Preface to Part I. of the Oxford
Edition.
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The
present volume of St. Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles has
been delayed for some time by the difficulty of fixing the Text. Some
farther account of the grounds on which this has been done will be
given in the Preface to Part II. (vid.
infra.
) It may suffice
for the present to say, that these Homilies appear to have been less
carefully reported than usual, and published without a revision by the
Author. The printed text was formed for the most part (Erasmus’s
Latin Version entirely) from a manuscript, said to be of the tenth
century, in which these Homilies are given in a very different form,
evidently the work of a later hand, and intended to make them read more
smoothly. The earlier text, shown to be such by internal evidence, and
alone followed in the Catena and all other ancient extracts and
compilations, is preserved in other
mss.
and
appears to have been in general disregarded by former editors, from its
difficulty. The Translation was originally made from Savile’s
Text, by the Rev. J.
Walker
, M.A. of Brasenose
College, and the Rev. J.
Sheppard
, M.A. of
Oriel College, Oxford. The Editors are much indebted to the Rev. H.
Browne
, M.A. of Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, who has restored the Text and corrected the Translation
accordingly, the difference being frequently so great as to require a
passage to be translated anew. He has likewise undertaken to prepare
the Greek Text for publication, and to supply the prefatory matter.
Many passages will still be found imperfect and unsatisfactory, but it
has been thought better to leave them evidently so, than to resort to
uncertain conjectures. A few conjectural emendations, however, have
been admitted into the Text, and many more suggested.
C.
Marriott
.
Oxford
,
Feast of St. James.
1851.
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