apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

90 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
phrases with much caprice. (5) The corruptions, emendations, and
interpolations of the Armenian in the course of transmission through
many centuries. (6) The careless and uncritical mode of editing the
printed text. Of these six sources of corruption, the third and fourth
appear to have been by far the most fertile, but all have contributed
appreciably to the total amount of change.
Yet notwithstanding
all these vicissitudes, the Armenian version is
within certain limits one of the most important aids towards the formation
of a correct text. The Greek, from which the prior Syriac translation
was made, must have been much earlier and purer than any existing
text of these epistles, Greek or Latin ; and, where this can be discerned
through the overlying matter, its authority is highly valuable. Happily
this is almost always possible, where the variation of reading
is really
important. On the other hand in minor matters, such as the connexion
of sentences or the form of words, no stress can be laid on this version.
Its readings are only recorded in the present edition, where they have,
or seem to have, some value in determining the original text.
Armenian Acts of Martyrdom [A,„], containing the Epistle to the
Romans. For the editions of this work see 11. p. 367. A full account of
the contents of these Acts will be found below, 11. p. 371 sq. At present
we are only concerned with the epistle incorporated in them. They
were translated immediately from the Greek, and at a date subsequent
to the Armenian version [A] of the Ignatian Epistles. But though he
translated afresh, the translator was evidently acquainted with the existing
Armenian version, or at least with extracts from it ;
for the coincidences
are far too numerous and too striking to be accidental : see
e.g. the renderings of § 7 /XT/Sek ovv k.t.X. (p. 170, Petermann), § 8 81'
oXiyoiv K.T.X. (p. 176), lb. ov Kara aapKa k.t.X. (p. 177); § 9 /J-vrjfJLOveveTe
K.T.X. (p. 178),
il>.
eyw Se k.t.X. (pp. 178, 1 79), etc. Alternative renderings
are frequently given (e.g. pp. 149, 156, 157. 165. 180);
and elsewhere
various readings are noted (e.g. pp. 132, 135, 141, 144, 162 (),
166, 172 sq, 175). It is not clear whether these latter may not in some
instances be due to the editor Aucher.
Zahn (/.
V. A. p. 21) questions the opinion of Aucher and Petermann
that this version was made from the Greek, and supposes
it to
have been rendered from a Syriac translation.
His reasons however do
not seem valid. Thus the rendering of ^eo^opos by 'God-clad' is inconclusive,
since this was already a familiar designation of Ignatius in
Armenian, as the version of the Epistles shows.
Again the influence of
ribui'm. the plurals, Rom. 7 'cogitationes mese,' and Rom. 9 'in precibus