Origin and history of the books of the Bible, both the canonical and the apocryphal, designed to show what the Bible is not, what it is, and how to use it . of theentire Greek Scriptures; and ordered two of the gov-ernment wagons, under the special charge of a deaconof the Caesarean church, to transport these copies, whencompleted, to Constantinople for his own inspection. 56 THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, This commission Eusebius promptly and joyfully ful-filled ; and to this fact undoubtedly, in a great degree,we are indebted for the remarkable accuracy of thetext of the Greek Testament, so much su
Origin and history of the books of the Bible, both the canonical and the apocryphal, designed to show what the Bible is not, what it is, and how to use it . of theentire Greek Scriptures; and ordered two of the gov-ernment wagons, under the special charge of a deaconof the Caesarean church, to transport these copies, whencompleted, to Constantinople for his own inspection. 56 THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, This commission Eusebius promptly and joyfully ful-filled ; and to this fact undoubtedly, in a great degree,we are indebted for the remarkable accuracy of thetext of the Greek Testament, so much superior in thisrespect to the text of any Greek or Latin classic, oreven of our own Shakespeare and Milton. Thesemanuscripts the emperor gave to the principal churchesto be read in the public worship; and they were trans-scribed for the use of other churches. To this sourcewe probably owe all our best ancient manuscripts ofthe Greek Testament; the Alexandrian, the Yatican,the Ephraim, the Sinai; which all give evidence ofEgyptian origin, and of being originally from the greatbook market of Alexandria. See Life of Constantineby Eusebius, IV. 17, CHAPTER THIRD EVIDENCE OX WHICH WE RECEIVE THE PRESENT TEXT OFTHE NEW TESTAMENT AS SUBSTANTIALLY CORRECT. To ascertain the substantial correctness of our pres-ent text of the New Testament, we must comparethe readings of our modern printed editions of theGreek with the earliest manuscript authorities, and asnearly as possible with the very autographs of theoriginal authors. It is not necessary that we shouldhave these autographs, because it is not necessary toprove a minute, unchangeable accuracy of every wordand every letter, but only to show that there has beenno change which essentially affects the meaning of theNew Testament, or hinders the attainment of the pur-pose for which it was given to mankind. In the age of the New Testament writers, the mostcommon and convenient material of writing was papy-rus—a sort of paper forme
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