') _into the city called Bethsaida_. How
could there have been privacy of life _in_ a city in those days? In
fact, [Greek: kat' idian] necessitates the adoption of [Greek: topon
eremon], as to which the Peshitto ([Symbol: beta]^{3}) is in substantial
agreement with the Traditional Text. Bethsaida is represented as the
capital of a district, which included, at sufficient distance from the
city, a desert or retired spot. The group arranged under [Symbol: beta]
is so weakly supported, and is evidently such a group of fragments, that
it can come into no sort of competition with the Traditional reading.
Dr. Hort confines himself to shewing _how_ the process he advocates
might have arisen, not _that_ it did actually arise. Indeed, this
position can only be held by assuming the concl