apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xill
that some of the materials
which were here printed for the first
time have been anticipated and given to the world meanwhile.
This is the case for instance with the Coptic fragments recently
published by Ciasca, and with the readings of the Munich and
Constantinople MSS of the Long Recension collated by Funk for
his edition (1881). So in like manner the text of the Anglo-
Latin version in the Caius MS has been anticipated by this
latter editor in a separate work (1883). But over and above
these, other materials appear now for the first time, such for
instance as Ussher's collation of the important Montague MS of
the Anglo-Latin version for the Ignatian Epistles, the collation
of the Vatican MS of the Syriac version for the Antiochene
Acts of Ignatius, and the Coptic version, together with the
collation of the hitherto unnoticed Paris MS, for the Roman
Acts. Altog-ether I have striven to make the materials for
the text as complete
as I could. But I have discarded mere
secondary authorities, as for instance several Greek MSS of
the Long Recension, because they have no independent value,
and I should only have been encumbering my notes uselessly,
if I had recorded their readings. Of the use which I have
made of the critical materials thus gathered together, I must
leave others to judge. Of the introductions, exegetical notes,
and dissertations, I need say nothing, except that I have
spared no pains to make them adequate, so far as my knowledge
and ability permitted. The translations are intended not
only to convey to English readers the sense of the original, but
also (where there was any difficulty of construction) to
commentaries on the Greek. My anxiety
difficulties forbad me in many cases to indulge
which I should have claimed, if a literary
been kept in view.
serve as
not to evade these
in a freedom
standard alone had
I must not conclude without fulfilling the pleasant task of
friends and others
expressing my obligations to many personal
who have assisted me in this work. My thanks are especially
due to Dr W. Wright, who has edited the Syriac and Arabic