THE evidence to be gathered from the Fathers is of great value. Doubtless they at times were satisfied with giving the sense of a passage as is often done now, but it is beyond dispute that they often made direct quotations from their copies of the scripture, which is surely good and weighty evidence as to what was in the copies from which they quoted. This too increases in weight when we remember that the Fathers date back to the second century—some being undoubtedly associates of the apostles, being about two centuries earlier than any Greek copy now remaining to us.
Further, some of the early Fathers are known to have had their attention called to variations even then existing in the manuscripts. Thus IRENÆUS argues that the number of the beast in Rev. 13:1818Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Revelation 13:18) should be χξσ (666) and not χισ (616) as it was in some copies. He attributes the difference to an error in the copyist, and adds, "To those who have done this simply and without evil intention, we suppose pardon to be granted by God." This proves that he was not indifferent to the true readings of scripture in the second century.
ORIGEN also (in the third century) writes, "It is now manifest that the diversity of the copies has become great, whether from the carelessness of certain scribes, or from the rashness of some who make corrupt emendations, or also from those who in emendation add or take away what they think fit.”
MARCION, to serve his own evil purposes, attempted to make a new gospel out of the Gospel by Luke. He altered and cut out what he pleased. This caused the Fathers IRENÆUS, TERTULLIAN, and EPHIPHANIUS to compare carefully MARCION'S gospel with that by Luke and point out the alterations.
These things naturally caused the Fathers to exercise the greater care and watchfulness over the text of the word of God, and would have caused them to be the more cautious in making their quotations. Some of them may have fallen into errors themselves, but they wished to pass off as orthodox, and did not attempt to alter the word of God as MARCION had done.
It will be manifest from the above quotation from ORIGEN that the state of the various manuscripts showed similar variations to those we now have, yet we may fain hope that as then the copies were nearer to the originals and had thus been copied much fewer times, the variations were much fewer in number. Care is needed, as has been stated, to ascertain whether the Fathers quoted the exact words in their copies, or gave the general sense only. Where a quotation is the former, and where it is supported by good Greek copies of the New Testament now available to us, and perhaps by early versions, it undoubtedly has great weight.
For reference, we give a list of the principal Fathers, the date when they died when not otherwise stated, and the contractions under which they are generally referred to. The names in italic are Latin Fathers.
Ambrose Bishop of Milan, A.D. 397 (Ambr.)
Ambrosiaster, the false Ambrose, perhaps Hilary the Deacon of the third century, (Ambrst.)
Ammonius of Alexandria, 220 (Ammon.)
Andreas of Crete, 7th century (probably not the same person as)
Andreas Bishop of Caesarea, 6th century? (And.)
Arethas Bishop of Caesarea Capp. 10th century? (Areth.)
Arnobius of Africa, 306 (Arnob.)
Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria, 373 (Ath.)
Athenagoras of Athens, 177 (Athen.)
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 430 (Aug.)
Barnabas, let or 2nd century? (Barn.)
Basil Bishop of Cusarea, 379 (Bas.)
Basil of Seleucia, fl. 440 (Bas. Sel.)
Bede the Venerable, d. 735 (Bede.)
Cæsarius of Constantinople, 368 (Cæs.)
Canons Apostolic, 3rd century (Canon.)
Cassiodorus, 575 (Cassiod.)
Chromatius Bishop of Aquileia, 402 (Chrom.)
Chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople, 407 (Chrys.)
Clement Bishop of Alexandria, ft. 194 (Clem.)
Clement Bishop of Rome, fl. 90 (Clem. Rom.)
Constitutiones Apostolic, 3rd century (Constit.)
Cosmos Indicopleustes, 535 (Cosm.)
Cyprian Bishop of Carthage, 258 (Cypr.)
Cyril Bishop of Alexandria, 444 (Cyr.)
Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem, 386 (Cyr. Jer.)
Damascenus John, 730 (Dam.)
Didymus of Alexandria, 370 (Did.)
Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria, 265 (Dion.)
Dionysius (Pseudo-) Areopagita, 5th century (Dion Areop.)
Ephraem the Syrian, 378 (Ephr.)
Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus, 403 (Epiph.)
Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea, 340 (Eus.)
Euthalius Bishop of Sulci? 458 (Euthal.)
Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116 (Euthym.)
Evagrius of Pontus, 380 (Evagr.)
Fulgentius, 5th century (Fulg.)
Gaudentius, 4th century (Gaud.)
Gregory of Nazianzus, the Divine, Bishop of Constantinople, 389 (Naz.)
Gregory Bishop of Nyssa, 396 (Nyss.)
Gregory Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocsarea, 243 (Thauma.)
Oregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 605 (Greg.)
Hieronymus (Jerome), 430 (Hier.) or (Jer.)
Hilary Bishop of Poictiers, fl. 354 (Hil.)
Hippolytus Bishop of Portus, fl. 220 (Hip.)
Ignatius Bishop of Antioch, 107 (Ign.)
Irenmus Bishop of Lyons, 178; chiefly extant in an old.
Latin version (Iren.)
Isidore of Pelusium, 412 (Isid.)
Justin Martyr, 164 (Just.)
Juvencus, 330 (Juv.)
Lactantius, 306 (Lact.)
Lucifer Bishop of Cagliari, 367 (Luc.)
Marcion the heretic, 130? (Mcion), cited by Epiphanius
(Mcion-e), and Tertullian (Mcion-t.)
Maximus Taurinensis, 466 (Max. Taur.)
Maximus the Confessor, 662 (Max. Conf.)
Methodius, ft. 311 (Meth.)
Nonnus, fl. 400 (Nonn.)
Novatianus, fl. 300? (Novat.)
Œcumenius Bishop of Tricca, 10th century? (Œcu.)
Origen, b. 185, d. 254 (Or.)
Pamphilus the Martyr, 308 (Pamph.)
Peter Bishop of Alexandria, 311 (Petr.)
Photius Bishop of Constantinople, 891 (Phot.)
Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna, 166 (Polyc.)
Primasius Bishop of Adrumetum, fl. 550 (Prim.)
Prudentius 406 (Prud.)
Rufinus of Aquileia, 397 (Ruf.)
Severianus, a Syrian Bishop, 409 (Sevrn.)
Socrates, Church Historian, fl. 440 (Soc.)
Sozomen, Church Historian, 450 (Soz.)
Suidas the lexicographer, 980? (Suid.)
Tatian of Antioch, 172 (Tat.)
Tertullian of Africa, fl. 200 (Tort.)
Theodore Bishop of Mopsuestia, 428 (Thdor. Mops.)
Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus or Cyrrhus in Comagene, 458. (Thdrt.)
Theophilus Bishop of Antioch, 182 (Thph. Ant.)
Theophylact Archbishop of Bulgaria, 1071 (Theophyl.)
Tichonius? the Donatist, fl. 390 (Tich.)
Titus Bp. of Bostra, fl. 370 (Tit. Bost.)
Victor of Antioch, 430 (Vict. Ant.)
Victor Bp. of Tunis, 565 (Vict. Tun.)
Victorinus Bp. of Pettau, 360 (Victorin.)
Vigilius of Thapsus, 484 (Vigil.)