There is hardly to be found a more precious declaration concerning the guiding and illuminating office of the Holy Ghost, than our Lord's promise that “when He, the Spirit of Truth shall come, He shall guide you into all the Truth”: ?d???se? ??? e?? p?sa? t?? ????e?a? (St. John xvi. 13). Now, the six words just quoted are found to have experienced an extraordinary amount of perturbation; far more than can be due to the fact that they happen to be the concluding words of a lection. To be brief,—every [pg 217] known variety in reading this passage may be brought under one of three heads:—

1. With the first,—which is in fact a gloss, not a reading (d????seta? ??? t?? ????e?a? p?sa?),—we need not delay ourselves. Eusebius in two places349, Cyril Jer.350, copies of the Old Latin351, and Jerome352 in a certain place, so read the place. Unhappily the same reading is also found in the Vulgate353. It meets with no favour however, and may be dismissed.

2. The next, which even more fatally darkens our Lord's meaning, might have been as unceremoniously dealt with, the reading namely of Cod. L (?d???se? ??? ?? t? ????e?? p?s?), but that unhappily it has found favour with Tischendorf,—I suppose, because with the exception of p?s? it is the reading of his own Cod. ?354. It is thus that Cyril Alex.355 thrice reads the place: and indeed the same thing practically is found in D356; while so many copies of the Old Latin exhibit in omni veritate, or in veritate omni357, that one is constrained to inquire, How is ?? ????e?? pas? to be accounted for?

We have not far to look. ?d??e?? followed by ?? occurs in the LXX, chiefly in the Psalms, more than 16 times. Especially must the familiar expression in Ps. xxiv. 5 (?d???s?? e ?? t? ????e?? s??, Dirige me in veritate tua), by inopportunely suggesting itself to the mind of some early copyist, have influenced the text of St. John xvi. 13 in this fatal way. One is only astonished that so acute a critic as Tischendorf should have overlooked so plain [pg 218] a circumstance. The constant use of the Psalm in Divine Service, and the entire familiarity with the Psalter resulting therefrom, explains sufficiently how it came to pass, that in this as in other places its phraseology must have influenced the memory.

3. The one true reading of the place (?d???se? ??? e?? p?sa? t?? ????e?a?) is attested by 12 of the uncials (EGHIbKMSUG???), the whole body of the cursives, and by the following Fathers,—Didymus358, Epiphanius359, Basil360, Chrysostom361, Theodotus, Bp. of Antioch362, Cyril Alex.363, Theodoret364; besides Tertullian in five places, Hilary and Jerome in two365.

But because the words p?sa? t?? ????e?a? are found transposed in ABY alone of manuscripts, and because Peter Alex.366, and Didymus367 once, Origen368 and Cyril Alex.369 in two places, are observed to sanction the same infelicitous arrangement (viz. t?? ????e?a? p?sa?),—Lachmann, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort, adopt without hesitation this order of the words370. It cannot of course be maintained. The candid reader in the meantime will not fail to note that as usual the truth has been preserved neither by A nor B nor D: least of all by ?: but comes down to us unimpaired in the great mass of MS. authorities, uncial and cursive, as well as in the oldest Versions and Fathers.