these fragments happily contains the last verse of the Gospel according to
S. Mark. The Thebaic version is referred to the iiird century.

After this mass of evidence, it will be enough to record concerning the
Armenian version, that it yields inconstant testimony: some of the MSS.
ending at ver. 8; others putting after these words the subscription,
({~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~},) and then giving the additional verses with a new
subscription: others going on without any break to the end. This version
may be as old as the vth century; but like the Ethiopic [iv-vii?] and the
Georgian [vi?] it comes to us in codices of comparatively recent date. All
this makes it impossible for us to care much for its testimony. The two
last-named versions, whatever their disadvantages may be, at least bear
constant witness to the genuineness of the verses in dispute.

1. And thus we are presented with a mass of additional evidence,--so
various, so weighty, so multitudinous, so venerable,--in support of this
disputed portion of the Gospel, that it might well be deemed in itself
decisive.

2. For these Versions do not so much shew what individuals held, as what
Churches have believed and taught concerning the sacred Text,--mighty
Churches in Syria and Mesopotamia, in Africa and Italy, in Palestine and
Egypt.

3. We may here, in fact, conveniently review the progress which has been
hitherto made in this investigation. And in order to bar the door against
dispute and cavil, let us be content to waive the testimony of Papias as
precarious, and that of Justin Martyr as too fragmentary to be decisive.
Let us frankly admit that the citation of Vincentius a Thibari at the
viith Carthaginian Council is sufficiently inexact to make it unsafe to
build upon it. The "Acta Pilati" and the "Apostolical Constitutions,"
since their date is somewhat doubtful, shall be claimed for the ivth
century only, and