284 Proceedings of the Roj/al Irish Academy. 



Tlius the reading of appears to be that from which those of a and PQ 

 sprang ; while Bede, exchanging j3 for another manuscript, copied the older, 

 if not original, reading which was corrupted into that of the printed text 

 of B. 



Ps. xxxviii : profeta iTicrepat eos qui diuitias habent. &c. 



Thus apparently C should be read (see note ad loc.) : and if so, it agrees 

 with /3 against a {ivAeos for eos), 



Pss. xli, xlii. ante baptismum nox chriiti est [. . .j (xlii) ad eos c[ui fidem 

 smit coiisaecuti. 



a differs fi-om C in two points : it omits the (erased ?) letters following est, 

 and it reads consaecuti sunt. It is plain that while a might have been derived 

 from G, C was probably not derived from a. On the other hand, B agrees 

 with C against a, as to the order of the words in Ps. xlii, and differs from 

 both in adding a christo uo.r ecclesiae. Here it depends on /S, though in Ps. xli 

 it drew from another source.' The most obWous explanation of these facts 

 would be that C was derived from j3 and a from C. But this explanation is 

 not altogether satisfactory. There is no evident propriety in describing 

 Ps. xli as vox christi, andPs. xUi as iiox ecclesiae (B) : they are exactly similar 

 in tone, and are, in fact, parts of a single psalm, arbitrarily divided into two. 

 We may suspect that in j3 Ps. xlii, as Ps. xli in a and Bede's second source, 

 was headed uox christi. This may later on, as has e\idently happened else- 

 where, have been altered to ttox ecclesiae. Then a marginal correction,' 

 christi, would readily give rise to a christo uox ecclesiae. Thus B may originally 

 have differed from a only in the addition iiox christi. It seems far from 

 improbable that these two closely related psalms had originally but one title, 

 the first part of which was afterwards assigned to Ps. xli, and the second part 

 to Ps. xlii. We seem to see the scribe of G in the act of making the division. 

 He writes the words ad cos above Ps. xli, finds he has no room for the rest, 

 erases those two words, and puts ad eos, &c., over Ps. xlii. Bede, finding this 

 liturgical note in /3, and aware of the connexion between the tw'o psalms, 

 adds to it nox christi from Ps. xli. So /3 may have come from G, a from /3, 

 and B from /3. 



Ps. xliii. ex homolegessem legendus ad epistolam pauli ad rornanus profeta 

 ad domiinim de operibus eius jiacnitentiam (jerens propopulo iv.daico. 



a agrees exactly with C, except in spelling. Bede seems to have derived 

 the liturgical note from |3, taking the heading (uox aposioloricm ?), which he 



' Above, p. 278. 



^ That a christo is a later addition is made probable by the difference of its position in 

 the authorities. 2 has it before, the rest after, sunt consecuti. 



