which the words ought to be subservient; and further, that we should not suppose one to be giving an incorrect statement, if he happens to convey in different words what the person really meant whose words he fails to reproduce literally. And we ought not to let the wretched cavillers at words fancy that truth must be tied somehow or other to the jots and tittles of letters; whereas the fact is, that not in the matter of words only, but equally in all other methods by which sentiments are indicated, the sentiment itself, and nothing else, is what ought to be looked at. 68. Moreover, as to the circumstance that some codices of Matthew’s Gospel contain the reading, “For the woman951 is not dead, but sleepeth,” while Mark and Luke certify that she was a damsel of the age of twelve years, we may suppose that Matthew has followed the Hebrew mode of speech here. For in other passages of Scripture, as well as here, it is found that not only those who had already known a man, but all females in general, including untouched virgins, are called women.952 That is the case, for instance, where it is written of Eve, “He made it953 into a woman;”954 and again, in the book of Numbers, where the women955 who have not known a man by lying with him, that is to say, the virgins, are ordered to be saved from being put to death.956 Adopting the same phraseology, Paul, too, says of Christ Himself, that He was “made of a woman.”957 And it is better, therefore, to 136 understand the matter according to these analogies, than to suppose that this damsel of twelve years of age was already married, or had known a man.958 951 Mulier. 952 Mulieres. 953 Eam, her. 954 Gen. ii. 22. 955 Mulieres. 956 Num. xxxi. 18. 957 Gal. ii. 4. 958 [The curious variation in text noted above was probably due to the scribe’s confounding the “damsel” with the “woman” who had just been spoken of.—R.] 297 Of the Raising of the Daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue, and of the…