Chapter X

. To the _general_ accuracy of his collations every one who has followed him over a portion of his vast field can bear and is bound to bear cheerful testimony. For practical purposes his correctness is quite sufficient, even though one or two who have accomplished very much less may have excelled in this respect some at least of his later works. For the unflinching exertions and persevering toil of full thirty years Tischendorf was called upon in 1873 to pay the natural penalty in a stroke of paralysis, which prostrated his strong frame, and put a sudden end to his most fruitful studies. He was born at Lengenfeld in the kingdom of Saxony in 1815 and died in 1874, having nearly completed his sixtieth year(239).

16. “The Greek New Testament, edited from ancient authorities; with the various readings of all the ancient MSS., the ancient versions, and other ecclesiastical writers (to Eusebius inclusive); together with the Latin version of Jerome, from the Codex Amiatinus of the sixth century. By Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, LL.D.” 4to, 1857-1872, pp. 1017. [Appendix by Dr. Hort, 1879, pp. i-xxxii; 1018-1069.]

The esteemed editor of the work of which the above is the full title, first became generally known as the author of “The Book of Revelation in Greek, edited from ancient authorities; with a new English Version,” 1844: and, in spite of some obvious blemishes and defects, his attempt was received in the English Church with the gratitude and respect to which his thorough earnestness and independent views justly entitled him. He had arranged in his own mind as early as 1838 the plan of a Greek Testament, which he announced on the publication of the Apocalypse, and now set himself vigorously to accomplish. His fruitless endeavour to collate Cod. B has already been mentioned, but when he was on the continent in 1845-6, and again in 1849-50, also in 1862, he thoroughly examined all the manuscripts he could meet with, that fell within the compass of his design. In 1854 he published a volume full of valuable information, and intended as a formal exposition of his critical principles, intitled “An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament.” In 1856 he re-wrote, rather than re-edited, that portion of the Rev. T. Hartwell Horne’s well-known “Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures” which relates to the New Testament, under the title of “An Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament,” &c.(240) In 1857 appeared, for the use of subscribers only, the Gospels of SS. Matthew and Mark, as the first part of his “Greek New Testament” (pp. 1-216); early in 1861 the second part, containing SS. Luke and John (pp. 217-488), with but a few pages of “Introductory Notice” in each. In that year, paralysis, _mercurialium pestis virorum_, for a while suspended our editor’s too assiduous labours: but he recovered health sufficient to publish the Acts and Catholic Epistles in 1865, the Epistles of St. Paul down to 2 Thess. in 1869. Early in 1870, while in the act of revising the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse, he was visited by a second and very severe stroke of his fell disease. The remaining portion of the Pauline Epistles was sent out in 1870 as he had himself prepared it; the Revelation (alas! without the long-desired Prolegomena) in 1872, as well as the state of Tregelles’ papers would enable his friends S. J. B. Bloxsidge and B. W. Newton to perform their office. The revered author could contribute nothing save a message to his subscribers, full of devout thankfulness and calm reliance on the Divine wisdom. The text of the Apocalypse differs from that which he arranged in 1844 in about 229 places.

Except Codd. ΟΞ, which were published in 1861 (_see_ under those MSS.), this critic has not edited in full the text of any document, but his renewed collations of manuscripts are very extensive: viz. Codd. EGHKMNbRUXZΓΛ 1, 33, 69 of the Gospels; HL 13, 31, 61 of the Acts; DFL 1, 17, 37 of St. Paul, 1, 14 of the Apocalypse, _Am._ of the Vulgate. Having followed Tregelles through the whole of Cod. 69 (Act. 31, Paul. 37, Apoc. 14), I am able to speak positively of his scrupulous exactness, and in regard to other manuscripts now in England it will be found that, where Tischendorf and Tregelles differ, the latter is seldom in the wrong. To the versions and Fathers (especially to Origen and Eusebius) he has devoted great attention. His volume is a beautiful specimen of typography(241), and its arrangement is very convenient, particularly his happy expedient for showing at every open leaf the precise authorities that are extant at that place.

The peculiarity of Tregelles’ system is intimated, rather than stated, in the title-page of his Greek N. T. It consists in resorting to “ancient authorities” alone in the construction of his revised text, and in refusing not only to the received text, but to the great mass of manuscripts also, all voice in determining the true readings. This scheme, although from the history he gives of his work (An Account of Printed Text, pp. 153, &c.), it was apparently devised independently of Lachmann, is in fact essentially that great scholar’s plan, after those parts of it are withdrawn which are manifestly indefensible. Tregelles’ “ancient authorities” are thus reduced to those manuscripts which, not being Lectionaries, happen to be written in uncial characters, with the remarkable exceptions of Codd. 1, 33, 69 of the Gospels, 61 of the Acts, which he admits because they “preserve an ancient text.” We shall hereafter enquire (Chap. X) whether the text of the N. T. can safely be grounded on a basis so narrow as that of Tregelles.

This truly eminent person, born at Falmouth of a Quaker family January 30, 1813, received what education he ever got at Falmouth Classical School (of which I was Master twenty years later), from 1825 to 1828. At an early age he left the communion in which he was bred, to join a body called the Plymouth Brethren, among whom he met with much disquietude and some mild persecution: his last years were more happily spent as a humble lay member of the Church of England, a fact he very earnestly begged me to keep in mind(242). The critical studies he took up as early as 1838, when he was only twenty-five years old, were the main occupation of his life. The inconvenient and costly form in which he published his Greek Testament, brought upon him pecuniary loss, and even trenched upon the moderate fortune of his true and loving wife. After several years of deep retirement he died at Plymouth, April 24, 1875: and whereas his widow, who has since followed him to the other world, was anxious that his great work should be as far as possible completed, Dr. Hort has manifested his veneration for an honoured memory by publishing in 1879 an “Appendix” to the Greek New Testament, embracing what materials for Prolegomena Tregelles’ published writings supplied, and supplementary corrections to every page of the main work, compiled by the Rev. A. W. Streane, Fellow of C. C. C, Cambridge, which comprise a wonderful monument of minute diligence and devotion.

Of Tischendorf and Tregelles, that duumvirate of Biblical critics, I may be allowed to repeat a few words, extracted from the Preface to the Greek Testament of 1876, in the series of “Cambridge Texts:” “Eheu quos viros! natu ferè aequales, indole et famâ satis dispares, ambo semper in adversum nitentes, ambo piis laboribus infractos, intra paucos menses mors abripuit immatura.”

17. “The New Testament in the original Greek. The text revised by Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D. [Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge], and Fenton John Anthony Hort, D.D. [Hulsean Professor of Divinity there]. Vol. I. Cambridge and London, 1881.” “Introduction and Appendix,” in a separate volume, by Dr. Hort only, 1881. This important and comprehensive work, the joint labour of two of the best scholars of this age, toiling, now separately, now in counsel, for five and twenty years, was published, the text a few days earlier than the Revised English Version (May 17, 1881), the Introduction about four months later. The text, or one almost identical with it, had been submitted to the Revisers of the N. T., and to a few other Biblical students, several years before, so that the general tenor and spirit of our authors’ judgement was known to many: the second edition of my present work was enriched by the free permission granted by them to announce their conclusions regarding passages which come up for discussion in