47.
(I) It furnished a pretext to those heretics who maintained that Christ was 'Man' _before_ He came into the World.

This heresy came to a head in the persons of Apolinarius[538] and Photinus; in contending with whom, Greg.

Naz.[539] and Epiphanius[540] are observed to argue with disadvantage from the mutilated text.

Tertullian[541], and Cyprian[542] after him, knew no other reading but 'secundus homo de Caelo,'-- which is in fact the way this place stands in the Old Latin.

And thus, from the second century downwards, two readings (for the Marcionite text was speedily forgotten) became current in the Church:--( 1) The inspired language of the Apostle, cited at the outset,--which is retained by all the known copies, _except nine_; and is vouched for by Basil[543], Chrysostom[544], Theodotus[545], Eutherius[546], Theodorus Mops.[547], Damascene[548], Petrus Siculus[549], and Theophylact[550]: and (2) The corrected (i.e.the maimed) text of the orthodox;--[Greek: ho deuteros; anthropos ex ouranou]: with which, besides the two Gregories[551], Photinus[552] and Apolinarius the heretics were acquainted; but which at this day is only known to survive in [Symbol: Aleph]*BCD*EFG and two cursive copies.