The life and work of St. Paul

242 THE LIFE AND WORK OP Si, FAUt.
essentially from the Hebrew, and differs from it in the essence of thtS
interpretation, which lies not only in the ideal transference from the Temple
to the Church, but in direct reference to the Gentiles viz. :
" That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles
upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord."
But the Hebrew says, much less appositely to the purpose of the speaker,
" That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen
npon whom My name is called, saith the Lord."
The difference is due to one of those numberless and often extraordinary
variations of the original text of which the Septuagint is so decisive a proof,
aud which makes that version so 1
interesting a study. This application of
James may be regarded as implicitly involved even in the Hebrew, and is yet
more directly supported by other 2
passages but the fact that ;
here and elsewhere
the New Testament writers quote and argue from the undeniably
variant renderings of the Septuagint, quoting them from memory, and often
differing in actual words both from these and from the Hebrew, shows how
utterly removed was their deep reverence for Scripture from any superstition
about the literal dictation of mere words or letters.
The debate was now at an end, for all the leaders had spoken. The
the voice of the chief elder had pronounced the
objections had been silenced ;
authoritative conclusion. It only remained to make that conclusion known to
those who were immediately concerned. The Apostles and Elders and thewhole
Church therefore ratified the decision, and selected two of their own
body, men of high repute Judas Barsabas 3
and Silas to accompany the
emissaries from the Church of Antioch on their return, and to be pledges
for the genuineness of their written communication. The letter which they
" The Apostles and
sent embodied their resolutions, and ran as follows :
Elders 4 and brethren to the brethren from the Gentiles in Antioch and) Syria-
1 The LXX. seema clearly to have read OTH (ad&m), "man," for D'n> (cddm). Dt,
Davidson, Sacr. Hermen. p. 462, goes BO far as to altered the Hebrew text.
suppose that the Jews have here'
2
E.g., Ps. Lsxxvi. 9 ; xxii. 31 ; cii. 18 ; Isa. xliii. 7.
3 The Silas of Acts ia, of course, the Silvanus the name being Romanised for convenience
of the Epistles (1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess. i. 1), and perhaps of 1 Pet. v. 12. He
is not mentioned in the Acts after the first visit of St. Paul to Corinth, and in undesigned
coincidence with this his name disappears
in the superscription of the Epistles after that
time. (See Wordsworth, Phil. i. 1.)
4
Although jcal ol is omitted (M, A, B, 0, the Vulgate and Armenian versions,
Irenseus, and Origen, and the /ecu. by D), I still believe them to be genuine. The diplomatic
evidence seems indeed to be against them, the weight of the above Uncials, &o.,
being superior to that of E, G, H, the majority of Cursives, and the Syriac, Coptic, and
yEthiopic versions. But objection to the apparent parity assigned to the brethren
might have led, even in early days, to their omission, while if not genuine it is not easy
to see why they should have been inserted. They also agree better with
"
ver. 22, with
the whole Church," and ver. 24, "going out from among us." The importance of the
reading is shown by its bearing on such debates as the admission of laymen into ecclesiastical
conferences, &o. Wordsworth quotes from Beveridge, Codex Canonum Vindicatus,
p. 20, the rule "Laid adjudicium de doctrina aut disciplina, Eccksiastica ferendum
nunquam admissi sunt." , . ... ; _ .