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THE SECOND EDITION.

SINCE the First Edition was published, the evidence of the recently-found Sinaitic Manuscript has been added to our ancient testimonies regarding the Sacred Text. This has occasioned many variations, which have been indicated in the margin of this Edition, so as to make it conformable to the last Edition of my Greek Testament. The notes, except where such variations necessitated a change, remain as before.

CANTERBURY,

Christmas, 1867.

that in Matt. i. 18-25 is a more compendious, and wholly independent

account.

SECTION IX.

ITS STYLE AND CHARACTER.

1. We might have expected from Luke's name and profession, that he was a man of education, and versed in the elegant use of the Greek, which was then the polite language in the Roman empire. We accordingly find that while we have very numerous Hebraisms in his Gospel, we also have far more classical idioms, and a much freer use of Greek compounds than in the others.

2. The composition of the sentences is more studied and elaborate than in Matthew or Mark: the Evangelist appears more frequently in the narrative, delivering his own estimate of men and things;-e. g. ch. xvi. 14; vii. 29, 30 ; xix. 11 al. ;—he seems to love to recount instances of our Lord's tender compassion and mercy ;—and in the report of His parables, e. g. in ch. xv., is particularly simple in diction, and calculated to attract and retain the attention of his readers.

3. In narrative, this Evangelist is very various, according to the copiousness or otherwise of the sources from which he drew. Sometimes he merely gives a hasty compendium: at others he is most minute and circumstantial in detail, and equally graphic in description with Mark: see as instances of this latter, ch. vii. 14; ix. 29. It has been remarked (Olshausen) that Luke gives with extreme accuracy not so much the discourses, as the observations and occasional sayings of our Lord, with the replies of those who were present. This is especially the case in his long and important narrative of the journey up to Jerusalem, ch. ix. 51-xviii. 14.

4. On the question how far those doctrines especially enforced by the great Apostle of the Gentiles are to be traced, as inculcated or brought forward in this Gospel, see above in this chapter, § ii. 7.

5. In completeness, this Gospel must rank first among the four. The Evangelist begins with the announcement of the birth of Christ's Forerunner, and concludes with the particulars of the Ascension: thus embracing the whole great procession of events by which our Redemption by Christ was ushered in, accomplished, and sealed in heaven. And by recording the allusion to the promise of the Father (ch. xxiv. 49), he has introduced, so to speak, a note of passage to that other history, in which the fulfilment of that promise, the great result of Redemption was to be related. It may be remarked, that this completeness,-while it shews the earnest diligence used by the sacred writer in searching out, and making use of every information within his reach,-forms an VOL. I.-49] d

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