RECENSION (re-sen'shiln). After the critical materials lying at the basis of the New Testament text had accumulated in the hands of Mill and Wetstein, they began to be surveyed with philo sophic eye. Important readings in different docu ments were seen to possess resemblance more or less striking. Passages were found to present the same form, though the testimonies from which they were singled out belonged to various times and countries. The thought suggested itself to Bengel, that the mass of materials might be divided and classified in conformity with such peculiarities. The same idea also occurred to Semler. Both, however, had but a feeble and dim apprehension of the en tire subject as it was afterwards disposed. But, by the consummate learning and skill of Gries bach, it was highly elaborated, so as to exhibit a new topic for the philosophical acumen and the historic researches of the erudite inquirer. To the different phases of the text existing in the MSS., quotations made by the fathers, and in the ancient versions, the name recension was given by Griesbach and Semler. Yet the appella tion was not happily chosen. Family (which Bengel used), class or order, would have been much more appropriate. Recension ordinarily suggests the idea of an actual revision of the text ; but this is inapplicable to the greater part of Griesbach's own system. If, however, it be remembered that recension simply denotes a cer tain class of critical testimonies characterized by distinctive peculiarities, it matters little what designation be employed ; though family is less likely to originate misconception.
1. Griesbach's System. In Griesbach's sys tem there are three recensions : 1. The Occi dental ; 2. The Alexandrine, or Oriental ; 3. The Constantinopolitan, or Byzantine. The first two are the most ancient, and are assigned by him to the time in which the two collections were made. The Oriental selected readings most conformable to pure Greek, and made slight alterations in the text where the language did not appear to be classical.
(1) The Occidental Recension. The Occi dental, based on the most ancient MSS., viz.,
such as were made before the epistles had been collected together, preserved with greater care than the Oriental the Hebraisms of the New Tes tament, but made explanatory additions, and fre quently preferred a more perspicuous and easy reading to another less facile. The Constantino politan arose from the intermingling of the other two. A senior and a junior Constantinopolitan are distinguished. The former belongs to the fourth century, and is marked, to a still greater extent than the Alexandrine, by its rejection of readings that seemed less classical, as well as by its reception of glosses ; the latter originated in the fifth and sixth centuries, in consequence of the labors of the learned men belonging to the Syrian church. According to this system, the leading characteristic of the Occidental recension is its that of the Oriental its gram matical tendency ; while the Constantinopolitan bears a glossarial aspect.
The Occidental recension is exhibited by eight Greek MSS. of the Gospels, D. E. F. G. of the Pauline epistles, the Latin versions made be fore Jerome, the Sahidic and Jerusalem-Syriac versions, and by the quotations of Tertullian, of Irennus as translated into Latin, of Cyprian, Am brose, and Augustine.
(2) The Alexandrine Recension is found in the documents B, C. L in the Gospels, with three others, in A. B. C in the epistles, with three codices besides ; in the Memphitic, Harcican or Philoxenian, Ethiopic and Armenian versions, and in the writings of the fathers belonging to the Alexandrian school, especially those of Clem ent, Origen, Euscbius, Athanasius, Cyril of Alex andria, and Isidore of Pelusium.
(3) The Constantinopolitan Recension. The senior Constantinopolitan is found in A, E. F, G, H, S of the Gospels. and in the Moscow codices of Paul's epistles, in the Gothic and Sclavonic versions. in the quotations of the fathers that lived during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries in Greece, Asia Minor, and the neighboring coun tries; while the junior Constantinopolitan is ex hibited by the greater number of those MSS. which were written since the seventh century.