Note 237 — Chapter XV · THE ROMANS

The reading of the last phrase in the mss. is quod servata, which is scarcely consistent with the rest of the passage. Bernays, Rh. Mus. 1857, p. 464 seq., conjectured that it was a Jewish or Christian marginal gloss which found its way into the text, a supposition by no means to be dismissed as cavalierly as Reinach does (Textes, p. 241, n. 1). A Christian scribe might easily have been moved by the taunt quam dis cara, to retort with the triumphant quod servata! It will be remembered that the Christians accepted as part of their own all the history and literature of the Jews till the birth of Christ, and resented as attacks upon themselves any slur against the Jews of pre-Christian times. Cf. the very interesting passage in Lactantius, Div. inst. iv. 2.