: eche zoen aionion]; (2) iv. 14, [Greek: ou me dipsese eis ton
aiona], or [Greek: to hydor ho doso auto genesetai en auto pege hydatos,
k.t.l.]; (3) iv. 42, [Greek: ho Christos], or [Greek: ho soter tou
kosmou]; (4) iv. 51, [Greek: kai apengeilan] and [Greek: legontes]; (5)
v. 16, [Greek: kai ezetoun auton apokteinai] and [Greek: ediokon auton];
(6) vi. 51, [Greek: hen ego doso], or [Greek: hou ego doso]; (7) ix. 1,
25, [Greek: kai eipen] or [Greek: apekrithe]; (8) xiii. 31, 32, [Greek:
ei ho Theos edoxasthe en auto], and [Greek: kai ho Theos edoxasthe en
auto]. All these instances turn out to be single omissions:--a fact
which is the more remarkable, because St. John's style so readily lends
itself to parallel or antithetical expressions involving the same result
in meaning, that we should expect conflations to shew themselves
constantly if the Traditional Text had so coalesced.

How surprising a result:--almost too surprising. Does it not immensely
strengthen my contention that Dr. Hort took wrongly Conflation for the
reverse process? That in the earliest ages, when the Church did not
include in her ranks so much learning as it has possessed ever since,
the wear and tear of time, aided by unfaith and carelessness, made
itself felt in many an instance of destructiveness which involved a
temporary chipping of the Sacred Text all through the Holy Gospels? And,
in fact, that Conflation at least as an extensive process, if not
altogether, did not really exist.

Sec. 2.

THE NEUTRAL TEXT.

Here we are brought face to face with the question respecting the
Neutral Text. What in fact is it, and does it deserve the name which Dr.
Hort and his followers have attempted to confer permanently upon it?
What is the relation that it bears to other so-called Texts?

So much has been already advanced upon this subject in the companion
volume and in the present, that great conciseness is here both possible
and expedient. But it may be useful to bring the sum or substance of
those discussions into one focus.

1. The so-called Neutral Text, as any reader of Dr. Hort's Introduction
will see, is the text of B and [Symbol: Aleph] and their small
following. That following is made up of Z in St. Matthew, [Symbol:
Delta] in St. Mark, the fragmentary [Symbol: Xi] in St. Luke, with
frequent agreement with them of D, and of the eighth century L; with
occasional support from some of the group of Cursives, consisting of 1,
33, 118, 131, 157