A commentary on the Epistles of St. John - The Preterist Archive

INTRODUCTION. 31
tions of Asia Minor,) that next, by an abbreviation,
it was converted into -rfog 'rdo^vg' and that thus ul-
timately arose the Latin superscription ad Parthos.
The improbability of this conjecture is manifest.
Hug gives a more satisfactory explanation.^* At the
outset, he states, that the second epistle is by the an-
cients also called Epistola ad virgiues, rrpog crac'i:^g!/ci»:-
and that even Clemens Alexandr. in his Adumbra-
tiones, makes use of these expressions : " Secunda
Joannis Epistola, qucB ad virgixes scripta est, sini-
plicissima est.'^^ Further, that the colophon of the
second epistle " Tohg ttuo^ovc,'" occurring in some
MSS. is manifestly a corruption, probably arising out
of the abridged ergo; rra^'^svoug' but that this colophon
of the second epistle, in some MSS. appears as a su-
perscription ; and finally, that this superscription appearing
unsuitable to the second epistle, which was
addressed to the sycXsy.rn xjp/«, and less so to the first
epistle, it was put as a colophon to that epistle, and
that thus arose the Latin superscription ad Parthos.
Natural as it is, entirely to approve of this explana-
tion, it is equally difficult to reject Wegscheider's
more simple conjecture,^^ according to which, the
epistle being in an ancient MS. superscribed and
subscribed cr^og rov; dtaG-raosa/j^svouc, which in Latin
would be " ad sparsos" it is supposed that from
thence ad Parthos may easily have drawn its origin.
It is to be regretted that Dr. Wegscheider has not
*^ Introduction to the New Testament, 2d Vol. p- 22(>, note.
*^ Clem. Alex. Opp. ed. Potter. Fragm. p. 1011.
''^ Wegscheider's Introduction to the Gospel of St. John,
p. 37.