Easy of transcription and presenting no special difficulty, they ought to have come down to us undisfigured by any serious variety of reading.

On the contrary.

Owing to entirely different causes, either verse has experienced calamitous treatment.

I have elsewhere[210] proved that the clause [Greek: huiou tou Theou] in verse 1 is beyond suspicion.

Its removal from certain copies of the Gospel was originally due to heretical influence.