ana translation

INTRODUCTION
Ivii
SECTION XIII. Authorities for our Text : EDITIONS.
Above (p. xx, see also p. 4 infr.) I have related the main facts of
the first printing of these Epistles (by Pococke (II), 1630), and of their
first appearance in their place as part of a complete Syriac New Testament
(in the Paris Polyglot (P), 1645). On one or both of these
editions all subsequent texts of these Epistles are founded. Some (as
Gutbir's Syriac N.T., 1664) give a text slightly amended apparently
by conjecture*: for two only, Dr. Lee's (L, of 1816 and 1820), and
Dr. Perkins' (N, New York, 1886), has fresh MS authority been
obtained (see pp. xliv, xlix, supr.).
But Pococke's text has not been
borrowed by the Paris editor (Sionita) a careful comparison of the two
:
shows plainly that the latter represents an exemplar distinct from, and
appreciably better than, Pococke's cod. 8 ;
and thus avoids one or two
of the worst errors of the Editio Princeps (e.g., |l9OQs for "jajOCtii,
2 Pet. i. 4; jOll for JOll), 3 Joh. 10).
The London Polyglot (A),
1653, simply reproduces the Paris text, with variations so few and
petty as to be probably due to inadvertence (as the omission of ^oJ^Gl
in 2 Pet. iii. 10).
The editor (Thorndike) seems to have neglected
Pococke's text altogether. It is to be noted that Sionita was and it
may be assumed as certain that his MS. also, like Pococke's must have
been-^-Maronite. For L, see Dr. Lee's account in Classical Journal
(cited above, p. xliv, note J).
It was issued by the British and Foreign
Bible Society. To the American Bible Society is due the edition (N)
of 1886, and its precursors their Syriac Bible, printed (1841) at Urmi
in Persia, and reprinted at New York (1874).
As noted above (pp. xliv,
xlviii), the MSS (11, 13)
whence L and N have derived their emendations
of the text of our Epistles are Tur'abdinese.
SECTION XIV. Authorities for our Text : VERSIONS.
Under this head I deal only with the secondary Versions which are
known to have been made from our Syriac and not from the Greek.
There are but two such :(a) the Latin of Etzel (" etz" printed in 1612),
and the Arabic (" ar&," printed in 1897 by Dr. Merx,f and in 1899
by Mrs. Gibson, Studia Sinaitica, No. vn).
* The useful Syriac N.T. of Schaaf (1708) gives in an Appendix a convenient
summary of the variations of Pococke's, the Polyglot, and Gutbir's texts.
f From a transcript made by Mrs. Burkitt (Zeitschriftf. Assyriologie, Dec. 1897).
h