6, p.

33.
[14] [Perhaps this point may be cleared by dividing readings into two classes, viz.

(1) such as really have strong evidence for their support, and require examination before we can be certain that they are corrupt; and (2) those which afford no doubt as to their being destitute of foundation, and are only interesting as specimens of the modes in which error was sometimes introduced.

Evidently, the latter class are not 'various' at all.] [15] [I.e.

generally [Greek: krabatton], or else [Greek: krabaton], or even [Greek: krabakton]; seldom found as [Greek: krabbatton], or spelt in the corrupt form [Greek: krabbaton].] [16] I am inclined to believe that in the age immediately succeeding that of the Apostles, some person or persons of great influence and authority executed a Revision of the N.T.and gave the world the result of such labours in a 'corrected Text.' The guiding principle seems to have been to seek to _abridge_ the Text, to lop off whatever seemed redundant, or which might in any way be spared, and to eliminate from one Gospel whatever expressions occurred elsewhere in another Gospel.
Clauses which slightly obscured the speaker's meaning; or which seemed to hang loose at the end of a sentence; or which introduced a consideration of difficulty:--words which interfered with the easy flow of a sentence:--every thing of this kind such a personage seems to have held himself free to discard.