apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE CURETONIAN LETTERS.
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epistle do not call for any comment. The sequence of thought in the
Curetonian letter is
preserved sufficiently to disarm criticism, though
the connexion is closer in the Vossian form.
The Epistle to Polycarp contains very little which invites consideration
from this point of view. The variations between the two recensions
are immaterial throughout the first six chapters. At this point
however the divergence begins. Of the two concluding chapters (the
seventh and eighth) in the Vossian form, which are occupied with
personal matters — directions to Polycarp with the concluding salutations
etc.— the Curetonian letter retains only two sentences, the latter
in an altered form ;
'
The Christian has not authority over himself, but
devotes himself to God. I salute him who shall be counted worthy to
go to Antioch in my stead, according as I commanded thee.' The
former sentence is
unexplained by anything in the context of the Curetonian
letter, whereas in the Vossian it stands in close and immediate
connexion with the directions which precede and follow it. In the
latter the incident assumes a different character, but the change does
not affect the connexion with the context.
In the Epistle to the Romans, as it appears in the Curetonian
recension, the opening salutation is much abridged, but the relations of
the two forms in this part are not such as to call for examination. In
the first five chapters the two recensions agree very closely. Only
here and there a sentence is
wanting in the shorter form; but the
continuity of the sense is not generally affected by the omission. One
point alone calls for a remark. In § 6 a passage runs '
; Have sympathy
with me. What is
expedient for me, [I know. Now am I beginning to
be a disciple]. Let nought of things visible and invisible grudge me
that I
may attain unto Jesus Christ.' The words in brackets appear in
the Vossian letter, but are omitted in the Curetonian. It will be seen
at once that they are needed for the sense. No great stress however
can be laid on the omission, as it
might be pleaded that they had been
left out by the inadvertence of a transcriber, and that therefore the
omission does not affect the main question at issue. Of the five remaining
chapters as they stand in the Vossian letter, only a few sentences
appear in the Curetonian but as a
; compensation two chapters from
the Trallian Epistle are introduced at the close. These few sentences
are isolated, and their purport is such that no continuity need be looked
for. Here again however one passage deserves consideration ; § 9 My
'
spirit saluteth you, and so doth the love of the churches which welcomed
me in the name of Jesus Christ, [not as a traveller on his way
(ou'x ws 7rapo8e7;ovTa)] for even those (churches) which did not lie near to