[Greek:  Iota symbol] Mistaken Ascriptions or Nomenclature. The following passages are wrongly assigned:—­Mal. iii. 1 to Isaiah according to the correct reading of Mark i. 2, and Zech. xi. 13 to Jeremiah in Matt. xxvii. 9, 10; Abiathar is apparently put for Abimelech in Mark ii. 26; in Acts vii. 16 there seems to be a confusion between the purchase of Machpelah near Hebron by Abraham and Jacob’s purchase of land from Hamor the father of Shechem.  These are obviously lapses of memory.

[Greek:  Kappa symbol] Quotations of Doubtful Origin.  There are a certain number of quotations, introduced as such, which can be assigned directly to no Old Testament original; Matt. ii. 23 ([Greek:  Nazoraios klaethaesetai]), 1 Tim. v. 18 (’the labourer is worthy of his hire’), John vii. 38 (’out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water’), 42 (Christ should be born of Bethlehem where David was), Eph. v. 14 (’Awake thou that sleepest’). [Endnote 25:1]

It will be seen that, in spite of the reservations that we felt compelled to make at the outset, the greater number of the deviations noticed above can only be explained on a theory of free quotation, and remembering the extent to which the Jews relied upon memory and the mechanical difficulties of exact reference and verification, this is just what before the fact we should have expected.

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The Old Testament quotations in the canonical books afford us a certain parallel to the object of our enquiry, but one still nearer will of course be presented by the Old Testament quotations in those books the New Testament quotations in which we are to investigate.  I have thought it best to draw up tables of these in order to give an idea of the extent and character of the variation.  In so tentative an enquiry as this, the standard throughout will hardly be so fixed and accurate as might be desirable; the tabular statement therefore must be taken to be approximate, but still I think it will be found sufficient for our purpose; certain points come out with considerable clearness, and there is always an advantage in drawing data from a wide enough area.  The quotations are ranged under heads according to the degree of approximation to the text of the LXX.  In cases where the classification has seemed doubtful an indicatory mark (+) has been used, showing by the side of the column on which it occurs to which of the other two classes the instance leans.  All cases in which this sign is used to the left of the middle column may be considered as for practical purposes literal quotations.  It may be assumed, where the contrary is not stated, that the quotations are direct and not of the nature of allusions; the marks of quotation are generally quite unmistakeable ([Greek:  gegraptai, legei, eipen], &c).  Brief notes are added in the margin to call attention to the more remarkable points, especially to the repetition of the same quotation in different writers and to the apparent bearing of the passage upon the general habit of quotation.