Manuscripts of the Bible

Manuscripts are written, as opposed to printed, copies of the original text or of a

version either of the whole Bible or of a part thereof. After introductory remarks on

manuscripts in general, we shall take up in detail the Hebrew, Greek, Latin,

Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic manuscripts of the Bible; manuscripts of other

versions are not important enough to come within the scope of this article.

I. IN GENERAL

Manuscripts may be conveniently divided into papyrus and vellum manuscripts.

(1) Papyrus manuscripts

In the Roman Empire of the first three centuries of our era, papyrus was the

ordinary writing material. Made out of strips of pith taken from the stem of the

Egyptian water-plant of the same name, papyrus was very fragile, became brittle

in air, crumbled with use, could not resist the disintegrating force of moisture and

was quite impracticable for book-form. All papyrus manuscripts of every sort are

lost to us save such as were buried in exceedingly dry soil, like that of Upper and

Middle Egypt. Here the ignorant fellaheen at one time wantonly destroyed vast

quantities of papyrus manuscripts. Egyptian excavators now prevent such

destruction and keep on adding to our very considerable collections of papyri. It

is more than likely that the New Testament sacred writers or their scribes used

ink and rolls of fragile papyrus for their autographa (II Cor., iii, 3; II John, 12).

These original manuscripts probably perished towards the end of the first or the

opening of the second century. We find no trace of them in either the Apostolic

or the apologetic Fathers, -- unless we except Tertullian's words, "the authentic

letters of the Apostles themselves", which are now generally set aside as

rhetorical. A significant proof of the early loss of the autograph copies of the New

Testament is the fact that Irenæus never appeals to the original writings but only

to all the painstaking and ancient copies (en pasi tois spoudaiois kai archaiois

antigraphois), to the witness of those that saw John face to face (kai

martyrounton auton ekeinon ton katopsin ton Ioannen heorakoton), and to the

internal evidence of the written word (kai tou logou didaskontos hemas).

(2) Vellum manuscripts

Egypt clung to her papyrus rolls until the eighth century and even later. Vellum

had been used before the time of Christ (cf. Pliny, "Historia Naturalis", xiii, 11),

and during the time of the Apostles (II Tim., iv, 13). In the third century, it began,

outside of Egypt, to supersede papyrus; in the early part of the fourth century

vellum and the codex, or book-form, gained complete victory over papyrus and

the roll-form. When Constantine founded his capital of the Byzantine Empire, he

ordered Eusebius to have fifty manuscripts of the Bible made on vellum (somatia

en diphtherais) for use in the churches of Byzantium (Vita Constant., IV, 36). To

the fourth century belong the earliest extant Biblical manuscripts of anything but

fragmentary size.

(3) Palimpsests

Some vellum manuscripts of the greatest importance are palimpsests (from Lat.

palimpsestum, Gr. palimpsestos, "scraped again"), -- that is, they were long ago

scraped a second time with pumice-stone and written upon anew. The discovery

of palimpsests led to the reckless of bigoted charge of wholesale destruction of

Biblical manuscripts by the monks of old. That there was some such destruction

is clear enough from the decree of a Greek synod of A.D. 691, which forbade the

use of palimpsest manuscripts either of the Bible or of the Fathers, unless they

were utterly unserviceable (see Wattenbach, "Das Schriftwessen im Mittelalter",

1896, p. 299). That such destruction was not wholesale, but had to do with only

worn or damaged manuscripts, is in like manner clear enough from the significant

fact that as yet no complete work of any kind has been found on a palimpsest.

The deciphering of a palimpsest may at times be accomplished merely by

soaking it in clear water; generally speaking, some chemical reagent is required,

in order to bring back the original writing. Such chemical reagents are an infusion

of nutgalls, Gioberti's tincture and hydrosulphuret of ammonia; all do harm to the

manuscript. Wattenbach, a leading authority on the subject, says: "More

precious manuscripts, in proportion to the existing supply, have been destroyed

by the learned experimenters of our time than by the much abused monks of

old."

II. HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS

(1) Age

(a) Pre-Massoretic text

The earliest Hebrew manuscript is the Nash papyrus. There are four fragments,

which, when pieced together, give twenty-four lines of a pre-Massoretic text of

the Ten Commandments and the shema (Ex., xx, 2-17; Deut., v, 6-19; vi, 4-5).

The writing is without vowels and seems palæographically to be not later than the

second century. This is the oldest extant Bible manuscript (see Cook, "A

Pre-Massoretic Biblical Papyrus" in "Proceed. of the Soc. of Bib. Arch.", Jan.,

1903). It agrees at times with the Septuagint against the Massorah. Another pre-

Massoretic text is the Samaritan Pentateuch. The Samaritan recension is

probably pre-exilic; it has come down to us free from Massoretic influences, is

written without vowels and in Samaritan characters. The earliest Samaritan

manuscript extant is that of Nablûs, which was formerly rated very much earlier

than all Massoretic manuscripts, but is now assigned to the twelfth or thirteenth

century A.D. Here mention should be made of the non-Massoretic Hebrew

manuscripts of the Book of Ecclesiasticus (q.v.). These fragments, obtained from

a Cairo genizah (a box for wornout or cast-off manuscripts), belong to the tenth or

eleventh century of our ear. They provide us with more than a half of

Ecclesiasticus and duplicate certain portions of the book. Many scholars deem

that the Cairo fragments prove Hebrew to have been the original language of

Ecclesiasticus (see "Facsimiles of the Fragments hitherto recovered of the Book

of Ecclesiasticus in Hebrew", Oxford and Cambridge, 1901).

(b) Massoretic text

All other Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible are Massoretic (see MASSORAH),

and belong to the tenth century or later. Some of these manuscripts are dated

earlier. Text-critics consider these dates to be due either to intentional fraud or to

uncritical transcription of dates of older manuscripts. For instance, a codex of the

Former and Latter Prophets, how in the Karaite synagogue of Cairo, is dated

A.D. 895; Neubauer assigns it to the eleventh or thirteenth century. The

Cambridge manuscript no. 12, dated A.D. 856, he marks as a thirteenth-century

work; the date A.D. 489, attached to the St. Petersburg Pentateuch, he rejects

as utterly impossible (see Studia Biblica, III, 22). Probably the earliest

Massoretic manuscripts are: "Prophetarium Posteriorum Codex Bablyonicus

Petropolitanus", dated A.D. 916; the St. Petersburg Bible, written by Samuel ben

Jacob and dated A.D. 1009; and "Codex Oriental. 4445" in the British Museum,

which Ginsburg (Introduction, p. 469) assigns to A.D. 820-50. The text critics

differ very widely in the dates they assign to certain Hebrew manuscripts. De

Rossi is included to think that at most nine or ten Massoretic manuscripts are

earlier than the twelfth century (Variæ Lectiones, I, p. xv).

(2) Number

Kennicott, the first critical student of the Massoretic text, either examined or had

others examine 16 Samaritan manuscripts, some 40 printed texts and 638

Massoretic manuscripts (see "Dissertatio Generalis in Vetus Testam.

Hebraicum", Oxford, 1780). He numbered these manuscripts in six groups: nos.

1-88, Oxford manuscripts; nos. 89-144, other manuscripts of English-speaking

countries; nos. 145-254, manuscripts of continental Europe; nos. 255-300,

printed texts and various manuscripts; nos. 301-694, manuscripts collated by

Brunsius. De Rossi (Variæ Lectiones Vet. Test.) retained the numeration of

Kennicott and added a list of 479 manuscripts, all his own personal property, of

which unfortunately 17 had already received numbers from Kennicott. De Rossi

later added four supplementary lists of 110, 52, 37, and 76 manuscripts. He

brought the number of Massoretic manuscripts up to 1375. No one has since

undertaken so colossal a critical study of the Hebrew manuscripts. A few of the

chief manuscripts are more exactly collated and compared in the critical editions

of the Massoretic text which were done by S. Baer and Fr. Delitzsch and by

Ginsburg. To the vast number of Hebrew manuscripts examined by Kennicott and

De Rossi must be added some 2000 manuscripts of the Imperial Library of St.

Petersburg, which Firkowitsch collated at Tschufut-Kale ("Jews' Rock") in the

Crimea (see Strack, "Die biblischen und massoretischen Handschriften zü

Tschufut-Kale" in "Zeits. für luth. Theol. und Kirche", 1875).

(3) Worth

The critical study of this rich assortment of about 3400 Massoretic rolls and

codices is not so promising of important results as it would at first thought seem

to be. The manuscripts are all of quite recent date, if compared with Greek, Latin,

and Syriac codices. They are all singularly alike. Some few variants are found in

copies made for private use; copies made for public service in the synagogues

are so uniform as to deter the critic from comparing them. All Massoretic

manuscripts bring us back to one editor -- that of a textual tradition which

probably began in the second century and became more and more minute until

every jot and tittle of the text was almost absolutely fixed and sacred. R. Aqiba

seems to have been the head of this Jewish school of the second century.

Unprecedented means were taken to keep the text fixed. The scholars counted

the words and consonants of each book, the middle word and middle

consonants, the peculiarities of script, etc. Even when such peculiarities were

clearly due to error or to accident, they were perpetuated and interpreted by a

mystical meaning. Broken and inverted letters, consonants that were too small or

too large, dots which were out of place -- all these oddities were handed down as

God-intended. In Gen., ii, 4, bebram ("when they were created"), all manuscripts

have a small Hê. Jewish scholars looked upon this peculiarity as inspired; they

interpreted it: "In the letter Hê he created them"; and then set themselves to find

out what that meant.This lack of variants in Massoretic manuscripts leaves us

hopeless of reaching back to the original Hebrew text save through the versions.

Kittel in his splendid Hebrew text gives such variants as the versions suggest.

III. GREEK MANUSCRIPTS

(1) In General

Greek manuscripts are divided into two classes according to their style of writing

-- uncials and minuscules.

(a) Uncials were written between the fourth and tenth centuries, with large and

disconnected letters. These letters were not capitals but had a distinctive form:

epsilon, sigma, and omega were not written EPSILON, SIGMA, OMEGA, as are

those capitals in inscriptions; rho, phi, psi, and at times upsilon were prolonged

above or below the line. Words were not separated; neither accents nor

punctuation marks were used; paragraphs were marked off only by a very small

lacuna; the letters were uniform and artistic; ligatures were used only for the

most ordinary words -- IC (Iesous), KC (Kyrios), XC (Christos), ICL

(Israel), PNA (pneuma), DLD (David), ANOC (anthropos), PER (pater),

MER (mater), OUC (pater), CER (soter), OUNOC (ouranos). In the sixth

century, began a decadence of the elegant uncial writing. Twists and turns

were given to certain letters. In the seventh century, more letters received

flourishes; accents and breathings were introduced; the writing leaned to the

right.

(b) Minuscules

While uncials held sway in Biblical manuscripts, minuscules were employed in

other works. During the ninth century, both uncial and minuscule manuscripts

of the Bible were written. The latter show a form of writing so fully developed

as to leave no doubt about its long standing use. The letters are small,

connected, and written with a running hand. After the tenth century,

minuscules were used until, in the fifteenth century, manuscripts were

superceded by print.

(2) Old Testament manuscripts

(a) Septuagint (LXX)

There are three families of Septuagint manuscripts -- the Hexaplaric,

Hesychian, and Lucianic. Manuscripts of Origen's Hexapla (q.v.) and

Tetrapla were preserved at Cæsarea by his disciple Pamphilus. Some extant

manuscripts (v.g. aleph and Q) refer in scholia to these gigantic works of

Origen. In the fourth century, Pamphilus and his disciple Eusebius of Cæsarea

reproduced the fifth column of the Hexapla, i.e. Origen's Hexaplaric

Septuagint text, with all his critical signs. This copy is the source of the

Hexaplaric family of Septuagint manuscripts. In course of time, scribes

omitted the critical signs in part or entirely. Passages wanting in the

Septuagint, but present in the Hebrew, and consequently supplied by Origen

from either Aquila or Tehodotion, were hopelessly commingled with passages

of the then extant Septuagint. Almost at the same time two other editions of

the Septuagint were published -- those of Hesychius at Alexandria and of

Lucian at Antioch. From these three editions the extant manuscripts of the

Septuagint have descended, but by ways that have not yet been accurately

traced. Very few manuscripts can be assigned with more than probability to

one of the three families. The Hexaplaric, Hesychian, and Lucianic

manuscripts acted one upon the other. Most extant manuscripts of the

Septuagint contain, as a result, readings of each and of none of the great

families. The tracing of the influence of these three great manuscripts is a work

yet to be done by the text-critics.

Papyrus. -- About sixteen fragments on papyrus are extant. Of these,

the most important are:

Oxyrhyncus Pap. 656 (early third cent.), containing parts of

Gen., xiv-xxvii, wherein most of the great vellum manuscripts are

wanting.

British Museum Pap. 37, at times called U (seventh cent.),

containing part of Psalms (Hebrew) x-xxxiii.

A Leipzig Pap. (fourth cent.) containing Psalms xxix-liv. These

two Psalters give us the text of Upper Egypt.

A Heidelberg Pap. (seventh cent.) containing Azch., iv, 6-Mal.,

iv, 5.

A Berlin Pap. (fourth or fifth cent.) containing about thirty

chapters of Genesis.

Vellum Uncial. -- Parsons collated 13 uncial and 298 minuscule

manuscripts of the Septuagint; the former he designated with Roman

numerals, I-XIII, the latter with Arabic numbers, 14-311 (cf., "V.T.

Græcum cum Variis Lectionibus", Oxford, 1798). Legarde designated

the uncials by Roman and Greek capitals. This designation is now

generally accepted (cf. Swete, "Introduction to the Old Testament in

Greek", Cambridge, 1902, 148).

aleph -- S, Cod. Sinaiticus (q.v.) (fourth century; 43 leaves at

Leipzig, 156 together with N.T. at St. Petersburg) contains

fragments of Gen. and Num.; I Par., ix, 27-xix, 17; Esd. ix,

9-end; Esth.; Tob.; Judith; I and IV Mach.; Isa.; Jer.; Lam., i,

1-ii, 20; Joel; Ab.-Mal.; the Poetical Books; the entire New

Testament; the Epistle of Barnabas and part of the "Shepherd"

of Hermas. The text is mixed. In Tobias it differs much from A

and B. Its origin is doubtful. Two correctors (Ca and Cb) are of

the seventh century. Ca tells us at the end of Esth. that he

compared this manuscript with a very early copy, which

Pamphilus testified had been taken from and corrected

according to the Hexapla or Origen.

A, or Cod. Alexandrinus (fifth century; in British Museum)

contains complete Bible (excepting Ps. 1-20-lxxx, 11, and

smaller lacunæ) and includes deuterocanonical books and

fragments, the apocryphal III and IV Mach., also I and II Clem.

Its origin is Egyptian and may be Hesychian. It differs much from

B, especially in Judges. Two scribes wrote the manuscript. The

corrector belonged to about the same time.

B, or Cod. Vaticanus (q.v.) (fourth century; in the Vatican)

contains complete Bible. The Old Testament lacks Gen., i,

1-xivi, 28; I and II Mach.; portions of II Kings, ii; and Psalms,

cv- cxxxvii. The New Testament wants Heb., ix, 14; I and II

Tim.; Titus.; Apoc. Its origin is Lower Egyptian. Hort thinks it

akin to the text used by Origen in his Hexapla.

C, or Cod. Ephræmi Rescriptus (q.v.) (fifth century palimpsest,

in National Library, Paris) contains 64 leaves of Old Testament;

most of Eccl.; parts of Ecclus.; Wisd.; Prov. and Cant.; 145 out

of 238 leaves of New Testament.

D, or The Cotton Genesis (fifth century; in British Museum)

contains fragments of Gen.; was almost destroyed by fire in

1731, but had been previously studies.

E, or Cod. Bodleianus (ninth or tenth century; in Bodl. Libr.,

Oxford) contains Heptateuch, fragments.

F, or Cod. Ambrosianus (fifth century; at Milan) contains

Heptateuch, fragments.

G, or Cod. Sarravianus (fifth century; 130 leaves at Leyden;

22 in Paris, one in St. Petersburg) contains the Hexaplaric

Octateuch (fragments) with some of the asterisks and obeli of

Origen.

H, or Cod. Petropolitanus (sixth century; in Imperial Libr., St.

Petersburg) contains portions of Numbers.

I, or Cod. Bodleianus (ninth century; in Bodl. Libr., Oxford)

contains the Psalms.

K, or Cod. Lipsiensis (seventh century; in Univ. of Leipzig)

contains fragments of Heptateuch.

L, or The Vienna Genesis (sixth century; in Imperial Libr.,

Vienna) contains incomplete Genesis, written with silver letters

on purple vellum.

M, or Cod. Coislinianus (seventh century; in National Library,

Paris) contains Heptateuch and Kings.

N-V, or Cod. Basiliano-Venetus (eighth or ninth century; partly

in Venice and partly in Vatican) contains complete Gen., Ex.,

and part of Lev., and was used with B in the critical edition of

the Septuagint (Rome, 1587).

O, or Cod. Dublinensis (sixth century; in Trinity College,

Dublin) contains fragments of Isaias.

Q, or Cod. Marchalianus (sixth century, in Vatican) contains

Prophets, complete; is very important, and originated in Egypt.

The text is probably Hesychian. In the margins are many

readings from the Hexapla; it also gives many Hexaplaric signs.

R, or Cod. Veronensis (sixth century; at Verona) contains Gr.

and Lat. Psalter and Canticles.

T, or Cod. Zuricensis, the Zürich Psalter (seventh century)

shows, with R, the Western text; silver letters, gold initials, on

purple vellum.

W, or Cod. Parisiensis (ninth century; in National Library,

Paris) contains fragments of Psalms.

X, or Cod. Vaticanus (ninth century; in Vatican) contains the

Book of Job.

Y, or Cod. Tauriensis (ninth century; in National Library, Turin)

contains Lesser Prophets.

Z, or Cod. Tischendorf (ninth century) contains fragments of

Kings; published by Tischendorf.

Gamma, or Cod. Cryptoferrantensis (eighth or ninth century;

at Grottaferrata) contains fragments of Prophets.

Delta, or Cod. Bodleianus (fourth or fifth century; Oxford, in

Bodl. Libr.) contains a fragment of Daniel.

Theta, or Cod. Washington (fifth or sixth century, to be in

Smithsonian Institution), contains Deut.-Jos., found in Egypt, one

of the Freer manuscripts. There are likewise seven uncial

Psalters (two complete) of the ninth or tenth century and

eighteen rather unimportant fragments listed by Swete (op. cit.,

p. 140).

Vellum Minuscule More than 300 are known but unclassified. The

Cambridge Septuagint purposes to collate the chief of these minuscules

and to group them with a view to discriminating the various recensions

of the Septagint. More than half of these manuscripts are Psalters and

few of them give the entire Old Testament. In editing his Alcalá

Polyglot, Cardinal Ximenes used minuscules 108 and 248 of the

Vatican.

(b) Aquila

(See VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE). Manuscript traces of the text of Aquila

are found in

fragments of Origen's third columns, written as marginal notes to some

manuscripts, such as Q;

the Milan palimpsest of the Hexapla, a most important tenth century

copy found by Mercati in 1896. It contains about eleven Psalms, has

no Hebrew column, and uses the space thereof for variant readings;

the Cambridge fragment, seventh century, discovered in a Cairo

genizah. It contains parts of Ps. xxi (see Taylor, "Cairo Genizah

Palimpsests", 1900). The name Jahweh is written in old Hebrew

letters.

The Cairo fragments of the fourth and fifth centuries; three palimpsests

(containing III Kings, xx, 7-17; IV Kings, xxiii, 11-27) published by

Burkitt in 1897; and four portions of the Psalms (lxxxix, 17-xci, 10;

xcv, 7- xcvi, 12; xcviii, 3; ci, 16-cii, 13) published by Taylor (op. cit.).

The fourth-century papyrus fragments of Gen., i, 1-5, published, 1900,

by Grenfell and Hunt.

(c) Theodotion

(See VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE). The Book of Daniel of Theodotion is

found in the Septagint manuscripts previously mentioned. The Milan

palimpsest contains his text in part.

(d) Symmachus

(See VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE). Manuscript sources are the Milan

palimpsest, Cambridge fragment, and Hexaplaric marginal notes, all of which

are manuscript sources of Aquila.

(3) New Testament manuscripts

(a) In General

There are, according to the latest authority on this subject, von Soden ("Die

Schriften des N.T. in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt", Berlin, 1902),

2328 New Testament manuscripts extant. Only about 40 contain, either entire

or in part, all the books of the New Testament. There are 1716 manuscript

copies of the Gospels, 531 of the Act, 628 of the Pauline Epistles, 219 of the

Apocalypse. The commonly received numeration of the New Testament

manuscripts is that of Wettstein; uncials are designated by Roman and Greek

capital, minuscules by Arabic numbers. These manuscripts are divided into the

above-mentioned four groups -- Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse.

In the case of uncials, an exponent is used to designate the group referred to.

D or Dev is Cod. Bezæ, a manuscript of the Gospels; D3 or Dpaul is Cod.

Claromontanus, a manuscript of the Pauline Epistles; E2 or Eact is Cod.

Laudianus, a manuscript of the Acts. The nomenclature is less clear for

minuscules. Each group has a different set of numbers. If a minuscule be a

complete manuscript of the New Testament, it is designated by four different

numbers. One and the same manuscript at Leicester is Evan. 69, Act. 31,

Paul. 37, Apoc. 14. Wettestein's lists of New-Testament manuscripts were

supplemented by Birch and Schols; later on Scrivener and Gregory continued

the lists, each with his own nomenclature. Von Soden has introduced a new

numeration, so as to indicate the contents and date of the manuscripts. If the

content be more than the Gospels, it is marked delta (that is, diatheke,

"testament"); if only the Gospels, eta (i.e., euaggelion, "gospel"); if aught else

save the Gospels, alpha (that is, apostolos). B is delta-1; aleph is delta-2;

Q is epsilon-4, etc. No distinction is made between uncials and minuscules.

Scholars admit the logic and scientific worth of this new numeration, but find it

too unwieldy and impracticable.

(b) Payrus

In the Archduke Rainer collection, Vienna, are several very fragmentary bits

of New Testament Greek phrases, which Wessely, the curator of that

collection, assigns to the second century. The Grenfell and Hunt excavations

in Oxyrhyncus brought to light various fragments of the New Testament which

Kenyon, the assistant keeper of the manuscripts of the British Museum,

assigns to the latter part of the third century. Only one papyrus manuscript of

the New Testament is important to the text-critic -- Oxyrhyncus Pap. 657,

third-fourth century; it preserves to us about a third of the Epistle to the

Hebrews, and epistle in which Codex B is defective.

(c) Vellum Uncials

There are about 160 vellum uncials of the New Testament; some 110 contain

the Gospels or a part thereof. The chiefest of these uncials are the four great

codices of the entire Greek Bible, aleph, A, B, C, for which, see above. The

Vatican (B) is the oldest and probably the best New Testament manuscript.

D. or Cod. Bezæ (q.v.) (fifth or sixth century; in University Library,

Cambridge) contains Gospels and Acts in Gr. and Lat., excepting

Acts, xxii, 29 to the end; it is a unique specimen of a Greek manuscript

whose text is Western, i.e. that the Old Latin and Old Syriac.

D3 or Cod. Claromonianus (probably sixth century; in Nat. Libr.,

Paris) contains Pauline Epistles in Gr. and Lat., each text independent

of the other. Before Hebrews is a list of the books of the New

Testament and the number of lines (stichoi) in each; this list omits

Thess., Heb., and Phil., includes four apocryphal books, and follows

an unusual order: Matt., John, Mark, Luke, Rom., I and II Cor., Gal.,

Eph., I and II Tim., Titus, Col., Philem., I and II Pet., James, I, II and

III John, Jude, Barnabas, Apoc., Acts, Hermas, Acts of Paul, Apoc.

of Peter.

E, or Cod. Basileensis (eighth century; in Univ. Libr., Basle) contains

the Gospels.

E2, or Cod. Laudianus (sixth century; Oxford, in Bodl. Library)

contains Acts in Gr. and Lat. The former is somewhat like D.

E3, or Cod. Sangermanensis (ninth century; in Imper. Libr., St.

Petersburg) contains Pauline Epistles in Gr. and Lat.; of same family as

D3.

F, or Cod. Boreeli (ninth century; at Utrecht), contains Gospels.

F3, or Cod. Augiensis (ninth century; in Trinity College, Cambridge),

contains Pauline Epp. in Gr. and Lat.; of the same family as D3, E3,

and G3.

G, or Cod. Wolfii A (ninth or tenth century; at Cambridge, and

London), contains the Gospels.

G3, or Cod. Boernerianus (ninth century; at Dresden), contains Paul

Epp. in Gr. and Lat.; text of D3 type.

H, or Cod. Wolfii B (ninth or tenth century; at Dresden), contains Paul

Epp. in Gr. and Lat.; text of D3 type.

H2, or Cod. Mutinensis (ninth century; at Modena), contains Acts.

H3, or Cod. Coislinianus (sixth century; originally at Mt. Athos where

8 leaves remain. Other parts were used for binding manuscripts; 22

leaves thus reached Paris; 3 which were discovered at St. Petersburg,

Moscow and Kieff; 1 in Turin). This manuscript gives us, in great part,

a fourth-century text of Euthalius of Sulca.

K, or Cod. Cyprius (ninth century; in Nat. Libr., Paris), contains the

Gospels.

K2, or Cod. Mosquensis (ninth century; in Holy Synod Library,

Moscow), contains Acts, Cath., and Paul. Epp.

L, or Cod. Regius (eighth century; in Nat. Libr., Paris), contains

Gospels.

L2, or Cod. Angelicus (ninth century; in Rome), contains Acts, Cath.,

and Paul. Epp.

M, or Cod. Campianus (ninth century; in Nat. Libr., Paris), contains

Gospels.

M3, or Cod. Campianus (ninth century; in Nat. Libr., Paris), contains

Gospels.

N, or Cod. Purpureus, called also Petropolitanus (sixth century),

contains Gospels in silver on purple vellum. About half the manuscript

is extant: 182 leaves (found in Asia Minor, 1896) are in St. Petersburg,

33 at Patmos, 6 in the Vatican, 4 in British Museum, and 2 in Vienna.

P, or Cod. Guelferbytanus A (sixth century; Wolfenbüttel), contains

Gosp. fragments.

P2, or Cod. Porphyrianus (ninth century; in St. Petersburg), contains

Acts, Cath. and Paul. Epp.

Q, or Cod. Guelferbytanus B (fifth century; Wolfenbüttel), contains

Gosp. fragments.

R, or Cod. Nitriensis (sixth century; in British Museum, London), a

palimpsest copy of Luke.

T, or Cod. Borgianus (fifth century; in Vatican), Gr. and Sahidic

fragments. One has the double-ending of Mark; another has 17 leaves

of Luke and John, and a text akin to B and alpha

Z, or Cod. Dublinensis (sixth century; in Trinity Col., Dublin), a

palimpsest containing 295 verses of Matt.; text probably Egyptian, akin

to aleph

Delta, or Cod. Sangallensis (ninth or tenth century; at Saint-Gall),

contains Gospels in Gr. and Lat.

Lambda, or Cod. Rossanensis (sixth century; at Rossano, in

Calabria), contains Matt. and Mark, in silver letters on purple vellum

with illustrations. N, Sigma, Sigma-b, and Phi are all akin and were

probably produced at Constantinople from a single ancestor.

Sigma-b, or Cod. Sinopensis (sixth century; in Nat. Libr., Paris),

consists of 43 leaves (Matt., vii-xxiv), in gold letters on purple vellum

with 5 illustrations; it was bought by a French naval officer for a few

francs, at Sinope, in 1899, and is called also Omicron and Hê.

Phi, or Cod. Beratinus (sixth century; at Berat in Albania), contains

Matt. and Mark.

Beth, or Cod. Patirensis (fifth century; in the Vatican), contains Act.,

Cath. and Paul. Epp.

The American manuscript of the Gospels (fifth century), found in

Egypt, 1907, has not yet been published; nor have the fragments of the

Pauline Epistles (sixth century) which were found at the same time.

(d) Vellum minuscules

The vast numbers of minuscule witnesses to the text of the New Testament

would seem to indicate a rich field of investigation for the text-critic. The field

is not so rich at all. Many of these minuscules have never been fully studies.

Ninety-five per cent. of them are witnesses to the same type of text; that of

the textus receptus. Only those minuscules interest the text-critic which are

distinctive of or akin to one of the great uncials. Among the Gospel

minuscules, according to Gregory's numeration, the type of B-aleph is seen

more or less in 33; 1, 118, 131, 209; 59, 157, 431, 496, 892. The type of D

is that of 235, 431, 473, 700, 1071; and of the "Ferrar group", 13, 69, 124,

346, 348, 543, 713, 788, 826, 828. Among the Acts minuscules, 31 and 61

show some kinship to B; 137, 180, 216, 224 to D. 15, 40, 83, 205, 317,

328, 329, 393 are grouped and traced to the fourth century text of Euthalius

of Sulica. Among the Pauline minuscules, this same text (i.e. that of H3) is

found in 81, 83, 93, 379, 381.

(e) Lectionaries

There are some 1100 manuscripts of readings from the Gospels (Evangelia

or Evangeliaria) and 300 manuscripts of readings from Acts and Epistles

(Praxapostoli). Although more than 100 of these lectionaries are uncials,

they are of the ninth century or later. Very few of these books of the Epistles

and Gospels have been critically examined. Such examination may later on

serve to group the New Testament minuscules better and help to localize

them.

IV. LATIN MANUSCRIPTS

Biblical manuscripts are far more uniform in Greek than in Latin script.

Palæography divides the Greek into uncials and minuscules; the Latin into

uncials, semi-uncials, capitals, minuscules and cursives. Even these divisions

have subdivisions. The time, place and even monastery of a Latin manuscript

may be traced by the very distinct script of its text.

(1) Old Latin

Some 40 manuscripts have preserved to us a text which antedates the

translation of St. Jerome; they are designated by small letters. Unfortunately

no two of these manuscripts represent to us quite the same text. Corrections

introduced by scribes and the inevitable influence of the Vulgate have left it a

very difficult matter to group the Old Latin manuscripts. Text-critics now

agree upon an African, a European and an Italian type of text. The African

text is that mentioned by Tertullian (c. 150-220) and used by St. Cyprian (c.

200-258); it is the earliest and crudest in style. The European text is less

crude in style and vocabulary, and may be an entirely new translation. The

Italian text is a version of the European and was revised by St. Jerome in

parts of the Vulgate. The most important Old Latin manuscripts are the

bilingual New Testament manuscripts D, D3, E2, E3, F3, G3, Delta.

a, or Cod. Vercellensis (fourth century; at Vercelli), containing the

Gospels.

b, or Cod. Veronensis (fifth century; at Verona), containing Gospels

on purple vellum. a and b are our chief witnesses to the European text

of the Gospels.

e, or Cod. Palatinus (fifth century; at Vienna, -- one leaf is in Dublin),

contains the Gosp. For Acts, e is Lat. of E2; for Paul. Epp., e is Lat. of

E3.

f, or Cod. Brixianus (sixth century; at Brescia), contains Gosp. on

purple vellum; Italian type, thought by Wordsworth and White to be

the best extant representative of the Old Latin text which St. Jerome

used when revising the New Testament.

ff2, or Cod. Corbeiensis (fifth century; at Paris), contains the Gospels.

g, or Cod. Gigas (thirteenth century; at Stockholm), a complete Bible;

Acts and Apoc. are in Old Latin text and are the chief representative of

the European type.

h, or Palimpsest de Fleury (fourth or fifth century; at Turin), contains

Mark, vii-xvi, 8 and Matt., i-xv; earliest form of Old Latin, African

type, closely akin to text used by Saint Cyprian.

q, or Cod. Monacensis (sixth or seventh century; at Munich, contains

Gospels; Italian type of text.

(2) Vulgate

It is estimated that there are more than 8000 manuscripts of the Vulgate

extant. Most of these are later than the twelfth century and have very little

worth for the reconstruction of the text. Tischendorf and Berger designate the

chief manuscripts by abbreviations of the names: am. = Amiatinus; fu. or fuld.

= Fuldensis. Wordsworth and White, in their critical edition of the Gospel and

Acts (1899-1905); use Latin capitals to note the 40 manuscripts on which

their text depends. Gregory (Textkritik, II, 634) numbers 2369 manuscripts.

The most logical and useful grouping of these manuscripts is genealogical and

geographical. The work of future critics will be to reconstruct the text by

reconstructing the various types, Spanish, Italian, Irish, French, etc. The chief

Vulgate manuscripts are:

A, or Cod. Amiatinus (q.v.) (eighth century; at Florence), contains

complete Bible; text probably Italian, best extant manuscript of

Vulgate.

C, or Cod. Fuldensis (A.D. 541-546; at Fulda, in Germany), a

complete New Testament; Gospels are in form of Tatian's

"Diatessaron". Bishop Victor of Capua found an Old Latin version of

Tatian's arrangement and substituted the Vulgate for the Old Latin.

Delta, or Cod. Dunelmensis (seventh or eighth century; in Durham

Cathedral, England), Gospels; text akin to A.

F, or Cod. Fuldensis (A.D. 541-546; at Fulda, in Germany), a

complete New Testament; Gospels are in form of Tatian's

"Diatessaron". Bishop Victor of Capua found an Old Latin version of

Tatian's arrangement and substituted the Vulgate for the Old Latin.

G, or Cod. Sangermanensis (ninth century; at Paris), contains the

Bible. In Acts, Wordsworth uses it more than any other manuscript.

H, or Cod. Hubertianus (ninth century; in British Museum, London), a

Bible; Theodulfian type.

theta, or Cod. Theodulfianus (ninth century; at Paris), a Bible;

Theodulfian type.

K, or Cod. Karolinus (ninth century; in British Museum, London), a

Bible; Alcuin's type. See V.

O, or Cod. Oxoniensis (seventh century; at Oxford, in Bodl.), contains

Gosp.; text English, affected by Irish influences.

O2, or Cod. Oxoniensis, or Selden Acts (eighth century; at Oxford, in

Bodleian), contains Acts; Irish type.

Q, or Cod. Kenanensis, Book of Kells (q.v.) (eighth century; in Trinity

College, Dublin), contains Gosp.; Irish type.

S, or Cod. Stonyhurstensis (seventh century; at Stonyhurst College,

England), contains John; text akin to A and probably written near

Durham.

V, or Cod. Vallicellianus (ninth century; at Rome, in Vallicelliana), a

Bible; Alcuin's type. See K.

Y, or Cod. Lindisfarnensis (seventh century; in British Museum,

London), Gospels. Liturgical directions in text show it is a copy of a

manuscript written in Naples; text akin to A.

Z, or Cod. Hareianus (sixth or seventh century; in Brit. Mus.,

London), contains Epist. and Apoc.

V. SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS

(1) Old Syriac (OS)

The Curetonian and Sinaitic Syriac manuscripts represent a version older than

the Peshitto and bear witness to an earlier text, one closely akin to that of

which D and the Old Latin are witnesses.

The Curetonian Syriac (Syr-Cur) manuscript was discovered in 1842,

among manuscripts brought to the British Museum from the monastery

of S. Maria Deipara in the Nitrian desert in Egypt, and was published

by Cureton in 1858. It contains five chapters of John, large portions of

Matt. and Luke, and Mark, xvi, 17-20, enough to show that the last

twelve verses were originally in the document.

The Sinaitic Syriac (Syr-Sin) was found by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs.

Gibson, during 1892, in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount

Sinai. This palimpsest contains the Four Gospels in great part, though

not entire; it is an earlier recension of the same version as Syr-Cur.

Both are assigned to the fifth century and represent a Syriac version

which cannot be later than A.D. 200.

(2) The Diatessaron

This harmony of the Gospels was written by Tatian, an Assyrian and the

disciple of Justin Martyr, about A.D. 170, and was widely used in Syria. Our

manuscript records are two Arabic versions, discovered one in Rome the

other in Egypt, and published 1888. A Latin translation of an Armenian

edition of St. Ephraem's commentary on the Diatessaron is in like manner

witness to this early version of the Gospels. Scholars are inclined to make

Tatian's to be the earliest Syriac translation of the Gospel.

(3) The Peshitto

The earliest manuscript of this Syriac Vulgate is a Pentateuch dated A.D. 464;

this is the earliest dated Biblical manuscripts; it is in the British Museum. There

are two New Testament manuscripts of the fifth century. In all, the Peshitto

manuscripts number 125 of Gospels, 58 of Acts and the Catholic Epistles,

and 67 of the Pauline Epistles.

(4) The Philoxenian Syriac version

The Philoxenian Syriac version of the New Testament has come down to us

only in the four minor Catholic Epistles, not included in the original Peshitto,

and a single manuscript of the Apoc., now at Trinity College, Dublin.

(5) The Harklean Syriac version

This version of the New Testament is represented by some 35 manuscripts

dating from the seventh century and later; they show kinship with a text like to

(6) The Palestinian Syriac version

This version of the New Testament has reached us by lectionaries and other

fragmentary manuscripts discovered within the past sixteen years. The three

principal manuscripts are dated A.D. 1030, 1104, and 1118.

VI. ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS

Armenian manuscripts date from A.D. 887, and are numerous.

VII. COPTIC MANUSCRIPTS

(1) Sahidic

The Apocalypse is the only book of the New Testament which has come

down to us complete in a single manuscript of this dialect of Upper Egypt.

Many isolated fragments have of recent years been recovered by excavation

in Egypt; from these it may soon be possible to reconstruct the Sahidic New

Testament. The earliest fragments seem to belong to the fifth century. Some of

these manuscripts are bilingual (see T of New Testament manuscripts).

(2) Boharic

This version in the dialect of Lower Egypt is well represented by manuscripts

of the same character as B-aleph. The Curzon Catena is the earliest extant

Boh. manuscript of the Gospels; it is dated A.D. 889 and is in the Parham

Library. Others are of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. None is at all so old

as the Sah. fragments.

(3) Middle Egyptian

Middle Egyptian fragments on vellum and papyrus, have been found in Fayum

and near to Akhmim and to Memphis. The largest of these fragments is a

British Museum sixth-century palimpsest of John, iii and iv.

HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS: STRACK AND HARKAVY, Catalog der hebr. Bibelhandschriften der kaiserlichen

Bibliothek (Leipzig 1875); NEUBAUER, Facsimilies of Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (Oxford,

1886); NEUBAUER, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and in the College Libraries

of Oxford (Oxford, 1886); KRAFT AND DEUTSCH, Die handschriftl. hebräischen Werke der K.K. Hofbibliothek

(Vienna, 1857); STEINSCHNEIDER, Die hebräisch. Handschriften der K. Hof. und Staatsbibliothek (Munich,

1895); SCHILLER-SZINESSY, Catalogue of the Hebrew manuscripts preserved in the University Library

(Cambridge, 1876); ASSEMANI, Bibliothecæ Apostolicæ Vaticanæ codices Orientales (Rome, 1756); MAI,

Appendix to Assemani (Rome, 1831).

GREEK MANUSCRIPTS (OLD TESTAMENT): SWETE, Introduction to the O.T. in Greek; KENYON, Our

Bible and the Ancient manuscripts (1898); NESTLE, Septuagintastudien (1886-1907); FIELD, Origenis

Hexaplorum quæ supersunt (Oxford, 1875).

GREEK MANUSCRIPTS (NEW TESTAMENT): SCRIVENER, Introduction to the Criticism of the New

Testament (1894); GREGORY, Textkritik des N.T. (1900); Die Griechischen Handschriften des N.T. (1908);

HARRIS, Further researches into the history of the Ferrar-group (1900).

LATIN MANUSCRIPTS: BURKITT, The Old Latin and the Itala (Cambridge, 1896); WORDSWORTH,

SANDAY, AND WHITE, Old Latin Biblical Texts (Oxford, 1883-97); GREGORY, Textkritik des N.T. (1900).

WORDSWORTH AND WHITE, Edition of the Vulgate (1889-1905)

SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS: LEWIS, The Four Gospels translated from the Sinaitic Palimpsest (1894); WOODS

AND GWILLIAM in Studia Biblica, vols. I and III.

COPTIC MANUSCRIPTS: CRUM, Catalogue of Coptic manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1905);

HYVERNAT, Etude sur les versions coptes de la Bible in Rev. Bibl. (1896).

WALTER DRUM

Transcribed by Bryan R. Johnson

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IX

Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor

Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: newadvent.org