Error was fitful and uncertain, and was contradicted by other error: besides that it sank eventually before a manifold witness to the truth.

Nevertheless, certain manuscripts belonging to a few small groups--particular copies of a Version--individual Fathers or Doctors of the Church,--these do, to the present hour, bear traces incontestably of ancient mischief.
But what goes before is not nearly all.

The fourfold structure of the Gospel has lent itself to a certain kind of licentious handling--of which in other ancient writings we have no experience.

One critical owner of a Codex considered himself at liberty to assimilate the narratives: another to correct them in order to bring them into (what seemed to himself) greater harmony.

Brevity is found to have been a paramount object with some, and Transposition to have amounted to a passion with others.