48, some one (plausibly enough,) suggested [Greek: epouranios]: and this gloss so effectually recommended itself to Western Christendom, that having been adopted by Ambrose[555], by Jerome[556] (and later by Augustine[557],) it established itself in the Vulgate[558], and is found in all the later Latin writers[559].

Thus then, _a third_ rival reading enters the field,--which because it has well-nigh disappeared from Greek MSS., no longer finds an advocate.

Our choice lies therefore between the two former:--viz.

(a) the received, which is the only well-attested reading of the place: and (b) the maimed text of the Old Latin, which Jerome deliberately rejected (A.D.

380), and for which he substituted another even worse attested reading.