Luke i. 35.

[Greek:  Pneuma hagion epeleusetai epi se, kai dunamis hupsistou episkiasei soi, dio kai to gennomenon [ek sou] hagion klaethaesetai huios Theon.]

Ref.  Omn.  Haes. vi. 35.

[Greek:  Pneuma hagion epeleusetai epi se... kai dunamis hupsistou episkiasei soi... dio to gennomenon ek sou hagion klaethaesetai.]

That St. Luke has been the original here seems to be beyond a doubt.  The omission of [Greek:  huios Theou] is of very little importance, because from its position [Greek:  hagion] would more naturally stand as a predicate, and the sentence would be quite as complete without the [Greek:  huios Theou] as with it.  On the other hand, it would be difficult to compress into so small a space so many words and expressions that are peculiarly characteristic of St. Luke.  In addition to those which have just been noticed in connection with Basilides, there is the very remarkable [Greek:  to gennomenon], which alone would be almost enough to stamp the whole passage.

We are still however pursued by the same ambiguity as in the case of Basilides.  It is not certain that the quotation is made from the master and not from his scholars.  There is no reason, indeed, why it should be made from the latter rather than the former; the point must in any case be left open:  but it cannot be referred to the master with so much certainty as to be directly producible under his name.

And yet, from whomsoever the quotation may have been made, if only it has been given rightly by Hippolytus, it is a strong proof of the antiquity of the Gospel.  The words [Greek:  ek sou], will be noticed, are enclosed in brackets in the text of St. Luke as given above.  They are a corruption, though an early and well-supported corruption, of the original.  The authorities in their favour are C (first hand), the good cursives 1 and 33, one form of the Vulgate, a, c, e, m of the Old Latin, the Peshito Syriac, the Armenian and Aethiopic versions, Irenaeus, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Epiphanius.  On the other hand, for the omission are A. B, C (third hand), D, [Hebrew:  Aleph symbol], and the rest of the uncials and cursives, another form of the Vulgate, b, f, ff, g’2, l of the Old Latin, the Harclean and Jerusalem Syriac, the Memphitic, Gothic, and some MSS. of the Armenian versions, Origen, Dionysius and Peter of Alexandria, and Eusebius.  A text critic will see at once on which side the balance lies.  It is impossible that [Greek:  ek sou] could have been the reading of the autograph copy, and it is not, I believe, admitted into the text by any recent editor.  But if it was present in the copy made use of by the Gnostic writer, whoever he was, that copy must have been already far enough removed from the original to admit of this corruption; in other words, it has lineage enough to throw the original some way behind it.  We shall come to more of such phenomena in the next chapter.