apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

290 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
Irenoeus ;
but they cannot count for nothing. To this point however I
shall return hereafter. It is sufficient at present to observe that with one
exception {Ephes. 19) they all refer to passages in the Vossian letters
which have no place in the Curetonian.
The force of coincidences in other writers prior to the age of
Eusebius, which have been noted in the previous chapter (p. 137 sq),
will be differently estimated by different minds. But the references of
Eusebius himself (see p. 146 sq) to the Vossian Epistles are unquestioned
and unquestionable ;
and the same is true of all subsequent
writers during the next two centuries, who cite this father to any extent,
e.g. Theodoret, Timotheus, and Severus. There is in fact a catena of
authorities extending over seven or eight centuries from the age of
Ignatius. On the other hand 7iot a single qiiotaiiou, early or late, has
been adduced, of which zve can say confidently that it 7oas taken from the
Curetonian Letters, as distijiguished fro7n the Middle Recension. The
value of this silence must not indeed be exaggerated. As the two recensions
have large parts in common, the range of possible quotations bearing
distinct testimony to the Curetonian Letters apart
not wide. But still it is a significant fact.
from the Vossian is
(ii)
The next subject which I propose
to consider under the head
of external evidence is the phenomena of extant manuscripts and authorities
for the text.
Not a little stress has been laid on the fact, that the mss of the
Curetonian Recension are older by some centuries than the mss (whether
Greek or Latin) of the Vossian Epistles. It will have appeared from
the account given above (p. 72 sq), that the three mss of the Curetonian
Syriac range from the first half of the sixth to the ninth century. On
the other hand the Greek mss of the Vossian letters, the Medicean
and Colbertine, cannot be dated before the tenth or eleventh century,
while the mss of the Latin Version are still later. If we had no other
data for determining the question than the relative ages of the mss, this
— fact might have afforded a presumption a very presumption— slender in
favour of the Curetonian letters as against the Vossian. How slight this
presumption would have been we may judge from analogous cases.
The oldest extant ms of Herodotus is about four centuries younger than
the oldest extant mss of Jerome and Augustine. Yet Herodotus
flourished eight centuries before Jerome and Augustine. The oldest
extant ms of Bede is two or three centuries older than the oldest extant
MS of yEschylus. Yet an interval of twelve centuries separates Bede
from yEschylus.
Such examples might be multiplied indefinitely.