nswer of Professor
Strack, of Berlin.

But here I must pause. The use made by the Revisers of these ancient
documents has called out the foregoing comments, and has awakened the
hope, which I now venture to express, that the critical use of the
Versions may be expanded, and form a part of that systematic revision of
the text of the Old Testament which will not improbably form part of the
critical labours of the present century.

II. We may now turn to the New Testament, and to the revision of the
_textus receptus_ of the New Testament which our rules necessitated, and
which formed a very important and, it may be added, a very anxious part
of our revision.

And here, at the very outset, one general observation is absolutely
necessary.

It is very commonly said, and I fear believed by many to be true, that
the text adopted by the Revisers and afterwards published (in different
forms) by the two University Presses, hardly differs at all from the
afterwards published text of the two distinguished scholars and critics,
one of whom was called from us a few years ago, and the other of whom
has, to our great sorrow, only recently left us. I allude, of course, to
the Greek Testament, now of world-wide reputation, of Westcott and Hort.
What has been often asserted, and is still repeated, is this, that the
text had been in print for some time before it was finally published, and
was in the hands of the Revisers almost, if not quite, from the very
first. It was this, so the statement runs, that they really worked upon,
and this that they assimilated.

Now this I unhesitatingly declare, as I shall subsequently be able to
prove, is contrary to the facts of the case. It is perfectly true that
our two eminent colleagues gave, I believe, to each one of us, from time
to time, little booklets of their text as it then stood in print, but
which we were always warned were not considered by the editors themselves
as final. These portions of their text were given to us, not to win us
over to adopt it, but to enable us to see each proposed reading in its
continuity. How these booklets were used by the members of the Company
generally, I know not. I can only speak for myself; but I cannot
suppress the conviction that I was acting unconsciously in the same
manner as the great majority of the Company. I only used the booklets
for occasional reference. In preparing the portion of the sacred volume
on which we were to be engaged in t