apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE CURETONIAN LETTERS. 315
causing any hiatus and producing obscurity. But what is now the state of
the case.'' Not only is no obscurity caused, nor the tenor of the epistle
broken; but on the contrary several places which before were unintelligible
become now clear; the whole epistle runs on uninterruptedly; each sentence
adheres closely to that which precedes it; and what is still more
remarkable, all this almost without the necessity of making any grammatical
change in the order or construction of the sentences; and further, one
passage omitted in the Greek [§ i 'videre festinastis' in the Latin], which
Bishop Pearson had previously pointed out as necessary to complete the
context, is restored and supplied by the Syriac'
This statement is not supported by any examples or any analysis of
passages ;
and to me it seems to be directly opposed to the facts. The
last clause ' one passage etc' does indeed state a truth ;
but this truth
has no bearing on the question at issue.
It furnishes an instance of the
confusion, on which I have adverted above (p. 291), and which has
been already dealt with. For the rest, it would be true to the facts to
say that in no single instance does the Curetonian Recension produce a
better sense or a more intelligible sequence of thought than the Vossian;
that in very many cases the sequence in the Curetonian letter would
pass muster, though in the majority of these it is smoother and more
regular in the Vossian and that in
;
some few instances the phenomena
are quite incongruous and improbable in the Curetonian letter, where
no such fault can be found with the Vossian.
Who for instance can bring himself to believe that Ignatius ended
the letter as it ends in the Curetonian form :
'
And that which was
perfected in the counsels of God had a beginning ;
whence all things
were put into commotion because the destruction of death Avas purposed'
Is it at all intelligible that a letter which commences with an
elaborate greeting and goes on to speak at some length of personal
relations should thus end abruptly in the midst of the discussion of a
theological topic, without a word of farewell or any personal reference
of any kind Is this possible in itself Does it become at all more
probable, when we compare the other Ignatian letters, which even in
the Curetonian Recension end with a salutation and a farewell
Or again take this passage ;
'
It is better to keep silence and to be, than to talk and not to be; [it
is
good to teach, if the speaker be a doer also. There is then one Teacher,
who spake, and it was so; yea and even the works that He hath done in
silence are worthy of the Father. He
that possesseth the Word of Jesus can
also listen to His Silence, that he may be perfect ;] that through the things
which he speaks he may do, and through the things wherein he is silent, he
may be known.'