Take as an illustration of what I have been saying the exceedingly precious verse, "Howbeit, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (St. Matt. xvii. 21), which has met with rejection by the recent school of critics. Here the evidence against the verse is confined to B and the first reading of { ~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~} amongst the Uncials, Evan. 33 alone of the Cursives, e and ff1 of the Old Latin Versions, as well as the Curetonian and the Lewis, Jerusalem, Sahidic, a few Bohairic copies, a few Ethiopic, and the Greek of Eusebius' Canons:--evidence of a slight and shifty character, when contrasted with the witness of all the other Uncials and Cursives, the rest of the Versions, and more than thirteen of the Fathers beginning with Tertullian and Origen(62). It is plain that the stress of the case for rejection, since { ~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~} being afterwards corrected speaks uncertainly, rests such as it is upon B; and that if the evidence of that MS. is found to be unworthy of credit in the whole passage, weak indeed must be the contention which consists mainly of such support.
Now if we inspect vv. 19, 20, 22, and 23, to go no farther, we shall discover that the entire passage in B is wrapped in a fog of error. It differs from the main body of the witnesses in ten places; in four of which its evidence is rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers(63); in two more by the Revisers(64); and of the remaining four, it is supported in two by only { ~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~} and severally by one or six Cursives, and in the other two by only { ~HEBREW LETTER ALEF~} and D with severally four or five Cursive copies(65).
Inspection of the Context therefore adds here strong confirmation:--though indeed in this instance to have recourse to such a weapon is to slay the already slain.