This volume is the sequel to Chase’s book The Old Syriac Element in the text of Codex Bezae (1893, also reprinted by Gorgias Press). Codex Bezae is the primary manuscript of the so-called "Western" text of the Greek New Testament. Chase suggests in this book that the term "Western" text should be replaced by "Syro-Latin" text. While his earlier book is confined to passages drawn from the Book of Acts, the present volume relies on passages from the Gospels. One of Chase's conclusions is that "the Bezan scribe was a Syriac-speaking Christian who, in transcribing a Greek copy of the Gospels, in many passages assimilated the Greek text to a Syriac idiom with which he was familiar."

Frederic Henry Chase (1853-1925) was Lecturer in Theology at Pembroke, a Fellow of King’s College London, and Norissian Professor of Divinity at Queen’s College Cambridge. He was also consecrated as the Bishop of Ely.