YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

THE

STORY OF THE MAMJSCRIPTS.

BT
REV. GEORGE E. MERRILL.

BOSTON:
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY,
32 Feanklin Steeet.

Copyright, 1881,
Bt D. Lotukop and Company.

Boston Steeeotype Foundry,
4 Pearl .Street.

"Bring with thee the hooks, especially the parchments."
St. Paul to Timothy, 2 Eph. iv- 13.
"The title-deeds of our Christian inheritance." Amontmous.
" Yes, I might almost say to the Lord,
Here is a copy of thy Word,
Written out with much toil and pain ;
Take it, O Lord, and let it be
As something 1 have done for Thee."
Fkiar Pacificds, in the " Golden Legend," H. W. Longfellow.

PEEFACE.

FDIHESE pages are an attempt to give some in
formation, in a popular form, concerning sub
jects usually treated only in Introductions to the
Scriptures, or in similar and often costly works.
It is believed that, in these days of devotion to the
study of the Bible, there are many persons who
will welcome the story, briefly told, of the way in
which the Christian Scriptures have been trans
mitted to modem times, and the certainty we have,
through the labors of the great scholars, that these
writings are really apostolic. It is not claimed
that the consideration of these subjects in this
small volume is complete, except so far as the cor
rect statement of facts is concerned, for which the
latest and best authorities have been faithfully con
sulted, and the proper acknowledgment made in
the pages themselves. An exhaustive treatment

VI PEEFACE.
would have been also exhausting to the readers for
whom the book is intended, and to whom it is
committed in the hope that it may contribute,
though by only a little, to reverence for those
Scriptures, which " make wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Jesus Christ."
G. E. M.
Salem, April, 1881.

CONTENTS.

CIIAPTEIl PAGE
Introduction : A Revised New Testament ix
I. The Book  • . . 1
II. Books in Ancient Times .... 23
III. Manuscripts of the Christian Scriptures 87
IV. The Alexandrine Manuscript ... 68
V. The Vatican Manuscript .... 67
VI. The Sinaitic Manuscript .... 84
VII. The Palimpsests  101
VIII. Other Uncials, Fragments, and Cupsives 117
IX. The Latest Discovery .... 143
X. Versions  150
XI. How are the Manuscripts used? . . 164
XII. The Great Critics  180
XIII. Conclusion  193
Appendix  198

INTEODUCTIOl^. A REVISED BIBLE.
The readers of the English Bible during two
hundred and seventy years have found it a sufScient
guide to holy living, a light of such brilliancy as to
show them that far-off heavenly land, to which the
journey through these earthly years is but the ap
proach. But after burning almost three centuries,
shall not the lamp be trimmed ? May it not cast even
a brighter gleam upon the pathway of men in the fu
ture ? If the present generation has gained access to
any resources, or won any skill, beyond those pos
sessed by the early translators, who brought the kin
dled flame to us, it is surely a duty to use them for
the better enlightenment of the people in the coming
time. Many English and Anglo-Saxon translations from
the Scriptures preceded that known as "the author
ized," or " King James's Version." Even in the very
earliest times of Christianity in Britain, portions of
the Sacred Writings were rendered from the Latin
then in common use, and given to the people through
the homilies of priests, or the chantings of poets.
These were often no more than rough paraphrases, ac
companied by notes and comments ; but they were of

X INTEODUCTION.
the greatest value in giving familiarity with Biblical
truth. The earliest of these was the paraphrase in
verse by Caedmon of Whitby, a monk of the seventh
century. In King uElfred's Beda,* an account is
given of the belief, that Caedmon was specially in
spired to sing the great themes of the Creation and
Fall of Man, the History of Israel, the Incarnation and
Passion of Jesus, the Doom of Hell, and the Bliss of
Heaven. While he slept in a stable a vision was
granted him, the story goes, and he began to sing
" the verse and the word, that he never had heard."
Aldhelm and Cuthlac made versions of the Psalms
about the beginning of the eighth century, and the
Venerable Bede closed his life while dictating a trans
lation of the Gospel of St. John. Then JElfred, the
King, in the latter part of the ninth century translated
parts of Exodus, including the Ten Commandments,
and he was engaged upon the Psalms when he died.
.MlMti followed with his homilies, which gave to the
people large portions of Scripture with his comments
uj^on them. But all of these efforts were prior to the
earliest English, and were in the tongue that was the
parental stock from which the English was to come.
It is true that even then, and much earlier, the term
English was sometimes apjolied to the language, as in
tlie title of one of these very works : " The Halgan
Godspel on Englisc." But a few lines from this
"Godspel," with a simple English equivalent, will
show a wide difference between the two examples : —
* Analecta Anglo-Saxonica : Benjamin Tliorpe, F. S. A.,
page 105.

INTEODUCTION. XI
" Se Johannes witodlice haefde reaf of olfenda
hserum, and fellenne gyrdel ymbe hys lendenu; and
hys mete wses gjerstapan and wudu-hunig."
This is hardly recognizable as what we read in
equivalent English : " The same John truly had rai
ment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his
loins; and his meat was locusts (grass-steppers) and
wild (wood) honey." Matt. iii. 4.
Another example may be given from the Ormulum,
a rude metrical version of the close of the twelfth cen
tury, named after its author, the poet Orm. It is
preserved in a manuscript containing the Gospels and
the Acts, about twenty thousand lines in all, deposited
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
" Forrthrihht se Jesus fullhtnedd wass,
He wennde himm inntill wesste.
The Goddspell seyyth thatt he wass ledd
Thurrh Gast inntill the wesste,
Annd tatt forr tliatt he shoUde thser
Been fandedd thurrh the deofell." *
This is not English, though many English words ap
pear ; and it is evident that the transition is becoming
rapid, and that the stream of the older language is
falling steejDly into the broader river near at hand.
The Ormulum is very similar in linguistic traits to a
prose version of Genesis and Exodus preserved in a
manuscript at Cambridge. William of Shoreham
probably should be considered the first translator into
* Lines 11,319-11,324. See Altenglische Sprachprohen,
Poesie, p. 9; E. Matzner. The Anglo-Saxon characters for
the th and y sounds are here given in the English equivalents.

XU INTEODUCTION.
English, though Richard Rolle of Hampole was only a
few years later, and the same approximate date, the
year 1330, may be assigned to the versions of the
Psalms, which these writers prepared.
Unquestionably the most important work of transla
tion performed previous to the sixteenth century was
that of John Wyclif. He was born in Yorkshire in
1324, and during a quarter of a century was connected
with the University of Oxford, either as student or
instructor. His literary labors were great, but the
greatest of all was his version of the Bible, in a por
tion of which he had the assistance of Nicholas of
Hereford, a scholar of some repute. Hereford's work
was confined, however, to a portion of the Old Testa
ment. The whole Bible was completed about the
year 1380. Wyclif employed the Latin of the Vul
gate as the basis of his translation. The Vulgate was,
of course, itself a translation, and that, too, not an in
dependent work from Greek originals, but a revision
of an older Latin text. This Bible excited strong
opposition among the ecclesiastics of the time, who
feared a diminution of their power, if the people
should receive the truth without its coming through
their ministrations. A contemporary. Canon of
Leicester, wrote of Wyclif : — " Christ delivered his
gospel to the clergy and doctors of the church, that
that they might minister to the laity and to weaker
persons, according to the state of the times and the
want of men. But this Master John Wyclif trans
lated it out of Latin into English, and thus laid it
more open to the laity and to women, who can read,

INTEODUCTION. XUl
even to those of them, who had best understanding.
And in this way the gospel pearl is cast abroad and
trodden under foot of swine, and that which was be
fore precious both to clergy and laity, is rendered, as
it were, the common jest of both." But it seems as if
he need not have been so troubled about this diffusion
of the Scriptures in English, for though the circulation
was considerable, and large prices were paid even for
fragments of the book, there was hardly a possibility
that the common people could be very widely affected
by it, since a single copy cost about two hundred dol
lars. Wyclif died in 1384, and six years later an at
tempt, was made to suppress his translation by a bill in
the House of Lords, which, however, was not successful.
Almost a whole century passed away. The oppo
sition to translations on the part of the ecclesiastical
authorities grew greater with each year. In 1408 it
was resolved by the Convocation of Oxford : " It is a
dangerous thing to translate the text of Holy Scripture
out of one tongue into another. . . We therefore
decree and ordain, that no man henceforth by his own
authority translate any text of the Scriptures into
English or any other tongue by way of a book, pam
phlet, or treatise, and that no man read any such book,
pamphlet, or treatise now lately composed in the time
of Wyclif . . . upon pain of the gi'eater excommuni
cation, until the said translation be approved by the
ordinary of the place, or, if the case so require, by the
council provincial."* A strange enactment, when
* Historic Origin of the Bible : Bissell. Foxe's Acts and Mon
uments.

XIV INTEODUCTION.
placed by the side of the labors of the nineteenth cen
tury, in which Oxford has borne such large share, and by
which the Revised Version is issued under the Oxford
imprint. But while the opposition thus increased, the
desire upon the part of the people also gi'ew. Upon
the Continent Biblical studies rapidly advanced, and
all over Europe the thought of the people was coming
to that condition which made the Protestant Refor
mation possible. He would be a bold man, however,
who should dare to face priestly opposition and at
tempt to carry on the work of giving the Bible to
the people in their native tongue. But the bold man
was found.
About the year 1484, " the faithful minister and con
stant martyr of Christ,"* William Tyndale, was born
in Gloucestershire. His education, acquired both at
Oxford and Cambridge, fitted him in a pecuhar manner
for the great work of his life. In 1523 he went to
London in the hope of receiving assistance by which
he could carry out his great plan of translating the
New Testament. Meeting with no encouragement,
but opposed at every step, he left England in 1524 for
Hamburg. He was destined never to return. Upon
the Continent he applied himself with enthusiasm to
his work. Even there he met with great difficulties.
Intelligence of his undertaking was conveyed to Eng
land, and emissaries were sent forth to dog his foot
steps and hinder his attempt. Fleeing from city to
city, and often risking his life through his devotion to
his task, living under an assumed name, he pursued
* Foxe's Acts ^nd Mpmiments.

INTEODUCTION. XV
his labors during two years, and at the end of this
time had the whole of the New Testament ready for
publication in English. He had already issued the
Gospels of Matthew and Mark in 1525 ; but now in
1526 the whole work was published, — the first printed
English Bible. It was found necessary to prepare two
editions at once, because the first edition, in quarto
form, had been greatly prejudiced in England before
its appearance by letters sent from the Continent by the
enemies of translation, describing the form in which it
was to appear, and warning the authorities to look out
for it. An octavo edition was therefore prepared
hastily and sent off before the quarto, though both
arrived nearly at the same time. The quarto edition,
however, occupied the attention of the opponents, and
thq octavo volumes passed easily into the hands of the
people. Before four years had passed six editions of
Tyndale's translation had been issued, all on the Con
tinent, and some of them unauthorized by the trans
lator ; but even through these faulty editions the
people received the knowledge of the truth in their own
tongue, and the popular acquaintance with the Scrip
tures became daily more obnoxious to the party in
power. The volumes were seized and burned wherever
they could be discovered, and many possessing them
were imprisoned and punished ; but such measures
only inflamed the public desire to see the pro
scribed book, and the importations largely increased.
At last it was found that government opposition was
useless, and a combination of influences occasioned an
entire change of policy, so that the work of supplying

xvi INTEODUCTION.
the people with an English Bible was patronized by
the government itself. This result was not gained,
however, until martyrdom had sealed the efforts of
the heroic Tyndale.. One of his assistants, John Frith,
who had been enticed to England, was burned at the
stake in 1533, and Tyndale himself was finally en
trapped by emissaries of the English government upon
the Continent, and, by the cooperation of the author
ities of Brussels, was condemned for heresy, and
strangled and burnt at the stake near that city in 1536.
Tyndale was at rest, but his work went on. Under
the great change in its policy the English government
found it still inconvenient, because so thoroughly in
consistent with its previous denunciations, to favor
Tyndale's translation. A new version was therefore
sought. Miles Coverdale, a scholar of eminent abil
ities, and known to have already prepared himself for
such special work, was encouraged to make a translar
tion, which should not only receive no opposition from
the government, but be at least tacitly favored. In a
single year's labor the whole Bible was produced by
Coverdale, and published in 1535 ; it was made chiefly
from the Vulgate and from Luther's German. Other
editions followed in 1537, 1539, 1550, and 1553. The
version is chiefly remarkable as the means by which
the transition was effected from strenuous opposition
to acknowledged patronage upon the part of the gov
ernment. In the year 1537 the Matthew's Bible ap
peared (revised by Richard Taverner in 1539), and
the authorities were glad to assent to this publication
also as a way out of their difliculties. But this Bible

INTRODUCTION. Xvii
wa^ for the largest part, only a reprint of Tyndale's
woifc thus gathered together and issued as a complete
Biblp for the first time. It was even enthusiastically
welcomed by the royal- party, and though Tyndale's
initials I stood at the close of the Old Testament, they
were either unnoticed, or purposely ignored, and the
pubh(/ation was given a special royal hcense. Large
numi()ers of this Bible were sold, but of course it found
its ^nemies, who revealed its real origin, and it was
fouid necessary to meet their attacks by a preparation
of another edition. The Great Bible was prepared.
Corerdale, and several other scholars, were employed
in the work, which was not a fresh translation from
original documents, but merely a revision of the Mat
thew's Bible, with reference to a recent Latin transla
tion of the Old Testament Hebrew, and to the Vulgate,
th^ Latin of Erasmus, and the Complutensian Bible,
described hereafter in the text of this book.* This
Great Bible became known also as Cranmer's Bible,
because he wrote a, preface to certain editions. The
wdrk was very large and costly, and could not meet
with such popular favor as had been granted to former
publications. The reign of Edward VI. favored the free circu
lation of the Scriptures and many editions were issued,
but the accession of Bloody Mary to the throne, with
the exaltation of Romanism to political power in Eng
land, brought opposition to the Scriptures in the com
mon tongue once more to the front. Multitudes of
Protestant Christians were exiled or slain ; but perse-
* See page 53.

XVlil INTRODUCTION.
cution, as always, only increased the zeal of the suffer
ers. Geneva was the resort of many who fled to the
Continent, and here a new translation of the New
Testament was made and published in 1557, followed
by the Old Testament in 1560. This Genevan Bible,
prepared under the influence of the Protestant com
munity in the Swiss city, was furnished with Calvin-
istic notes and gained a wide circulation, receiving
special favor from the dissenting party, and becoming
by far the most popular Bible in England. There was
even danger that it would supersede the Great Bible,
which was the only authorized edition, in the pulpits
of the churches. To meet this danger, and to make
the Great Bible more popular, a new revision of it was
made called the Bishops' Bible; but it did not supplant
the Genevan version in the favor of the people, though it
was recognized as the standard of the English Church.
In addition to these Bibles there now appeared a
work known by two names, and issued in self-defence
by the party that had most bitterly and persistently
opposed the Scriptures in the common tongue. The
Romanists themselves, finding that the great move
ment for translations had swept beyond their power,
prepared a special translation to be used by the faith
ful. The New Testament was completed at Rheims
in 1582, and the Old Testament, after long delay, at
Douay in 1609, and the work was accomplished by the
Romanists who had fled from England upon the acces
sion of Elizabeth ; its basis was the Vulgate, and it is
known as the Rhemish and Douay Bible.
These brief outlines of the English versions, previ-

INTEODUCTION. xix
OUS to the appearance of that of King James, have
been sketched by no means as an adequate portrayal
of the subject, but only to show what was the true
character of the version which has been so long in the
hands of all people who speak the English language.
It was out of the strife between the Genevan Bible
and the Bishops' Bible, with perhaps certain political
considerations of James I., that the translation gen
erally called by his name arose. A strong desire to
unite, if possible, the discordant parties led to an at
tempt to make "one uniform translation, and this to
be done by the best learned in both universities (Cam
bridge and Oxford) ; after them to be revised by the
bishops and the chief learned of the church; from
them to be presented to the Privy Council; and,
lastly, to be ratified by the royal authority ; and so
the whole church be bound to it and no other." The
hope was to unite parties by a Bible that should be
popular with each, and the work was to be based upon
the already existing translations, diligently compared
with each other and revised with reference to such
other authorities as could be obtained. The Puritan
party was represented by its ablest scholars, and the
Church party by its worthiest members. The Bishops'
Bible was to be followed, with as few alterations as
fidelity to the originals would permit, though Tyn
dale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, the Great Bible, and
the Genevan, were also especially mentioned as of
pei-missible influence in the work. It will thus be
seen that the authorized version of King James
was in a large measure dependent upon the EngUsh

XX INTRODUCTION.
Bibles that have been thus far sketched in these
pages. King James's Version was issued in 1611. It need
not be described ; it is so familiar to everyone. But
the mere mention of the date at which it appeared
should be enough to suggest several reasons why a
revision of it is desirable at the present time. The
vast advance in Biblical scholarship during the last
two centuries ; the discovery of ancient documents,
as related in the following pages ; and the drift and
change of the English language itself in the long inter
val indicate the principal reasons why a Revised Eng
lish Bible is now necessary.
To consider these reasons a little more fully, the
change in the English language itself may well hold
the attention. Christian affection has indeed become
strongly fixed upon the very words of the authorized
version so long in possession of the Church, and any
verbal changes may at first appear very unwelcome to
many, whose thoughts have dwelt fondly upon the
quaint and formal methods of expression employed in
the familiar pages. But if such a prejudice were
suffered to enter into the question of revision, it would
militate against any improvement at all ; the beloved
"Authorized Version" would itself never have been
made, had such an objection been allowed. Is the
Bible of to-day any dearer, or more sacred to the
modern Christian, than were Wyclif's and Tyndale's
to those who risked imprisonment and death for the
sake of possessing them? But no one would assert,
that the greatest love for those versions or any of

INTRODUCTION. Xxi
their successors would have been a sufficient reason for
continuing their texts until now. The EngUsh lan
guage has not changed so greatly since the time of the
" authorized version," as it did in the interval between
that and the period of Tyndale's work ; and yet this
reason for revision is very cogent. A few examples
may be given. The word " carriages," for instance, iu
Acts xxi. 15, renders the verse almost unintelligible
to-day, though when it was written : " So we took up
our carriages and went up to Jerusalem," probably
every EngUsh reader would have known what was
meant. Again the word " bowels " was good English
in 1611, for the same thought expressed now by the
word heart, and in Phil. ii. 1, "If any bowels and
mercies," and in at least eight other places in the New
Testament, it signified that affection which would now
be regarded as proceeding from a merciful heart. The
word "let " in 1611 was equivalent to hinder or retard;
but in 1881 it means just the opposite, to permit.
"Conversation" has gained a restricted meaning
compared with that which it has in the authorized
version. "Trow" is no longer used for believe, nor
" wist " and " wot" for ^noio, nor " holpen " for helped,
nor " sodden " for boiled, nor ^' leasing " for lyinff, nor
" bewray " for betray. " Astonied " and *' magnifical "
and many similar forms have passed entirely out of
use, and the employment of the word " damnation " in
1 Cor. xi. 29, may represent a similar misapplication
of words in a multitude of cases, when judged accord
ing to the modem meaning of the term. It may be
said, indeed, that the EngUsh language is a very dif-

XXll INTRODUCTION.
ferent tongue from what it was two hundred and
seventy years ago ; so that there would be good reason
for a revision of the Bible on that account alone, even
if the version of 1611 were absolutely perfect in every
other respect.
But as already intimated, there are many other faults
in the " authorized version," which the passage of time
and the great advancement of critical scholarship have
revealed. There are wi'ong translations ; there is the
use of different English words to represent the same
Greek word, and the employment of the same English
word in different senses, misleading the reader. In
Rom. iv., for example, the same Greek word, which is
the key to the argument of the chapter, is translated
" count " twice, " impute " six times, and " reckon "
three times. In Rom. vii. 7, one Greek word is trans
lated with the two meanings of " lust " and " covet."
In Rom. viii. 19-23, one word is translated " creature"
three times, and " creation " only once. In the use of
proj)er names there is a great diversity of spelling so
that the uninitiated would hardly recognize Isaiah in
Esaias, or Ezekiel in Ezekias, or Hezekiah in the same
name. Korah as Core, Elijah as Elias, Elisha as
Eliseus, and very many others under a similar change
of name, almost assume two personalities. These are
but a very few of an immense number of defects, which
may easily be remedied. But passing by all of these,
the great reason for revision exists in the nature of the
Greek text from which the version of King James was
made, as compared with the present knowledge of the
original Greek, which the Apostles wrote. It i« the

INTRODUCTION. XXUl
attempt of the following pages to expound as fully as
may be desirable in a j)opular work this greatest rea
son for the revision of the Christian Scriptures. The
Story of the Manuscripts is after all the most impor
tant of all the indications, that the old English Bible
should be conformed to the better evidence, now in our
hands, of what the Prophets and Apostles wrote. In
1611 the scholars of England suffered from a poverty
of materials in comparison with the resources now at
command. It has already been shown, that the real
basis of the " authorized version " then made was the
version of Tyndale. The other versions were also em
ployed, but they, it will be remembered, were also the
lineal descendants of Tyndale's Bible, as well as its
successors in time. But if we regard the original
Greek and Hebrew texts from which these Bibles were
made, we see that all of those texts put together would
not equal in value one or two manuscripts, that have
been discovered, or thoroughly investigated, since that
time. Tyndale insisted upon the necessity of trans
lating directly from the original languages, and he had
the opportunity of using several editions of the Hebrew
of the Old Testament, which had been published be
fore his labors were begun, and which were accorded
various degrees of value, one or two of them being in
high esteem. But for the Greek of the New Testa-
ment, it is probable that the best that could be done
was to use the text of Erasmus, which he had hastily
prepared from manuscripts at Basle, few in number
and, with one exception, of comparatively little critical
value. The Complutensian text was already prepared.

xxiv INTEODUCTION.
but it is not definitely known from what manuscripts,
and it is doubtful if Tyndale. made any use of it. As
for the other versions, we have seen how in many in
stances, the Vulgate and other Latin texts were influ
ential in their preparation. The Genevan Bible was
probably as independent as any, of other versions.
Previous to its issue the Greek text of Stephens had
been prepared (1550), and could not have failed to
guide the translation. And when at last the " author
ized version " of King James was made in 1611, the
Greek text of Beza had been added to the resources
at hand. But the pages of this book describe the ad
vance that has been made since that day. The great
Vatican manuscript has been published and studied ;
the Sinaitic manuscript has been discovered ; a multi
tude of other documents, some of them of nearly equal
importance with these, have been thoroughly investi
gated ; the whole science of textual criticism has been
revolutionized, and established upon principles univer
sally recognized as correct and safe ; in a word, Chris
tendom to-day has a far greater knowledge of what
the writers of its Scriptures actually wrote, than it
had two centuries and a half ago. It has a far purer
Greek text of the New Testament, and a deeper
knowledge of that of the Old Testament, than when
the scholars of King James's time produced the Eng
lish version, so long dear to the church. And the
question is therefore of the greatest force : Shall not
the English Bible, as well as the Bible in the original
tongues, be published with the most exact adherence
to the very text that flowed from the pens of the first

INTRODUCTION. XXV
writers, and thus the purity. of the word be preserved
for all generations of those who speak the English
tongue ?
For more than a decade previous to the year 1870
the question of a revision of the English Bible had
been agitated upon both sides of the Atlantic. New
translations by single scholars and by Bible societies
had appeared from time to time, but from the circum
stances attending their publication they could never
come into general acceptance and use in the churches.
More than once in England the royal favor had been
sought for the scheme of revising King James's ver
sion, but the plan had been defeated from various
causes. In the year 1870, on February 10, both
Houses of the Convocation of Canterbury united in a
resolution appointing a committee to consider the de
sirableness of revising the authorized version, " whether
by marginal notes or otherwise." This committee
reported upon May 11, that such a revision was desir
able ; that it should be so conducted as to provide for
marginal renderings, and also for such emendations in
the English text itself as might be deemed necessary ;
that the work should not be of the nature of an entirely
new translation, but that only such alterations of the
language of King James's version should be made as
might be absolutely necessary, and that even these
changes should preserve the general style of the old
version. The committee also advised that the work
should be done by members of the Convocation espe
cially appointed for the purpose, who should have
permission to invite the aid of " any eminent for

xxvi INTRODUCTION.
scholarship, to whatever nation or religious body they
may belong." This report was foUowed by the choice
of a committee to arrange a definite plan for the work
and carry it forward to its completion.
The committee thus formed at once took measures to
complete its organization by the invitation to other
eminent scholars to join them in the work, and by the
choice of officers and the division into two companies,
the one for the Old Testament, the other for the New
Testament. The following rules were adopted to guide
them in their labors : —
1. To introduce as few alterations as possible into
the text of the Authorized Version consistently with
faithfulness. 2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression of
such alterations to the language of the Authorized and
earlier English version.
3. Each company to go twice over the portion to
be revised, once provisionally, the second time finally,
and on principles of voting as hereinafter provided.
4. That the text to be adopted be that for which
the evidence is decidedly preponderating; and that
when the text so adopted differs from that from which
the Authorized Version was made, the alteration be
indicated in the margin.
5. To make or retain no change in the text on the
second final revision by each company, except two-
thirds of those present approve of the same, but on the
first revision to decide by simple majorities.
6. In every case of proposed alteration that may have
given rise to discussion, to defer the voting thereupon

INTEODUCTION. xxvii
till the next meeting, whensoever the same shall be
required by one-third of those present at the meeting,
such intended vote to be announced in the notice of
the next meeting.
7. To revise the headings of chapters, pages, para
graphs, italics, and punctuation.
8. To refer, on the part of each company, when
considered desirable, to divines, scholars and literary
men, whether at home or abroad, for their opinions.
It was further determined that the work of each
company be communicated to the other as it is
completed, in order that there may be as little devi
ation from uniformity in language as possible.
The special or bye-rules for each company were as
follows : —
1. To make all corrections ia writing previous to
the meeting.
2. To place all the corrections due to textual con
siderations on the left-hand margin, and all other
corrections on the right-hand margin.
3. To transmit to the chairman, in case of being
unable to attend, the corrections proposed in the por
tion agreed upon for consideration.
The New Testament division of the committee met
June 22, 1870, at Westminster. It was thought emi
nently proper that the inception of a work so great
should be accompanied by the solemn rite of the Com
munion, and accordingly the whole body, with a single
exception, partook of the Lord's Supper in the Chapel
of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey. Instantly a
bitter prejudice was excited by the act. Canon Jebb

XXVm INTRODUCTION.
resigned his position on the committee. The EngUsh
papers blazed forth in condemnation of such a breach
of ecclesiastical usage, while not a few of the public
prints supported the committee. More than fifteen
hundred clergymen of the Church of England signed a
protest to be presented to the Archbishop of Canter
bury, denying that the Communion should be adminis
tered thus to " teachers of various sects." But the
storm of objections soon died away, and the work
quietly progressed.
It was soon found advantageous to confer with
American scholars, and using the liberty granted in
the outset by the Convocation, the committee opened
negotiations for the formation of a joint-committee
upon this side of the Atlantic to assist in the whole
work. Dean Stanley sent a communication to Dr.
Philip Schaff of New York requesting co-operation,
and Dean Howson was present at the first meeting for
the organization of an American committee in Decem
ber, 1871. The completion of the American division
occupied nearly a year, but on October 4, 1872, the
final organization was effected and the work began.
When the American committee was thus completed,
copies of what the EngUsh division had already done
were put into their hands, — Genesis, Exodus, and
Leviticus, and the first three Gospels. It was under
stood that the utmost secrecy as to the results of then-
work should be preserved until the whole should be
finished. The divisions of the committee have been in
constant correspondence, and during the ten years since
the inception of the undertaking, the labors of these

INTRODUCTION. XXIX
scholars, whoUy unrewarded except by their ovm joys
in the study and the consciousness that they were con
ferring a great benefit upon their fellow-men, have
progressed with harmony and success. The New
Testament was completed at the close of the year
1879, and is published simultaneously in England,
Scotland, America, and Australia, upon the seven
teenth of May, 1881. The Old Testament wUl prob
ably be published in 1883.
The scholars engaged in this great work of revision
are named in the foUowing list. An asterisk (*) marks
the names of those who have died previous to the
publication of the New Testament ; an obelisk (f) in
dicates those who have resigned, and in the case of the
few, who resigned immediately after their appointment,
so that they did not really enter into the labors of the
committee, the names are also enclosed in brackets.
English CoMPANr upon the Old Testament.
*Dr. C. Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David's.
Dr. A. Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff.
Dr. E. H. Browne, Bishop of Ely, later of Winchester.
fDr. C. Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln.
Dr. A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Dr. R. P. Smith, Dean of Canterbury.
Dr. J. J. S. Perowne, Dean of Peterborough.
Rev. B. Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone; Canon of
Canterbury.
*Rev. H. J. Rose, Archdeacon of Bedford.
*Dr. W. Selwyn, Canon of Ely.
t[Dr. J. Jebb, Canon of Hereford.]
Dr. W. L. Alexander, Professor of Theology, Edinburgh.
Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew, Edinburgh.

XXX INTRODUCTION.
Dr. G. Douglas, Professor of Hebrew, Glasgow.
Dr. J. D. Geden, Professor of Hebrew, Manchester.
Dr. F. W. Gotch, Principal of Baptist College, Bristol.
Dr. S. Leathes, Professor of Hebrew, London.
fDr. E. H. Plumptre, Professor of N. T. Exegesis, London.
Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Fellow and Lecturer (Hebrew), Ox
ford.
Dr. F. Chance, London.
Mr. T. Chenery, Professor of Arabic, Oxford.
Mr. R. L. Bensly, Fellow and Lecturer (Hebrew), Cam
bridge.
Mr. S. R. Driver, Tutor, Oxford.
Rev. C. J. EUiott, late Fellow, Cambridge.
Dr. F. Field, Norwich.
Dr. C. D. Ginsburg, Editor of Canticles, etc., Berks.
Dr. W. Kay, late Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta.
Dr. J. R. Lumby, Fellow, Cambridge.
Rev. A. H. Sayce, Fellow and Tutor, Oxford.
Dr. W. Wright, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge.
Rev. W. R. Smith, Professor of Hebrew, Aberdeen.
*Dr. P. Fairbairn, Principal Free Church College, Glasgow.
*Dr. B. Davies, Professor of Hebrew, Regent's Park,
London.
*Rev. J. McGiU, Professor of Oriental Languages, St. An
drew's.
*Rev. D. H. Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages, Glas
gow.
Mr. W. A. Wright, Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Rev. J. Birrell, Professor of Oriental Languages, St, An
drew's.
American Company upon the Old Testament.
Dr. W. H. Green, Professor of Hebrew, Princeton.
Dr. G. E. Day, Professor of Hebrew, New Haven.
Dr. T. J. Conant, American Bible Union, Brooklyn.
Dr. T. W. Chambers, Collegiate Reformed Church, New
York.

INTEODUCTION. XXXi
Dr. C. A. Aiken, Professor of Apologetics, Princeton.
Dr. J. DeWitt, Professor of Biblical Criticism, New Bruns
wick.
Dr. C. P. Krauth, Vice Provost, Univ. Penn., Philadelphia.
Dr. C. M. Mead, Professor of Hebrew, Andover.
Dr. G. E. Hare, Professor of Biblical Learning, Philadel
phia.
Dr. J. Packard, Professor of Biblical Literature, Alexandria.
*Dr. Tayler Lewis, Professor of Greek and Hebrew,
Schenectady.
Dr. H. Osgood, Professor of Hebrew, Rochester.
Dr. C. E. Stowe, Hartford.
Dr. J. Strong, Professor of Theology, Madison.
Dr. C. V. A. Van. Dyck, Missionary, Beirut, Syria.
English Company upon the New Testament.
*Dr. S. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester.
Dr. C. J. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
Dr. R. C. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin.
Dr. G. Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury.
Dr. C. Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrew's.
Dr. A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster.
Dr. R. Scott, Dean of Rochester.
Dr. J. W. Blakesley, Dean of Lincoln.
*Dr. H. Alford, Dean of Canterbury.
fDr. C. Merivale, Dean of Ely.
Dr. E. H. Bickersteth, Dean of Lichfield.
Dr. W. Lee, Archdeacon of Dublin.
Dr. Edwin Palmer, Archdeacon of Oxford.
Dr. B. F. Westcott, Canon of Peterborough.
Dr. B. H. Kennedy, Canon of Ely and Professor of Greek.
Dr. J. B. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, London.
Dr. F. H. A. Scrivener, Prebendaiy, Hendon Vicarage,
London.
Dr. F. .J. A. Hort, Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cam
bridge.
Dr. G. V. Smith, Caermarthen.

XXXii INTRODUCTION.
Dr. C. J. Vaughan, Master ofthe Temple, London.
Dr. A. Roberts, Professor of Humanity, St. Andrew's.
Dr. W. F. Moulton, Master of Ley's School, Cambridge.
Dr. D. Brown, Principal Free Church College, Aberdeen.
Dr. J. Angus, President Baptist College, London.
Dr. S. Newth, Principal of New College, London.
*Dr. J. Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature, Glasgow.
*Dr. S. P. Tregelles, Critic and Editor, Plymouth.
Rev. J. Troutbeck, Westminster.
Rev. W. G. Humphry, Prebendary of St. Paul's, London.
Dr. W. Milligan, Professor of Divinity, Aberdeen.
American Company upon the New Testament.
Dr. T. D. Woolsey, Ex-president of Yale CoUege, New
Haven.
Dr. J. H. Thayer, Professor of Sacred Literature, Andover.
Dr. E. Abbot, Professor of New Testament Criticism, Cam
bridge.
Dr. T. Chase, President of Haverford College, Philadelphia.
Dr. H. Crosby, Chancellor of New York University, New
York.
Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Professor of Greek, Rochester.
*Dr. H. B. Plackett, Professor of N. T. Exegesis, Rochester.
Dr. M. B. Riddle, Professor of N. T. Exegesis, Hartford.
Dr. A. Lee, Bishop of Delaware.
Dr. T. Dwight, Professor of Sacred Literature, New Haven.
Dr. P. Schaff, Professor of Sacred Literature, New York.
*Dr. C. Hodge, Professor of Theology, Princeton.
tDr. W. F. Warren, President of Boston University, Boston.
Dr. C. Short, New York.
*Dr. E. A. Washburn, New York.
Dr. J. K. Burr, Professor Drew Theological Seminary,
Madison, N. J.
*Dr. H. B. Smith, Professor of Theology, New York.
"Dr. J. Hadley, Professor of Greek, New Haven.
tDr. G. R. Crooks, New York.

INTEODUCTION. XXXlU
The larger number of the English scholars engaged
in the work are of the Church of England, but the
others are from various sects, almost every denomi
nation having its rej)resentatives upon the committee.
Of the American scholars who have been connected
with the enterprise, five are Episcopalians, seven Con-
gregationalists, six Presbyterians, four Baptists, four
Methodists, four Reformed, one Unitarian, one Lu
theran, one Friend, — the whole number, with the
exception of Dr. Van Dyck in Syria.
It wiU thus be seen that the work of Revision has
had the broadest basis, and that the best resources of
the whole Church have been bestowed upon the work.
Dr. Philip Schaff has been the President of the
American committee. Dr. William H. Green the Chair
man of the Old Testament division, and Ex-President
Theodore D. Woolsey Chairman of the New Testament
division. It is not a new Bible which is thus offered to the
people. It is the old Bible — even the old English
Bible, with aU its excellencies preserved, with only its
defects removed. Wherever the old version has been
loved, the revised version will also find a welcome, —
and that wiU be wherever the English language is
spoken.

THB
STORY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE BOOK.

" There is but one Book." The words have become
famous, as they were spoken by one, who was himself
the renowned author of many books. He was dying.
He had asked his attendants to bring him the book.
Which of his own works did he mean ? Which of the
thousands that crowded the shelves in his Ubrary?
" There is but one Book," he said ; and they brought
him the Bible.
It is evident that, whether the Bible be regarded
simply with respect to its own character or with refer
ence to what it has accomplished in the world, it stands
alone. The Vedas of the Brahmins, the Zend Avesta
of the Persians, the writings of Laotse and Confucius,
the Koran of Mohammed, yes, even the more wonder
ful remains of the religious Uterature of Egypt, —
works which have been very fully opened to the
knowledge of the modern world through the labors

2 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
of learned philologists and studious missionaries, —
must all stand far apart, when compared with the He
brew and Christian Scriptures. They have, indeed,
many admirable precepts ; the commandments written
in many of them are in some respects as perfectly
righteous as the code of Moses itself ; there are echoes
of eternal and universal truth ringing through their
teachings ; here and there are sayings that are nearly
identical with words of the New Testament ; but after
aU no candid reader can turn the pages even of these
best heathen books without a sigh, for he will wonder
at the vapid thought, the profitless speculations, the
silly dreams, the patent falsities, that fill so large a
space in them, and it will be hard to beUeve that mil
lions of human beings have really sought in these vol
umes the truth which should satisfy the cravings of
the human soul. The reader of the Koran wanders
through a desert, in the midst of whose dreary sands
the few oases are as conspicuous as those that dot the
path of the caravan in the arid wastes of the land of
Mohammed. The noblest of the Vedic hymns rise
high indeed, but from the summits of thought which
they attain, the eye turns away with longing still, until
far in the distance, and seeming to pierce the very
blue of heaven itself, the hymns of David, the songs of
Hebrew seers, the lofty poems of the Book of Job,
and the sweet, strong sayings of the Sermon on the
Mount, lift their glorious heights above all else. We
turn from the best that the religious yearnings of men
have given us, and as page after page of the Old Tes
tament and the New Testament are turned, we find

THE BOOK. 3
that in the internal character of these books, which
forces us to exclaim : These men wrote as they were
moved of God. Mohammed may have received his
book as a revelation from heaven, but its character
does not show it. Confucius, Buddha, may have held
converse with powers above them, but the pages they
gave to the world are not heavenly. But Moses and
David, Isaiah and Malachi, John and Paul, — these
men not only claimed, but their writings prove, that
they held communion with the Deity. There is but
one Book, — the Book that is made up of these books
has a message for the world that it cannot afford to
neglect. And experience has shown through almost
nineteen centuries that just so far as the Book has
not been neglected, it has vindicated its right to the
first place in the literature of the world by the results
which have invariably foUowed its adoption. It has
enlightened every nation to which it has come, and
has led the way to such high civilization as we have
to-day, — a civUization in which it is still at work re
buking, encouraging, teaching, inspiring, perfecting,
until the ideal shaU have been reached in the full
recognition of the universal brotherhood of man, with
all our life fashioned after the. love that is in the law
of the Lord.
And yet the Book must not be worshipped. It is
to be regretted, that upon the part of some a species
of idolatry has arisen, in which the Bible, possibly the
English Bible of King James, has been regarded as
a thing, to which no error could attach, and which is
faultless in aU its forms. But, as we have shown in

4 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
the introduction, the need of revision of the King
James version is apparent. The Bible makes no
claim to worship, and such bibliolatry is quite foreign
to the spirit of the Scriptures. It is claimed that those
who wrote the books of the Bible were inspired of God
to do that work, and that in the revelation of truth to
them, and the recording of that truth, they were pre
served from error. ¦ But this can be claimed only for
the original writings ; it cannot be asserted either of
copies, or of versions, though it is marvellous how God
has watched over the transmission of His Word by
these means. And, moreover, it must be remembered,
inspiration did not make slaves of the writers, or re
duce them to the condition of mere machines. There
is the impress of the personality of each one upon his
work. . The style of St. Peter is not that of St. Mat
thew ; the fire and strength of St. Paul are different
from the fervency that glows in the scriptures of St.
John. The Bible is the Book of God, not in the sense
that it is entirely superhuman. God gave it through
men for men, and even in its original documents there
must have been everywhere the evidence at once of the
divine and the human conjoined. It is apparent even
in the internal character of the books ; in the nature of
the truth taught, and in the progressiveness of the rev
elation. The book was to be for all men, for all time.
The earlier generations of men must have their records
of the divine wUl, and therefore Moses wrote, and yet
he wrote in such a way that the latest generations
should find help from the words that flowed from his
pen. But manifestly he was obliged to write in such a

THE BOOK. 5
manner as was fitted to his own age, and neither iri the
language nor in the style which the nineteenth century
might demand. The prophets chanted their messages
to the people of their day, though many occult sayings
could find their truest fulfilment only at a later time.
Poets sung such songs as arose out of their own ex
perience, but because the human heart always beats
with the same passions, and the human life always
has the same joys and woes, their songs are the expres
sion of our religious feeling even now. And at last
the Christ came. His life was to be recorded. Evi
dently it could not have been written until it had
been lived, and 'the most natural time for . it to be
written was not long after it was lived. So the Gos
pels came into existence, the Word of God, and yet
arising, in one sense, naturally out of the demands of
the time under the Providence which shapes all things.
Then the doctrines of the Christ were to be unfolded,
and His Church to be established in the world ; the
Apostles did their part ; epistles went forth from
thera to the Christians ; the Acts of the Aj^ostles in
founding the churches were recorded as a history of
the beginnings of Christianity ; the strange book of
the Revelation was written. And then a multitude
of other writings followed, not inspired, inferior in
character and diverse in purpose, such as men write
for men in the communication merely of their own
thoughts and feelings.
How, then, did the Bible come to be what it is ?
Why were just these books included in the same col
lection ? Why not more ? Or, possibly, why not less ?

6 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
In answer to these questions, pertinent indeed, there
can be nothing more said here concerning the Old
Testament, than that the collection of Hebrew writings
had long been complete at the time of the Saviour,
and was accepted by Him as of sacred authority.
While He guarded against the false views of Phar
isees and Scribes, and repudiated the cumbrous enact
ments of their oral law. He was always careful to
acknowledge the power of their Scriptures, as a whole,
and there is hardly a part of the Old Testament to
which He did . not directly appeal in teaching the
j)eople concerning Himself and the kingdom of right
eousness in the world. But we have to do in these
pages especially with the New Testament, and it is
of the greatest importance that correct views of the
Christian Scriptures should be held. The New Testar
ment, like the Old, was a thing of growth.' It was not
manufactured in a day, nor by one hand, as already
said. And yet the inspiration of God was the origin
of it in all its parts, just as truly as if the completed
volume had been flung down from flaming clouds, or
given to the Apostles as the law was to Moses amid the
peaks of Sinai. And this is the answer to the ques
tions. Why not more books ? or why so many as these ?
These and no others constitute the volume, because
these and no others bear the marks of the divine origin.
To be sure, they seemed to come in a very natural
way. Men wrote them. They wrote them with the
ordinary writing-materials of the day. They wrote
them without concerted action, far apart in place and
time, and for different ends. But so does God work

THE BOOK. 7
through men in all His dealings with them, and that
these books were written as other books are written
does not indicate that they were not inspired of the
Deity. A man holds the plough, and runs the furrow,
and plants the seed, and proceeds with all the course
of cultivation ; but there must be that which is beyond
the man, the quickening power of the mother-earth,
and of the sunshine and rain and dew, before the
blade will appear and mature. And in writing books,
one man will go to work in as commonplace a manner
as another ; but the one is a duU fool and the other is
a poet, and the two books, when completed, will inevi
tably declare their origin. With regard to the writings
of the New Testament there can be no mistake. Put
the Gospels by the side of the Apocryphal Gospels
of the Birth of Mary, or the Infancy; compare the
Epistles of St. Paul with those of Clement, or those of
St. Peter with that of Barnabas, and the superiority
of the canonical writings wUl readily appear. As a
matter of fact the Epistle of Barnabas is singularly like
some portions of the New Testament writings, and
this, as well as other letters now unrecognized as a
part of Holy Scripture, were once, and in some locali
ties, included in the list of inspired books. When
their asithority was doubted, they were still held for a
time under consideration, so careful were the early
Christians to be right with respect to so great a mat
ter. Shall w6 not say, so careful was the Spirit of God
to preserve the Church from rejecting the true, or re
ceiving uninspired writings ? But the real nature of
the books themselves at last determined the question,

8 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
SO far as it lay within the decision of man, and only
such writings as were undoubtedly aiiostolic, or pre
pared under the immediate supervision of the Apostles,
were received by the churches as authoritative.
All the writings of the New Testament were com
pleted and in the possession of the churches, at the
close of the first century. The testimony of all the
early Christian writers is to this effect ; perhaps not a
single passage in any writer of the second, third, or
fourth century can be found which assigns any later
date to any of these Scriptures. Nearly all of them
claim to have been written within the period assigned.
The exact date cannot be given, though in some in
stances it has been determined with great accuracy,
probably within a few weeks, or even days, of the time
of the actual writing ; but approximate dates for all
have been fully ascertained. All the Apostles had com
pleted their work before 100 A. D. It was probably in
the year 68, during the persecution under Nero, that
St. Paul and St. Peter were killed at Rome. The
execution of St. James, the son of Zebedee, not the
James who wrote the Epistle, is spoken of in the Acts.
With the single exception of St. John, there is no
trustworthy evidence even in tradition that any of the
other Ajjostles lived till the end of the century, and it
is wholly probable that they were of such an age while
Jesus was living on earth, as to render their subse
quent life not longer than about a generation after the
crucifixion, even had they died a natural death. But
we know that nearly all of them suffered martyrdom
for their faith. St. John alone is said to have sur-

THE BOOK. 9
vived to an extreme old age, and to have died peace
fully at last ; and the conjectures concerning the time
of his death have ranged from A. D. 89 to A. D. 120.
All the probabilities are, however, that the beloved disci
ple Uved not later than the first decade of the second
century, and even this must be considered as an ex
treme date. It follows, therefore, that the conclusion
we have stated must be true, if, indeed, the various
writings which claim their authorship were really com
posed by the Apostles. Of this there is no reasonable
doubt. The only books of the New Testament which
were not written by them, or by their immediate
dictation, nevertheless give such evidence of having
had their revision or approval as to make them of
equal force with their own writings. The Gospel
of St. Mark, it is generally believed, was prepared
under the direct care of St. Peter ; the Gospel
of St. Luke is the work of a close companion of St.
Paul, and the same man wrote the Acts of the Apos
tles. The Epistle to the Hebrews bears every evi
dence of a right to a place among the apostolic letters.
Both the internal and external evidences are over
whelming in favor of the composition of all these writ
ings within the first century, and by the authors
to whom they are ascribed. It is plainly not the place
to enter into the details of these evidences in these
pages, but it is to be said simply that the result of the
learned labors of scholars, among the very best of aU
countries is largely for this view. The reader may be
referred to Tischendorf's " When were our Gospels
written ? " for a singularly clear statement concerning

10 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
these four books, which are the basis of the writ
ings of the New Testament. The fourth Gospel has
been the object of the greatest strife in this respect,
but one cannot read the latest criticism upon the sub
ject, as in Dr. Ezra Abbot's " The Authorship of the
Fourth Gospel," without feeUng that the question is
settled. The external evidence, particularly, seems
decisive with regard to all the New Testament Scrip
tures. It is clearly shown that the churches of the
second century had nearly the whole of the canon as
it now stands. A list was discovered by Muratori in
A. D. 1738, and called, after him, the Muratori Frag
ment, which was written about the year 170, and
which recognizes the Gospels,* the Acts, thirteen
epistles of St. Paul, two of St. John, that of St. Jude,
and the Revelation, while it gives the name also ofe
an Apocalypse of Peter, with the remark, however,
that " some of our body wUl not have the latter read
in the church." t Again, the writings of the Fathers
of the second century, and the versions of that date,
also show that there must have been at that time
an acceiDted book of Christian Scriptures, used con
stantly by the churches and individuals everywhere.
But certainly this could not have been, without the
lapse of considerable time after those Scriptures were
written. Such a general acceptance in the second cen
tury must point back to a very early date ¦ for the
* The beginning and end of the document are lost, and the
first reference is : — " The Gospel according to Luke is the
third," after which the fourth Gospel is named, plainly implying
that the lost portion enumerated Matthew and Mark as the first
two Gospels. t So Westcott.

THE BOOK. 11
authorship. It is Uke a large river bursting forth from
the mouth of a cavern. The source of the stream is
hidden from view, but not for a moment is it conceiv
able that the tiny springs, which are the origin of the
flood, lie right at hand within the mouth of the cave.
The very volume of the waves demands that the hid
den sources shall be sought far away ; the very force
of the tide proves that the starting-point lies distant
and higher up than the present course. If the Chris
tians of the second century had a list of sacred books
so complete as that indicated by the Muratori Canon,
and confirmed by a multitude of references in other
writings, the conclusion is irresistible that the books
must have been written long previous. Very impor
tant testimony, even earlier than the list found by
Muratori, is afforded curiously through the labors of a
heretic to establish his own position. As early as
A. D. 140, Marcion was a teacher at Rome, after exclu
sion from the Church at Sinope, in Asia Minor, of
which his father was bishop. He made a list of
Scriptures to suit his own heretical views, and included
in it St. Paul's Epistles, and a mutilation of the Gospel
of St. Luke. But instantly the indignation of the
Church blazed forth, and through her great writers
condemned such treatment of the sacred Scriptures.
At least a score of documents were then claimed as of
apostolic authority,-and the belief of the Church thus
early stamped those books with a canonical impor
tance. And yet the establishment of the canon in its
completeness could only be effected after a considera
ble lapse of time. The books were in existence when

12 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
the first century closed, but they were scattered, and
some of them had not come to the knowledge of the
churches in many localities. Yet their circulation
would be certain, and in the course of time there would
surely arise a general consent of the churches in their
reception. Some of the originals required that they
should be sent from one church to another.* Others
were formally addressed to the whole Christian
woiid,t or to large bodies of readers. t If the original
were retained by the first church receiving it, doubt
less copies would be made as speedily as jDossible, and
sent forth to other places. This circulation would
give all the churches a proprietorship in the books, and
in the very nature of things, a certain defined list of
the writings would be generally known after a con
siderable time. It would not be all made up at once
and by some arbitrary decree of a church or a council.
It would be a growth, but would surely come to its
maturity at last. This is exactly what we find itt
history. It is probable that the earliest collection of
the sacred books was made in Asia Minor,§ and in
cluded only the Epistles, to which the Gospels must
have been very quickly added, as the testimony is
especiaUy full and clear that they were all used in the
early part of the second century. But some of the
writings were kept waiting for a long time before they
were aUowed admission into the Ust of fully accepted
books. The Peshito, a Syriac translation, hereafter to
* Col. iv. 16. t Jude i. 1 ; 2 Peter i. 1.
J James i. 1 ; 1 Peter i. 1 ; Rev. i. i.
^ Davidson, Biblical Criticism, p. 477.

THE BOOK. 13
be described, of very early date, shows by its omis
sion of the second and third Epistles of St. John, the
second of St. Peter, that of St. Jude, and the Revela^
tion, that these books were still held in doubt when
the translation was made. The Christians were not
to be easily duped, and the very delay in the reception
of some of the sacred books has had a hapjDy influence
upon the faith of all succeeding ages just on this
account. Yet with the exception of the five books
named above, to which the Epistle to the Hebrews
should be added, all the New Testament was already
recognized as insj^ired by the churches in Asia, Syria,
Africa, and Italy, and the remaining books, before
the passage of another century, found a generally
recognized place in the canon. And all evidence goes
to show that before the middle of the fourth century
the canon, as we have it, was closed.
All this indicates that there must have been a mul
titude of copies of the sacred writings in existence very
early, and they must have been scattered everywhere
by the middle of the fourth century. If the originals
were composed before the year 100, two hundred and
fifty years had elapsed in which their copies had been
scattered among the Christians all over the world.
The way in which these copies were made, to be more
especially considered ujDon a future page, did not pre
vent occasional errors in the text. No theory of in
spiration has ever required all copies to be inspired.
Just as in the case of all other books of those early
times, various readings are found to exist in many
places in the New Testament, and so it becomes neces-

14 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
sary to determine, if possible, which is the correct
text, — that of the original document itself. These an
cient copies of the writings of the New Testament are
to be treated, therefore, exactly as the classical works
of Greece and Rome are treated, so far as textual
criticism is concerned. Every interpreter of the Bible
wishes to know what was really written by the author
whom he is studying. The reader of an English ver
sion, if he is not skilled in the original languages so
that he can go back of the English text to that from
which it was translated, has a right to demand some
proofs of the true scholarship, the ability and honesty,
of him who made the translation. In exactly the same
way the reader of the Greek text pushes the inquiry
still further back, that he may know whether the
Greek he is reading was really what was written by
the author in the apostolic age. And if there are two
or more manuscripts, of the Gospel of Mark for in
stance, it is his work to take all the evidence into
account by which he can determine whether, if these
manuscripts differ in any respect, his text coincides
with the correct reading, or not. So it is seen that,
however valuable the work of an interpreter is, the
determination of the text itself is of more value stUl
and lies at the foundation of the interpreter's work.
The first duty of all criticism is, therefore, the consid
eration of the correctness, or incorrectness, of the text
itself, and the restoration of it, so far as may be possible,
to the original readings of the autograph manuscript.
If, only, the autograph itself could be discovered,
the task would be easy. But it is true of every one of

THE BOOK. 15
the New Testament writings that the original doubt
less perished at an early date. Copies alone are found ;
it is to these that recourse must be had, and a judg
ment must be formed by a comparison of their texts
with each other. It is fortunate that there are other
helps also, as, for example, the various versions that
have been made, for it is evident that a translation is
an index of that from which the translation was made.
If an early version indicated a reading different from
that of the copies of manuscripts of about the same
period, this version must of course be taken into ac
count ; it may be, perhaps, of even greater importance
than the manuscripts of the text themselves of the
same period, because it proves that they were not
the originals — that a text must have existed earlier
from which the version was made. Wonderful skill is
required to collect all the evidence possible, and then
determine between the false and the true ; and the work
of the textual critic is therefore deservedly reckoned
as a science, having its own laws, and requiring the
most careful training upon the part of every scholar who
undertakes its difficult tasks. The principal sources
from which such criticism derives its aid in deter
mining the changes that have been made in the text
of the New Testament, and which make it possible to
restore the authentic readings, are thus enumerated
by one of the greatest of these learned critics. Dr.
Samuel Davidson, in his Treatise on Biblical Criti
cism, frequently referred to in these pages, gives these
sources as foUows : —

16 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
1. Ancient versions of the Sacred Scriptures.
2. Parallels or repeated passages.
3. Quotations.
4. MSS. or written copies.
5. Critical conjecture.
This order is observed because, as a matter of fact, the
manuscripts of the text so far as discovered at present
are all of dates subsequent to sources of the first three
kinds, which have been useful in this department of
study. Not only have the autographs of the New
Testament Scriptures been lost, but also all copies of
them during the earliest years of Christianity have
thus far eluded the most thorough search. Indeed
there is a wide gap of almost three centuries between
the original manuscripts of the Evangelists apd Apos
tles, and the earliest copies of their writings which
have yet been discovered. But this long interval
is not without its important, its abundant witness
to the real text of the originals themselves. The ab
sence of the autographs and of their earlier copies
may readily be explained by many reasons. As we
shall soon see, it is almost certain that the originals
and most of the first copies were written upon fragile
papyrus, which probably soon crumbled away, or be
came so tattered and worn as to be practically useless.
It is historical, too, that multitudes of these first
Christian books were destroyed deliberately, or of
necessity, within the first three centuries. In the
various persecutions many of these precious volumes
were lost. It was well understood by the heathen
enemies of the young and growing Church, how

THE BOOK. 17
much value the Christians placed upon their Scrip
tures, as the source of their faith and the guide
to their lives. In the last and fiercest persecution of
all, that under Diocletian, from A. D. 303 to 312, it
was proclaimed upon Easter-day,* that all religious
assemblies should be dispersed, all Christian churches
demolished, every copy of the Scriptures be delivered
up and burnt, and the Christians themselves, who
should refuse to sacrifice to the gods, should forfeit
their lives and their estates. The decree shows how
important it was deemed by the foes of the new relig
ion to destroy the writings, as weU as the Uves and
the property, of the Christians. By far the larger
number refused to give up the books, and were pun
ished with more or less severity, as the respective gov
ernors determined. Tn Abitina, for instance, a town in
proconsular Africa, forty-nine Christians, who had as
sembled for the professed purpose of reading the Scrip
tures, and who refused to give up either their books,
or their faith, were seized and executed, a heroic boy
among them, whose name, Hilarianus, has been grate
fully remembered in history on account of his fidelity
and almost romantic devotion to the truth. But all
were not so brave, and many of the weaker sort vol
untarily gave up their books under threats of torture.
There were so many of this class that a special name
was attached to them, and they were caUed Traditores,
or " Givers up." There were very few, even of the
faithful, who could successfuUy conceal the books, and
it is doubted by some scholars,! so great was the loss
* Guericke, Church History (Ancient) pp. 94 and 95.
t Scrivener, Six Lectures, p. 9.

18 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
of these years, whether any, or at most more than a
few inconsiderable fragments, of the New Testament
are now extant, older than the reign of Diocletian.
But as I said, other sources are preserved from the
interval between the apostolic days and the earliest
known manuscripts, and these are of the first classes
noted by Davidson. The first three centuries had
many Christian writers, whose works stand now
upon the shelves of our libraries, and in which are
multitudinous quotations, with added comments and
expositions, which are of inestimable service in deter
mining the texts of the sacred manuscripts, which
these writers possessed. If Irenaeus, in the second
century, quoted a passage of Scripture, that passage,
as it stands in his works, is a certain index of a text
existing at that time, even though no separate manu
script of such an early date is found. And in the
same way the existence of Syriac, Coptic, Latin, and
other versions, though themselves belonging to dates
not earlier than extant manuscripts, give evidence of
the lost copies from which they were translated. It
is, however, especially the fourth source in the order
given by Davidson as quoted above, the manuscripts
or written copies themselves, which are the special
subject of the following pages, though incidentaUy, and
around these as their centre, all of the other sources
must be spoken of, and a few other topics briefly
treated, as throwing Ught upon the main subject.
Will the reader be led to question, if all these
things are so, whether we have really an inspired
Bible to-day, and whether our religion is not after aU

THE BOOK. 19
built upon a shaking foundation, if it rests simply
upon Scrij)tures, that have become even in the slight
est degree corrupt? Such a fear may indeed arise,
but it may be as quickly dismissed. The very study
of the manuscripts, which reveals these discrepancies,
reveals far more their substantial unity, and leaves
beyond question the fact that, in the common origin
of them all, there was the text, which taught essen
tiaUy the same truths which the later copies teach.
The pyramids give no stronger testimony to their
builders than the manuscripts in our possession give
to the text originally written by Apostles and their as
sociates. And all the corruptions of the original text
in the copies are really no more than the stains and
abrasions, the mutilations and accretions which have
altered the pyramids from what they were when they
first cast their pointed shadows over the sands of the
Egyptian desert. The form, the body, the mass, the
pyramid, is the same to-day that it ever was. There
have been, indeed, many important lessons leamed
from the critical uses of the manuscripts. Many pas
sages of doubtful import have been made clear by
the alteration of a letter or word according to the
suggestion of one of these ancient documents; Some
times a whole verse or passage has been found to be
spurious, an interpolation of a later date by some
copyist who meant well indeed, but whose action was
a serious mistake. But with aU such corrections and
with every change there has been no substantial al
teration, nothing that has affected at all the great
body of Christian truth, nothing that has imperiUed

20 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
for a moment any doctrine of the Church. The Scrip
tures are too broad for that. They do not build their
teachings upon any single verse. Line upon line,
precept upon precept, they teach without uncertainty,
and one part confirms another. And yet there are
many delicate shades of meaning, which the devout
reader wiU find of great use to his spiritual life, in
almost every passage of the Christian Scriptures, and
if even these can be brought out by a correction of the
text, it is most desirable. But especially if, through
the craft or even the well-meant interference of some
copyist, a pernicious alteration has been made, — a
change which teaches a really unscriptural thing, or
which to the slightest degree obscures or complicates
the statement of truth originally made, — it is evident
that the greatest service to the reader and to the
Church is performed, if the error is exposed. But
such falsities are rare. Many passages, however,
would have whoUy failed to yield the truth without
their elucidation by the critic of the text.
Miohaelis classified the various readings of extant
manuscripts as follows, though of course there are a
few others of different kinds, which refuse to be
classed with any and must stand as unique.
" The various readings in our manuscripts of the
New Testament," writes this critic, "have been occa
sioned by one of the five foUowing causes : —
1. The omission, addition, or exchange of letters,
syllables, or words, from the mere carelessness of the
transcribers. 2. Mistakes of the transcribers in regard to the true
text of the original.

THE BOOK. 21
3. Errors or imperfections in the ancient manuscript
from which the transcriber copied.
4. Critical conjecture, or intended improvements of
the original text.
5. Wilful corruptions to serve the purpose of a
party, whether orthodox or heterodox."
It may readily be seen that errors frora the last
source must be very few. The very hatred engendered
by such party-strife, and the suspicion that such means
might be resorted to for the support of asserted doc
trine, would be sufficient to insure the keenest watch
fulness lest the fraud should be consummated. It is
hardly imaginable that errors of this kind co^ld have
remained long undetected.
Dr. John Mill of Oxford computed the various
readings for the New Testament alone at about thirty
thousand. This was in the year 1707. Probably the
number that have been noted up to the present time
would be more correctly stated at one hundred and
twenty thousand. The vast mass of these, however,
are of almost no importance, as will be more fully
indicated in a subsequent chapter. It will be sufficient
here merely to emphasize the statement, that with all
these errors, the evidence for their correction is far
stronger than any upon which our knowledge of other
ancient books is based. The manuscripts of the Greek
Scriptures, not merely those of the New Testament
but also of the Septuagint version of the Old Testa
ment, are far more numerous, and surpass in age
those of aU classical writings put together. Of the
writings of Homer, who lived perhaps eight or nine

22 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
hundred years before Christ, we know nothing except
through copies that date from a time very long after
Christ. No coraplete copy dates back farther than
the thirteenth century, though fragments have come
to light that should be assigned possibly to the sixth
century. Herodotus, the most ancient and important
of classic historians, has no manuscript extant earlier
than the ninth century ; and of the fifteen known to
exist, the majority are later than the middle of the
fifteenth century. Of Plato's writings there are fewer
copies than of Herodotus, and none before the ninth
century. A single Virgil in the Vatican Library claims
to have originated in the fourth century, but it stands
alone among the classics in its high antiquity. But
of the New Testament there are thousands of raanu-
scripts, and the earliest leave but a gap of about two
centuries between thera and the lives of the raen who
wrote the originals. The immetise iraportance of these
Scriptures, compared with the choicest of the classics,
would seem to demand their fuller preservation and a
more accurate means of determihing their true text
than in the case of any other corapositions whatever ;
and the gratitude of Christendora is strongly called
forth, because this deraand is so fully met by the facts,
and the testimony to the originals is so coraplete.
It is thus that the Book brings its lessons of God
and godly living to the men of our day. There is no
doubt to undermine our faith, there is no fear to cast
a cloud over the radiance of divine truth that streams
from the inspired Word.

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 23

CHAPTER II.
BOOKS in ancient TIMES.
If the raethod in which books were made, before the
art of printing and the improvements in the materials
used in their, manufacture gave thera their present
forra, be considered, the story of the manuscripts will
be the raore easily told and understood. It will avail
nothing to speak of the tablets used by the Greeks
and Romans, even at the very time when the Chris
tian Scriptures were beginning to be written, nor of
other forms of books more ancient still, — like slabs of
stone or metal, — which would be of the greatest im
portance were the present discussion with reference to
the writings of the Old Testament. We have only to
do with the kind of books that were in general use in
the lands of the apostolic writers, and the materials
which they coramonly employed. And it is sufficient
to note of all preceding writings, that the rudest forms
had long since yielded to ingenious improveraents, as
civilization had advanced, so that in the times of the
New Testaraent facilities for writing existed, which
forraer ages would have counted themselves rich to
possess. No longer were men engraving their histo
ries in rude cuneiform characters upon such tablets of
baked clay as were found in the ruins of the palace

24 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
of Koniunjik, at Nineveh, of about 670 B. C, and as
they may still be seen in the British Museum. Even
the delicate wood and ivory plates were now for the
most part displaced among Greeks and Romans.
When the writings of the New Testament were made,
the river Nile had already been yielding for centuries
its harvests of reeds, out of which a substance was
manufactured more nearly resembling modern paj^er,
than anything that had yet been seen. Fine skins
of leather were also sewed together, forming long
strips, which were rolled up. upon wands after they
had received the writing, and were kept in cases of
leather, or wood, or metal. This is the origin of our
word volume, frora the Latin word volvere, to roll
up. These strips of vellum or papyrus were about
four inches in breadth, and only a few inches long,
and were generally fastened together laterally, so
that the whole made one long strip, as wide as the
original pieces were long, and as long as the writ
ing might require. The text upon these ancient
rolls was usually written in columns correspond
ing to the original pieces of papyrus, or vellum, thus
fastened together. Thus an open roll would exhibit
a few, short, parallel columns ; these would be read
in their order, and rolled up, as fast as read, upon
the stick held in the left hand, while new columns
would appear from the roll held in the right hand.
Undoubtedly, all the writers of the Bible before the
times of the New Testament committed their works
to parchment prepared in this form, and the sacred
books in the possession of the Jewish synagogues, and

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 25
from which special lessons,* both frora the Law and
the Prophets, were read each Sabbath, were thus
made, and entrusted in each synagogue to the care of
a special officer, called the chazzan.
Sometimes, instead of this preparation in rolls,
manuscripts would be written and the separate pages,
or leaves, stitched together upon one side, thus making
a book more in accordance with the modern form,
though the lack of hydraulic pressure for solidifying
the volume made such books very cumbersome, and
they were comparatively few. Their nuraber largely
increased, however, as the use of skins superseded that
of papyrus, which was the case in the early Christian
centuries. The vast consuraption of this product of
the Nile at last exhausted the harvests of that river,
and sorae substitute becarae necessary for the delicate
fabric . so long used. The preparation of skins was
raade more carefully, and very beautiful products were
at last given to the market for the manufacture of
books. The skins of young antelopes or of calves
were dressed with the greatest care, and vellum,
already so long in use, by the third century was
gi-eatly iraproved and was daily substituted for the
raaterial that had forraerly been at once commoner
and cheaper. And for many centuries vellum con
tinued to be the principal material. It was not until
the ninth century, when the art formerly employed in
preparing the skins for veUura had greatly degener
ated, that a coarse paper raade from cotton rags
began to be used ; and it was only in the twelfth cen-
* Luke iv. 16, 17.

26 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
tury, not very long before the invention of printing,
that linen paper was made, elegantly finished, and
almost like the best vellum of the earlier times.
It must be remembered that the art of writhig was
for the most part confined to comparatively few peo
ple. Even those who were skilled with the style or
pen generally employed amanuenses, if they under
took any long composition. And when more than one
copy of an author's works was desired, the text was
all written out again laboriously by hand. It was a
special branch of business, to write for authors, or
to copy their works. Paul, for example, did not write
his own epistles. In that sense, none of the New
Testament Scriptures are autographs. They were aU
written by amanuens* at the dictation of the authors,
Paul's scribe was naitted Tertius.* When he writes
to the Colossians t as well as in other cases, Paul
adds a subscription, which sometimes takes the form
of a salutation, with his own hand, thereby making
the whole letter his own ; and to the Galatians t
he says : " Ye see " (not, " how large a letter," as King
Jaraes's version has it) " with what large letters I have
written unto you with raine own hand," thereby calb
ing attention tq his peculiar chirography as a special
mark of the genuineness of the epistle, Thege scribes,
accustomed to write from the most rapid dictation,
were called tachygraphers, or quick ^riterp. Then if
the work was to be copied, as was usually the case,
* Eom. xvi. 33. t Ool. iv. 18 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 2\.
X Gal. vi. 11. See EUioott, Commentary in loco, ElUoott
thinks that the whole Epistle tp the Qalatiaqs -yya? \i'ritten by St.
Paul's own hand.

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 27
other scribes, trained especially for the work, and tak
ing a longer time for its performance, re-wrote the
whole text in beautifully formed letters. These scribes
were called calligraphers, or fairhand writers, and the
specimens of their work, which are extant, are some
times as beautiful as engraving from copper-plate.
In the early centuries of our era, as well as during
the Middle Ages,' the word librarius meant either a
bookseller or a transcriber of books, to which was
sometimes added the meaning very nearly akin to our
modern word librarian. But the raore general usage
was its application to one who wrote or copied manu
scripts. In the Roman Empire these transcribers were
often slaves, though there were many, especially in the
provinces, who labored for pay which was generally
wholly incommensurate with the labor performed. In
Christian times the copies of all ecclesiastical works
were usually raade by members of the order for which
the transcription was raade ; and because the raonas-
teries becarae the principal repositories of learning a
multitude of works not deemed sacred, but preserved
only for their literary value, were thus stored away in
the libraries. It raay even be asserted, that had it not
been for Christianity, and the care with which it fos
tered learning in the early times, our knowledge of the
heathen classics would be far less than it is at present.
It has been already remarked that the copies of such
works are few, and it can hardly be doubted that they
would be far fewer still, if the librarii of the monas
teries had not jJPVPted much time and labor to their
preservation.

28 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
Origen is said to have been one of the first Chris
tians who gave regular employment to transcribers.
Alexander of Jerusalem, the bishop of the church, and
Origen's friend, formed one of the earliest ecclesiasti
cal libraries, and this collection gave aid to Eusebius
in his works. The latter, it is said, received a com
mission from the Emperor Constantine to prepare fifty
copies of the entire Greek Scriptures,* upon the finest
material, and by the best workraen, and the volumes,
when completed, were transported to Constantinople
from Cffisarea in two of the government wagons.
These manuscripts were inspected by the emperor
himself, and then coramitted to the charge of the chief
churches for use and preservation. It may be, as has
been suggested, that the best manuscripts of the Scrip
tures io our possession had their origin ia these copies
made by the imperial command.
Christian scribes were of all offices and rank. It
was not thought unworthy employment for even the
highest dignitaries of the church to devote themselves
to making elegant copies of the sacred books. And in
the lower ranks in the monasteries, if a brother were
found to have sjjecial abilities in such lines of work, he
was excused the coarser and more violent kinds of
labor that might naturally have fallen to his lot, and
his hand was kept delicate and his powers fresh for
the sacred employment of the scriptorium. It was
not for hira to hew wood or draw water ; his care
must be for the style and the brush, the ruler and
* Not merely of the Gospels, as Tregelles asserted. Comp.
Bleek, Einleitung, § 268, 2.

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 29
compass, the inkstand and vial, the pounce and the
mixing tablet, for thus only could the work be wor
thily done.
Alexandria in Egypt, and sorae other African locali
ties, have given the raost valuable raanuscripts of the
Bible to Christendora. But raany other places, also,
were fruitful in the production of books both sacred
and profane. Those executed at Constantinople, often
under the patronage of the Byzantine eraperors, were
famous for the excellence of their text and the splen
dor of their illuminations ; while many valuable works
are extant from Asia Minor, frora the islands of the
^gean Sea, and from Cyprus. It will be noted
by the reader that Mount Athos is frequently men
tioned in connection with the manuscripts described
in these pages. There was, indeed, no place more
faraous than this mountainous promontory for the
production of ancient books. Upon the rocky heights
of this headland there were multitudes of monas
teries, so that the mountain seemed almost covered
with them ; and they were deemed secure from all
violence alike on account of their natural position and
because the sanctity of their recluses invested the
place with special awe. Another celebrated group of
monasteries was in Calabria, the most southern prov
ince of Italy, where nearly fifty religious establish
ments supplied the churches and libraries of Rome
and Naples, Florence and Venice and Milan. And it
is frora a cathedral town of this region that in these
late years the Codex Rossanensis has been brought
to light, as described in a future chapter. Besides

30 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
these larger groups of monasteries there were a multi
tude of isolated retreats, whose inhabitants found con
genial employment for the listless hours in thus tran
scribing the books around which the veneration of
ages had already gathered.
The great value attached to the completed volumes
inay be readily imagined. The rules of monasteries
frequently record the care with which the treasures
of the library were guarded. Usually the ordinary
monk was not allowed to have books frora the library
for his jjrivate use, except at certain seasons, as during
Lent. It was sometimes i^rescribed that every monk
should be provided with a handkerchief in which the
volurae was to be wrapped when not in use. Words
like those that have kept the dust of Shakespeare
untouched in the church at Stratford-on-Avon were
soraetimes written uj)on a book to save it from thieves,
or even from careless misappropriation by some for
getful borrower. A -curious instance occurs in the
Missal of St. Maur des Fosses,* in which the words
were written : " This book belongs to St. Mary and
St. Peter, of the monastery of the Trenches. He who
shall have stolen or sold it, or in any manner with
drawn it from this place ; or he who shall have been
its buyer, may he be forever in the company of Judas,
Pilate, and Caiaphas. Amen, amen. Fiat, fiat. Brother
Robert Gualensis, being yet young and a Levite, hath
devoutly written it for his soul's health, in the time
of Louis, king of the French, and of Ascelin, abbot of
this place. Richard, prior and monk, caused this book
* Smith's Diet, of Christian Antiquities, II. 1013, b.

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 31
to be copied, in order to deserve the heavenly and
blessed country. Thou, O priest, who ministerest be
fore the Lord, be mindful of hira. Pater noster."
Another interesting example is in a copy of the Gos
pels of the thirteenth century: "This sacred gospel
has been copied by the hand of George, priest of
Rhodes, by the exertions and care of Athanasius,
cloistered monk, and by the labour of Christonymus
Chartinos, for their souls' health. If any man dare
carry it off, either secretly or publicly, let him incur
the malediction of the twelve apostles and let him also
receive the heavier curse of all monks. Amen. The
first day of the month of SeiJteraber, year 6743, of
Jesus Christ 1215." Another instance that may be
given is that of the . celebrated Curetonian Gospels in
Syriac, which contain upon the first leaf a record of
the ownership of the volume, with a prayer, instead
of the malediction of the preceding examples. The
note is as follows : — " This book belonged to the
monk Habibai, who presented it to the holy convent
of the Church of Deipara, belonging to the Syrians in
the Desert of Scete. May God, abounding in mercies
and compassion, for the sake of whose glorious narae
he set apart and gave this spiritual treasure, forgive
his sins and pardon his deficiencies, and number him
among His own elect in the day of the resurrection
of His friends, through the prayers of all the circle of
the saints ! Amen, Amen. — Son of the living God,
at the hour of Thy judgment spare the sinner who
wrote this!" Very often the colophon of a manu
script is very touching. Sometimes it records a

32 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
personal peculiarity, as in a case mentioned by Scriv
ener in which "the one-eyed Cyprian" is named.
The sarae scholar also refers to the following distich,
extracted from a manuscript in the valuable collection
of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts (II. 10) :
¦fl fiiv )(eIq -fl yq&tjjaaa arinerai. xciqjoi,
¦fl dk (li^log latajai . . . fiixQ'- icQf-ntTwv.
"The hand that wrote doth moulder in the tomb;
The Book abideth till the day of doom."
In the very nature of the case, it was irapossible to
raake the copies of original works exactly like the
autographs. However skilled the calligraphers raight
be, and however great may have been the advantages
of seclusion and of reverence for their work, they
would inevitably fail to reproduce the text with any
thing Uke the accuracy which our modern methods
secure. By the perfected processes of book-making in
our own time every volume of the same edition is a
facsimile of every other. From the stereotyped plate
a thousand pages are struck off with the greatest
rapidity, and not one letter is lost frora any page of
the thousand. It was inevitable that the slow, weari
some process of copying by hand should be less accu
rate than this mechanical raethod. The scrupulous
conscience of the most devout copyist could not pre
vent dimness from stealing over the eye, nor keep
away the treraor from a tired hand. Interruptions
would disturb even the most secret scriptorium, and
the attention withdrawn suddenly from the work
would return to it with less power to fix itself upon

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 33
the completion of the task. Thus a word might be
begun correctly and finished incorrectly. A line or
part of a line raight be oraitted. And if a sudden Ul-
ness, or sorae equally untoward event, occasioned a
delay, doubtless in raany cases the writing was never
resuraed, and the manuscript remained forever incom
plete. It was not infrequent in the Middle Ages that
the piety and the skUl of these copyists, who were
generally monks, were equally famous ; and if one of
them died in the midst of his task, the awe-stricken
brotherhood deemed his work too sacred to be finished
by another's hand. A thousand casualties, indeed, in
addition to all the imperfections that naturally attend
such labors of eye and hand, occasioned what we now
find in ancient raanuscripts of every kind. Here and
there are false readings ; here and there are omissions
of words and even of lines. In a multitude of cases
the work is only a fragment of what was once written,
worn away and tattered by the usage to which it has
been subjected through many years. And soraetiraes
the text was designedly destroyed. VeUura becarae
so costly that authors obtained it only with the great
est difficulty, and a raethod was devised by which
skins that had been already used could be cleansed
and used again. The vegetable ink of those early
tiraes could be nearly obliterated, and many ancient
raanuscripts were thus made ready to receive a new
text, written in the place of the old. Books thus
raade were called palimpsests, frora Greek words
signifying rubbed away again. But usuaUy, as time
went on, the older writing, obliterated only by imper-

34 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
feet raethods, grew clear again, and the vellum bore
two texts, the one written over the other, and both
deciphered with the greatest difficulty. Soraetiraes
the skin was prepared twice in this manner, and as
the lapse of years, or the use of artificial means, re
stored the originals, a triple text appeared, demanding
the most erudite and patient scholarship to decipher it
correctly. .
The most interesting discovery of ancient manu
scripts, apart from those of the sacred books of Chris
tianity, is that which was made at Herculaneum, the
city of Campania in Italy which was buried in the
sarae great eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed
Pompeii, in the year 79. The earliest explorations
in 1684 and 1720 were followed by the raore energetic
endeavors of excavators, who worked under a royal
coramission, and the nuraber of works of art brought
to light was largely increased. It was at this period,
in the decade frora 1750 to 1760, that a vUla was un
covered in which was found a library of about two
thousand voluraes. The rolls were badly damaged,
and bore traces of having been subjected to intense
heat. They were finaUy successfuUy treated by An
tonio Piaggi of the Vatican Library, and their con
tents made legible. It was found that none of the
works were of any great importance, but the form and
fashion of the books gave to them a special value, as
showing the kind of volumes that existed in the first
century of the Christian era, when these had been
buried under the lava and ashes of Vesuvius. They
are the only undoubted specimens of books contem-

BOOKS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 35
poraneous with the writings of the Apostles. They
are written in uncials which captivate the eye by
their minuteness and elegance. There are no accents
or breathings, the punctuation is very rare, and the
spaces between sentences few. In a word, they give
the best idea of the probable aspect of the apostolic
writings ; and the earliest manuscripts of the New
Testament extant are very similar to these unques
tioned specimens of the literature of the first century.
The invention of printing in 1452 may be consid
ered as the close of the period of ancient book-making.
The first production of the press of considerable im
portance was the elegant Latin Bible of Gutenberg,
issued in 1456.* It was in three volumes, folio, with
two columns of thirty-six lines to a page. The text
was an imitation of the text of manuscripts ; it was
printed on vellum and illuminated by hand. The sub
sequent multiplication of copies by Gutenberg's former
associates, Faust and Schoeffer, their exact uniformity
and low price, excited the greatest wonder. It could
not be credited that such work could be done without
the aid of power beyond that which was human, and the
printers barely escaped from the punishment usually
inflicted in those days upon men who were in league
with the devil. They saved their lives only by reveal
ing the raethods by which the pages were reproduced,
and the knowledge of the invention soon spread over
* A copy of this first printed book has just been sold in New
York for $8,000, and the last copy which was sold in England
was purchased by the Earl of Ashburnham for £3,400, said to
be the highest price ever paid for a book.

36 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
Europe. It was the end of the old fashions, the be
ginning of the modern period ; and though for a brief
time raanuscripts were still written as of old, the prac
tice soon died out under the rapidly increasing faciU-
ties afforded by the press.

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 37

CHAPTER III.
MANUSCEIPTS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCErPTUEES.
It is almost certain that the writers of the originals
of the New Testament employed the papyrus paper
as the material upon which they wrote. The veUura
of their day was far more costly than the papyrus, and
the latter was in raore general use for all short records,
letters, or any writings that were not deeraed specially
worthy of preservation. It is quite conceivable that,
at least in raany instances, the apostles hardly realized
what they were doing when they were sending their
letters to the churches. Were they aware that they
were writing not merely for the Christians of their
own times, but for the Church in all ages and in all
the lands of the earth ? It is hardly credible. They
could have had no conception of how the very orig
inal manuscript would be cherished at the end of a
few hundred years, if it should then be in existence ;
otherwise, they would doubtless have used the more
enduring materials. The papyrus leaves were frail,
and would not suffer much handling. It raay be a
matter for wonder that the churches did not at once
provide copies upon veUura, which could the raore
easily be preserved. Doubtless they did cause such
copies to be made, though they may have waited until
after the death of the authors, or until the signs of the

38 THE STORY OF THI3 MANUSCEIPTS.
destruction of the papyrus became too threatening to
be neglected. But as time went on, as the apostles
died, as their works became worn and mutUated,
copies were multiplied until it became impossible that
any chance or change could ever deprive the world of
the priceless treasure given to it in the New Testa
ment Scriptures.
The number of raanuscripts of the New Testaraent,
or of parts of it, thus far discovered is large. It has
been estimated that there must be somewhat more
than two thousand documents of this kind scattered
among the great libraries of Christendom. Those of
the earlier dates are naturally the most rare. Only
two can be assigned with certainty to the fourth cen
tury, though a few important manuscript versions
of the sarae date are extant. Several date from the
next two centuries, and the number increases steadily
down to the tenth century, after which there are a
multitude already discovered. How many more re
main upon the shelves of monasteries whose dust has
not been disturbed for decades, or even for centuries,
no one can say, but it may be that from these hidden
treasures shall yet be brought forth ancient copies
which shall be of immense value in determining the
true reading of the Scriptures. It was not until 1844
and 1859 that the two parts of the faraous Sinaitic
raanuscript of the fourth century were discovered,
and only so late as 1879 the world was startled^ by the
report that a new docuraent containing almost the
whole text of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St.
Mark had been found, an aid to criticism then hoped

MANUSCEIPTS OF THE SCRIPTDEES. 39
to be equal to the bes1 manuscripts previously in our
hands. The story of these discoveries will be given
in subsequent chapters ; but it is evident, frora the
fact that they have come to Ught only in these late
years, that there may yet be valuable treasures await
ing the search of future scholars.
The documents thus far found are divided into
(jlasses, and distinguished by certain marks, whereby
they are known to all scholars. Two gi-eat divisions
have been made according to the forra of the charac
ters employed. In the earlier manuscripts all the let
ters are of the same size, capitals, and written for the
most part without breaks or stops ; none of the letters
trespass upon the margins pf the page, and the uni
formity of the hues is not broken even for the sake of
preventing the division of a word. If a corresponding
example be given in English the appearance of such a
manuscript may be the more easily conceived. Take,
for example, two verses of the last chapter of the Gos
pel of St. Mark (xvi. 4, 5). As these verses appear in
the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts, before any addi
tions were made to the text, they are equivalent to the
following English, though the order of the words in
the originals is different, according to the Greek forms
of the sentence. ANDWHENTH EYLOOKEDTHEYS
A WTH AT THE STONE WASROLLE
DAWAYFORITWASVERYGREAT
AN D E N T E RINGINTOTHESEPU
LCHRETHEYSAWAYOUNGMANS
ITTING ONT HE RIGHT SIDECL
OTHEDINALONG WHITE GAEME
NT AND THEYWEREAFFEIGHTE
D

40 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
The term uncial was given to manuscripts written
in this manner, from the Latin word nncia, an inch,
the letters sometimes being nearly an inch long. This
method of writing was employed in the times of the
Saviour and His apostles, and was changed only very
gradually. After a time a letter larger than the others
would occasionally mark the beginning of a sentence.
Then decorations were added to this initial letter, and
its size was so increased as to occupy a part of the
margin. Spaces between the words began to appear,
and the whole text was punctuated with more or less
accuracy. Finally, every letter was slightly inclined,
as the natural tendency in modern chirography and in
all rapid writing is to slant the characters. And so,
at last, about the beginning of the tenth century, the
letters employed were smaller and often connected to
gether, and a running hand became the ordinary
method of writing. These manuscripts were there
fore called cursive, and on account of their later date
and more rapid production are of less value than the
uncials. Many of them are volumes of the gi'eatest
elegance. The vellum most delicately finished, and
often dyed a rich color, and the text beautifully writ
ten soraetiraes in silver, or colored inks, and adorned
with briUiant Uluminations, testify to the immense
labor and pious care of the monks, who often gave
their lives to the work. The cursives are very nu
merous, and sixteen hundred of them appear in cata
logues, though not more than a hundred of these have
been collated and made the objects of critical study.
The uncials, as the older and raore valuable, have, of
course, occupied the greater attention of scholars.

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SORIPTUEES. 41
There are many raanuscripts, some of them of high
importance, which have their Scriptures so divided as
to have received a special name, according to the pur
poses for which they were used. These are the Lec-
tionaries, themselves divided and named according to
the Scriptures they contain. They were Service-
books, with portions appointed for reading in order
for each day, without reference to their original places
in the New Testaraent. Each date had a passage frora
the Gospels and one from the Epistles assigned to it,
and these lessons were generally bound in separate
voluraes, those frora the Gospels together, and those
from the other parts by themselves. This custom
gave rise to two names : the Evangelistaria, for the
volumes containing the lessons from the Gospels ; and
the Praxapostolos, a corapound word frora the Greek
words for acts and apostle, for the book containing the
lessons from the Acts and Epistles. The Evangelis
taria outnumber the Praxapostoloi raore than three to
one. It will be very readily seen, that, though these Lec-
tionaries do not profess to give a connected text, they
are of great value in determining the reading of what
ever Scriptures they were copied from, so far as the
selections preserved in them are concerned. And it
must be, that no inconsiderable portion of the New
Testament would be found in a Service-book con
taining lessons not only for Feast-days marked by
special services, but for every day in the year.
The inconveniences of a mode of writing which left
no spaces between the words and sentences, and
which had no punctuation or other aids to the eye

42 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
and tongue in reading, were early felt, and led to
attempts to reraedy the evil. Such efforts have'been
briefly sketched already, in speaking of the gradual
transition from the uncial to the cursive methods of
writing. But it should be marked that sorae faint
traces, at least, of attempts to punctuate are to be
found in almost all the manuscripts in our possession,
while very raany exhibit definite and well-formed sys
tems of divisions, by which changes of topic and the
necessary separation of sentences and words in reading
are indicated. Even as early as the beginning of the
third century some attempt had been made to divide
the text into heads or chapters, for TertuUian, who
died previous to the year 240, speaks of it. The
divisions that appear in sorae manuscripts, caUed the
Ammonian-Eusebian sections, mark another attempt
of the kind. They were definite divisions of the
Gospels into chapters, and were smaller than those of
the present tirae. They received their name because
they were originally adopted by Araraonius of Alex
andria, who raade a harmony of the Gospels, and
divided the text thus ; a plan subsequently adapted to
a similar work by Eusebius. They are usually num
bered in the margins. Another division of the text,
later than these sections, were the tltXoi, or titles,
larger portions than the Araraonian sections, and so
called because the titles, or subjects, were written in
the upper or lower margins. A very noteworthy
attempt to write the text in such a manner as to as
sist the eye and voice of the reader, was made by
EuthaUus of Alexandria in the year 462. This di-

MANUSCEIPTS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 43
vision was especially useful in the public reading of
the Scriptures. EuthaUus first caused the Epistles
of St. Paul, and a little later the Acts and General
Epistles to be written in lines, or stichoi {atixoC) as
they were called, containing the words that were to
be read without interruption. The same raethod was
also applied to the Gospels, but probably not by
EuthaUus himself. Such a way of writing was called
stichometry, and several extant manuscripts are in
this form, as the celebrated codices Cantabrigiensis
and Laudianus. The system was too cumbersome to
be universally adopted ; very few words could be
contained in a single line, and soraetiraes only one
word, in order to raake the reading clear. Sorae
manuscripts exist, for example Laudianus, named
above, which rarely have more than a single word
in a line. A great loss of space inevitably attends
such writing, and it could never be popular. Sim
pler methods of punctuation by dots, with spacing
of words and sentences, gained constantly in favor,
and after the tenth century becarae very common. It
is to be remerabered, however, that no uniforraity in
the laws of punctuation was acquired until after the
invention of printing in the fifteenth century, which
gave a multitude of facsimile copies of the Bible to
the world.
Entire copies of the New Testament were often
made, by bringing together manuscripts of the various
books, which were written at different times and by
various hands. The fact that a copy is entire is not
necessarily, therefore, a proof that the text of all its

44 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
parts is of equal age and value. But these charac
teristics betray themselves almost inevitably to the
scholar, and the origin of different parts of the same
manuscript can be assigned with great accuracy.
The order of the books is generally the same, al
though it differs somewhat from their position in the
volume to which we are accustomed. The Gospels
stand first, in the order in which we have them, then
the Acts, then the General Epistles, then the Epistles
of Paul, and the Revelation. Occasionally the Epis
tles of Paul are placed next to the Gospels, the Acts
follows, then the General Eijistles and the Revelation.
Other slight variations sometimes apjsear.
All the extant manuscripts of the New Testament
are in the form of books ; * the earlier rolls have
transmitted no specimen frora their number to us.
These books are in several forms, folio, quarto, and
duodecimo. If a manuscript contains the entire Bible,
or a large part of it, it may occupy more than one
volume, the number depending not merely upon the
amount of text preserved, but also upon the size of
the characters and the nature of the raaterial em
ployed. It is evident that a manuscript book raust be
much larger than a printed one under ordinary cir
cumstances, and sorae of the fragraents of the Scrip
tures preserved are of greater size than the large
quarto Bibles of the present day.
Almost all the great libraries and museums of the
Old World possess manuscripts of the Scriptures of
greater or less value. The most important documents
Compare Bleek's Einleitung, § 268, 3.

MANUSCEIPTS OF THE SCEIPTUEES. 45
are deposited as follows.* England has about two
hundred and fifty, more than half of which are at
Oxford, seventy-five in the British Museum in Lon
don, twenty-four in Lambeth Palace, nineteen in the
Ubraries at Cambridge, seventeen in the possession of
the Hon. Robert Curzon in Sussex, and the rest are
scattered. Scotland has seven, and Ireland three.
Italy contains three hundred and twenty. More than
half of these are in Rome, and more than one hundred
in the Vatican Library. About fifty are in Florence,
twenty in Turin, nine in Naples, fifty in Venice, six in
Modena, two in Messina, and a few are scattered. Two
hundred and twenty-eight are in the Imperial Library
in Paris, and there are ten besides in France. In
Germany and Austria there are about ninety. Vienna
has twenty-eight, Munich twenty-seven, Hamburg six,
Pesth two, Treves two, and others are scattered.
Russia has over seventy, of which the most important
are in St. Petersburg. There are nineteen in Spain,
one in Toledo, and all the rest in the Escurial at
Madrid. Switzerland possesses fourteen, Holland six,
Denmark three, and Sweden one.
It is not infrequent that manuscripts once entire
exist now only in parts, which are treasured in widely
separated libraries. Two uncials of great importance
were discovered in fragments, and are deposited in
distant places, a portion of each lying in the library
at St. Petersburg, while the other parts are in the
Bodleian Library at Oxford. Even the famous Sinaitic
manuscript itself has forty-three leaves at Leipzig,
* Prof. A. N. Arnold in Baptist Quarterly for October, 1867.

46 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
while the larger portion of the volurae is at St. Peters
burg. And of another and smaller codex, dating from
the sixth century and once a very beautiful volume,
thirty-three leaves have recently been discovered in
the Isle of Patmos, while twelve others have long
been in the possession of European libraries, four in
the British Museum, six in the Vatican at Rome, and
two in the Iraperial Library at Vienna.
The method of indicating the manuscripts which
has been adopted by scholars generally, assigns to
each one a special letter or number. The terra codex, — :
the Latin word for a book, the leaves of which were
not rolled together as in the volumina, but were laid
over each other as in modern voluraes, — is applied to
the manuscripts, as a shorter and more convenient
term, and they are spoken of as Codex A, Codex B,
Codex X, Codex 33, Codex 157, etc. It raust be re
membered, however, that the whole New Testament
is very rarely contained in a single manuscript, and
the same letter is sometimes applied to one codex
containing one portion of the New Testament, and to
another containing another portion. For instance.
Codex D of the Gospels and Acts (one manuscript) is
the Codex of Beza in the possession of the University
of Cambridge ; while Codex D of the Epistles of St.
Paul, which bears a close resemblance to D of the
Gospels and Acts and was also discovered by Beza, is
the name of No. 107 in the National Library of Paris.
In Uke manner there are three manuscripts designated
by the capital letter E. Codex E of the Gospels of
the eighth century is at Basle, while E of the Acts,

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SCEIPTUEES. 47
belonging to the sixth century, is in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford ; and E of the Epistles of St. Paul,
dating from the tenth century, is at St. Petersburg.
Such a raethod of designating these manuscripts might
seera to be attended with confusion, at first sight;
but really there is no serious difficulty presented. If
the docuraents are referred to without respect to any
particular passage, they can always be raarked with
exactness by mentioning the portion of Scripture in
cluded, as, for example. Codex D of the Epistles;
while the discussion of any special text of itself de
termines at once the meaning of the letter attached
to the codex containing it, as, if a passage in the
Epistle to the Romans were in question, a simple
reference to Codex D would instantly be understood
as referring to No. 107 of the National Library at
Paris, and not to Codex D of the Gospels and Acts.
There is but one uncial manuscript, which contains
the entire New Testament — the word entire taken in
a general sense, for even this codex has rare and slight
omissions. Only about thirty of all kinds contain
substantiaUy all of the Christian books. The copies
which have the Gospels are far more numerous than
those of other parts of the New Testament.
Sixty-three uncials of all sorts are tabulated accord
ing to the most recent computations,* and fifty-six of
these contain the Gospels,t or parts of them. To the
number of uncials should now be added the Codex
* Compare The Critical Handbook, E. C. Mitchell (1880)
with Tables revised by Dr. Ezra Abbot.
t Scrivener ; Plain Introduction, 269.

48 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
Rossanensis, recently discovered, which is described
in detail in a future chapter. It is to be reckoned
with the copies of the Gospels. Some of these uncials
are mere fragments, one containing only six leaves (Y)
.with one hundred and thirty-seven verses of St. John,
another (W") having only six verses of the same Gos-
j)el. Of the carsive raanuscripts six hundred and
twenty-three are enumerated by Scrivener as having
the Gospels. There are fourteen uncials and two
hundred and thirty-two cursives of the Acts and Gen
eral Epistles ; fifteen uncials and two hundred and
eighty-three cursives of the Epistles of St. Paul ; five
uncials and one hundred and five cursives of the
Revelation ; sixty-one uncial and two hundred and
eighty-five cursive Evangelistaria are mentioned, and
seven uncial and seventy-four cursive copies of the
Praxapostolos. After giving the lists of these man
uscripts, covering many pages of his Introduction to
the Criticism of the New Testament, Scrivener adds
the Greek words of St. Matthew's Gospel, ix. 37 : —
" The harvest truly is pleriteoiis, hut the laborers are few.'"
It should be remembered, however, that even this
great number of registered manuscripts does not ex
haust the list of docuraents employed by the critic,
for it does not mention the versions, nor the patristic
sources for the determination of the text.
Frora what has been said already, it will readUy be
seen that the deterraination of the age of a manu
script is of first importance. This is accomplished by
a careful study of the style of the letters, and the kind

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 49
of material upon which it is written, the use of ac
cents, divisions, punctuation, marginal adornments or
notes, inscriptions, subscriptions, and similar signs.
There is little difficulty in assigning a date, with a
very considerable degree of certainty, to many of the
codices in our possession, and of the more doubtful
cases the opinions of scholars vary not more than by a
single century in any important instance. The raethod
of ascertaining the date of the writing is substantially
the same as that which may be applied to any jirinted
book. A rare copy of Spenser's works lies before the
writer, and a glance at the texture of the paper and
at the quaint type is sufficient to produce the convic
tion that the book could not have been printed within
the last fifty years, nothwithstanding its fresh bind
ing ; and a closer inspection leaves no room for wonder
that the title-page should bear the date 1679. A copy
of Froissart's Chronicles, printed in black-letter upon
paper that has been yellowed by the passage of hun
dreds of years, will tell its story of antiquity to any
child, and the skilled eye of the lover of books will
have Uttle trouble in assigning it a date within a few
decades of the true one. And so in the case of the
manuscripts under consideration, it is evident that if
the date of the production of any one of thera is not
inscribed upon it, — for in many instances the date is
thus written and needs only to be verified by a con
currence of the characteristics of the raanuscript it
self, — the fact that it is written upon veUura of an
early century would indicate beyond question that it
was not produced during the later centuries, in which

50 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
the brown and rough paper raade of cotton rags was
used. The eraployraent of uncials of a j)articular
forra, sirailar to those found in other raanuscripts of
a known date, settles the question for some of the
codices, examples of which will be noticed hereafter
in the chapters upon the most celebrated docuraents
extant. If there are several columns uj)on a single
page, after the manner raore anciently employed in
the production of the papyrus-rolls, the raanuscript
may be ascribed to a date very near to the time of
such rolls themselves. Again, if the stichoraetrical
form of writing is employed, it is plain that sorae date
must be assigned within the limits of the time in
which it was the fashion to follow the example set by
EuthaUus of Alexandria. Or if it is a palimpsest
which is to be examined, it is safe to assign to the
older writing, over which the later text was written,
a great antiquity, as in the case of the Codex of
Ephraem, as it is called, and which surely belonged to
the fifth century. But the more minute signs by
which the age of a manuscript may be tested are of
still greater importance, for they serve to fix the time
of the writing with greater exactness, after the gen
eral period has been determined. Slight peculiarities
in the formation of the letters and the use of ad
ditional marks frequently betray valuable secrets, and
in some cases even the hand of the transcriber is
revealed. The celebrated critic, Dr. F. H. Scrivener,
speaks of three raanuscripts as certainly written by
the sarae scribe, and he adds a fourth to the nuraber,
whose elegant characters and highly finished pages

MANUSCEIPTS OF THE SCEIPTUEES. 51
bear almost unmistakable testimony to the skill of the
sarae accomplished workman. It would be impossible,
as well as unnecessary, in the absence of the manu
scripts themselves, or of facsimile copies, to indicate
to the reader these slighter raarks, which are of such
great iraportance to critical scholars. It suffices to
say, that the utmost confidence raay be placed in the
decisions drawn frora them by these competent critics,
and that if anything may be believed upon evidence
afforded by others, the case of the antiquity and
authority of the raost celebrated cojoies of the Scrip
tures may be considered settled.
It would be a great error to suppose that critical
work upon the raanuscripts has only been done in our
later tiraes. It is frequently asserted by those who
oppose the Scriptures on the ground of genuineness,
that the age in which they were written and carae
into use was wholly uncritical, and that a spurious
docuraent raight easily have found its way to the
acceptance of the churches. Just the contrary, how
ever, is the case. The quotations of the earliest
Fathers, to which brief reference has already been
made, prove beyond qiiestion that they studied the
documents in their possession with scrupulous care,
comparing one with another and noting their differ
ences, weighing the evidence for the truth, not only
of every entire work, but of every reading of the vari
ous copies, with eager solicitude. Origen was a dis
criminating student and editor of the Septuagint, and
his labors upon the text of the New Testament were
the work of an acute and trained scholar ; and Eusebius,

52 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
a raan of the greatest learning, spared no pains nor ex
pense, in journeys and study, to discover sources of
Christian history, and his division of all the books in the
hands of the churches into three classes, the genuine, the
disputed, and the spurious, proves the care with which
such docuraents were scrutinized. Evidence of this
kind, from the middle of the third and the beginning
of the fourth centuries, is of indisputable iraportance
in critical study. But the very manuscripts themselves
bear testimony to the constant efforts through all the
succeeding centuries to secure a correct text of Scrip
ture, for they are filled with marginal notes and cor
rections, often lamentably false, but showing the desire
to reach the truth, if possible. Moreover the exertions
of learned communities, such as those of Alexandria
and Carthage, can by no means be forgotten. In these
centres of learning, there was the greatest interest
manifested in the new Christian literature and its prin-
cij^al doctrines. Writers were found to oppose, as well
as to favor, and the result of the numerous controver
sies was inevitably in favor of a close discrimination
of any differences in the raanuscrif)ts which were the
subjects of discussion. And yet, it is not claimed that
even the most elaborate studies of the early centuries
are to be at all compared with the researches of more
modern times. It was very natural when editions of
the Bible began to appear in print in the fifteenth, and
especially in the sixteenth, century, that the text thus
given to the world should at once assert for itself a
peculiar authority, and also be subjected to a wide
criticism upon the part of scholars. In the year 1502

MANUSCEIPTS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 53
Cardinal Ximenes engaged a large nuraber of scholars
to prepare an edition of the whole Bible in the origi
nal Hebrew and Greek with the Chaldee of Onkelos,
the Septuagint Greek, and the Vulgate. This iramense
undertaking was comraenced by the study of the New
Testaraent, which was finished in 1514 and published
in 1520. For this edition the celebrated scholars en
gaged in the work had the use of raanuscripts said to
have been put at their disposal by the guardians of the
Papal Library at Rome. What these manuscripts
were has never been clearly known, though they were
probably of late dates. This edition was called the
Complutensian New Testament, from Complutum,
where the work was executed. An edition by Eras-
raus foUowed in 1516, and another in 1519, confessedly
prepared with too ranch haste and from raanuscriiits
still preserved at Basle, dating from about the sixteenth
century, with one or two others somewhat older but
not of prime value. Other editions appeared from
time to time, the names of Colinaeus, Stephens, Beza,
the Elzevirs, and others, standing upon their pages, but
still deficient in the great elements of sound criticism
afterward to be enunciated. Out of these early efforts,
however, grew the term Textus Receptus, or the Re
ceived Text. The name has soraetimes been aj^plied
to the text of Stephens, soraetimes to that of Beza,
and when the edition of the Elzevirs in 1624 appeared,
to some degree uniting the texts of Stephens and Beza,
the term was also applied to the new work. With
some indefiniteness, therefore, and yet with a general
reference to the text of this period, the term Textus

54 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
Receptus has come down to this day. But it is mani
fest that the comparatively few and late raanuscripts
used in the preparation of these early editions could
only give results often iraperfect, and gradually the
desires of Biblical scholars were kindled for a further
correction of the text. Bentley in England undertook
the work, but his edition was never corapleted. Ger
man scholars united their efforts in the task of classi
fying existing documents. Griesbach, Scholz, and
others brought their departments of study up to the
dignity of science. But it was reserved for Lachmann,
beginning in 1821, to give application to the great
principles of criticism which are generally acknowl
edged at the present tirae, and which demand an utter
freedom from the claims of the received text, conced
ing authority to it only as it is supported by the most
ancient and valuable manuscripts.
Thus it was that only in the present century the
science of Biblical Criticism cast off its shackles and
advanced to its greatest triumphs. Almost simulta
neously the renowned scholars, Constantin Tischendorf
in Germany, and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, began
their publications. Other scholars of almost equal
note have devoted their lives to the same pursuits
with unexampled and well rewarded ardor. Great
discoveries, hereafter to be detailed in these pages,
and of the most romantic interest, have contributed
their invaluable aid to the revision of the sacred text.
No longer are the precious secrets of the earliest
Christian documents buried away in monasteries and
libraries, but in editions of the New Testament of
little cost may be possessed by every one.

MANUSCEIPTS OF THE SCEIPTUEES. 55
The question may well be raised, however, concern
ing the discovery and use of the ancient copies of the
Scriptures : Is there no chance of mistake ? Is it not
possible even that the critics may b^ deceived by de
liberate attempts at imposture? In the eager search
for such documents — these " rolls
And old records from ancient times derived,
Some made in books, sorae in long parchment scrolls,
That were worm-eaten all and full of canker-holes,'' —
the value of them has been fully published, and some
times great suras offered for thera. May not the
" worm-eaten " and " canker-holed " vellum have been
counterfeited, the text accurately forged, and the
whole fraud palraed off upon guileless students, who
have been only too ready to believe in what promised
satisfaction to their long-cherished desires ?
Such attempts at imposture have actually been
made, but the very fact that they were detected and
are now famous as among the most skilfully executed
frauds the world has ever seen, is a guarantee of the
superior watchfulness and the critical learning of
Christian scholars. No bolder attempts to deceive,
nor any raore nearly successful in the case of any
iraportant Scriptural documents, have been raade than
those which have rendered the narae of Constantine
Simonides famous, in connection especially with the
Sinaitic manuscript discovered by Tischendorf. An
account of this attempt raust be deferred to the chap
ter upon that celebrated codex, but similar efforts
may be mentioned here, as illustrative of the method

56 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
pursued. This sarae man, Constantine Simonides,
early in the year 1856, through the aid of a professor
in Leipzig, undertook to seU a raanuscript of the
Egyptian History of Uranios, son of Anaximines, to
the Acaderay of Berlin. A few leaves of the very
ancient and important Shepherd of Hermas were also
offered, and these were bought, whUe twenty-five
hundred thalers, only half the price of the history,
were paid. At this juncture a message arrived from
Professor Lykurgos of Athens, that both the raanu
scripts were probably spurious. Professor Tischen
dorf at once exarained thera critically and pronounced
thera false. But when people have been cheated they
do not like to confess it, and in this instance there
was much opposition to the decision of Tischendorf.
Simonides himself had not ventured to go to BerUn
with his wares, and the negotiations had been effected
by proxies, as already said. Tischendorf, who had
examined the docuraents in Leipzig, instantly tele
graphed to Humboldt in Berlin, and the despatch
was given to the president of the Academy. By his
order the docuraents were tested raicroscopicaUy and
chemically, and Simonides was promptly arrested.
But this was not the only attempt raade by this man.
He offered to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Eng
land, several raanuscripts, some of which were genu
ine. These were of no very great value, but were
discussed by the librarian with the vendor, and a
ready agreement as to their belonging to the tenth,
twelfth, and thirteenth centuries was obtained. But
then a few fragments were produced, handled with

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 57
the greatest care, which revealed an uncial text appar
ently of the highest antiquity. The veUum upon
which it was written was stained by age, and bore
every mark of having come down frora a very reraote
time. The librarian smelt of the leaves, gave them
back to the vendor, with the single remark that the
manuscript dated from the middle of the nineteenth
century, and the foiled Simonides departed. Unfortu
nately, however, he found a lover of such treasures in
a private home in Worcestershire, and sold them there
for a latge sura. If it were a question only of the
raaterials used, imposition might be easily practised ;
but the text betrays it, and the most exact imitation
in other respects must always faU in the text to meet
the demands of the deeply versed scholarship of mod
ern days. Scrivener says that " with respect to Bib
lical raanuscripts in particular, we may confidently
assert that there are fifty persons at least now in Eng
land who, on internal grounds alone, from their inti
mate knowledge of what a genuine record ought to and
must contain, would at once detect with perfect ease
any — the raost highly finished — iraitation that dis
honest skUl could execute, provided the document ex
tended beyond the length of a very few Unes." *
* Six Lectures, p. 22.

58 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER IV.
THE ALEXANDRINE MANUSCEIPT.
The Codex A is the earliest that was thoroughly
studied by scholars for the purpose of correcting the
text of the New Testament and determining, with a
greater degree of accuracy than had been previously
attained, what must have been the original reading of
the manuscripts given to the churches in the apostolic
age. This Codex is, however, only the third in point of
value and antiquity, being outranked in these respects
by B, the raost celebrated docuraent of the Vatican,
and by }{, the Sinaitic manuscript in the possession
of the Russian government.
The Alexandrine raanuscript is in the British
Museum. It was presented to Charles I. in 1628 by
Cyril Lucar, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who
brought it himself from Egypt. When the British
Museum was founded in 1753, it was imraediately
transferred from the royal private collection to this
national depository. It is in four volumes, three of
which contain the Old Testament in the Septuagint
version, and the fourth the New Testaraent with raany
defects, for it commences with the sixth verse of the
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, omits the

THB ALEXANDRINE MANUSCEIPT. 59
passage from John vi. 50 to John viU. 52, and also
that from 2 Cor. iv. 13 to xU. 6. In several places,
too, single letters have been cut off in the process of
binding. But at the close of the New Testament is
added a work of rare value, since it is the only extant
copy of the earliest of the Apostohc Fathers, the
Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, to
gether with a part of a second epistle, whose author
ship is more doubtful. The Patriarch of Constanti
nople, who secured the manuscript during his previous
patriarchate in Egypt,* testified in an autograph note
upon the document itself, that the tradition in Egypt
concerning it was, that it was written by Thecla, a
noble lady of Egypt, thirteen hundred years previous
to its acquisition by himself, which would place its
origin early in the fourth century. This is consistent
with an inscription in Arabic upon the reverse of
the first leaf, which also declares it to be by the
hand of Thecla, the martyr. But this declaration
Carries suspicion in itself. Thecla the martyr lived
at a very early date ; and in the first Christian centu
ries a vast number of legends had gathered about
her name. Her history is referred to by many great
writers, Cyprian and Eusebius, Epiphanius, Austin,
Gregory of Nazianzum, Chrysostom and others, re
cording the popular esteem in which her faith and
virtues were held. Among the apocryphal writings
* According to another account emanating from one of
Cyril's deacons, he obtained the raanuscript at Mount Athos,
where he dwelt for a long period previous to his Patriarchate in
Alexandria. Comp. Bleek, Einleitung, § 269, 1.

60 THE STOEY OP THE MANUSCEIPTS.
that have claimed a place in the New Testaraent,
is one caUed the Acts of Paul and Thecla, which
TertuUian says was forged by a presbyter of Asia,
who, "when convicted, confessed that he did it out
of respect of Paul." The manuscript of this for
gery is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, though it
has been denied that this is the original Acts of
Paul and Thecla, that was in the hands of early
Christians. All this readiness to connect the narae
of Thecla with ancient Christian history, and the
sanctity that was attached to her person, would nat
urally aid any tendency to unite her narae with this
valuable raanuscript. If the idea were once started,
that the raartyr and saint raade this precious volurae,
it would find constantly increasing support from the
veneration bestowed upon her memory. But the fact
that her martyrdom was so very early renders it
entirely improbable, and certain signs in the manu
script itself declare it to have been impossible that it
was written by her hand. May not the work have
been done by some other Thecla, then, who has been
confounded with the martyr on account of the popular
predisposition to honor the saint? It is possible.
Another Thecla, who was a friend and valued assistant
of Gregory of Nazianzum in the fourth century, raay
have been the copyist of the Alexandrine pages, and
yet there is nothing to prove the fact, while some
indications would seem to assign the work to a some
what later date, probably the beginning of the fifth
century, the conclusion reached by Scrivener,* though
* Six Lectures, p, 54; Plain Introductioa, p, 92.

THE ALEXANDEINE MANUSCEIPT. 61
Davidson has assigned it to the middle of that cen
tury.* On the whole, the conjecture of Tregelles as
to the copyist seems the most likely to be true. He
suggests, that the beginning of the New Testament
portion of the manuscript. Matt. xxv. 6, is a part of
the ai^pointed lesson in the Greek church for the
festival of Saint Thecla, and that her name raay have
been written on the raargin at the top of the first
page, a superscription that raight have been readily
mistaken for the narae of the writer by whose hand
the work was done. The margins have been narrowed
in the process of binding and the name has disap
peared, if it was ever there; but certainly the fact
that the first words of the New Testaraent portion are
a part of the lesson appointed for this saint's day,
is highly suggestive of the reason why her narae
should be so intiraately connected with the codex.
The vellum of this ancient book is well preserved,
though in many places holes appear in the pages, and
the material is so fragile that it is kept under glass,
and none but the raost oorapetent scholars are allowed
to touch it, and these only for the purposes of textual
study. The letters are uncial, rounder, larger, and
more elegant than those in the Vatican Codex. There
is no separation between the words, though occasional
raarks of punctuation af)j)ear ; there are no accents or
breathing raarks, no cases of stichometry, and the
abbreviations are not frequent. The text is divided
into sections, or titloi, and Ammonian sections, called
heads, but there are no such divisions as those origin-
» Bib. Crit. p. 719.

62 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
ated by EuthaUus, though paragraphs and periods are
frequently marked by a new line and initial letter.
This manuscript is the most ancient in which capital
letters occur. Some of thera are larger than others, but
they are written in the same ink as the body of the
text. In several places, at the beginnings of books,
the first line is in vermilion. Each page has two
colurans, each of fifty lines, with about twenty letters
to the line.
Whoever the copyist was, though saint and martyr
Thecla herself, the work shows raany signs of careless
ness and inattention. There are frequent omissions
and many mistakes in spelling. Corrections often mar
the page, and traces of the knife or sponge are very
often discoverable. Letters originally omitted are
written in between the lines over the spaces they
should occupy. And apparently the text has at some
time been subjected to a revision, for certain correc
tions appear, though unfortunately not always in the
right place. In addition to these defects there are
raany occasioned by age, as when the first two or
three letters of a line, those nearest the margin, have
become obliterated.
The general aspect of a page of the Alexandrine
raanuscript raay be better imagined from the follow
ing illustration, which is a facsimile of the original
text and its divisions. The passage chosen is that
in the Gospel according to St. John i. 1-7. It is one
free from such defects as have just been noted, but it
gives a singular example of the way in which a new
section is marked by a break in the middle of a Une,

:^ ^MAPXMHMOXOrOCKAIOAOroCM
if TTPbCTONieMKAieCHMOAOrOC-
/ OYTOCHMeMAPXHTTPOCTOMeN TTAMTA ivIAYTOYereMeXOKAIXcu
peicAYTOYereMeTOOY2i».eeM
OrerOKlGMeMAYTCOZCDHHM- __
KAIHZCDH H MTo4>CJOCTCDMAMa)M
I < A ITOCbcDCeMTMCKOTI ACp A I
iNjeiKAIHCKOTIAAYTOOYKATe
— ^^^^AAEeM ereKieroAKioc^rre
- (_,TAArvyieMOCTTAf AOYOMOMAXY
IT TCDICOAMMMC OYTOCHAOeM
7 eiCMAPTYPlXMIMAMA[>TYpH
CHTrePITOYCpCDTOC IMXTTXM
TeCTriCTeYCCJDCIM.&^lXYrOY

CODEX ALEXANDRINUS.
Jo/in I, 1-7.

THE ALEXANDEINE MANUSCRIPT. 65
while the first letter of the following Une is made
large, as if it were the initial of the new section. In
this case the enlarged letter does not even begin a
word, but stands in the middle of one. The facsimUe
of the plate is from the EngUsh edition of Home's
Introduction. The Greek of this illustration, put into correspond
ing form in EngUsh, would appear somewhat as fol
lows : —
Inthebeginningwasthewordandtheword waswithgd-andgdwastheword-hewasinthebeginningwithg15ALLTHINGSBYHIMWEREMADE-ANDWITH OUTHIMWASMADENOTONETHING
THATWASMADEINHIMLIFEWAS-ANDTHELIEEWASTHELIGHTOFMNANDTHELIGHTINTHEDAEKNESSSHINETH-ANDTHEDARKNESSITNOTCOMprehended therewasamnse
Ntfeomgdthenameofhi MWASJOHN-THISONECAMEFOEAWITNESSTHATHEMIGHTWITNESSCONCERNINGTHELIGHT-THATALLMIGHTBELIEVETHROUGHHIM
Each book is closed by ornamental designs, not very
elaborate, but neatly done in the sarae ink as the text,
with the narae of the book written within the enclosed
space. As already remarked in the beginning of the chapter,
the Alexandrine manuscript was the first to be carefuUy
applied to the correction of the text of the New Testa^
ment. The first scholar who had facilities afforded him
for studying the Codex critically was Patrick Young,

66 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
the librarian to King Charles I. Three separate col
lations of the manuscript with the received texts were
made by different scholars, and then, in 1786, the text
of the manuscript itself was edited and published by
Woide. It was a facsimile edition, for which the
types were cut with great care. This edition was, in
general, very accurate, and the few errors were such
as to readUy betray themselves and suggest the cor
rect reading. It is said that a comparison of Woide's
edition with the manuscript itself, in the Epistle to the
Galatians, for the purpose of testing the accuracy of
the published copy, revealed errors only in two letters,
neither of which could possibly lead to a false^render-
ing of the words in which the mistake occurred. Such
was the pioneer effort to lay before the scholars of the
world the pages of the most ancient manuscripts of
the Scripture, line for line, word for word, letter for
letter, point for point, not one peculiarity left un
marked, in order that many minds might work upon
the sacred task of proving the text already in the
hands of the Christian world, and ascertaining more
exactly, if possible, what were the very words of the
original docuraents that came from the inspired
writers themselves.

THE VATICAN MANUSCEIPT. 67

CHAPTER V.
THE VATICAN MANUSCEIPT.
Until within comparatively few years the Codex
B, or Vaticanus, so named frora the library of which
it forras the chief ornaraent, was the raost important
manuscript in the possession of the Christian world.
And it may even be the case that the remarkable dis
covery of the docuraent to be described in the follow
ing chapter has not superseded this venerable copy
in its foreraost rank among the transcripts of the sacred
originals. The Vatican Library was founded by Pope Nicholas
v., a great scholar and patron of learning, in the year
1448. Many previous attempts had been made to col
lect and preserve valuable works, but it was reserved
for this energetic Pope to take the measures which
should be finally successful, and which without inter
mission should receive the favor of succeeding pontiffs
even ftU to-day. More than one hundred thousand vol
umes are there gathered, and the collection is especially
rich in manuscripts, of which there are nearly twenty-
five thousand. These are divided into three sections,
the Latin containing more than seventeen thousand,
the Greek about three thousand four hundred and fifty,
and the Oriental over two thousand. Among them

68 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
are many treasures of almost inestimable price, but
never from the days of Pope Nicholas himself until
the present tirae has the Vatican Library possessed
any work equal in iraportance to the Codex B., which
is numbered 1209 in the class-catalogue.
This manuscript has probably been in the Vatican
Library frora the tirae of its estabUshment. It appears
in the first catalogue, made in 1475. Certain charac
teristics of the text seem to indicate an Alexandrine
origin, but this cannot be determined with accuracy.
It has been thought that it may once have belonged
to the library of a learned Greek ecclesiastic named
Bessarion, who became estranged from the Greek
church through the debates of the Councils of Ferrara
and Florence, sought naturalization in Italy, and was
preferred to the Cardinalate by Pope Eugenius IV.,
who was the immediate predecessor of the founder bf
the Vatican Library. His house in Rome was almost
an academy, the repository of a large collection of
choice manuscripts and the resort of learned men. It
is hardly probable that the Codex B, however, formed
a part of his collection, for at his death he bequeathed
his library, with all its manuscripts, to the city of
Venice, thus beginning the Library of St. Mark's in
that city. Perhaps nothing more is true than that
it received some corrections, and the filling up of
certain lacunae, out of a manuscript in the Cardinal's
possession. Codex B is perhaps a hundred years older than the
Alexandrine manuscript, and belongs certainly to the
fourth century. Tischendorf considered it of the same

THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT. 69
date as the Sinaitic manuscript, to be spoken of in the
next chapter, and Tregelles beUeved it to have been
in existence as early as the Council of Nice in 325.
At aU events the division of the New Testament into
paragraphs in a manner which became utterly disused
after the Eusebian canons were introduced, about the
year 340, shows that it was written prior to that date.
It contains the Septuagint version of the Old Testa^
ment, of which, however, considerable portions have
been lost, all the Book of Genesis to Chapter xlvi. 48,
and Psalms cv. to cxxxvii. inclusive ; and the New
Testament, with the exception of the Epistles to Phi-
leraon and Titus, the two to Timothy, that to the
Hebrews after the fourteenth verse of Chapter ix, and
the whole of the Revelation. These books of the New
Testaraent are indeed found in the volume, but they
do not belong to the ancient manuscript, being the
product of the fifteenth century.
The whole of the text is bound in one volurae in
red raorocco, a quarto, measuring ten and a half inches
in length, ten inches in breadth, and between four and
five inches in thickness. There are 759 very thin
and delicate leaves of vellum, of which 146 belong to
the New Testament. The text is uncial, written in
three narrow colurans to a page, and the characters
are clear, simple, and beautiful, a little smaller than
those of the Codex Alexandrinus, and a little larger
than those of the manuscript of Philoderaus, a treatise
on music, which was the first of the Herculaneum rolls
successfully opened and given to the public. In fact
the Vatican manuscript is the most similar to these

70 THE STOEY OP THE MANUSCEIPTS.
rolls of Herculaneura of aU of the copies of the Scrip
tures thus far discovered. There are no divisions
between the words, but where a change frora one sub
ject to another occurs there is soraetimes a space of
an entire letter, sometimes of only half a letter, to
mark the transition. In the original writing the initial
letters were of the sarae size as all the others, but a
later hand has written larger initials over the old and
simpler characters. No punctuation appears except
such as has been interpolated by later scribes, and
this is rare, only four points being inserted in the first
six chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. As it stands
at present the text is provided with accents and
marks of aspiration, which were at one time consid
ered the work of the original writer. Indeed this
question gave rise to a very strange and almost in
explicable disagreement among sorae of the earlier
critics.* Blanchini gave a facsiraile in which neither
the accents nor breathings appeared, and Montfaucon
strongly asserted the same thing. But Birch, in his
Prolegomena, declared that it had both, and criticized
the former editors for not marking the fact. At last
Hug determined, by the use of powerful glasses, that the
accents and breathings, which were really there, were
in a different ink from the main body of the text and
had been added by sorae later scribe. Titles to the
various books are written above them, and subscrip
tions are also found, which for the most part merely
rejDeat the titles. Sometimes words are added by later
copyists, as in the case of the Epistles to the Romans,
* Davidson, Bib. Crit. p. 722.

THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT. 71
where To tlie, Romans is the genuine subscription,
and the words It was written from Corinth were
added. The long passage of time faded the ink of the text,
and at some early date the letters were retouched by
a careful hand throughout large portions of the raan
uscript. This gives a very peculiar appearance to the
docuraent, and has rendered the difficulties of its
critical igtudy considerably greater. A reraarkable
treatraent of the Epistles of Paul is to be noticed, for
they are written as if they were aU one book, and the
notation of the sections is continuous throughout all.
This celebrated manuscript has always been consid
ered of the highest value in the determination of the
true readings of Scripture. And yet it has always
been with the greatest difficulty that any scholars,
except such as have had official connection with the
Vatican Library, have gained access to its pages. Its
first collation was made in 1669 by Bartolocci, and a
very iraperfect transcript of it is now in Paris. The
next was by an Italian naraed Mice, and was executed
for the assistance of Bentley about 1725, when he pro
posed his edition of the New Testaraent in Greek.
Other collations appeared. No work of equal irapor
tance was atterapted upon the manuscript, until Car
dinal Mai undertook a facsiraile edition, which was
completed in 1838. The history of this edition is
strange, and to some degree obscure. The purpose of
the Cardinal himself seems to have been changeable,
for some representations are to the effect that he de-

72 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
sired to make his work a facsimUe, while others prove
from his own words that it was to be only a close imi
tation of the text, and a work for more general use,
"Uke the English edition of MUl." However this
may be, the learned Cardinal spent his leisure hours
during a period of ten years upon the work, printing
five quarto volumes, and subsequently the New Testa
raent separately in a cheap octavo form. The work
was not given to the public, however, for several years.
For some reason it did not receive the approval of the
Roman censors of the press. It is said that when
Rome was in the hands of Republicans and the Pope
had fled to Gaeta, Cardinal Mai offered his work to a
publisher at Berlin, who decUned the proposal on
account of the high price demanded by the author.
The Pope returned to his capital in 1850, and the fet
ters of papal authority once raore closed around the
publication of many books useful to the world. In
1854 Cardinal Mai died. The ban was removed three
years later and his work was published, but then it
at once appeared doubtful whether the story of its
offer to a Berlin publisher was true or not. The work
was found to have been done in such a careless and
incomplete fashion, and its author was known to be
such a thorough and painstaking scholar that the re
pression of the earlier volumes printed in 1838 was
suspected to have been at his own wiU, and many
thought that the work would never have been given
to the public, had the Cardinal lived.* Indeed the
* Scrivener, Plain Introduction, p. 102.

THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT. 73
very papal authorities, by whora the publication was
finally effected, were so conscious of its defects and
piqued by the failure of their representative, its author,
that they at once began the preparation of a new edition
under the charge of Vercellone, a raonk of St. Barna^
bas, which was corapleted and published in 1859. But
this revised edition was still very insufficiently done,
and gave little satisfaction to the greater scholars of
the day.
The jealousy with which this precious manuscript is
guarded by the Roman authorities is well illustrated
in the attempts which were made by two of the great
est Biblical scholars to secure the privilege of studying
and copying its pages. In 1845 Dr. Tregelles went to
Rorae with the sole design of obtaining access to the
Codex, if possible. He sought the interference of Car
dinal Wiseraan before leaving England and received
a letter by which it was hoped his task would be made
the easier. After some trouble he succeeded at last
in receiving permission to see the volurae. Two prel
ates, however, were detailed to watch hira, and they
would not suffer him to open the volume without pre
viously searching his pockets and taking away from
hira ink and paper. Any prolonged study of a pas
sage was sufficient to call for their interference, when
the book would be hurriedly taken away frora hira, but
he succeeded in making some notes on his cuffs and
finger-nails ! Scrivener relates that a similar attempt
was made by Dean Alford in 1861, and that Cardinal
Antonelli gave him a special order to work with the

74 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
manuscript for the purpose of verifying passages ; but
the librarian considered this simply a permission to
look at the book, but not to use it. But perhaps
Tischendorf's experience was stranger than either of
these. In 1843, two years previous to the effort made
by Tregelles, he went to Rome, after having spent
much time in working upon manuscripts at Basle and
in other cities. For more than a year he was a weU-
known student of the ancient treasures in the libraries
of Italy, at Rome and Naples, Turin, Milan, Florence,
and Venice. He spent much time in the Vatican, but
his requests for the most famous of all the manuscripts
were denied. It was claimed by the custodians that
the pope himself had forbidden access to it. Tischen
dorf describes his difficulties in the most interesting
manner in a communication to the Leipziger Zeitung *
of May 31, 1866. He says : " I had been coraraended
in the most earnest manner by Guizot to the French
ambassador Count Latour Maubourg; I was also
favored with many letters of introduction from Prince
John (of Saxony) to his personal friends of high rank,
and in addition, with a very flattering note from the
Archbishop Affre of Paris, directed to Gregory XVI.
The latter, after a prolonged audience granted to me,
took an ardent interest in my undertakings ; Cardinal
Mai received me with kind recognition ; Cardinal Mez-
zofanti honored me with sorae Greek verses coraposed
in my praise : but notwithstanding I had to content
* Wissenschaftliche Beilage, pp. 189-192.

THE VATICAN MANUSCEIPT. ( i)
myself with six hours t for a hasty examination of the
Codex Vaticanus, and the transcription in facsimile of
a few Unes." This great jealousy was doubtless due
in part to the fact that just at this time Cardinal Mai
was raost deeply engaged upon his edition of the sarae
raanuscript, of which five volumes were already cora
pleted. It was not unnatural that fear should be en
tertained, lest the Roraan edition should be prejudiced
by the publications of the Gerraan scholar, if raore
generous access to the original were allowed. It is
evident that even a Tischendorf could do but little
under the circurastances.
Twenty-three years later he made another attempt
with better success. In the meantime he had dis
covered the Sinaitic manuscript, and it had been pub
lished in sumptuous forra under the patronage of the
Czar, and a copy had been presented to the Pope.
The latter wrote an autograph letter to Tischendorf,
" in which he expressed his highest appreciation, yes,
his admiration of this publication," and added such
messages of regard in a letter written by his maestro
di camera, that the scholar deeraed the opportunity
too favorable to be lost, and at once asked perraission
by letter to publish the Codex Vaticanus, mentioning
the opinion that had been expressed even by two
Roman Catholic scholars, that this work should be
done by his hands. He was answered so doubtfully,
that he resolved to wait for no further preliminaries,
t That is, the regular hours for work in the library, from 9
to 12, A. M., for two days.

76 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
but start at once for Rome. He arrived there on
the nineteenth of February, 1864.* He was kindly
received by Cardinal Antonelli, and on the twenty-
fourth day of February was bidden to an audience
with the Pope. A long conversation ensued, and
Tischendorf preferred his request to be allowed to
publish the manuscript at his own expense. The
Pope said : " But the Codex has already been pub
lished by Cardinal Mai." " Yes," answered the per
sistent and acute Gerraan, "and for that matter the
New Testament twice ; but these editions are intended
only for the ordinary use. I, on the contrary, wish to
undertake a diplomatic and palseographic edition, and
indeed for the very purpose of showing that at least
in all the principal respects the edition of Mai is
correct, which is not universally believed." The Pope
retorted : " But it must be believed without that ; it
is a matter of the faith (5 un' affare della fede)."
Tischendorf urged the fact, however, that Mai's edi
tion did not have the full confidence of scholars, and
that a publication by other than Roraan hands, sup
porting Mai's work in all iraportant particulars, would
carry greater weight than any issued under the open
patronage of His Holiness. For a time the result of
the audience remained doubtful, but at last a verbal
order from Cardinal Antonelli was received, by which
* This date is given in his own account in the Leipziger
Zeitwag, from which in part, this outline of his attempts is com
piled. The later date 1866 is given by some writers, who have
told the story of his life and labors,

THE VATICAN MANUSCEIPT. 77
permission was granted to thoroughly inspect the
manuscript, only under the pledge that such a publica
tion as had been described to the Pope should not be
kept in view, since the Pope himself proposed to issue
such a work through Catholic hands.* The regular
working-time of the library was extended from three
to six hours and the jDrivate room of Cardinal Pitra
was assigned for the work. Permission was also given
to disregard the raany Roman feast-days and vacations,
which reduce the work-days of the Vatican Library to
only ninety-nine in the year. These were great con
cessions. But it is probable that they suffered material
modiflcation. In the Prolegomena to his N. T. Vati
can um, issued in 1867, Tischendorf says that he was
restricted to three hours each day, and the assertion is
repeated in another place. In the sarae paragraph 'of
his Prolegoraena (p. viii.), he says : " I took the
greatest care not to lose even the sraallest portion of
these three hours. But I undertook to exaraine letter
by letter the whole of the Scriptures of the New
Testaraent frora the beginning  But while I was
coraparirig the written pages with the edited copies, I
* This was the edition by Vercellone and Cozza, which finally
appeared in one folio volume at Eome in 1868. A volume of
the Old Testament followed in 1869, and the work was after
wards completed in three more volumes, though not until after
the death of Vercellone. Tischendorf's type for the Codex
Sinaiticus were sent to Rome for this edition, in return for the
courtesies he had received at Vercellone's hands. This edition
is known as that of Vercellone and Cozza, and copies of it may
be seen in this country. •

78 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
could not refrain from transcribing many whole pages."
These pages were to be used, he claimed, in no way
prejudicial to the agreement under which he had
gained access to the document; but the action was
nevertheless observed by a self-appointed spy, a Prus
sian Jesuit, who reported his observations to the
custodians of the library and through them to the
Pope. The book was imraediately taken away from
him. He had succeeded, however, in copying nearly
the whole of the first three GosjDels. " I seeraed as if
struck by a thunderbolt," he exclaims, " but I did not
give way to despair." It was shown how the comple
tion of his work, so far from injuring the proposed
Roman edition, would be of essential profit to it, and
even the editor of that work himseK favored the
cause of the German scholar. Tischendorf was ena
bled, indeed, to render valuable assistance to Ver
cellone, so that the latter said to him, as he was leaving
Rome: "If anything is accomplished (in the new
edition) we owe it to you." In sjiite of all objections,
therefore, the precious manuscript was granted to him
for a few hours more. "And so I succeeded," he
says, in the article in the Leipziger Zeitung already
mentioned, " in preparing the whole New Testament
for a new, reliable edition, so as to attain every de
sired result with respect both to the palseographic
peculiarities of the manuscript, and especiaUy to its
raost surprising relations to the Codex Sinaiticus."
The difficulty of the work, the wonderful dexterity
with which it. was accomplished, and the joy of the

THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT. 79
scholar in his success, raay be the better conceived,
when it is said that the total tirae during which the
manuscript was subject to his inspection was only
forty-two hours ! The collation was published, in the
common Greek type, in 1867. The score of pages
which were transcribed, however, are printed as in
the original in three columns on a page, each column
containing the sarae nuraber of lines, and the lines the
same number of words, as in the ancient text. This
publication, achieved thus through the greatest diffi
culties and by excessive toil, is the raost valuable re
production of the text as it appears in the Vatican
manuscript. Add to this the fact that the Vatican
text is generally considered superior to any other for
purposes of criticism, not even the Sinaitic Codex
excepted save in the opinion of its discoverer, and the
value of Tischendorf's work wUl readily be seen to be
of the highest. It was indeed one of the three greatest
achievements of his Ufe, the discovery and publication
of J^, the deciphering of the Ephraem palirapsest, and
this edition of the chief treasure of the Vatican — a
group of perforraances quite sufficient to establish the
farae of the great scholar, even apart from the raany
other distinguished services rendered by him to the
Christian world.
In view of the great desirabUity of having such a
raanuscript freely accessible to scholars, one item of
its history is of special interest. In the year 1798
Rome came into possession of the French, who estab
lished a repubUc, which, however, was destined to

80 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
only a brief existence. But although in 1799 the
aUied powers restored the Pope, in 1808 the troops of
Napoleon I. again entered the city, and the Papal
dominions were made an appendage of the French
empire. The conqueror caused large numbers of the
treasures of art and literature accumulated in the
city to be transferred to Paris, where they became a
part of the imperial collection. The precious Codex
B was not overlooked, and for several years it was in
Paris, and during that time might have been studied
with comparative leisure. But unfortunately the great
scholars had not yet appeared, who were afterwards
the most competent men of all the world to give the
manuscript the treatment it deserved. It lay in the
Iraperial Library uncared for except by a critic, J. L.
Hug, whose abilities were not equal to the demands of
the case, but who nevertheless realized its value, and
printed in 1810 a paper upon the "Antiquity of the
Vatican Manuscript." This essay called attention to
the docuraent, but in 1815 came Waterloo, Napoleon
was finally dethroned, and the treasures he had col
lected again suffered change. Codex B was restored
to Rome. This very year, in which the faraous docu
raent once raore returned to the Papal library with all
its restrictions, Tregelles at the age of three years was
only just learning his native English tongue, and the
afterwards renowned Tischendorf was a babe of two
years, the deUght of his parents' home in Legenfeld,
Germany. As an example of the text of this manuscript, the

OTonoc&'noydoMKA
(^y T <^*i ii.x A J>j^ n it. r€ TT
e I n ATCt^O IC M AOM-jrii*
fVTd Y K X I Tu> n €T;ro>
OTI nfOAffii'y'MAceic
TH N j;^A A I aX »A N € KGl^r
TON oH'l ec e€ K Kecuc^ei
nsfii^fMiN KiiLiexeA^-7
c A 1 6 cp'TTfo N^f^h oToy
M ri H M 6 1 o^elxe N r^f
ik, Y TA c Tj»0 M O O K ij fK
9. c-r;^<^lc»CAidYA.€N)oy
T A,eKeirt.OM€<pa^oYN
t »^^tI
^^aiArkoN *v
CODEX VATICANUS.
i^/aj'/i XVI, 6-8.

THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT. 83
plate reproduces a portion of Mark xvi. 6-8, as it is
given by Scrivener, and a translation in simUarly ar
ranged EngUsh letters is added below, as it appears
upon his pages. It wUl readUy be seen that there
would be ample room for three colurans of text, as it
appears in the plate, upon a quarto page ten inches
square, the size of the famous volume in red morocco
in the Vatican Library.
THEPLACEWHERETHEYLAID HIMBUTGOYOUEWAYTELLTOTHEDISCIPLES OFHIMANDTOPETER
THATHEGOETHBEFOREYO UTO
THEGALILEETHEREHIMSHALLYESEEASHESAIDT0Y0UAND0UT<50INGTHEYELEDFROMTHE SEPULCHREHELDFOB
THEMTREMORANDAMAZEMENTANDTONONENO
THINGSPAKETHEYWEREAF EAIDEOK : AFTERMARK.

84 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER VI.
THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT.
The mother of Constantine the Great, the first
Christian emperor of Rome, Helena, was a Christian,
and in the later years of her life her whole desire
was to give to the world a knowledge of the places
that had been rendered sacred by the presence of the
Christ, and to gain for herself the fame and rewards
of a saint, by the benefits she should thus confer
upon the Church. All her efforts were grouped around
an atterapt to find the cross upon which the Saviour
had died ; but there was no place mentioned in sacred
history, however remotely connected with the life and
work of Jesus, that did not find an interest in her
mind, and to which her singular mingling of faith and
superstition did not lead her steps. She was nearly
eighty years old, when she claimed to have attained
her greatest desire, and the flames upon the watch-
towers flashed the news from Jerusalera to Constan
tinople, that the wood of the true cross was found.
This was at about the time of the Council of Nice, or
a little later. The Invention of the Cross but added
ardor to her enthusiasm. She founded the Church of
the Nativity at Bethlehem, and that of the Ascension
on the top of Mt. Olivet, the only two churches which

TIIE SINAITIC MANUSCRIPT. 85
she built, according to Eusebius. Many spots in Pales
tine have legends in memory of Helena, Empress and
Saint, but not only within the sacred limits of that land
did her devotion exercise itseff, bnt far away, down
into the deserts of the Sinaitic Peninsula, it led her
restlessly onward, till she believed that she had iden
tified raany of the places spoken of in the Mosaic
records. Among these places she found the Well of
Jethro, and what was declared to be the very spot,
where the Lord had revealed Himself to Moses in the
burning bush, and upon this spot she erected a tower.
Nearly two hundred years later, the Emperor Justinian
buUt a church in this place, and a fortress for its pro
tection. Possibly the former was built apart from the
latter and higher up on the mountain-side ; but there
is only one group of buildings now — quite as much a
fortress as a convent, though called the Convent of St.
Catherine. The reader is doubtless familiar with Mflcke's pic
ture of St. Catherine borne by four angels through
the air, after her martyrdom. It is the representation
of the legend, that when this niece of Constantine, so
eminent for holiness, was martyred by Maximin, her
body was miraculously borne frora Alexandria to Mt.
Sinai, where it was placed by angelic hands in a
marble sarcophagus, and a monastery built over the
reraains. Probably the legend is only a poetical version
of the translation of the relics of this saint from the
one place to the other by the hermits, who had long
made the caves of Sinai their retreat; but however
this may be, the legend, so like the western story of

86 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
the angelic translation of the House of Loretto, gave
the name to the celebrated pile of buildings erected
by Justinian and still standing upon the spot.
Here through many centuries a brotherhood of
monks has had its home. Here they have worshipped
and studied, and a rich library has grown up in the
course bf the hundreds of years, in which their seclu
sion has enabled them to j^ursue the paths of sacred
learning. Once the convent was the resort of many
pilgrims, and for each great sect a special chapel was
provided, in which each pilgrim could worship accord
ing to his custom ; and probably raany companies of
these worshippers, from Alexandria or Syria, from
Constantinojjle or Rome, brought offerings to the
monks of manuscripts to swell the treasures of the
library. Long ago these pilgrimages ceased : long ago
the zeal of the brotherhood for the acquisition of
sacred learning burned dim : for many years and with
dirainished numbers, they have lived in comparative
indolence, making it their chief emj)loyment to go
through with the routine regulations of the monastic
worship, to which, however, they have added the en
tertainment of travellers, for whora nearly a hundred
sraall, but neat, charabers are provided. It is remark
able, however, that though the present degeneracy
marks a forraer period of greater vigor, and though
unquestionably the literary treasures of the raonastery
prove that learning was once valued there, the time
has never been when this brotherhood has given any
great results of its studies to the world. Dean Stanley
recalls the testimony of Burckhardt and Robinson as

THE SINAITIC MANUSCRIPT. 87
to the deep conviction that the Arabs have, that the
monks " comraand or withhold the rain frora heaven,
on which the whole sustenance of the Peninsula de
pends," and laments that the power given thera by
this superstition should not have been employed by
the brotherhood for the advantage of the people around
thera, in order to raise thera by Christianity to a better
condition of spiritual and bodily life.* " Looking frora
an external point of view," he writes, " at the singular
advantages enjoyed by the convent, it is hard to recall
another institution, with such opportunities so signally
wasted. It is a colony of Christian pastors planted
araongst heathens, who wait on thera for their daily
bread and for their rain from heaven, and hardly a
spark of civilization or of Christianity, so far as his
tory records, has been iraparted to a single tribe or
faraily in that wide wilderness. It is a colony of
Greeks, of Europeans, of ecclesiastics, in one of the
raost interesting and the raost sacred regions of the
earth ; and hardly a fact, from the tirae of their first
foundation to the present time, has been contributed
by them to the geography, the geology, or the history
of a country, which in all its aspects has been sub
mitted to their investigation for thirteen centuries."
The nuraber of the monks has varied frora tirae to
tirae in the later years, and is given by various trav-
eUers as twenty-three, twenty, and twenty-six. With
these facts home in raind, the singular apathy in the
convent with regard to some of its chief treasures
* Burckhardt, p. 567; Robinson, I., 132; Stanley, Sinai and
Palestine, p. 5S.

88 THE STORY OP THE MANUSCRIPTS.
wiU be the better understood. It was here that the
great Codex JJ lay buried for no one can tell how raany
years, and where it was only saved from destruction
by the providential arrival of the European scholar,
of whom much has been written already in these
pages. In the course of his earlier labors upon the Greek
text of the New Testament, it occurred to Tischen
dorf that there raust be a large store of precious man
uscripts " hidden' in dust and darkness " in the recesses
of G^eek and Coptic, Syrian and Armenian monaste
ries, and that many documents might be found with
the writings of the earlier centuries, which could pos
sibly be transferred to Eurofie, or at least be copied
and made a valuable part of Christian literature. As
already narrated in the chapter upon the Vatican
raanuscript, these convictions were sufficient to start
the scholar upon journeys in the year 1843, which were
destined to continue with only brief intervals during
alraost the entire reraainder of his life. It was in 1843,
it will be reraembered, that his first attempts to gain
access to the Vatican Codex were made. In March,*
1844, he embarked at Leghorn for Egypt and Syi'ia,
arriving after a delay at Malta on the fourth of April
at Alexandria, whence he proceeded to Cairo. After
examining libraries in that city and looking at the Pyr
amids and the Sphinx, he pursued his way to four
Coptic monasteries in the Libyan desert, where he
* In his "When were our Gospels written?" Tischendorf
gives the date of his departure as April, but it is elsewhere and,
doubtless, more accurately given as in the text.

THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT. 89
found comparatively little to reward his efforts. Re
turning to Cairo he started on May 12th for Suez and
the Sinaitic Peninsula. His description of these jour
neys is most fascinating, as it is given in his book en
titled " Reise in den Orient," which has passed through
several editions in Germany and been translated into
English. An abridgment of the account of his arrival at the
convent on the 24th of May may well be given.* " I
did not see the convent until we were come into its
immediate proximity. It lies in a long and narrow vale
between the mountain of Saint Epistemius or the Jebel
ed Deir, and Horeb ; but it comes iuto view most
beautifully, with its fine garden of cypress, pomegran
ate, and orange trees giving a friendly greeting over
the gray stone walls. The convent itself, with its walls
towering to the height of forty feet, looks like a smaU
fortress, and the want of any entrance, that can prop
erly be called a door, strengthens the impression. The
only entrance is thirty feet high, to which the visitor
is pulled up by a rope. A crowd of Bedouins were
already gathered under this door, and they heralded
my arrival by loud cries and the discharge of their
fire-arms. But before I could enter upon ray rope-
journey upwards, I was asked for ray credentials. I
presented the two letters from Suez, which were un-
mediately drawn up into the convent." These testi
monials were not readily accepted, however, for the
prior was aware that Tischendorf had just paid a long
visit to the mother-convent in Cairo, and he naturally
* Reise in den Orient (Leipzig, 1846,) I, 216 seq.

90 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
thought that if the traveller were perfectly trust
worthy he would have received a letter of introduction
from the superior there. Niebuhr had been denied
admittance to St. Catherine's upon such grounds, and
Tischendorf was in danger of similar treatment. He
had in fact received a letter at Cairo, but he had ex
amined it with characteristic care and suspected that
the vellum on which it was written was of critical
value, and he had therefore designedly left it in his
desk. He answered the prior that he had been given
an introduction, which he had unfortunately left be
hind hira in Cairo, and, without giving the real reason,
sought to explain the oversight. It was evident that
his effort was not wholly satisfactory, but they made
no further objections to hoisting him up by the rope
to the lofty door of their retreat.
Tischendorf was allowed free access to the library,
which was rich in manuscripts. As he examined the
voluraes upon the shelves, his eye feU upon a large
basket full of old parchments standing upon the floor,
apparently counted of no value, and waiting only for
use as kindlings. Upon inquiry he found that two
basketfuls of similar fragments had already been used
for this purpose. Upon turning over the mouldered
pieces, he found, to his great surprise, a number of
leaves of the Old Testament in Greek, which bore
every evidence of being more ancient than any he had
ever seen. He was permitted to take a sraall portion
of this raanuscript, consisting of forty-three leaves, but
no persuasions could induce the raonks to part with
the reraainder, which had Suddenly grown valuable in

THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT. 91
their eyes now that the leamed stranger was so anx
ious to possess them. The leaves secured were parts
of 1 Chronicles and 2 Esdras, all of Nehemiah and
Esther, and parts of Tobit, Jereraiah, and Lamenta
tions, to which must be added a copy that the discov
erer was enabled to make of a single page containing
text from Isaiah and Jereraiah. His satisfaction had
been too plainly expressed. Nothing more could be
gained from the brotherhood, at least at this visit, and
so Tischendorf took his departure, enjoining upon the
monks to take good care of the remnant, and of any
such fragments as might be found. The precious
leaves in his possession were a part of the great Codex
K, which was yet to be unknown for many years, and
were deposited in the University Library, at Leipzig,
with all the other docuraents collected in this journey.
The discoverer gave the name Codex Friderico-Augus-
tanus to these Sinaitic fragraents, in acknowledgment
of the patronage of the Saxon king, under which they
were found.
Many years followed, fiUed with work of the most
lasting value to students of the Bible. But through
all the pressure of his studies during this time Tischen
dorf never forgot the treasure he had left behind him
at Sinai, nor relioquished the hope of sorae day getting
possession of it. He raade attempts through an influ
ential friend, the physician to the viceroy of Egypt,
to secure the manuscript, but the only result was
stated in a letter in return : " The monks of the con
vent have learned the value of these sheets of parch
ment since your departure, and will not part with

92 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
them at any price." He determined, therefore, to
return to the East in order to copy the manuscript,
which he knew to be of the greatest value. In Febru
ary, 1858, he stood once more beneath the waUs of the
convent, and was welcomed by the brotherhood. But
not a trace of the coveted parchments could be found.
Every inquiry failed, and he was obUged to return to
Europe, contenting himself with other documents of
importance which he had picked up in many places by
the way.
But not even now could the enthusiastic scholar rest.
In the midst of the work of preparing a multitude of
publications he was haunted by the thought that there
might yet be sorae way of obtaining the rest of that
ancient copy of the Old Testaraent that he had seen
once in the convent of St. Catherine. At last, in the
autumn of 1856, he applied to the Russian government
for a commission to make an Eastern journey in the in
terests of Biblical science, thinking thereby to secure
the advantages of the deep reverence felt in aU the East
ern monasteries for the Russian emperor, who is consid
ered the head of the Eastern church. After many
delays the imperial approval was gained, the necessary
funds were granted, and in January, 1859, Tischendorf
started the third tirae for the convent at Sinai. During
the whole interval since his first journey, and notwith
standing the interest excited by the Codex Friderico-
Augustanus, he had steadfastly kept the secret of the
place in which he had found it, having imparted it
only to the two or three j)ersons who could have aided
htm in his attempts to secure the remainder of the

THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT. 93
document. But his second fruitless journey had fiUed
him with fears, either that the monks had come to
value the manuscript so highly as to have hidden it
forever from the sight of strangers, or else that they
had already parted with it for some immense sum, or at
at the command of sorae ecclesiastical superior. He
arrived in Alexandria on the sixteenth of January. In
his first journey he had gone by camel frora Alexandria
to Suez in five days, now he went the sarae distance in
about five hours by rail. But now, as before, the rest
of the way raust be traversed with camels, and on the
thirty-first of January, 1859, he once raore entered the
convent. He was welcoraed most heartily. The fami
liar rooms containing the Ubrary were thrown open to
hira ; and the custodian of the books, Cyril of Athos,
showed him every courtesy. Many valuable manu
scripts were placed in his hands, liturgies and lection-
aries and copies of Scriptures, but nowhere was the
one volume he desired; and after a stay of a few
days he gave up aU hope of success. He told his
Bedouins on the fourth of February to be ready to
start for Cairo on the seventh, and on the afternoon
of the same day he took a walk with the steward of
the convent, returning about sunset. They had talked
of their studies, and upon their return the steward
invited him to take supper with hira in his own cell.
Continuing the conversation, the steward said: "I,
too, have been reading the Septuagint," and as he
spoke he brought a bulky volume wrapped in a red
cloth from the corner of the room and laid it in Tisch
endorf's hands. One glance was sufficient. The

94 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
scholar knew that the wish of years was attained.
But how much more than had been comprised in that
wish was now found he hardly dared to believe, as his
hands turned the precious leaves. Here were, indeed,
the very fragraents which he had taken from the waste-
basket fifteen years before, but also, to his greatest
surprise and joy, other parts of the Old Testaraent, the
whole of the New Testament, the Epistle of Barnabas,
and a part of the Shepherd of Hermas, — books which
in sorae localities had once been considered canonical,
and had therefore been included in this volume of the
New Testaraent.
That night deterrained the principal labors of Tisch
endorf's life for the next fourteen years. Concealing
his joy as best he could, he asked carelessly if he
might take the volume to his own room to examine it
a little more leisurely. Once there, he fairly danced
for joy. " I knew," he says,* " that I held in my
hand the most precious Biblical treasure in existence
— a document whose age and imi^ortance exceeded
that of all the manuscripts I had ever examined during
twenty years' study of the subject. I cannot now,
I confess, recall all the emotions which I felt in that
exciting moment, with such a diamond in my pos
session." " It seemed a wickedness to sleep," he says
elsewhere. All through that night in the cold ceU
and by the dim light of a candle, he toUed upon a
transcription of the Epistle of Barnabas, the original
• ' ' When were our Gospels written ? " Translation published
by the Religious Tract Society of London, and reprinted by the
American Tract Society.

THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT. 95
Greek of which had never been discovered before, and
which was knovvn only through a Latin translation.
Early the next morning Tischendorf applied to the
steward for permission to take the manuscript to
Cairo that it might be copied in full. But it exceeded
the steward's authority to grant permission. Unfor
tunately the prior had left two days previous for
Cairo, intending to proceed to Constantinople to take
part in the election of a new archbishop. Tischendorf
at once set out to catch him. He left the monastery
on the seventh, as had been previously arranged. The
Russian flag was hoisted, and a salute was fired as he
rode away. He found the prior in Cairo, who readily
acceded to the proposal, and dispatched a Bedouin
upon a swift dromedary to bring the manuscript at
once to the city, and nine days later the scholar had
the precious book once raore before hira. It was
agreed that Tischendorf should be allowed sets of
eight leaves at a tirae, these quaternions, as they were
called, making up the separate parts of the manuscrijrt,
in a manner similar to the folds of a modern book,
which are called signatures by the printers. And thus
the copy was obtained, two German friends assist
ing in the task of transcribing the hundred and ten
thousand lines, and Tischendorf revising and correcting
the sheets with a constant study of the original.
But, meanwhile, the desire was growing to possess
the original itself, or to secure it for such future study
as could only be accomplished through the passage of
years. He ventured to suggest that it should be pre
sented by the monastery to the Emperor of Russia as

96 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
the head of the Greek Church. The prior received
the proposal with favor, but was unable to grant the
request without permission from the archbishop, whose
election had just been accomplished. He had not been
consecrated, however, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem
raised such a strong opposition to hira that the cere-
raony was long delayed. At last Tischendorf himself
was requested to interfere in the ecclesiastical dispute,
and use his influence in favor of the party of his
friends of the monastery. He did so, and when finally
the victory was gained, he carried the news of their
success to Cairo, and again preferred his request, now
emphasized by the support of the Russian ambassador
to Turkey. The next day " I received from them," he
says, " under the form of a loan, the Sinaitic Bible, to
carry it to St. Petersburg, and there to have it copied
as accurately as possible." This was the attainment
'of his highest, wishes, and on the nineteenth of No
vember in the sarae year he presented the priceless
volume, with many other treasures, to the Emperor
Alexander II.
Now followed the labor of preparing an edition of
the codex in facsiraile. The work was accoraplished
in 1862, in four folio voluraes,* and by the raunificence
of the emperor, copies were sent to the great insti
tutions and libraries throughout the world. Honors
poured in upon the great scholar, whose sagacity and
perseverance had accomplished the result, and whose
life-work had now achieved its greatest triumph.
* Several libraries in this country possess copies of this Codex,
as well as of Vercellone's facsimile of the Vatican manuscript.

THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT. 97
One unfortunate circumstance, however, should be
recorded in candor. It will be reraembered that
Tischendorf's own words quoted above are: "I re
ceived the Sinaitic Bible under the form of a loan to
carry it to St. Petersburg." The loan has never been
cancelled by the return of the volume. Whether the
eminent discoverer did not fully understand that the
loan was real, and not merely forraal, or whether
the Imperial governraent clairas the authority to dis
pose of the raanuscript, can hardly be determined
perhaps under the present data for our knowledge.
Certain it is, however, that the monks at Sinai feel
deeply injured that their jDrecious manuscript seems
lost to thera forever. It is true the Russian govern
ment made them the offer of liberal compensation,
which they refused, as undoubtedly they had a right
to do. But when they declined to part thus with
then* rightly considered priceless book, no offer of its
return was made. The visitor* to-day at the Convent
of St. Catherine finds the brotherhood sorely grieved
over what they deem a decided breach of faith.
The Sinaitic Codex, K (Aleph), has three hundred
and forty-six and a half leaves, thirteen and a half
inches wide by nearly fifteen inches long. Of these,
one hundred and ninety-nine leaves contain portions of
the Old Testament, and it will be remerabered that the
parts previously discovered and deposited at Leipzig
were also of the Old Testament. The poetical portions
are written stichometrically in two columns upon a
page, but the other pages have four columns. It is of
* Compare Schaff's " Through Bible Lands."

98 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
singular interest that two small fragments of manu
script, one a part of a single leaf discovered by Tisch
endorf in 1853, and the other portions of two leaves
found by Archbishop Porfiri in the binding of other
books, have been identified as belonging to this codex,
adding thus a few verses to the Old Testament. The
New Testament contains, as already stated, the canon
ical books, with the addition of the Epistle of Barnabas
and a part of the Shepherd of Hermas. It is remarked
that between these two books six leaves seem to have
fallen out, upon which jDossibly sorae apocryphal text
may have been written.* The whole number of leaves
extant is one hundred and forty-seven and a half.
The text is written upon very fine parchment, —
Tischendorf says the skins of young antelopes, —
without accents or breathings, with no separation
of words and with no large initials. The Ammonian
sections and Eusebian canons are marked in the mar
gins. Tischendorf believes that he has detected the
corrections of at least ten different revisers, extending
over a period ending in the twelfth century. The age
of the raanuscript is undoubtedly that of the fourth
century. It ranks with the Vatican Codex for pur
poses of textual criticism, while naturally the com
pleteness of the New Testament gives it an especial
value. Altogether the discovery and collation of this
ancient volume is to be considered as the greatest con
tribution to Biblical criticism of modern times, and the
aid which it will always render to the determination-
and defense of Christian truth is beyond value.
* Bleek, Einleitung, p. 707.

THE SINAITIC MANUSCEIPT. 99
The account of this manuscript should not close
without the mention of certain hostilities which it has
suffered, adding much to the labors of its discoverer
and editor, who was obliged thus to become also its
defender. The strangest of these attacks came from
the impostor previously referred to in these pages (55
and 56), Constantine Simonides. Tischendorf had de
feated his schemes in 1856, and now, with peculiar
craft, he sought to take his revenge. Falling back
upon his now well-known skUl in preparing forgeries,
he claimed at once upon the appearance of the fac
similes of the Sinaitic Codex, that he had written the
whole document himself! He said that he had been
employed by his uncle, who was at the head of a
monastery on Mount Athos, to make in raanuscript a
copy of the complete Bible, to be presented to the
Russian Emperor Nicholas. He claimed that it was
the intention to add the writings of aU the Apostolic
Fathers to the volurae, but whUe engaged upon the
Shepherd of Hermas his uncle died, and the work was
stopped. The volume was presented by him later to
Constantius, formerly Patriarch of Constantinople and
Archbishop of Sinai, who recognized the favor by
sending to Simonides twenty-five thousand piastres,
or not far from $1,200. The Patriarch presented the
book to the Convent of St. Catherine, where Simonides
had seen it twice, iu 1844 and 1852. Such was the
wonderful story, believed by many, recognized by the
"more learned as the boldest of all Simonides's lies,
and calling at once for refutation. Naturally, the
defeat of such imposture was easy. The monks at

100 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
Sinai had never seen Siraonides, and asserted that the
manuscript had been there from the earliest tiraes.
Moreover, according to the authority of Simonides him
self, he could have been 'only a youth of fifteen in 1839,
the date he assigned to the beginning of his task;
besides which, it was pointed out that, in order to
have finished the work at the time named, " he must
have written at least twenty thousand large and sep
arate uncial letters every day ! " * Simonides admitted
the fact, and offered to do the work again for the price
of $50,000 ! Altogether his story was too great to be
believed, and such expositions of its improbability
were readily received. The other attacks were of a
different character and somewhat harder to refute.
From Russian sources carae the charge that the newly
discovered work was guilty of heresy in some of its
parts, and from England came doubts of a serious
character, though from a writer who preferred to
remain anonymous. Tischendorf replied with sharp
pamphlets in 1863, the first entitled "The Assaults
upon the Sinai-Bible," and the second " The Weapons
of Darkness against the Sinai-Bible," establishing be
yond controversy the genuineness and value of the
manuscript. So did this priceless treasure come forth from the
obscurity of ages into the light of Christian scholarship,
henceforth to be regarded by Christians as sharing
with the Vatican Manuscript the first place in the
ranks of aU the witnesses to the original text of the
Scriptures. * Scrivener, Six Lectures, p. 38.

THE PALIMPSESTS. 101

CHAPTER VII.
THE PALIMPSESTS.
In the Greek department of the National Library at
Paris is an ancient docuraent raarked No. 9, and it has
become famous as Codex C, or the Codex of Epheabm
the Syrian. In the year 1535 a scholar died in Rome
named Andreas Johannes Lascaris, who had devoted
much toil to the collection of valuable manuscripts in
the East. Among his discoveries was this old volurae,
containing sermons and other writings by Ephraem of
Syria. Frora the collection of this John Lascar, the
book passed into the hands of Cardinal Nicola Ridolfi
of Florence, and upon the death of the latter his whole
library was bought by Pietro Strozzi. Frora him the
manuscript came into the possession of the Medicis ;
and Catherine de Medici, when she left Italy for
France, carried with her these sermons of Ephraem,
as one of the books from which to feed her spiritual
life. Probably frora her hands it came into the library,
where it now remains. For a long tirae there was no
suspicion that the pages contained any treasure greater
than the works of the Syrian preacher and saint ; but
at last, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, a
careful reader, named Peter Allix, discerned traces of
another text beneath that of Ephraem. It was very

102 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
faint, in raany places whoUy indistinguishable, and of
course, where it could be seen it was ranch obscured
by the later vsriting ; but close investigation proved it
to be really a separate text, and the raanuscript was
fully recognized as a palimpsest.
The attention of scholars was at once directed to
the work of deciphering the original writing, which
Allix had found to be portions of the Scripture. The
difficulty attending the task was great, and scholar
ship had not yet advanced to the degree of skill neces
sary for the work. Several passages were extracted,
and applied to the reprint of Mill's Greek Testament,
which appeared in 1710 ; and this was the first use of
the manuscript in the correction of the text of Scrip
ture. The critic Wetstein bestowed much labor upon
the elucidation of the older writing and upon confer
ence with the great English scholar, Bentley, was
sent by him to Paris for the express purpose of study
ing the raanuscript with reference to its use in the
edition of the New Testament which Bentley proposed
to publish. This collation by Wetstein, a copy of
which was sent to Bentley according to the agree
ment, while the collator preserved a copy for himself,
was of use thirty-five years afterward, when Wetstein
himself published a Greek Testaraent. With all his
success, however, this early investigator found the
greatest difficulty in reading the larger part of what
he secured of the original, and in a raultitude of places
it was absolutely impossible to discern the writing. A
long interval followed in which no atterapt was made
to overcome these immense obstacles. But in 1834

THE PALIMPSESTS. 103
the custodian of the raanuscripts in the Royal Library
was induced to aUow a chemical infusion to be apphed,
in the hope that the ancient characters might be more
fully brought out. This was done, and what was
known as tho Giobertine tincture was used upon about
one hundred leaves of the book. The process was
partially successful, the letters appeared indeed with
more distinctness, but the pages were so spotted and
stained that many have doubted whether the experi
ment should have been made. The critic Fleck was
enabled to collate many pages hitherto undecipherable,
but his work, even after the chemical preparation of
the manuscript, was stiU very incomplete.
Lachmann, in 1880, wrote that, if any Parisian
scholar had the courage for the task, he could secure
immortal fame by publishing the text of this codex.
Capperonier, a former head of the library, had said
that no mortal could read the words of the New Tes
tament written beneath the text of Ephraem. In 1840,
Tischendorf went to Paris and applied himself to the
work. From December of that ye9,r until September
of 1841, he was closely engaged in deciphering the hid
den text and making it ready for publication. Tre*
gelles's description * of his success in the edition, which
was published in 1843, is as follows: "The printed
edition appeared in 1842 [?], and then this manuscript
* In Home's Introduction, IV. 167. It will be noted that the
date in the text differs from that ofthe quotation. The latter is
undoubtedly an oversight, but it is preserved in the quotation in
fidelity to the great editor's text, though the author of the pres
ent work has ventured to indicate in brackets its questionable
character.

104 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
might be said to be for the first tirae available for
critical purposes. Tischendorf's edition follows the
manuscript page for page and Une for line ; it is
printed in capital letters, although not in any way imi
tating the forra of those in the manuscript itself. One
page in facsimile is subjoined to the volume ; it ex
hibits very clearly the appearance of the older and the
later writing as they now are ; even the color is suc
cessfully imitated ; the many stains on the vellum are
alone omitted. The only reason that any could wish
that they had been preserved in the facsimile is that
then the pains which Tischendorf took would be more
fully appreciated." The great scholar had indeed
been most successful in overcoming the prodigious dif
ficulties of his task. He noted even the work of re
visers of the raanuscript, declaring that no less than
four hands had been eraployed upon the ancient text,
and indicating the very few places in which the fourth
writer had added his corrections. Had Tischendorf
done no other work, had he contributed nothing else
to the science to which he devoted his life, his mar
vellous success here would have entitled hira to rev
erential farae.
The palimpsest of Ephraem was unquestionably a
docuraent of date as early as the fifth century. The
erasure of the older writing and the formation of the
new volurae took place in the twelfth century. The
leaves were taken promiscuously, without the slightest
regard to their forraer order, and were bound together,
many of them upside down, so that the restored text
is in the greatest confusion. Two hundred and nine

THE PALIMPSESTS. 105
leaves make up the book as it now exists, one hundred
and forty-five of which belong to the New Testaraent.
More than one-third of the original copy of the New
Testaraent portion is wholly wanting. Thirty-seven
chapters of the Gospels, ten of the Acts, forty-two of
the Epistles, and eight of the Revelation are gone.
The whole of the second Epistle of St. John, and the
whole of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessa^
lonians, are among the missing parts. Sorae sectional
divisions appear, but there are no spaces between the
words; and every mark of antiquity assigns a very
high value to the codex. The text, instead of stand
ing in more than one column on a page, as in the Alex
andrine and Vatican and other ancient manuscripts, is
in only one column, a fashion of writing that would indi
cate a later date were it not for the other indubitable
signs of antiquity. The order of the books is the same
as in Codex A, where the General Epistles' come after
the Acts ; then the Epistles of St. Paul, and the Pas
toral Epistles preceding the Revelation. The Ammo
nian sections are found raarked in the margins of the
Gospels, but the Eusebian canons do not accompany
them. Short and simple titles and subscriptions are
also used in the Gospels.
The comparative value of the Codex of Ephraem
gives it a place with the first manuscripts in impor
tance in BibUcal studies. The Codex Vaticanus, the
Codex Sinaiticus, and in general, the Codex Alexan
drinus stand before it in value, but in some respects it
is superior to the last, especially in the text of the
Gospels. The manuscript is written with great ac-

106 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
curacy in almost all its parts that are preserved, the
mistakes being the interchange of vowels of similar
sound, and such Uteral errors as readily betray them
selves and suggest their own correction. There is one
remarkable exception, however, and it is the only one
of the kind in the whole codex. In the Revelation
the copyist omitted a passage. The tired eye may
have passed mechanically from one Une to another too
far away, or some interru23tion raay have relaxed the
vigilance and suffered the error to creep in. The first
five lines upon a page (298) are a correct transcript of
the ninth and tenth verses of the tenth chapter, but
then in the sixth Une there is a sudden change to the
last verse of chapter seven ; the text then runs smoothly
to the end of the fourth verse of the eighth chapter,
when there is again a sudden transition to the middle
of the third verse of the eleventh chapter. A transla
tion of the confused passage as it stands may easily
be compared with the version of King James, though
the order of the words is here somewhat different for
the sake of jDreserving the arrangement of the original.
It should be remembered that in the raanuscript the
words have no spaces between thera, and they are
accordingly printed in the sarae way in the following
lines, without any attempt, however to imitate the
uncial forra.
'¦'¦Anditwasinmymouthashoneysweetandwhentearfrom
theireyesandwhenhehadopenedtheseventhsealtherecamesi
lenceinheavenhalfanhourajidisawtheseuenangelswhostoodbeforeGodandtherewasgiventothemseventrumpetsandanotherangelcameandstoodatthealtarhavingagoldencense

JE)

^'tS^M

}uju _
THE EPHKAE
Paris of I ' Tivi

.LIMPSEBT., III, 15. i6-

THE PALIMPSESTS. 109
randtherewasgiven tohimmuchincen sethatheshoiddgiveto
theprayersofallthesaintsupontJiegoldenaltarbeforethethroneandwentupthesmoTceoftheincensetotheprayersofthesa
¦intsfromthehandoftheangdbefpreGodathousandtwohun dreda'ndsixtyclothedinsackcloth,"etc. Perhaps the copyist was drowsy, and as he dozed
some errant breeze came in at the open lattice and
blew back the page to the seventh chapter, and when
the writer, half ashamed of his negligence, copied a
few words from the pages now opened before him and
dozed again, the same mischievous breath whirled
the leaves over to the eleventh chapter, touched the
cheek of the sleeper to rouse him to his task, and then
gaily leaped forth to a wild^iourse again over the hills.
Whatever may have been the cause of the confusion,
it will serve as an excellent example of the errors to
which the most careful transcribers were liable, making
it a wonder that more instances of the kind are not
found in their writings.
Among aU the uncial manuscripts there are only
eight or ten palimpsests, and the number is sraaller
still araong the cursives. The Codex C is by far the
most valuable of them all. The adjoined plate gives
a reproduction of portions of 1 Timothy iii. 15 and 16.
It will be seen that the writing in the fainter ink
extends in unbroken lines quite across the page, and
this is the original text. The bolder writing, divided
into two columns, is the text of Ephraem.
In the seventeenth century in England a spirited
controversy arose, having for its centre the seven ex
tant epistles of Ignatius, together with five that were

110 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
falsely ascribed to him. It does not interest us now
to enter into the nature of this dispute, and it is only
mentioned to explain the circumstance, that an anxious
search was instituted at this time for new literary
relics of Ignatius, which was continued with unflag
ging zeal over a period of raany years. Archbishop
Usher was particularly interested, and through his
influence all the sea-captains sailing to the East were
commanded to bring home at least one manuscript to
¦ swell the resources of English learning. Nothing ap
peared, however, to assist in the Ignatian controversy.
The larger nuraber of books brought horae were copies
of the Koran, which it was easy for the sea-captains
to obtain in the very ports to which they sailed, and
naturally, since they could thus fulfil the requireraent
without trouble, they made few attempts to penetrate
the Ubraries and secret alcoves, where the most valua
ble documents were likely to be stored. Letters were
sent to the principal Greek ecclesiastics throughout
the East, in the hope that they raight aid in the search,
but only the raost meagre success attended these
efforts. It was thought that one locaUty in particular
might furnish the desired documents. Upon the left
bank of the Nile, west of the Delta, was a valley,
which from a very early period had been the resort of
recluses, drawn thither, it is said, by some supersti
tious idea, that their holiness could be promoted by
ablutions in the water of the adjacent lakes, which was
strongly imijregnated with nitre, or a substance caUed
natron, which was believed to be the nitre spoken of
by the prophet Jeremiah (ii. 22). The statement is

THE PALIMPSESTS. Ill
made, that there were once no less than three hundred
and sixty monasteries grouped in this one locality,
which took the name Nitria from the character of the
lakes. In the course of time, a coramon danger was
the occasion for surrounding the remaining convents
with a kind of fortification, which at once afforded
protection to all the monks and drew them into closer
bonds of brotherhood. It was believed in Europe that
this fortified retreat must have been made the receptar
cle of raany valuable docuraents. Rev. Robert Hunt
ington visited the place in 1679, but could not gain
access to the libraries. The monks could understand
him only with difficulty. They were suspicious and
reticent. He saw enough, however, to justify his be
lief, that the store of literary treasures must be rich,
and he returned to England to report the result of his
investigations. Several years later, another atterapt
was raade by the Pope, Clement XL, who sent a native
Syrian to the desert. The raonks received hira more
cordially, allowed him to see a sort of cellar, which
was full of manuscripts that they themselves were un
able to read, and sold him forty of them, which he
took to Rome; there unfortunately they were de
posited in the Vatican Library, a place almost as
inaccessible to scholars as the Nitrian monasteries
themselves. Other attempts followed from time to
time, in hope of further discoveries, but as in the case
of the famous Sinaitic manuscript, the persistent curi
osity of the Europeans concerning these neglected
documents at Nitria raised their value in the eyes of
the monks, and they refused to part with their treas-

112 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
ures. In 1888, however, Archdeacon Tattam, of Eng
land, set out for Egypt, and succeeded in persuading
the Nitrian raonks to sell him such books as he might
desire, provided they did not have any curses written
in them such as we have described upon page 30, for
bidding any one to dispose of them. They took him
to a vaulted room, the floor of which was heaped with
books and fragments, gave him a stick with which to
stir them up, and a candle to dissipate a little the
gloom of the windowless chamber, and left him to
study, and select what he would. Similar advantages
were granted him at other monasteries, and he returned
to England richly laden with spoils. Forty of these
manuscripts, from the monastery of Santa Maria Dei
para, were deposited in the British Museum about the
year 1847. Three of the much desired letters of Ignar
tins had been found, but of far raore value than these
were other docuraents, two of which are to be spe
cially mentioned, one of them a palirapsest to be de
scribed in this chapter, and the other a precious copy
of a very ancient Syriac version of the Gospels to be
described upon a future page. In the British Museum
the collection was not only accessible to scholars, but
it was in the constant charge of an officer of the
library, whose own learning enabled him to appreci
ate the value of the documents, and led hira to a
thorough investigation of their contents. This dis
cerning scholar was the Rev. William Cureton. As
he was examining one of the fragments, he found rea
son to suspect that the document had been twice writ-

THE PALIMPSESTS. 113
ten, though the traces of the older text were so very
faint as almost to defy any attempt to decipher them.
But it was fuUy determined, that the manuscript was
a very valuable palimpsest worthy of the highest es
teem as one of the most precious treasures of Chris
tendom. It was found that two ancient works had been
destroyed for the sake of providing veUum for the
later treatise, which was a work of Severus of Antioch
against Graramaticus. The older books thus taken
had contained in one instance portions of Homer's
Iliad with a fragment of Euclid, and in the other
a part of the Gospel of St. Luke. The leaves con
taining the Scripture were deciphered by Tregelles in
1854 and by Tischendorf in 1855, and at the sugges
tion of the latter the document was caUed Codex R.
An index of ancient chapters occupied two leaves, and
the remainder contained portions of most of the chap
ters of St. Luke, though the lacunae are very many
and much to be regretted. Canon Cureton, the ac
complished scholar in charge of the coUection, pub
lished the fragments of Horaer frora this raanuscript
in 1851 ; and seven years later, in 1858, he issued the
portions of the New Testament, with a translation
and very valuable notes.
The text of the preserved passages is extremely
faint, so that it can be read only in the clearest light
and by the raost skUled eye. As it is seen in the
Museum, only a fair day and unclouded sky wiU bring
out the letters with sufficient distinctness to make

114 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
them at aU legible. Add to this, that the later text,
Written over the ancient letters, is in characters very
black and broad and completely covering the pages,
and the difficulty of deciphering the flrst writing may
be conceived. It is said that in reading it a powerful
lens was necessary, and that in certain parts "it was
difficult to trace any of the erased letters, except by
holding the leaf to the light and catching the traces
of the strokes by which the vellum had been scraped
rather thinner by the style." The difficulties were so
great that it was only after continuous study for many
weeks that the task was accomplished, and with such
success that every leaf but one was fully transcribed
with the exception of an occasional letter, and, rarely,
a word which defied identification. The manuscript is
valuable, being of a very early date.
In the same group of Syriac manuscripts in the
British Museum are a few leaves, containing a very
small part of St. John's Gospel, of a great antiquity.
The letters resemble closely the Vatican raanuscript,
and the veUura, which is extremely thin and fine, has
been used more than once since the original writing
was placed upon it. It is one of the few instances of
the double palimpsest.
The only other rescript of which the detaUs wiU be
given is that known by the letter Z, and called, other
wise, the Codex Dublinensis. It is deposited in the
library of Trinity College, at DubUn, whence it takes
its name. One of the Fellows of this institution. Dr.
Barrett, was one day examining this manuscript, when

THE PALIMPSESTS. 115
he thought he discerned other letters under the Greek
text, which he was reading. A more careful inspection
confirmed the discovery, and he at once set himself to
work to decipher the ancient writing. It was found
to consist of a part of the Prophecy of Isaiah, certain
orations of Gregory of Nazianzum, and a large portion
of St. Matthew's Gospel. Dr. Barrett paid special
attention to the leaves containing the New Testament,
and in 1801 he published the results of his labors.
This publication was always felt to be far from satis
factory, however, and in 1853 the great Tregelles ap
plied hiraself to the work of coUating the raanuscript.
It was with much hesitation that the determination was
reached to submit the leaves to the chemical process
which had been applied to the Codex of Ephraem with
such partial success, but at last the experiment was at
tempted, and this tirae with nothing but the happiest
results. The veUura was not at all defaced by the
process, while, with hardly the exception of a letter, all
the older text was raade perfectly legible. The value
of this reproduction will be manifest when it is said
that the original document is undoubtedly no later
than the sixth century. A Uteral translation of the
nineteenth and twentieth verses of the first chapter
of St. Matthew, given with an example of the original
Greek in Home's Introduction, is herewith appended,
since it shows very plainly two or three instances of
contraction common to these ancient writings, as well
as being curious from the enlargement of the last
letters of the name Joseph, which, however, are the
equivalent of only one character in the Greek : —

116 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.

nowthebirthofjschtth uswas-beingespous
edhismother *
marytojosePHbeforbtheycametogbthershewas EOUNDWITHCHILDBYTHEHOLYSPT-
JO SEP HTHENHERHUSB AND
BBINGAJUSTMANANDNOTWILL . . .
TOMAKEHERAPUBLICEXAMPLE WASMINDEDPRIVILYTOPUTHERAWAY.
Other palimpsests of special value are the Codex
GuELPHEEBYTANuS A and the Codex Guelpheeby-
TANUS B, known respectively by the capitals P and Q.
They were both found, with other ancient leaves, in a
volume known as the Codex Carolinus. P consists
of forty-three leaves, containing parts of the four Gos
pels, some portions of which, however, are entirely
iUegible, and it belongs to the sixth century. Q con
sists of only thirteen leaves, which have parts of
twelve chapters of St. Luke and of two chapters of St.
John. It has been assigned to the fifth century.
The palimpsests are few, as already remarked, and
those that could find mention in these pages have thus
been grouped together, as representing one kind of
manuscripts and the difficulties incident to their elu
cidation. Had the order of value of the codices been
observed. Codex C should have been followed im
mediately by the manuscript first mentioned in the
next chapter.

UNCL4LS, FRAGMENTS, AND CURSIVES. 117

CHAPTER VIIL
OTHEE UNCIALS, FRAGMENTS, AND CTJESIVES.
Codex D of the Gospels is also known by the name
of its discoverer Beza ; and as the Vatican manuscript
is so called because it is preeminent araong aU the
manuscripts of the Vatican Library, this codex is
given a third name. Codex Cantabeigiensis, because
it is the greatest treasure of the University of Cam
bridge. In the troublous tiraes in France during the
religious wars, which began about the year 1562, and
in which so raany Protestants were destined to perish,
Theodore Beza, preacher, professor, reforraer, found
opportunity to enrich the church by BibUcal studies,
which will make his name famous so long as men
shall read the word of God. 'Early in his career he
was banished with other Protestants frora France, his
native country, and in Geneva found at the same time
a refuge and a place in which to labor for the truth.
In the year 1562, he was enabled to return to Paris as
chaplain to the Prince of Condd and afterward to
Coligni, and it was in this year of his return to France
that he discovered the manuscript of so ranch im
portance, which bears his narae. He says that he
found it at Lyons in a monastery dedicated to St.

118 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
Irenaeus, but whether it came into his possession by
gift, or purchase, has never been fully known. It has
been conjectured with some degree of probability,
that it was taken by violence from the raonastery,
doubtless by some other hand than Beza's, and thus
came indirectly into his possession. Certain it is that
in this very year, which saw the first violent outbreak
of the religious wars, the Huguenots, or rather Francis
de Beaumont, Baron of Adrets, who had attached
hiraself to the Huguenot party, sacked the great city
of Lyons and pillaged the monastery. What is more
likely than that some soldier of the better sort, or
possibly, Adrets " the Infamous " himself, raay have
recognized this book as of possible value, and secured
it as a gift to the revered scholar then following the
fortunes of the court of Conde ? At all events it is
raost probable that this manuscrifit, like the Sinaitic
Codex, though from another cause, came near perishing
in the flames. In the absence of certain information
upon these points of exceeding interest, it will suffice
to mark how in the midst of Beza's absorbing occupa
tions the instinct of the scholar at once perceived the
value of the volume. When it was once securely in
his possession he gave himself to its inspection with
enthusiasm. He collated portions of it for his own
jirivate use, as appears from his edition of the Greek
of the New Testament, and in 1581 he sent it as a
gift to the University of Carabridge, where it is now
treasured and may be seen in its glass case in the New
Library. Codex Bezse is certainly as old as the sixth century,

UNCIALS, FEAGMENTS, AND CUESIVES. 119
and it raay belong to the fifth, and as such it takes
rank with the few leading uncials, which are of most
value in determining the original text of the Scrip
tures. It is a large quarto volurae, of four hundred
and fifteen leaves, now very elegantly bound. The
paging shows that originaUy there were at least five
hundred and twelve leaves; nine of the leaves that
are preserved are not of the original volurae, and can
not be of a date earlier than the tenth century.
The manuscript contains the Gospels and the Acts,
with considerable , omissions, and many of the leaves
are so mutilated as to injure the text of the remaining
portions. The Greek is written in square, upright
uncials in a single column upon the left-hand page, as
the book lies open before the reader, and a Latin
translation by the same hand which wrote the Greek
occupies the right>hand page. The Latin is of the
Old Latin version, earlier than that of Jerome. There
are no spaces between the words, no accents, or marks
of breathing, though punctuation is attempted in
many places by a simple dot, appearing more frequently
in the Latin than in the Greek. The work is arranged
stichometrically, and the lines are therefore of unequal
length. In the order of the books, the Gospel of St.
John comes between those of Sts. Matthew and Luke,
whUe St. Mark's Gospel precedes the Acts. It is
usual in manuscripts written stichometricaUy for a
summary of the stichoi to be given at the close of the
work, but in this manuscript it is wanting. The
Ammonian sections appear, but there is no reference
to the canons of Eusebius. The margins of the pages

120 THE STOEY OP THE MANUSCRIPTS.
are marked frequently with titles and notes, but none
of these are by the writer of the original text.
Scholars are very generaUy agreed in assigning
Codex D to an Alexandrian source, though some think
that the Latin accompaniment indicates an origin
somewhere in the west of Europe.* It is evident
from the text itseff that the transcriber was not an
adept in the use either of the Greek or Latin, and
that his work was performed only in a mechanical
fashion, without sufficient knowledge to preserve his
hand from many great mistakes. Dr. Scrivener says
that " nothing is more likely, than that this most ven
erable docuraent  was a native of the country in
which it was found  the style and diction are
exactly suitable to a province like Gaul, where the
classical language was fast breaking up into the ver
nacular dialect frora which the modern French derives
its origin, to whose usage indeed a few of its words
and phrases approximate in a manner which cannot be
accidental." There is a singular instance in this manuscript of
the ways in which a slight peculiarity in the text may
sometimes serve to fix a date or identify the text,
which would otherwise be difficult or impossible. The
critic Wetstein, and after him several others, argued
* Bleek asserts of these Greek-Latin codices, that they must
be assigned in nearly all cases to a western origin, for it was
only in the "West that the Latin language prevailed, but that an
eastern Greek text was probably the basis of all such translations
(Einleitung, § 270). Both the Latin and Greek texts may have
been prepared in Egypt with their use by the western churches
in view.

UNCIALS, FRAGMENTS, AND CURSIVES. 121
from a single word occurring in St. John's Gospel
(xxi. 22) that this codex can be traced farther back
in history than the date at which it was brought to
light at Lyons. In the verse indicated the word thus
is written, so that the verse reads : " If I wiU that he
tarry thus till I come, what is that to thee ? FoUow
thou me." Now in the Latin Vulgate a reading ap
pears by the addition of a single letter, which seems to
authorize the tradition of which the Gosf)el speaks, —
that St. John was not to die. By the addition of c to
the word si, si volo, if I will, becomes sic volo, thus I
will. Now Codex D is the only manuscript known
which even to this extent agrees with the Vulgate.
But it is a fact of history that in the year 1546, at the
Council of Trent, an ecclesiastic named William a
Prato, the Bishop of Clermont in Auvergne, exhibited
to the council a Greek codex of very early date, which
confirmed the translation in the Latin Vulgate. A
natural inference is that William a Prato brought the
manuscript to Trent from his own diocese, or from
some library in the vicinity. Add to this that Henry
Stephens collated a manuscript, afterwards known
as I?', at about this time (1547) "in Italy," for the
assistance of his father, Robert Stephens, who was
preparing an edition of the Greek Testament published
in 1550. The readings thus extracted from |?' are
identical in an extraordinary number of places with
those of the Codex Bezse, leaving the almost inevit
able conclusion that (9' was identical with D. These
circumstances make it most probable that Beza's
manuscript had not been so long in the monastery at

122 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
Lyons as he thought it had when he wrote the note
which is still to be seen in the volurae at Carabridge,
and which intimates that it had long been a treasure,
though dust-covered and alraost forgotten, of the
library where it was found. Possibly Stephens may
have seen it in Lyons, and his father's statement that
it was studied " in Italy " may be a mistake ; but it is
far more likely that the document was really seen by
the younger Stephens in Italy, as recorded, and that
the manuscript was changing possessors during these
years. If (?', and the coj^y shown at the Council of
Trent, and D, were really one and the sarae document,
we have these facts : Clermont in Auvergne was in
France, some distance to the west of Lyons ; Trent
was in the Tyrol. Any place in the extreme north of
Italy may serve for Stephens's description. In 1546
the manuscript was in the hands of the bishop of Cler
mont at Trent ; the next year Stephens saw it in
Italy ; fifteen years afterward it is found in Lyons.
What more natural than that it originated, as sug
gested, somewhere among the churches of Southern
France ; came into the possession of the bishop of
Clermont ; was carried by hira, as a document curious
and theologically useful, to Trent ; thence, when the
council divided, in March of 1547, and thirty-eight of
the fifty-six bishops present adjourned to Bologna in
the north of Italy, it went with them, where it may
have met the eye of Stephens ; and thence, sooner or
later, returned to its native regions, and found place
in the celebrated monastery at Lyons ? But whatever
may be the truth, the whole case is traced back to the

UNCIALS, FRAGMENTS, AND CURSIVES. 123
one word thus in St. John's Gospel, together with the
coincidences of reading between |3' and D, for the
second part of the chain of inferences. Truly it raay
sometimes be said of the science of Biblical criticism :
" How great a" matter a little fire kindleth ! "
The text of this manuscript has several striking
peculiarities. As already said, the mistakes are so
numerous, and of such a character, as to prove the
writer to be ill acquainted with the languages used.
There are also a very large number of interpolations,
with glosses raore frequent than in any other of the
important codices. The Latin is, moreover, so exactly
moulded to the sense of the Greek text, that even the
laws of grammar are neglected in the desire to have
the two columns coincide ; as Hug says in his Intro
duction, this has been done " with childish scrupu
losity." It is a matter of special interest that this raanuscript
is the oldest which contains the passage in the eighth
chapter of St. John's Gosi^el relating the story of the
woman taken in adultery. Later copies contain the
narrative, but Codex D differs even from these in the
form in which it appears. From its entire absence in
many of the raost valuable codices, Lachmann, Tisch
endorf, and Tregelles, all omit it frora their editions,
and it is probable that where it is found it was intro
duced on account of its transmission through Papias
and Eusebius. But that it appears in this codex is
evidence of an extremely early origin for the story
and its incorporation in the Gospel, whether it may
have been written by the inspired author or not. In

124 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
the Acts of the Apostles there are many places where
the text differs materiaUy in form from that of other
manuscripts, and the additions, though certainly unau
thentic, are often full of interest. Dr. Scrivener men
tions an instance in Luke's Gospel with circumstances
of which he was a witness, in the foUowing words : —
"The most reraarkable passage in this manuscript,
in regard to which it stands quite alone, is that which
follows Luke vi. 4, on the leaf which is usually kept
open at Carabridge for the inspection of visitors. It
runs thus : —
" ' On the sarae day he beheld a certain man work
ing on the Sabbath, and said unto him, Man, blessed
art thou if thou knowest what thou doest, but if thou
knowest not, thou art cursed and a transgressor of the
law.' "I was present when this passage was shown at
Cambridge to a learned Greek Archimandrite, Philip-
pos Schulati of Kustandje. He had never heard either
of it or of the manuscript before, but after a moment's
thought his comment was ready: 'This cannot be:
the Lord cursed no man.' "
The other codex to which the letter D is apphed is
the Codex D of St. Paul's Epistles, No. 107 in the
National Library of Paris, and also called the Codex
Claeomontanus from Clerraont near Beauvais, in the
north of France, where it was discovered by Beza, in
the year 1582, soon after sending D of the Gospels
and Acts to England. Frora Beza it passed through
the hands of Claude Dupuy and his sons, eminent
scholars of Paris, one of whora, Jacques, was the king's

UNCIALS, FRAGMENTS, AND CUESIVES. 125^
Ubrarian. He brought it to tha notice of Louis XIV.,
and it was purchased for the royal coUection. It is a
quarto on " the thinnest and finest veUura known to
exist, and has five hundred and thirty-three leaves,
with paraUel colurans of Greek and Latin, giving all
the Epistles of St. Paul except Rora. i. 1-7 ; 27-30 ;
and 1 Cor. xiv. 13-22. Several portions of the ex
tant Scripture, however, are the work of another
copyist than the original transcriber, though these
supplied parts are very ancient. The forra of the
writing both in the Greek and the Latin is siraple and
elegant, the characters being very nearly the same size
as those in D of the Gospels. The manuscript is
stichoraetrical in form, and raust, therefore, have been
written after the year 462, when this method of writ
ing was first applied to the Epistles by EuthaUus, and
it is generally agreed that Tischendorf's decision that
it belongs to the sixth century is correct. It undoubt
edly emanated frora North Airica. This codex has
been unfortunate in many respects. Thirty-five of its
precious leaves were stolen in 1707 by John Aymont,
whose name has thus come down to posterity with in
famy. He sold one leaf in Holland, but its honorable
possessor restored it to the library containing the vol
ume. The remainder of the stolen portion was bought
by Harley, Earl of Oxford, an enthusiastic collector,
but it was restored by his son in 1729. In addition to
these evUs, now so happUy corrected, there have been
several hands, that at different times have tarapered
with the text. The original writer raade many correc
tions. Then carae sorae one, who, Tischendorf be-

126 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
lieves,wasa monk frora. Sinai or some Greek raonastery
not far frora there, who revised the whole of the Greek
and raade many corrections. He was of the seventh
century. The next reviser altered a few places in both
the Greek and the Latin. The next touched only a few
passages. Then a fourth took the work in hand, and
with deplorable zeal investigated the whole document,
changed the spelling, added accents and other marks,
and attempted even more serious alterations by insert
ing readings from another source. More than two
thousand places show his interference. After him at
least six successive correctors are believed by Tischen
dorf to have attempted similar work. The result was
naturally most unfortunate, and the value and beauty
of the original were sadly injured. Several collations
of this manuscript have been given to the public, the
most sumptuous of which is the facshnUe edition by
Tischendorf published at Leipzig in 1852.
We now pass to a few raanuscripts that raay be
briefly mentioned, though all are of great value in the
work of textual recension.
Codex E, or Laudianus, has already been referred
to (page 43) as an example of stichometry, in which the
arrangement of the text gives but one word to a line,
with only a few exceptions in which two or three words
stand together. The text is also written in an unusual
fashion, in having a Latin version in a left-hand col
umn preceding the Greek on the page. It is thought
from this order, that the Latin was regarded as the prin
cipal text in the place where the volume was used, and
that the Greek was added for the sake of the scholars

UNCIALS, FEAGMENTS, AND CUESIVES. 127
connected with the church or coraraunity, which was
probably in Western Europe. The date is the sixth
or seventh century. An exaraple of the stichoraetri
cal arrangeraent is given in the Plate, showing the
Greek and Latin columns.
Many other raanuscripts of importance might be de
scribed, but the remaining pages of this chapter must be
given to the mention of a few remarkable fragments,
which illustrate the perils to which these early and
precious docuraents were often subjected, and also
the wonderful skill of critical scholars in recognizing
relics, and assigning thera their true places among the
materials of use in the study of the Greek text. A
brief reference to two or three cursives must follow.
The Codex Regius, L, contains large portions of the
four Gospels, and is of great value. It dates perhaps
from the last part of the seventh century, though
Tischendorf assigns it to the eighth, and Griesbach
and others have placed it as late as the ninth. But
notwithstanding its late origin, it agrees in a remark
able manner with some of the greater uncials. The
copyist has betrayed incompetence in many ways, but
he has preserved the reading of the most ancient
documents. Scrivener says of this codex, it is " by
far the most reraarkable document of its age and
class." It is in close harmony especially with Codex
B, and the quotations of Origen, as well as the marginal
notes of the Philoxenian Syriac, are in accord with it.
In connection with its raost iraportant testimony to
certain passages, it will be referred to again.
The Codex Pukpukeus, N, is so called because for

128 THE STOEY OP THE MANUSCEIPTS.
a long period it was the most noteworthy of the man
uscripts whose text was written upon purple vellum.
It is in four parts. The veUum is very thin and was
once of a very rich color, upon which the silver letters
in which the entire text was written raust have pre
sented a beautiful appearance. The words God, Jesus,
Lord, Saviour, Son, and other names of the Deity, are
in letters of gold, which preserves its lustre, though all
the silver text has become black with age. It was in
the end of the sixth, or the early part of the seventh
century, that this superb book was made. Double
columns stand upon a page ; the letters are large and
round, and written with the greatest distinctness.
Four leaves only of this volume are preserved in the
British Museura araong the Cotton manuscripts, a
collection made by three generations of the family of
that name and given by them to the Museum. Six
leaves of the same book are in the Vatican in Rome,
and two are in the Imperial Library of Vienna. A
late discovery in the raonastery of St. John, upon the
Isle of Patmos, revealed thirty-three similar leaves,
which have been identified as belonging to the same
book. These fragments have already been briefly
mentioned upon page 46.
Codex M of St. Paul's Epistles, otherwise called
from its color the Codex Ruber, was separated and
used for fly-leaves to a volume of comparatively little
value among the Harleian collection in the British
Museum. Another sraall fragment of the same original
book is cherished at Hamburg. When Griesbach, al
ready familiar with the fragment upon the continent.

x\x6\*ve6eus
UISUS eST
p x^K I
MOSTrRO

OA6e(])H aAe\cf>oi
RAin^-repec A.KOYCA.T'e
oec
ujc|)e H
Tcu npi
HKICDM

CODEX LAUDIANUS.
/if^J VII, 2.

UNCIALS, FEAGMENTS, AND CUESIVES. 131
saw the leaves in London, he exclaimed instantly that
they were of the same volume, recognizing at a glance
the peculiar form of the text, as well as the brilliant
color of the ink in which it is written.
Another valuable fragment, T, or Codex Boegi-
ANUS, of the fifth century, has only thirteen leaves.
In this instance it is known how only a sraall part of
the volurae has been preserved. A raonk started
from Egypt with the whole work in his possession,
but regarded it as of no special value. His ignorance
and carelessness were so great, that upon his arrival
in Europe with only thirteen of the precious leaves,
he had no better explanation to give of the absence
of the remainder than that he had lost them during
the journey ! The thirteen leaves are a part of the
collection in the library of the Propaganda at Rorae.
Another fragraent, rescued by remarkable skill, is a
single leaf of the Gospel of St. Mark, known by the
sign W, and deposited at Trinity College in Cam
bridge, in England. The leaf is raade up of twenty-
seven different pieces, into which it had been torn in
binding a volurae of the works of Gregory of Nazianzura.
The true character of the pieces was detected by Mr.
Bradshaw, the librarian of the University, in 1862, and
they were separated from the binding and arranged
together upon a sheet of glass, as seen at present. A
somewhat similar case is that of O, or the Codex
MosQUENSis, in the Library of the Holy Synod at
Moscow, consisting of eight leaves, which were found
in the binding of a copy of Chrysostom's Homilies
formerly at Mount Athos. But perhaps the most note-

132 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
worthy of all the manuscripts thus rescued from the
bindings of books, and from other purposes foreign to
their original one, is that of Codex Coislinianus, H^,
which is in many parts. The whole number of leaves
now known is twenty-nine,* and they were all found
in the binding of raanuscripts, which belonged origin
aUy to the Monastery of St. Athanasius at Mount Athos.
The codex is divided between raany places, twelve
leaves being in the National Library at Paris, two in
the Iraperial Library at St. Petersburg, two at Mos
cow, four belonging to Archbishop Porfiri and the
Archimandrite Antony at St. Petersburg, and nine re
cently discovered in a monastery ujdou Mount Athos.
The text is of much value, and it is regretted that the
parts are so difficult of access. But the Codex Cois
linianus raust ever be considered as a good iUustration
of the extent to which critical scholarship can go in
the recognition of these ancient fragments, the deter
mination of their relations to each other, and of their
value for the purposes of textual study. Ignorance
degraded thera to inferior uses. Learning has rescued
and restored them, and even raore than that, has
bestowed upon them a new dignity at present, by
applying thera to the study of texts by several centu
ries earlier than their own.
It will be sufficient to speak of only three or four
cursives out of the many hundreds that are extant,
and to exhibit a single plate, (a facsimile of Luke i.
* Compare the Critical Handbook, Professor E. C. Mitchell,
D. D. ; p. 111. Tables revised by Professpr Ezra Abbot, D. D.,
LL. D.

UNCIALS, FEAGMENTS, AND CUESIVES. 133
8-11, of Codex 33 as given by Scrivener), which may
Ulustrate the difference between the uncial writing
used in the raanuscripts thus far described, and the
form which prevailed after the tenth century.
Codex 1, in the Library of Basle, contains the whole
of the New Testament, except the Revelation. The
great scholar Reuchlin once had it for a considerable
time in his possession, having borrowed it frora the
Dominican raonks of Basle, but he raade little or no
use of it to add to our Biblical knowledge. More
important was its eraployraent by Erasmus in the
preparation of his New Testaraent, but strangely
enough he rejected its aid after finding that its read
ings disagreed with other copies with which he was
more familiar. Yet unquestionably Codex 1 was the
most valuable authority then at hand in Basle, and
Erasmus would better have rejected all the other
copies, or at least assigned them their inferior place,
than have refused the voice of this valuable document.
It is written in an elegant style, with minute letters, ,
and fully equipped with accents and breathings, and
other aids to reading the text. The initials are in
gold, and the full point that occurs on the first page
of each Gospel is a large ball of gold. The manu
script was once adorned with splendid miniatures,
among which were said to be a portrait of the Em
peror Leo the Philosopher (VI) of the Byzantine
Empire, who reigned from 886 to 912. Another rep
resented his son Constantine. But all the miniatures
were stolen from the volume, except one before St.
Luke's Gospel. This manuscript is beUeved to have

134 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
been made in the tenth century, and its text is of
great value, similar to that of the uncials B and L.
It is generally agreed by scholars that no cursive
exceeds in importance that which is known by the
nuraber 88, the "Queen of the Cursives," as it has
been called by Eichhorn. Its date is as late as the
eleventh century, but its value in determining the text
is to be rated only next to the first four or five uncials
of the earliest dates. The various readings of its text,
and its likeness to the uncials just mentioned, make it
of great importance. It contains nearly the whole of
the New Testament, except the Revelation, together
with a part of the Prophets. The manuscript is on
vellum, almost every leaf of which has suffered from
damp and consequent decay. The ink, too, has been
affected by the moisture, and the text has been very
greatly injured. In several cases the leaves have
stuck together so closely, that their separation was
only accoraplished at the cost of the entire transfer
of the ink upon one page to the other, so that the
manuscript can only be read by the set-off, as printers
call it, on the opposite page. This gives the Greek
backwards, as well as mingled with the writing origin
ally upon the page. It may well be imagined, that
such a double and reversed text can only be made out
with the utmost difficulty, often greater than that
attending the study of a palimpsest. Tregelles says
of it, that of all the manuscripts upon which he had
worked none had "ever been so wearisome to the
eyes and exhaustive of every faculty of attention."
Yet even in the most obscure places, and often where

^i^Z-^rx^ ((ttoX'O* Y ^C^ f ¥*** Jt TcTuVui • Uoiirdul
oof dmrvfru |i^ii,^iiJTe cr • eo ft-^yu^-CminrQi cy|

CODEX Liik

lURSIVE. -II.

UNCIALS, FEAGMENTS, AND CURSIVES. 137
the original page has wholly decayed, the set-off has
been successfully deciphered, as one of the greatest
triumphs of learning and patient skiU. In 1850 Tre
gelles coUated the whole raanuscript, reviewing the
forraer editions by Larroque and Scholz, and referring
every difference a second tirae to the codex itself.
The volume, a fine folio, is in the National Library at
Paris. Codex 61, or Montfoetianus, derives its name
from one of its forraer possessors. Rev. Thomas Mont
fort, D. D., of Carabridge. It is now at Trinity
College, Dublin. This raanuscript is of special interest
among the cursives from the part it has played in the
discussion of the interpolated verse in the First
Epistle of St. John (v. 7), the verse of the " Three
Heavenly Witnesses." It contains the whole New
Testament, written apparently by three or four dif
ferent hands, and is coraposed of four hundred and
fifty-five paper leaves, only one of which is glazed.
This single glazed leaf is the one containing the verse
mentioned. A witty Irish prelate, quoted by Scrive
ner,* said of this coincidence : — " We often hear that
the text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses is a gloss,
and anyone that wiU go into the College Library may
see as much for himself." When Erasmus published
his two earliest editions of the New Testament he did
not insert this verse, and was severely blamed for the
omission. His defence was that it was not found in
the manuscripts used by him, and he pledged hiraself
to insert it in his revisions if any Greek copy could be
* Plain Introduction, p. 173, Note.

138 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
found containing it. In his third edition he printed
the verse (in 1552), saying that he found it in a Codex
Britannicus discovered in England. The verse, as
printed by Erasmus, is in exact verbal agreement with
the text upon this glazed leaf of Montfortianus, and it
is wholly agreed that the Codex Britannicus raust
have been the one now known by this name. The
earliest owner of the raanuscript whose name we
know was Froy, a Franciscan friar, from whora it
passed to Thomas Clement; next it was owned by
WUliam Chark; then by Montfort; then by Arch
bishop Usher ; from whose hands it came into posses
sion of the college in Dublin. It will be noticed that
the name of the third owner was William Chark, and
when we come to speak of the next cursive it will be
found that he was also at one time the possessor of
the Codex No. 69. In 61 the Revelation has been
thought to have been copied from 69, when both were
in the hands of Chark. Certainly the margins of both
copies bear many notes in his handwriting, and it
would have been a strong temptation to have had the
opportunity of completing 61 by adding the Revela
tion from so good a source. As it stands, the text of
this added Scripture is found to be of higher critical
value than any other part of the volurae.
The Codex Leicesteensis, 69, belongs to the town
of Leicester in England, whence it takes its narae, and
is deposited in the Town Library, to which it was
given by a clergyman of the vicinity, Thomas Hayne,
who received it frora a fellow clergyraan, WUliara
Chark. It is a folio volume, with leaves both of paper

UNCIALS, FEAGMENTS, AND CUESIVES. 139
and vellum, and the writing is rough and so carelessly
done as to be in raany places almost illegible. The
leaves are so arranged as to give two of parchment
foUowed by three of paper in regular order. The
wi'iting is noteworthy from having been done with the
calamus, or reed pen, such as is spoken of in St. John's
Third Epistle (iii. 13), very few of the old manuscripts
being written with this instrument instead of the style.
The codex is of the fourteenth century, and is especial
ly valuable as being one of the few cursives that contain
the whole of the New Testament. It is also reraark
able for containing many readings varying frora the
received text, and scholars place it in critical value
above the later uncials. The raost important colla
tions are those raade by TregeUes and Scrivener. It
is found that this codex is so closely similar to three
others. Codex 13 of the Gospels at Paris, Codex 124
at Vienna, and Codex 346 at Milan, that the four must
have been raade from the sarae original, the date of
which was probably as early as the sixth century.
Though many other cursives raight well be men
tioned, only one more can here find place, as again
illustrating the perils to which ignorance has sub
jected these ancient treasures. It is Codex 95 of the
Apocalypse, to which is added an epitome of a com
mentary upon the same book. The story of its dis
covery is given by Scrivener in his Lectures, and the
manuscript was collated by him in 1855. It was found
by Curzon in 1837 " on the library-floor at the monas
tery of Caracalla on Mount Athos. He begged it
of the abbot, who suggested that the vellum-leaves

140 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
would be of use to cover pickle-jars!" Thus was this
codex, which Tregelles calls a " special treasure," and
which was regarded by hira and by Dean Alford as
one of the raost valuable cursive manuscripts of the
Revelation, rescued to becorae one of the most im
portant literary possessions of Christendom.

CODEX ROSSANENSIS.
Subscription to Gospel of Matthew.

THE LATEST DISCOVEEY. 143

CHAPTER IX.
THE LATEST DISCOVEEY.
The little town of Rossano, in South Italy, is built
upon a rocky hill, about three miles from the southern
shore of the Gulf of Taranto. It was faraous in ancient
times as one of the most impregnable of the strong
holds of the Roraans against the Goths, sitting raajestic
upon the heights, with the steep precipices of the
neighborhood forming natural barriers to the approach
of foes. But in these late days its name has received
a wider and more lasting fame from its connection
with one of these invaluable Christian treasures, which
it preserved from the earliest tiraes, and yielded at last
to the researches of scholars of our own day. The
town is still walled and its castle reraains ; the inhab
itants, as of old, live by their culture of the grape and
olive and grains, and hythe fisheries in the neighboring
gulf. There is little to disturb the daUy routine within
the boundary of the waUs, and it is chiefly the services
connected with the cathedral-church which bring variety
to the people. The entrance of two strangers into the
town would hardly be noticed, and probably there was
very little stir when in the spring of the year 1879 two
men, unknown to the quiet citizens, came seeking the

144 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
libraries, and inquiring for any relics of a monastery,
about which the people had ceased to think, except as
the sight of its ruins outside the town might recaU
the stories of its foundation and history.
Oscar von Gebhardt of Gottingen and Adolph Har
nack of Giessen, both pursuing their journeys and
researches in the interest of the Prussian Cultus-minis-
terium and the Albrecht foundation at Leipzig in
connection with the University, were on their way to
Sicily, when they delayed a little at Rossano to en
deavor to find any literary reraains of interest frora the
library that once existed in the convent. It had been
said that once there were important writings of Dio
nysius of Alexandria and of Hippolytus treasured by
the monks and not known to exist in any other copies,
and it was especially in hope of getting some trace of
these manuscripts, or of discovering some works of the
Greek Fathers, that these two German scholars visited
the place. Their hope seemed esj)ecially well founded,
for it was known that the brotherhood of Santa Maria
de lo Patire, like the monks of many other of the
Italian monasteries of the order of St. Basil, had kept
up the use of the Greek ritual, and even the Greek
language in prayers and writings until a late period of
the Middle Ages.
For a time it seemed as if the quest would be whoUy
in vain. No one knew of any such treasures as they
sought. Persons were found who could tell them
what they already knew about the old ruins out on
the olive-shaded road to Corigliano, and they even
discovered a few printed volumes that once belonged

THE LATEST DISCOVEEY. 145
to the library, but which were of dates so late as the
eighteenth century ; but of manuscripts there were
none. At last they heard of a very ancient book in
the possession of the Archbishop. They turned their
steps to the episcopal residence. Monsignor Pietro
Cilento received them most courteously, confirmed the
story that had been told them, and gave them cheerful
permission to see the volume. It was laid before them,
a book with a strong black leather binding, a thick
quarto, some old Latin Bible, they thought, and pos
sibly of considerable value. The covers were opened,
the pages turned. The scholars at the first glance
wondered, for they saw what they had not dared to
hope. A more careful inspection fastened conviction
upon their minds, and they gave themselves up to the
delight which almost made them beside themselves.
They had found a book, beyond doubt one of the most
valuable books in the world. It was a copy of the
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, the latter
closing, however, with the middle of the fourteenth
verse of the last chapter, to which is added the Epistle
of Eusebius to Carpianus by a later hand strongly re
sembling that of the Ztirich Purple Psalter, which
Tischendorf assigned to the seventh century. It was
a splendid purple manuscript, with double columns of
silver text on each page, the first three lines of each
Gospel being in gold. In addition to these sumptuous
leaves, there were a large number of miniatures in
rich and stUl vivid colors. With the permission of the
Archbishop the delighted scholars devoted weeks to
the study of the volume, collating its text and pre-

146 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
paring facsimiles of the writing for future publication.
At the same time they secured tracings of many of the
lUustrations. This Codex Rossanensis has one hundred and
eighty-eight leaves of vellum, which have been some
what injured by binding. The letters are uncial and
very similar to those of Codex N (p. 127), the most
noteworthy purple raanuscript previous to this dis
covery. The double columns each contain twenty
lines, and there are only from nine to twelve letters in
a line ; the words are not separated ; there are no ac
cents or breathings ; there are few erasures, and the
punctuation is limited to an occasional point. But the
Ammonian Sections and the Eusebian Canons are
marked. In a word there are aU the evidences of
great antiquity, and the discoverers place the origin of
the codex in the sixth century, though it is beUeved
by others, that it raay fall as late as the beginning of
the seventh. It is distinguished by the Greek letter
Sigma, ^.
In 1880 Professors Gebhardt and Harnack, the dis
coverers of the book, published a descriptive volume
in Leipzig, with facsimiles and miniatures in outline
and monochrome. Many of these plates are of ex
treme interest, although they do not represent the
colors of the originals. The first two are printed in
purple, and the sUver letters are reproductions of the
text. The first plate gives in the middle of the page
St. Matthew's Gospel, vi. 18, 14, with various literal
signs and peculiarities of the text around the mar
gin ; and the second facsimUe contains the subscription

THE LATEST DISCOVEEY. 147
of the first gospel as shown in the plate at the begin
ning of this chapter.
The plates in the German volurae are nineteen in nura
ber, and show that the miniatures of the original are not
only striking pictures of the incidents of the Gospels,
but also that in many cases they are to be ranked among
the better drawings of the earliest Christian art. Not
many of thera can here be described in detail, but a
few hints raay be given to aid the imagination of the
reader. Plate V, for exaraple, shows the triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. On the extreme left are two
figures, and in the boughs of a tree a third person,
who is plucking the palm-branches with which to salute
the Christ. Next, in the left-centre, is the Saviour
mounted upon the ass; then many people are strew
ing their clothing in the way and waving the branches,
while at the extreme right is the city, with chUdren
issuing from the gateway to join the throng. City
and tree and ass a^p all nearly of the sarae size and
are drawn with no perspective, yet the picture is full
of Ufe and vigor. Plate VII iUustrates the parable of
the Ten Virgins, and we see the bridegroora with the
five wise virgins upon the right, separated frora the
five foolish virgins on the left by a siraple door, which
stands alone without a trace of waUs: yet the idea is
perfectly clear. Plate XV shows Judas restoring the
sUver to two high-priests, who sit beneath a canopy
upon the left and shrink back from the money with
raised hands, and upon the extreme right is the sarae
figure of Judas hanging from the bough of a tree.
Plate XI in a simUar manner shows two scenes, for at

148 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
the right is the prostrate form of Jesus praying in the
garden, and at the left He is awaking the three dis
ciples, whUe overhead in a narrow strip of sky a few
stars are regularly disposed and the crescent moon is
shining. All the plates, which are nineteen in num
ber, are very clear, conveying their meaning readily to
any one in the least acquainted with the stories of the
gospels. Plate XVIII, from which our illustration is
reduced, gives an interesting grouping of four medal-
Uons representing the Evangelists, each one with a
volume upon the left arm and with the right hand
raised, as if in a gesture of benediction. In the centre
of the arabesque in the original manuscript the appro
priate title is written. Other miniatures give heads
of " prophets," forty in all, David, Solomon, Moses,
Joshua, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Zechariah,
Zephaniah, Malachi, Sirach, and others.
Where this fine manuscript was written, or by
whom, cannot be told. Whence it came into the
possession of the present owners, the Chapter of
the Cathedral, which now consists of forty-eight
raembers, not even they can say. The discoverers
relate that the manuscript was seen and mentioned
about thirty years ago by a writer named Malpica,
of Naples, but apparently a man of so little discern
ment that he described the book as a " history of the
antiquity of the cathedral " of Rossano. The volume
remains where it was found, and now that its value
is understood, is very jealously guarded from injury
or loss. Indeed the regret is already expressed by
European scholars that the discoverers did not publish

TITLE-PAGE OF THE CODEX ROSSANENSIS.

THE LATEST DISCOVEEY. 149
a larger volurae than the one issued in 1880, descrip
tive of the book and giving a full collation of the
text, for it is now feared that the opportunity for the
free study of the original codex is past, unless the
owners of it themselves prepare an edition for pub
lication. Possibly, however, the German editors raay
have materials already in their possession for a ijiore
extensive edition in the future. The Italian Govern
ment has raade a fourfold inventory of the manuscript,
so that no misfortune will be likely to deprive the
world of a knowledge of its contents. As for the
value of the Codex in textual criticism, it will hardly
find place among the raanuscripts of first rank, agreeing
rather with the documents of the fifth century than
with those of the fourth. Its strange richness of
pictorial illustration, however, gives it a peculiar place,
for it is the oldest pictorial Gospel known. One of
the discoverers writes concerning this characteristic : —
"That obscure chapter of the history of art which
treats of the transition from the priraitive Christian
and antique to the so-caUed Byzantine art will, it is
hoped, receive some light from the new discovery."

150 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.

^jriAPTER X.
VERSIONS.
The story of the manuscripts would be too incomplete
without at least a brief reference to the translations of
the sacred Scriptures made in ancient times. As already
intimated, sorae of these are of the very earliest Chris
tian ages, and stand side by side with raany of the
great uncial copies in importance.
We reraeraber how, in the fourth century before
Christ, the victorious arms of Alexander the Great
laid all the Eastern world in submission at his feet.
Not only were the arms of Alexander victorious, but
the Greek language went with his battalions and won
for itself a realm co-extensive with the kingdom of the
conqueror. In connection with the wide dispersion of
the Jews and the knowledge of their sacred books,
wherever a colony of the Jews was found, this general
use of the Greek language gave occasion for the trans
lation of the Old Testament into Greek, in the famous
version of the Septuagint completed in Alexandria
about the year 275 B. C. And when the Christ came
and the new Scriptures became the possession of His
Church, the same familiarity with the Greek language
made the composition of the New Testament in that
tongue most natural. The Macedonian Dominion had

VEESIONS. 151
yielded to the Roman Empire before this was accomp
hshed, and the advantages of a power extended over
nearly the whole of the known world were added to the
marvellous facilities of expression which were given by
the language of statesmen and orators, philosophers
and poets, who have made ancient Greece famous
forever. But although the New Testament was. thus
given the freest access to man's thought, there were
churches which had many raembers who could not
read the Greek, nor readily understand it in the
services of their worship. In the chief cities of Asia
Minor, in the larger towns of North Africa, in Rorae,
and, of course, in the Greek churches, the original
writings could be used without difficulty ; but in places
further removed from the centres of social, commercial,
and political life there were multitudes of Christians
who could only receive the truth of their Scriptures
through translations into their native speech. Syria
must have its version into the ordinary language of
the people. Egypt, where even the bishops of many
of the churches were acquainted with no language but
their own, must have at least two translations to meet
the wants of the people of Lower and Upper Egypt,
by whom different dialects were spoken, and thus the
Memphitic and the Thebaic versions were made, each
representing one of these dialects of the Coptic lan
guage. Again, in Italy and the west of Europe the
Latin tongue prevailed, and a demand for versions into
that language arose, while the more northern tribes
could only be reached through a Gothic text. It will
readUy be seen that all these Bibles wiU be useful in

152 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
showing the nature of the originals from which they
were made, and in proportion to their age and fidelity
will be of value in textual criticism. A few only of
these translations can be mentioned in these pages.
The Old Latin claims our first attention as at once
perhaps the raost ancient, and certainly one of the
most iraportant of all. We should naturally look for
its origin to Italy, if not to Rorae itself, but we know
that it carae from the North of Africa, and not even
from Alexandria, whence so raany of the ancient Greek
codices emanated, but from the region of which Car
thage was the centre. Its first use was also probably in
this western province of Africa. At the time when it
was written, in the second century, the Church of
Rome, to which St. Paul had written his Epistle in
Greek, still used a Greek liturgy, and was presided
over by bishops bearing Greek names, and who wrote
in -that language. But the Christians of Carthage
spoke the Latin ; and TertuUian, who wrote at Carthage
at the close of the second century, refers to the gene
ral use of a Latin copy of the New Testament by the
churches of that place. It has been demonstrated,
however, especially through the labors of Cardinal
Wiseman, that the extant raanuscripts of this version
raust have had their original text from this African
source, because they contain so many expressions no
longer in use in Rorae, but wholly similar to those
found in the writings of African authors, who lived
and wrote in the first centuries of the Christian era.
As time went on, however, this Latin Bible crossed
the sea, and a revised text was in use in Italy so early

VEESIONS. 153
as the fourth century ; and it is here, and especially in
the northern portions, Lombardy and Piedmont, that
the richest relics have been found. A raanuscript,
nearly as old as the Sinaitic and Vatican codices, con
taining parts of the Gospels and known by the sign a.,
was discovered in 1726 at Vercelli, and raany others
have been found which unite their testimony for the
same original text. They are marked, however, by a
great variety of readings, and even in the fourth
century the need of a new translation was evident.
The Vulgate was the result of this need. By this
time the Roman Church itself had become deeply in
terested in having the Scriptures in the Latin tongue,
and Jerome, whose fame as a Biblical scholar was as
great in the west as in the east, was commissioned to
prepare the desired version. The work was begun at
Rome in 383, and the Old Latin furnished the basis
for the new text. It was well understood that a trans
lation, wholly independent of the already received
version, would be met with strenuous opposition frora
the more ignorant portions of the church, as sub
versive of the truth and an injury to the cause of
religion, just as every change in the text of the Eng
lish translations has been jealously watched, and made
the subject of loud complaint; and for exactly the
same reason, which dejerrained the Convocation of
Canterbury to prepare a Revision of King Jaraes's
Version, rather than a new translation based only upon
the raost approved Greek texts, the design of Pope
Damasus and Jerome was limited to a revision of the
Old Latin so long in use. But Jerome was assigned a

154 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
more difficult task even than that which has eraployed
the EngUsh and American Revision Committee of this
day, so far as the accepted version was concerned, for
it was hard to say then what was the correct reading
which should be made the basis of the work. " There
are almost as many forms of the text as there are
copies," he said to Damasus. It was found necessary
to have recourse to early Greek manuscripts, and by
comparison of these with the Old Latin the Vulgate
was formed, very much as the new English edition of
the New Testament has just now (May, 1881) been
completed. The solitary scholar of the fourth century,
however, toiled under great difficulties. The Pope
under whose patronage the work was begun died,
when it had been in progress only a year. Jerome
left Rome and sought seclusion in the east, and the
translation begun in Rome was completed in his mo
nastic cell in Bethlehem in 385. It was only through
the lapse of many years, however, that the new work
attained a general acceptance with the Christians for
whom it was prepared, but at last it justified its name
as the Vulgate, ( Vulgata Editio), or Common Bible,
and during raany centuries it has been the received
Latin text by the Roraan Catholic Church, and has
itself been the basis of many other translations. " As
an interpretation," says Scrivener, "the Vulgate far
surpasses its prototype ; as an instrument of criticism
it is decidedly superior, where the evidence of the
Old Latin may he had ; for it does not, like its prede
cessor, bring before us the testimony, good or bad, of
documents of the second century, but only that of

VEESIONS. 155
manuscripts which Jerorae deemed correct and ancient
at the end of the fourth."
The Syriac Versions form the next group of which
mention must be made. It was in the north of Syria
that the Aramaean branch of the great Semitic family
of languages was used. The Hebrew, which was once
spoken by the Jews, and in which raost of the books
of the Old Testament are written, passed out of use as
a spoken language about six hundred years before the
time of Christ, when the captivity in Babylon famil
iarized the Jews with the Chaldee and the Syriac, the
two dialects of the Aramaean spoken in the north.
When the return of the captives was effected, they
brought the language of their conquerors with thera,
and it reraained the vernacular of the country until
the Arabic began to displace it, and in the thirteenth
century it had ceased to be spoken. Its literary
remains are chiefly those of the north, containing the
language as it was spoken and taught at the famous
school of Edessa. The Syriac versions of the Bible
are among the most ancient remains of the language.
The Peshito, or the Simple, though not the oldest
text, has been the longest known, and it is of great
importance. It was so called, possibly, for several
reasons, the raost evident being in the contrast between
it and the midrashim, or allegorical interpretations
of the Old Testaraent ; in this sense the narae would
be nearly equivalent to our words literal or faithful.
Perhaps another reason* for the narae was found in the
fact, that this text bore no asterisks and obeli, raarks
* Home's Introduction, iv. 259.

156 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
used in some manuscripts of the Old Testament to
indicate the revision by Origen, and the margins were
free from references to other versions. It is in the
Old Syriac, and sj)eaks for the Greek text of the
second century, though its own date is doubtful.
Sorae scholars have placed it as early as the latter half
of the second century, and some even in the first
century,* while others have somewhat doubtfully as
signed it to so late a period as the fifth. It was long
believed to be the version referred to by Ephraem the
Syrian, who died about 878 A. D., but since the dis
covery of the Curetonian Syriac, this argument for its
origin before Ephraem has lost its force. Whatever
raay have been the translation to which Ephraem
refers, whether the Peshito, or the Curetonian version,
he calls it our version, as already adopted by the
churches of Syrian Christians, and therefore already
in existence for sorae considerable period. The Peshito
contains both the Old and the New Testaraents. All
the canonical books were originally found in the Old
Testament, but from the New Testament the second
and third epistles of St. John, the second of St. Peter,
that of St. Jude, and the Revelation are wanting.
It will be evident to the reader that this free, yet
exact, translation, dating frora such an early age, must
be of great value in determining the text from which
it was raade, and which raust have antedated it by a
considerable time. In the case of a disputed passage
a reference to this version would go far toward settUng
the question as to what the Christians of the earliest
* So Michaelis.

VEESIONS. 157
post-apostolic age read in their Bibles. But as already
intimated the Peshito does not stand alone in Syriac
testimony to the earliest readings of the Scriptures.
The Cueetonian Syeiac was discovered after its
existence had been for a long time suspected by saga
cious scholars. Griesbach and others had expressed
the opinion that probably the Peshito was not the
earliest Syriac text used by the churches, and in 1848
Tregelles suggested that when the Nitrian manuscripts
brought to England the year before should be collated,
traces of the earlier text might be found among them.
In his examination of these documents, of which he
was the custodian. Dr. Cureton had noticed a copy of
the Gospels very different from the Peshito, and it was
found to be of such a character as to justify the pre
viously formed opinions of the critics. The manu
script, consisting of eighty-two and a half leaves, was
carefully prepared for publication, but its appearance
was delayed until 1858, when it was issued with an
English translation by Dr. Cureton. These leaves
contain the Gospels of St. Matthew i. to vUi. 22, and
X. 31 to xxiU. 25 ; of St. Luke ii. 48 to iii. 16 ; vU. 33
to XV. 21, and xvu. 24 to xxiv. 44 ; of St. John i. 1-42,
and iii. 6 to vU. 37 ; and a few scattered verses of
the fourteenth chapter; but of St. Mark there are only
four verses, xvi. 17-20. In 1871 three more leaves
were discovered and deposited in the Iraperial Library
in Berlin, supplying in St. Luke's Gospel xv. 22 to xvi.
12; xvU. 1-23, and in St. John's vn. 38 to vUi. 19,
except the verses vii. 53 to viU. 12, containing the story
of the woman taken in adultery. Cureton, Tregelles,

158 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
Alford, Ewald, Bleek, and others, believe this text to
be older than the Peshito, though others, and appar
ently Scrivener * among them, refer it to so late a date
as the fifth century. It bears a very striking likeness
to the text of the Codex BezsB, so that it is considered
as almost certainly from the same original as that
faraous copy.
Other valuable Syriac versions are the Philoxenian
and its revision by Thoraas Harkel, and the Jeru
salem: Stbiac Lectionaey. The forraer is in the
later Syriac, and is called Philoxenian frora PhUox-
enus, bishop of Hierapolis from A.D. 488 to 518, under
whose patronage the work was done in the year 508
by Polycarp, his rural bishop. The version was re
vised in 616 by Thomas of Harclea, or Harkel, in
Palestine, though the work was done in Alexandria.
The postscript to the Gospels says : " This is the book
of the four holy Evangelists, which was turned out of
the Greek language into Syriac with great diligence
and much labour, first in the city of Mabug in the year
819 of Alexander of Macedon (508) in the days of the
pious Mar Philoxenus, confessor, bishop of that city.
But it was afterwards collated with great care by me,
poor Thomas, with the aid of two highly approved
and accurate Greek MSS. in Antonia, of the great city
* At the close of a full discussion of the relations of the
Peshito and the Curetonian Syriac in his Plain Introduction,
pp. 281-286, Scrivener remarks of the latter : " On the whole,
then, fully admitting the critical value of this newly-discovered
document, and feeling much perplexed when we try to account
for its origin, we see no reason whatever to doubt its decided
inferiority in every respect to the primitive version still read
throughout the Churches of the East."

VEESIONS. 159
of Alexandria, in the holy monastery of the Antonians.
It was again wi'itten out and collated in the aforesaid
place in the year 927 of the sarae Alexander (616), in
the fourth indiction. How much toil and diligence
I spent upon it and its companions the Lord only
knows, who will reward every man according to his
works in his just and righteous judgment, in which
may we be counted worthy of his mercy. Amen." *
" Poor Thomas " gives us another pathetic instance of
the relief so gladly reached after what must have
seeraed an almost interminable task. The Philox
enian version is extremely literal, and though the
worth of the translation must have been impaired on
this account, because the Syriac idioms are constantly
sacrificed to the literal rendering, it is easy to see how
this very feature adds to its importance for critical
purposes. Its value is enhanced by marginal readings,
which are the same in a large majority of instances
with those found in the more iraportant codices B, C,
D, and L, and raany cursives.
The Jerusalem Syriac, as it is called, needs but
a few words in this place. It is a service-book with
lessons from the Gospels for Sundays and feast-days
throughout the year. It was written at Antioch in
1030 in a dialect similar to that in use in Jerusalem,
and frora a Greek text of great antiquity. Its readings
agree with those of nearly all the best codices, such as
B, C, D, L, and the most important cursives.
* Quoted by Davidson (Bib. Crit. 632) as translated from the
postscript to the Gospels printed from Ridley's MS. in White's
edition, vol. II. p. 561 et seq.

160 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
The next great group of translations to be raen-
tioned is the African, in the jEthiopic and Egyptian
languages. ^Ethiopia was a terra applied with ranch
indefiniteness by the ancients to the region of Africa
lying south of Egypt, but in the general acceptation
of the terra by raodern scholars, and with reference
to linguistic and ecclesiastical matters it refers to the
Abyssinian regions, and the ^thiopic language has
now become equivalent simjsly to the written language
of the ancient Abyssinian Church. Abyssinia was con
verted to Christianity in the fourth century under the
labors of Frumentius and JEdetius, who had been sent
into the country as slaves, but bestowed the freedora
of the children of God ujjon many of its heathen
people through the preaching of the Gospel. For the
Christians thus converted a translation of the Scrip
tures was raade, possibly by Frumentius himself in
the latter part of the fourth century, though it is
impossible to determine with accuracy either when, or
by whom, the work was done. It is far from being of
high critical value, though it was evidently raade from
a Greek original.
Of much greater iraportance are the Egyptian trans
lations. They are called respectively the Memphitic
Version and the Thebaic Version, according to the
parts of Egypt in the dialects of which they are writr
ten. We know that Christianity had gained a strong
foothold in Egypt in the very earliest times. It was
here that inonasticism established itself raost firmly,
and Paul of Thebes, -with his disciple Pachoraius, and
especiaUy the great Antony, whose fame was estab-

VEESIONS. 161
lished in Europe by his biography written by Athana
sius, with raany other noted monks Uke Ammonius
and Hilarion, gave a very distinctive character to the
Egyptian church, their communities of anchorites ex
ercising a strong influence even upon the Christian
life in the cities, and soraetimes even affecting the im
perial court itself in far-off Constantinople.* The
Greek language, introduced after the conquest by
Alexander, had laid hold upon the more ancient dia,-
lects of the people, but, as was natural, raore forcibly
in the northern parts of Egypt, near the court of the
Ptolemies, than in the south; and when the Greek
ceased to be spoken as a separate tongue the differ
ences between the dialects of Upper Egypt and Lower
Egypt were raarked. These raonks or anchorites had
extended Christianity throughout the whole country,
up and down the Nile and even to the borders of the
Libyan deserts. The Christians therefore covered the
region occupied by both of the principal dialects.
They could not read the Greek ; they were not farail-
iar with each other's speech ; and yet they needed
the Scrij)tures, that they raight understand the truth.
The raonks were strictly trained in the Bible. A
rule of Pachoraius is extant, requiring the reading of
"the Scriptures and Psalter," and if the coramand
were to be obeyed there raust be facilities for an ac
quaintance with the Bible in the language of the peo
ple. At the very earliest times, therefore, there must
have been translations frora the original Greek, and
the Meraphitic and Thebaic versions give to us their
* Guericke, Church History (Ancient Church, p. 286, § Ti).

162 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
texts. Very many manuscripts of the foiTner have
been discovered, most of them of dates not earlier than
the tenth century, and yet Canon Lightfoot, through
whose labors they are chiefly known, considers them
of the greatest importance in textual criticism. " Of
all the versions," he says, "the Memphitic is perhaps
the most iraportant for the textual critic," and he
ranks the Thebaic as " only second to the Memphitic
in value." The manuscripts of the Thebaic, which
have thus far been discovered, are few and fragment
ary, so that " a complete version of the New Testament
cannot be made up from all of them put together "
(Scrivener) ; but they are nearly all of high antiquity.
The agreement of these two versions with each other
is in many instances of special force, while their testi
mony to the readings of some of the principal uncials
is important. For a long time the Memphitic was the
only version known to the critics, relics of the Thebaic
coming to light about a century ago through the
labors of several scholars. A third translation called
the Bashmueic, has also transmitted a few fragments
to us, but it is only a modification of the Thebaic for
the sake of herdsmen who Uved in the Delta of the
Nile, and is chiefly useful to supply a few passages in
which the Thebaic is defective.
Other versions, the Gothic by which the Gospel was
given to the tribes of northern Europe, the Georgian,
and Prankish, the Anglo-Saxon, the Persian, and
Arabic need only the raention of their names in these
pages, for they are of slight value for the determinar
tion of the original text of the New Testament.

VEESIONS. 163
Enough has been shown of the greater groups of
versions to indicate their importance and to reveal
their relative positions with the great Greek codices
in the criticism of the text. It remains only to be re
marked, that their testimony to their originals is very
similar to that of the references and quotations found
in the writings of the earliest Christian authors, which
have always been one of the raost valued sources of
knowledge concerning the existence and nature of the
apostolic Scriptures. Such quotations, if not exact
and literal, are in effect paraphrases or versions more
or less accurate of the passages under discussion,
bearing testimony at once in many cases to their
authenticity, their genuineness as part of the recog
nized canon, and the true reading of the Greek from
which the quotation is made. AU such witness is
secondary to that borne by the Greek raanuscripts
themselves, so far as the text of the originals is con
cerned, but wholly invaluable in biblical study.

164 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.

CHAPTER XI.
HOW ARE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED ?
No attempt will be made in this chapter either to
give a full original examination of passages whose
form in the received text has been disputed, or to
present in its completeness the work of experts upon
the Scriptures quoted. It will only be sought to illus
trate the methods in which the raanuscripts are used,
without any strict attention to the details of argument,
which might obscure, rather than elucidate, the subject
for all but the most learned readers.
Before proceeding to quotations, however, it will be
desirable to present a statement of certain laws gener
ally observed in such work, and here it would mani
festly be useless to give the whole code which one
scholar or another has laid down for his own course,
many of the canons being of such a character as to be
of little interest to the general reader, who does not
have the special work of the critic td do. Dr. Sarauel
Davidson, for instance, detaUs eleven special rules for
the guidance of criticisra in the New Testament, some
of which could hardly find j)lace in these pages without
elaborate explanation, with apj)lication to examples.
But it wUl be useful to give a few of the more obvious
canons recognized by scholars universally and brought

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED ? 165
together frora lists given by many of them. In such an
enumeration, the following may be noted :—
Canon I. The more difficult and obscure reading
should be preferred to the plainer and easier one.
This is the first canon of the celebrated German
scholar, Bengel, and it stands fourth in the list of
Davidson. It is reasonable to suppose, indeed, that if
a copyist raade any change in an original passage, thus
producing a false reading, it would be in attempting to
throw light upon a dark expression, rather than to
obscure what was before quite plain. For example,
some manuscripts have the words without cause in
Matt. V. 22, while the Sinaitic and Vatican manu
scripts omit them. It is more probable that these
words were added to explain what seeraed a hard
statement to the copyist, than that they were omitted
after having originally formed a part of the verse,
since the omission adds to the difficulty of expounding
the passage and justifying its statement as righteous.
So, too, in Matt, xxi, 7 : — they "brought the ass, and
the colt, and put on thera their clothes, and they set
him upon them," — sorae raanuscripts read " upon him."
Now, it would manifestly be more natural for a tran
scriber to change the word from the plural to the
singular than from the singular to the plural, to get rid
of the difficulty of supposing that they set the Lord
upon both animals. According to the canon, there
fore, the reading upon them is most likely to be the
original one, and should be retained. The English
version, in this instance, escapes the trouble to some
degree by translating the words upon them, by thereon.

166 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
Canon II. The style of each author should be used
as a test of a varied reading. Davidson gives this as
his second rule, while in Scrivener's popular arrange
ment it stands third. Manifestly it is very important,
for an interpolation by a copyist, or any other change
in the original text, would be apt to show a variation
from the usual mode of expression in sirailar passages
by the author. For exaraple, in Matt. xii. 14, Lach-
raann and Tischendorf and Tregelles, in accordance
with this rule, give an order to the Greek words dif
ferent from that in the usually received text ; and in
Matt. xxvi. 17, the words to him should be omitted,
as they are in B and K, in accord with the custom of
St. Matthew in all places where he gives a similar nar
rative of what was said. It is evident, however, that
this canon could not be pressed in all cases, because,
as in the instance just given, it is certainly possible
that an author raight use an expression once though he
had never written it before.
Canon III. A reading is to be regarded as the
original, from which all the other readings may be
naturally derived, though it itself could not be derived
from any of them. In Jaraes iii. 12, the Codices A,
B, C, and }{ read, " neither can salt water yield fresh,"
instead of the verse of our English translation, as
supported by other raanuscripts, " so can no fountain
both yield salt water and fresh." It is ranch easier to
see how the shorter form could be amplified into the
latter than how the former could be the result of the
latter. A rule similar to this, and of which the ex
ample just given raay also be a good illustration, is

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 167
Canon IV. Tlie shorter reading is to be preferred
to the longer, at least in all cases where the latter seems
to be offered by way of explanation ofthe shorter form.
It is found that in Mark vi. 11, the words: "Verily I
say unto you. It shaU be more tolerable for Sodora
and Goraorrah in the day of judgment than for that
city," should be expunged. They are found in some
good manuscripts, but B and H omit them, and they
are regarded as an explanatory addition to the preced
ing words.
Canon V. Readings which offer strong suspicion
of having been introduced to favor special opinions
or practices should yield to those which are free from
such suspicion. A manuscript giving a reading in
favor of orthodoxy, for instance, where others vary
from the prevalent belief when the docuraent was writ
ten, is open to such suspicion ; while such a passage as
Rev. xxii. 14, " Blessed are they that do his coraraand-
ments, that they may have right to the tree of life," it
seems to Davidson and others, should yield to the
reading, " Blessed are they who wash their robes, that
they may have right," &c., not merely because the lat
ter is supported by such ancient codices as the Alex
andrine and Sinaitic, but also because the former read
ing favors the asceticism of the early days and the
monkish doctrine that heaven may be won by good
works. It is to be remembered, that these rules and all
others of a similar character, are only to be applied
as adjuncts to other testimony of a raore decided nature.
The value of the manuscripts themselves and the pecu-

168 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
liarities of each are to be well considered. " Context,
parallels, historical circumstances, an intimate acquaint
ance with the characteristic developments of sentiment,
phraseology, constructions, use of particles, &c., in each
particular writer," * are to accompany the application
of such rules. Indeed they are generally subordinate
to external evidence and are to be used to turn the
scale, when such external considerations seem to bal
ance each other.
Turning now to special examples of criticism, the
attention should be directed first to the vast multitude
of passages in which the corrections are so slight as to
be of almost no importance. Were it not for this
comparative little value of the great raajority of the
variations, the devout student raight well be concerned
for the foundations of his faith, since, as has already
been reraarked, the whole number of the various read
ings that have been noted is no less than one hundred
and twenty thousand. But when it is known that" the
slight difference of a single letter in a word, which
does not alter the sense of that word in the slightest
degree, occurs in hundreds of instances, it will be seen
that the only wonder in the case should be with regard
to the extreme accuracy with which these raanuscripts
have been corapared. As an example of such varia
tions, the Vatican manuscript always spells the verb to
judge with a diphthong in the first syUable of the Greek
word, xqeivEiv instead of xqIvbiv. It is but the intro
duction of the single letter e, and does not affect the
meaning in a single passage ; and yet it occurs in more
* Davidson, Bib. Crit. p. 825.

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 169
than a hundred places in the New Testaraent, and has
been marked as offering just so raany variations of B
from other codices. The name of the beloved disci
ple, John, occurring jnore than one hundred and
thirty times, is spelled sometimes with one n, as Joanes,
and sometimes with two, Joannes. The different ar
rangement of the words of a sentence, the use, or the
lack, of the sraall particle Si or &v, the employment of
the word Lord for God and similar substitutions, illus
trate the many uniraportant variations in reading,
which, however, the careful eye of the critic has noted
in nearly every case. It is unnecessary to give exam
ples of these readings. Even where they occur it is
usually the case, that there is no doubt concerning the
true form of the original. Prof. Arnold says: "At
least fifty-nine out of sixty of these various readings
may be at once dismissed frora the account, as not
having sufficiently respectable MS. suj)port to entitle
them to any notice. There are not raore than frora
fifteen hundred to two thousand places in which there
is any uncertainty whatever as to the true text ....
and of this last limited number only a small fraction
affect the sense of Scripture to the apprehension of
any but the most critical reader. And of those which
do perceptibly affect the sense, there are hardly a
dozen of any doctrinal importance." The same testi
mony might be repeated from the pages of Bentley,
Davidson, TregeUes, Scrivener, and many other critics
of the first rank.
If, however, it should appear to any that the science
of Biblical criticism and the preservation and coUation

170 THE STOEY OF THB MANUSCRIPTS.
of the manuscripts are reduced to Uttle value on this
account, two things should be remerabered, and it wUl
then appear that the work done in this department of
learning is of inestimable value. First, it must be
borne in mind, that even these trivial differences in the
manuscript authorities for the Scriptures could never
have been Jcnown to be such, without all this care and
labor. This fact alone raakes the story of the raanu
scripts of the first importance, and calls for the grati
tude of the Christian world toward the scholars who
have devoted their lives to listening so attentively to
even the rainutest details that these ancient documents
have had to tell. And, second, these unimportant varia^
tions do not complete the nuraber of discrepancies,
but leave many passages of more serious importance,
though not of such weight in any case as to invalidate
doctrine taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. It is to
the consideration of a few of these passages that we
now turn. In adducing the evidence for certain read
ings many authorities are referred to by their appro
priate symbols, which it has been impossible to assign
a place in the preceding pages, or even to name ; but
it is hoped that the reader wUl not be perplexed by
such references, since the only object in offering these
examples of criticism is to show the course of argu
ment, and the general grounds upon which decisions
are reached.
The first passage that may Ulustrate the appeal to
the manuscripts is one of those instances in which it is
doubtful whether the original ever had the words con
tained in our received text. It is the doxology, placed

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 171
in our English version and in the text of our Greek
Testaments at the close of the Lord's Prayer in St.
Matthew's Gospel.
Matt. vi. 13 : " For thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."
These words are not found in St. Luke's Gospel
(xi. 2-4), and the question would perhaps arise in the
mind even of a reader of the English, whether they
had been dropped out of the passage in the third
Gospel by some mistake, or whether they are an un
warranted addition to the first Gospel; though it
would certainly be recognized as possible, that as in
many another case of parallel passages the really un
important variation might have stood in the original
writings themselves. But what do the ancient manu
scripts say? Upon reference to them it is found that
the Codices H, B, and D, and the palirapsest Z omit
the words in Matthew, while A and C bear no testi
mony, because they are defective in this place. Codex
L of the seventh century is the best uncial authority
in favor of the words, though aU the later uncials
agree with L in giving the passage. The Queen of
the Cursives, 33, has the words, and all but a few of
the cursives add their favorable testimony. If the
Versions are asked to bear witness, we find that the
principal copies of the Old Latin, and the Vulgate,
are without the passage, but aU the Syriac versions,
most of the copies of both the Egyptian versions, a
few Old Latin codices, the ^thiopic, Armenian, and
several other less important translations, have it. In
some of these affirmative manuscripts, however, there

172 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
seems to be a significant hesitancy, for a part of the
doxology is cut out by one, and another part by
another. The Curetonian Syriac, for exaraple, omits
" and the power ; " the Thebaic omits " and the glory ; "
and the Old Latin k, "the kingdom and the glory."
Very significant is the silence of Origen (230) and
Cyi'il of Jerusalem (350), both giving a thorough ex
position of the prayer but without mentioning this
clause. But Chrysostom (398) includes it, without
any remark as to its doubtfulness, in his comments.
Other evidence might be adduced but without altering
the balance of the argument. What is that balance ?
We have found that the greatest uncial authority is
decidedly in favor of omitting the words, with only
later uncials and the cursives against it. The Versions
have been found, perhaps pretty evenly divided, with
the evidence, however, in some of the best affirmative
cases of a hesitating character. Origen and Cyril
have refused their support : Chrysostom, somewhat
later, has given his voice for the passage. It will be
remembered that Canon V, quoted on page 167, de
cides against doubtful passages which are suspected of
having been introduced in accordance with known
prejudices, and it is in this case certain, that the
liturgies in use araong Christians at a very early date
raade frequent employment of doxologies almost
identical with the words in question, and the conclu
sion seems raost natural, that frora such outside sources
they may have become attached to the words of the
prayer and finally been incorporated in the text. Even
with the limited discussion thus given we cannot be

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 173
surprised when we find the doxology omitted by
nearly all the great editors, among whom Lachmann,
Tischendorf, Tregelles, Davidson, Scrivener, Alford,
and many German and EngUsh scholars of our own
day are conspicuous.
Another passage raay illustrate how that, which was
probably a raere annotation in the margin at first, wiU
sometimes become interpolated into the text and
remain there perhaps for centuries, accepted by aU
readers as an integral part of it. It is : —
Matt, xxvii. 35 : " That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots."
These words are found substantially in John xix. 24,
and the passage frora which the words were taken
("in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled") is
the Messianic Psalm xxii. 18. Not a single uncial
manuscript previous to the Sangallensis, ^ of the ninth
century, has the words in Matthew. A, B, D, E, F, G.
H, K, L, M, S, U, V, declare against thera by theii-
omission ; all the cursives but ten also omit thera ; a
number of the evangelistaria are without them; the
Peshito has them only as an interpolation by a late
editor, and all the Syriac codices reject thera, except
the Philoxenian text, though even here a raarginal
note is against them ; they are not in the Arabic of
the Polyglot, the Memphitic, the Thebaic, jEthiopic,
or Slavonic; and Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine,
HUary, Titus of Bostra, Theophylact, and other
authors and comraentators make no mention of thera.
Against this great array of testimony for omission the

174 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
argument in support 'seems very weak. As already
said. Codex ^ of the ninth century has the words.
Many cursives too contain thera, frora one of which.
Codex 1, used by Erasraus at Basle in the preparation
of his New Testament in 1516, the passage crept into
the pubhshed text. The manuscripts of the Vulgate
generally omit it, though the Codex Amiatinus has it,
and the various translations raade frora the Vulgate
preserve it. It wiU be remembered that Canon II.
(page 166) demands a consideration for the style of
the writer, and Scholz calls attention to the fact, that
Matthew alone uses the formula "va nkrigwd^^ t6 §ti6^v
{'¦^that the word that was spoken might be fulfilled"),
while one Latin version seems to indicate that the
Greek from which it was made had didi instead of in6
(" through the prophet " instead of " by the prophet ")
which is also conformable to Matthew's custom. But
when all is said that can be urged in favor of retain
ing the words, it is evident that the negative testimony
is overwhelming, and all the great editors stand to
gether in the rejection of the passage. The probabUity
is patent to every one, that the words of the parallel
passage in John xix. 24 were first written in the margin
of Matthew opposite the verse, whence they were re
moved by some copyist to the body of the text itself.
The two examples thus given are passages which
are detected as never forming a part of the original
text, and therefore to be rejected. A third raay be
added which has arisen out of a doubtful position into
one of comparative certainty as a genuine part of the
original text. It is: —

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 175
Luke xxii. 43, 44. '^And there appeared an
angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly,
and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood
falling down to tlie ground." The great critic Lach
mann included the words in parentheses, as doubt
ful, and others have agreed with him; but in later
days further evidence has been brought to light, nota
bly the Sinaitic manuscript Kj which has changed the
verdict. It was found that A, B, R, T, among uncials,
were without the words, a few important cursives
omitted them, one Old Latin f, and most of the Mem
phitic, Thebaic, and Armenian versions, while Hilary
and Jerome unite in saying that raany Greek and
Latin manuscripts want the passage, so that even so
early as these fathers it was suspected. But on the
affirraative side are K, D, L, Q, and the cursive 1, all
the Syriac versions, most of the Old Latin, the Vul
gate, the ^thiopic, and several codices of the Egyp
tian translations. It is remarked, too, that even in
A, which omits verses 43 and 44, the Ammonian sec
tion and Eusebian canon are placed at the end of verse
42, whoUy improperly, showing that the copyist prob
ably knew of the omitted passage. To these points
Scrivener * adds the testimony of Lectionaries, which
transfer the verses to the Gospel of Matthew (xxvi.
39), giving indirect support to them as a part of the
text, and, as against the Fathers mentioned above,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Dionysius of
Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzum, Chrysostom, and
* Six Lectures, p. 151,

176 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
others are named. It seeras, therefore, that the evi
dence in favor of the retention of the passage is em
phatic ; and the beautiful verses, which have no parallel
passage in the other Gospels, still present their picture
of the agony in the garden without any dark clouds of
doubt to obscure it and so lessen its precious value to
the church.
It is by similar processes of appeal to these ancient
documents that the story of the woman taken in adul
tery (.John vii. 53 to viii. 11), is expunged frora the
Greek text by many editors, while all agree, almost
without excejDtion, that the famous passage of The
Three Witnesses (1 John v. 7, 8) should also be omit
ted. The close of Mark, however, which Tischendorf
believes must have been written by a later hand, frora
the ninth verse to the end. Scrivener and others retain
as probably a jjart of the original text. Perhaps these
instances have been enough to show the general method
of criticism employed, though there has been no at
terapt to expose the nicer points which the experts in
this Une of study can alone appreciate and decide.
But there is a single passage that raay be quoted in
addition, as a marked instance of the way in which a
great question may sometimes turn upon a very slight
difference in the text, and which may illustrate the
demand for extreme skill upon the part of critics as
well as the possibility of an honest difference of
opinion as the result of their labors. It is : —
1 Tiraothy iii. 16 : "And without controversy great
is the mystery of godliness ; God was manifest in the
flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, pveached

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 177
unto the Gentiles, bdieved on in the world, received up
into glory."
The question is : Does the verse read God was raan-
ifest, or who was manifest, or which was manifest ?
The Greek expression is very nearly the sarae in either
case. If the word God were written in full it would be
QBOC, but it was the custom to abbreviate the names
of the Deity in these manuscripts, the contraction
being indicated by a line drawn over the letters thus
brought together. This word would then be written
0C, with the omission of the two niiddle letters. It
happens, however, that the Greek relative pronoun
who is written OO, and the neuter is O. It is evident,
therefore, that only the disappearance of the fine lines
in the first word, the one drawn over the letters and
the other drawn in the first letter to change it from
O to 0 (from o to th) would be necessary to give us
the masculine pronoun, whUe on the other hand these
slight marks could be added to the masculine pro
noun to give the name of the Deity. As for the neu
ter pronoun O, it is found to have so Uttle authority
that it need not be considered further in this brief
statement. But 00 and OO have much in their favor.
The Codex A, at present, has the former, but the. hori
zontal lines are the addition of a later hand in heavy
strokes and ink of a different color frora that of the
text. This only throws the question back to the time
previous to the addition. Were the raarks there be
fore, and these coarse lines drawn over them, or not ?
Evidently there is room for the greatest skill and the
most honest doubt in such a case. Accordingly the

178 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
greatest critics have been unable to feel wholly certain
as to the testimony of A, and the same is also to be
said of C. As for Codex B, it wUl be reraembered
(p. 69) that the Epistles to Tiraothy are wanting.
The Sinaitic manuscript, however, is not doubtful.
Its text has the pronoun OO, who, but the corrector
has added above the line the two Greek letters de,
thereby suggesting the other reading without tamper
ing with the text itself. A few later uncials, and a
very large number of cursives, read " God." The tes
timony of the Fathers is generally in favor of this
reading. The preponderance of opinion among editors
is upon the side of the reading " who." Dr. Davidson
says : " We believe a fair case to be made out, as far
as the present state of the evidence warrants, in favor
of 0? (who). But the general sense is not materially
different, whether we read og, S, or ©erf?. The mean
ing is much the same, whichever be adopted. Hence
we cannot enter into the reasons of such as beUeve the
text to be very important in a theological view. It is
by no means decisive either for or against the proper
divinity of Christ." With these words we may leave
the passage, since it was referred to not for the pres
entation of a full discussion, but only as illustrative of
the difficulties often raised by very slight differences
in the text.
Such are only two or three of the great number of
passages in which the discovery and use of ancient
manuscripts have been of great value in determining
the true text of the New Testament. To have at
tempted to present more would have been entirely

HOW AEE THE MANUSCEIPTS USED? 179
beyond the scope of the present work, and even the
incomplete discussions of the last few pages could not
have been extended without exceeding the purposes
of the chapter. It has been sufficient to give a general
idea of the application of the ancient raaterials and of
a few of the broader principles of criticism to the
Received Text by which a correct reading of the New
Testament is secured.

180 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.

CHAPTER XII.
THE GEEAT CRITICS.
The list of the great scholars who have devoted
themselves to the department of sacred learning with
which the subject of these pages is connected, is a long
one, — far too long for us to do more than sketch the
lives of a few, who in raodern times have contributed
much to our knowledge of the sacred text.
"¦Agmen ducit Carolus Lachmannus" writes Scriv
ener in the preface to his Greek New Testament, when
he turns away from the earlier editors to speak of the
raen of the later era of criticism, whose readings he
quotes upon the raargin of his pages. Kael Lachmann
does indeed lead the whole corapany of raodern schol
ars in this departraent of study, for, as it has already
been remarked, he was the first to proclaim freedom
frora the received text, and to demand not only the
right, but the necessity of going back to the text indi
cated by the raost ancient and authoritative documents
themselves. He was born at Brunswick, in Germany,
March 4, 1798, and received his education at the uni
versities of Leipzig and Gottingen, and at the latter
place he founded a philological society in connection
with Schulze and Bunsen. Philological pursuits were
his choice, and he at once devoted himself to his
favorite studies with such zeal that he soon won dis-

THE GEEAT CRITICS. 181
tinction and advanced to the first rank among critical
scholars. After a short military service in the struggle
against Napoleon by the Allies, frora 1813 to 1815, he
returned to his books, and was appointed Professor
Extraordinary at Konigsberg in 1818 and at Berlin in
1^5. His residence at Berlin proved to be for life;
he became Ordinary Professor in 1828, and was honored
by admission to the Acaderay of Sciences in 1830.
From the year 1816 to the year of his death, 1851, his
literary labors were incessant, and he published many
valuable editions of Greek and Latin and German
classics. His greatest work, however, was that which
places his name araong those of Biblical scholars. In
1831 his edition of the Greek New Testament appeared.
The readings for this work were deterrained by refer
ence to the oldest Greek codices which he could obtain,
and also to the quotations of the Greek Fathers, with
the frequent use of the earliest Latin when the Greek
readings were discordant. A second edition made
more use of the Latin. His work was based upon
comparatively few manuscripts, but its gi-eat value
is recognized even to-day. The plan of his work,
however, was perhaps of even greater importance
than its results in his text itself. He was a gen
eral, who raarked out a new carapaign that was des
tined to be most successful. His part, according to his
own conception of it, was that of a pioneer, and those
who have foUowed in his footsteps, however great they
Lave been themselves, have owed much to his boldness
in laying open the new path. Lachmann died on the
thirteenth of March, 1851.

182 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
LoBEGOTT Friedrich Constantin Tischendorf was
born January 18, 1815, in Lengenfeld, Germany, the
ninth child of his parents, who named hira Lobegott,
or Praise-God, with especial thankfulness that a strange
fear of the mother, that her babe would be born blind,
had not come true. The child was destined to have
such a remarkably keen sight as to enable him to see
in raany instances what no others could detect. He
was instructed first in the common school at Lengen
feld, whence he went to the gymnasium at Plauen to
prepare for the university. In 1834 he entered upon
his studies at Leipzig, where he reraained until gradu
ation. His great career may be said to have had its
beginning even while he was a student at Leipzig.
Here he gained a prize medal for an essay on " The
Doctrine of the Apostle Paul as to the Value of
Christ's Death as a Satisfaction." The essay was
published in 1837, and brought the writer prominently
before the public. Already the preferences of his mind
for Biblical studies were evident. Attempts in other
directions, however, were to form a lighter prelude to
the stronger work of his life. At Christmas in 1837
he printed a volume of poems, " Maiknospen," or
" May Buds," and two years afterwards a novel, " Der
junge Mystiker," " The Young Mystic," which he pub
lished under the pseudonym of Dr. Fritz. A little
time was spent in teaching after his graduation, but
he soon went back to Leipzig with the express design
of preparing an edition of the New Testament.
Professor Kahnis, in a retrospect of the life of Tisch
endorf, notes that the day on which the distinguished

THE GREAT CRITICS. 183
scholar was born was named Felicitas in the calendar,
and certainly it seems as if the happiest fortune ruled
over his career frora the moment of his earliest devo
tion to Biblical pursuits. His pre-eminent abilities and
untiring energy raet with a raultitude of circumstances
to favor their application. One exception, however,
must be made. He was poor. It was with the utraost
difficulty, particularly in the earlier part of his career,
that he could obtain sufficient means to prosecute his
studies and at the sarae tirae support life. But he did
not allow his poverty to divert him from his purpose,
and he pushed onward, with the utmost boldness,
where raany a man would have been appalled by a
lack of resources. In 1840 he published an essay on
Matt. xix. 16, and a dissertation in which he attacked
the principles of criticisra that had been advocated by
Scholz, an eminent scholar, whose preference had been
given to manuscripts of the later rather than the
earlier dates. This work attracted much attention by
its abihty. In 1841 the first edition of his Greek
Testament appeared at Leipzig. Now came the time
for his researches araong the raanuscripts theraselves,
and by great exertions he was enabled to raise raoney
enough to begin his journeys araong the Ubraries of
Europe. A grant of one hundred thalers for two suc
cessive years from the governraent of Saxony, and a
loan effected upon the security of his life-insurance
pohcy, enabled him to set out for Paris in 1840, "so
poor," however, " that he could not pay for the cloak
that he wore." At Paris he began work at once upon
the Ephraem palimpsest, as described upon a previous

184 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
page. Then foUowed the coUation and publication of
many other manuscripts, and through many years a
steady stream of publications, which cannot be men
tioned in detail, gave proof of his wonderful genius
and dUigence. The mere enumeration of his books
and essays would occupy raany of these pages. Eight
years in all were occupied by journeys in Europe
and the East, searching the libraries of monasteries and
churches for their hidden treasures. In the intervals
of these travels he would return to Leipzig and toil
with alraost fabulous endurance upon the raany works,
which his active raind had conceived during his ab
sence, or which grew out of labors previously under
taken. The deciphering of raanuscripts, the publication
of facsimiles, performing his official duties in the uni
versity, the writing of essays of almost every kind for
periodicals, now and then a popular book like his
" Journeys in the East," or his " When were our Gos
pels written?" — the successive editions of his New
Testament until the eighth critica major was almost
completed previous to his death, twenty-two editions
in all of his' New Testament, — such labors as these
filled up the years, leaving hardly any space for rest
in all his over-burdened life.
The great scholar was not without many delights,
however, which came to him both in the fact of his
successes theraselves, and in the honors that were
heaj)ed -npon hira in consequence of them. His joy in
the discovery of the Sinaitic manuscript can hardly
be imagined, and to his enthusiastic disposition every
triumph of his long labors must have brought a more

THE GEEAT CEITICS. 185
than ordinary exultation. A great number of friends
gave hira the pleasure always arising frora contact
with those highly endowed in intellect or having the
advantages of power. And in addition to these things
honors were bestowed upon hira which rarely fall to
the lot of even the raost distinguished students. He
was early the recipient of academic dignities. At the
University of Leipzig he was raade Privat-docent in
1840, Extraordinary. Professor in 1845, Ordinary Hon
orary Professor in 1851, and Ordinary Professor of
Theology in 1859. The degree of Doctor of Laws
was conferred on hira by the University of Carabridge,
and that of Doctor of Civil Law by the University of
Oxford. A great many societies elected him to hon
orary membership. " His titles fill half a page," wrote
one of his critics, rather spitefully. Monarchs deco
rated him with orders of knighthood. He was made
Privy-Councillor by the King of Saxony. And in 1869
an imperial ukase gave him the rank of an hereditary
noble of the Russian Erapire. This honor was recog
nized in Gerraany, and he was known by his country
men as Constantin von Tischendorf. In speaking of
these rewards of his eminent service. Professor Ezra
Abbot remarks that "freedom from vanity was not his
most conspicuous virtue, and it raay be that he valued
somewhat too highly such titles and distinctions ; but
who shaU say that he did not richly deserve thera
aU?" In his will, written in 1863, Tischendorf hiraself
wrote : " God has bestowed on me a happy life, richly
adorned by his blessing. Trouble and toil it has been.

186 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
but it was to me in truth precious. May God put His
blessing also on that which I leave to posterity: it is
His own work. My hand has served only Him, ac
cording to my best knowledge and conviction, even
though in all weakness. In science I pursued no other
aim than the truth ; to it I have unconditionally bowed
the knee; I never subordinated ray conviction to ap
plause on the right hand or the left  I have
purposed and sought only that which serves truth
and the kingdora of the Lord." *
It was in the raidst of his labors that he was stricken
down by apoplexy on the fifth of May, 1873. For
more than a year he lingered with his faraily, and was
cheered by the greetings that carae to him from his
many friends near and far. Death carae upon tSe
seventh of December, 1874, and he who was at once
a great scholar and a simple-hearted Christian, went
away to receive his honors from his Lord.
A distinguished American scholar, resident in Leip
zig, and at present intrusted with iraportant work con
nected with Tischendorf's labors. Dr. Caspar Rene
Gregory, writes thus: "If gi'catness consists in the
unwearying pursuit of one idea, Tischendorf was
great. If greatness consists in persistent and success
ful application to the study of difficult things, Tisch
endorf was great. If greatness consists in surmounting
hindrances and prejudices, scholastic, religious, and
national, Tischendorf was great. If greatness consists
* From a Retrospect of the Life of Tischendorf, by Dr. K. P.
A. Kahnis, translated frora the German by George H. Whitte
more, Baptist Quarterly, July, 1876.

THE GREAT CRITICS. 187
in the acquaintance with the use of, and the turning
to general advantage of, the chief Uterary treasures of
Europe and the nearer East, Tischendorf was great.
If greatness consists in earning the gratitude of the
scholars of all lands, Tischendorf was great. And if
greatness consists in a participation alike in the favor
of prince and scholar, of state and of church, Tischen
dorf was great."
Very different in its quiet and retired course was
the life of the great English critic, Samuel Prideaux
Tregelles. Born only two years earlier and dying
only four months later than Tischendorf, his labors
covered almost exactly the same period as those of the
great Gerraan. Tregelles was born at Falraouth, Eng
land, on the thirtieth of January, 1813. His father, a
merchant, and his mother were members of the So
ciety of Friends, and the child was reared amid the
quiet scenes of the Quaker coraraunity. In raaturer
life he did not adhere closely to the faith and practices
of the religious body to which his parents belonged,
but at one time shared the views of the Plymouth
Brethren, and afterwards worshipped with the Pres
byterians. His education was that of the Falraouth
Classical School, surely not so extended as to warrant
the supposition that he would ever becorae so faraous
as a scholar. After his school-days were over he was
for six years in the iron-works at Neath Abbey, and in
1835 found more congenial occupation in the duties of
a private tutor at Fahnouth. From this tirae his
genius for the pursuits of a scholar was rapidly devel-

188 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
oped. He applied hiraself with ardor to the study of
the Oriental languages, and at the age of twenty-five
he had already determined to prepare a critical edition
of the Greek New Testament. To accomplish this work
was henceforth the great aim of his life. Three
journeys to the Continent were raade, in order to study
the principal raanuscripts at Paris and other places.
He collated many uncial and cursive codices, render
ing thus an important service to Biblical scholarship,
but he edited only one, the Codex Zacynthius, a
palimpsest of great value, containing a large part of
the Gospel of St. Luke. Several works of much merit
appeared from his pen, in addition to these labors,
araong which were an " Account of the Printed Text
of the Greek New Testament, with Remarks on its
Revision upon Critical Principles," and his " Introduc
tion to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament,"
printed as the fourth volume of Home's Introduction.
But his life-work, the edition of the New Testament
itself, stands at the head of the list in importance. It
was issued in parts, the first of which appeared in
1857 and the last in 1872, only three years before his
death. It is sad to contrast the circumstances under which
Tregelles labored, with those which surrounded Tisch
endorf. We have seen how the latter's poverty at the
beginning of his career gave place to comparative ease
and corafort in his work, as the assistance of great and
2)owerful friends was brought to him. Tregelles on
the other hand was sick and poor always. Lord Palm
erston placed his name on the Civil List in 1862, with

THE GREAT CEITICS. 189
a grant of £100 a year, which was doubled by Mr.
Gladstone in 1870 ; but this was the only substantial
recognition of his services by the country which he
adorned. Honors did not cluster around hira as about
his German cotemporary. The University of St. An
drew's gave him its highest Uterary degree, making
him Doctor of Laws, — but the exaraple of this Scot
tish University was not followed by the English insti
tutions of sirailar grade. He was not a University
man! His severe and long continued labors increased
the natural weakness of his frame. His eye-sight,
never very strong, grew dim in his later years and
whoUy failed him a considerable time before his death,
making all literary toil impossible except the comple
tion of his New Testaraent. Even at an early day
after the publication of the first part of the New Tes
tament, a stroke of paralysis disabled him. And so
all through his raany and successful labors, illness and
straitened circumstances made his task peculiarly diffi
cult, and it was only by the most patient devotion that
it was finally accomplished. He died at Plymouth on
the twenty-fourth of AprU, 1875.
Tregelles has been assigned by sorae scholars a place*
between Lachmann and Tischendorf in the character
of his work, and, according to his own descriptions of
it, his text is based at once upon a wider range of evi
dence than Lachraann's, and a narrower principle of
investigation than Tischendorf s, in that the latter did
not so strictly adhere to the very ancient evidence of
manuscripts and versions and the Fathers as TregeUes
did. The EngUsh scholar has indeed been severely

190 THE STOEY OP THE MANUSCEIPTS.
criticized for ignoring sorae sources of inforraation em
ployed by the great Germans and others, but the raost
able judges have agreed in placing the text of his New
Testament as among the best, and appealing to it as
freely as to the work of Lachmann or Tischendorf.
The results of the life-work of Tregelles are indeed to
be regarded as of priceless value to Christendom.
Many honored names raust be passed in silence in
these pages, or with the mere reverential utterance of
their syllables, as the eminent services of the scholars
press upon us for recognition. Dean Alford, and
Canon Westcott, and Dr. F. J. A. Hort, — the two latter
still toiling together upon an edition of the Greek
Testament, which has been eagerly expected during
many years by all Biblical scholars, — and a few emi
nent Americans, with Dr. Ezra Abbot of Cambridge
at their head, have bestowed a wealth of service upon
the lovers of Truth in their labors upon the text of the
Scriptures. But there is yet one name that stands
pre-eminent over those of living students in this
department of learning which raust receive fuller
mention. It is the name so often written in these
pages, that of
Frederick Heney Ambrose Sceivener. He was
born at Bermondsey, England, September 29, 1813,
and corapleted his academic studies at Trinity College,
Cambridge, in 1835. It wiU be noted that his birth
occurred in the sarae year as that of Tregelles, and so
very near to the time of the birth of Tischendorf, — so
richly was our age to be supplied with these devoted
searchers after the Truth. Scrivener was eraployed

THE GEEAT CRITICS. 191
for several years after his graduation as a teacher in
classical schools, and such labors have always been
congenial to his tastes. He was first an assistant mas
ter of the king's school at Sherborne ; in 1839 he be
came curate of Sandford Orcas in Somerset; in 1846
he was made head-master of Falraouth School, and in
Falmouth from 1846 to 1861, besides holding this posi
tion he had charge of one of the churches ; in 1861 he
was raade rector of St. Gerrans in Cornwall, where he
continued to reside until within a short time. He is
now in London, N. W., Hendon Vicarage, and it is to
be hoped that the labors which have hitherto been
somewhat impeded by occupations not specially lucra^
tive, and at places reraote from the centres of learning,
may now be pursued with the more ease and with
greater benefits to the scholar himself. With what
soever increased advantages the great critic may now
be surrounded, it is hardly possible to hope that the
successes of his toil will be much greater for the world
than they have already been. His Plain Introduction
to the Criticism of the New Testament is considered
by eminent judges to be the best now in existence,
and his collations of manuscripts, especially of those
deposited in England, are most valuable. A "JSToviim
Testamentum Grcecum," published in 1860 and in a
second edition in 1867, with the text of Stephens and
the various readings of Beza, Lachraann, Tischendorf,
Tregelles, and others, has found a wide acceptance.
Many other valuable publications have issued frora his
pen, and doubtless the world has yet many a treasure
awaiting it m his skUled and generous hand. It is

192 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
gratifying to know that the English government, as in
the case of Tregelles, has also recognized the labors of
this scholar, and in 1872 granted hira a pension in
" recognition of his services in connection with Bibli
cal criticisra." Dr. Scrivener has been an ardent
charapion of the clairas of the cursive raanuscripts,
and his attitude toward the Received Text has always
been conservative.

CONCLUSION. 193

CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
De. Tregelles, at the close of the introductory note
to the last part of his New Testaraent, wrote as fol
lows : — "It is with exceeding satisfaction and thank
fulness that I ara able to put the last part of my
Greek Testament into the hands of subscribers, thereby
finishing my responsibility in connection with so much
of God's Word, a work which has only deepened my
apprehension of its divine authority."
It is a conclusion that is a logical result of the study
of the Scriptures ; and in no department of Biblical
research does that result follow more surely than in
the work of the critic of the text. On the one hand
a godless skepticism may assail the Bible, as a mere
human production, full of faults and quite unworthy
of belief ; on the other, a blind bigotry raay deraand
for it even in its raost imperfect translations a worship
which may well be called idolatry: but the calm
student steps between the contending factions and
simply asks : " What is the Bible ? " Through raany
years of patient study, in which the testimony of the
ages is gathered up and brought to bear upon the
question, he pursues his task untU the very sources of
Christianity are reached, an^ at the close of his quest

194 THE STOEY OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.
and as the result of a life's work he exclaims : " The
apprehension has grown into a certainty — the Scrip
tures are the Word of God and of divine authority !"
He has traced the river back to the hillside spring and
has seen the water welling up from deeps unapproach
able. And the reasonable, the inevitable conclusion is
that which he has written. Speculation has no province
here. What are facts? The utmost reverence can
not stop with a raere assertion that the translation so
beloved in our English tongue is the perfect expression
of what was first written. The boldest opposition on
the other hand dare not deny> merely upon the basis
of what is confessedly imperfect. Frora every side
arises the serious demand for lohat was really said by
Prophet and Apostle. As in the wilderness of old all
the warfare between Satan and the Christ began and
ended with the words : It stands written, — so here
the appeal is to the real Scripture, and he only will
win the day in the interest of truth, who follows that
first Conqueror and quotes truly what God has said.
The one end and aim of all criticism is to find what
was written. And every step of the way, which has
brought the investigator near to the beginnings of
Christianity has only revealed the more fully, that in
that first time men wrote as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. The autographs are gone. The truth
once given tb men, they were to care for it as for any
other treasure. The supreme value of this blessing,
however, the very nature of the gift itself, as well as
the over-watching influence of the Holy One, led the
happy possessors to take extraordinary means for its

CONCLUSION. 195
preservation. No other writings of all the world have
ever found such exceeding care. Yet the copies of
the originals must, in the very nature of things, have
errors. Copies of copies might correct, or increase,
these faults. But with all opportunities for mistake,
with aU the casualties incident to the passage of
centuries, the one great fact remains, that by some
means, let us say by the Divine Care and the human
effort combined, we are able to speak of The Word of
God to-day with a certainty, a definiteness, which can
be applied to no other writing whatsoever. The
Christian does not hide in haunts of ignorance. Sci
ence shows, that we know, by all evidence that can be
desired, what was taught by the mouth of the Lord's
Apostles. And if in a few instances the question is
not yet fully settled as to the exact words which the
first manuscripts must have contained, it is nevertheless
true, that in the vast majority of the places that have
ever been considered doubtful, a degree of certainty
has been attained upon which the most captious critic
ought to rest.
But more than this : the study of the ancient
sources of knowledge concerning the text of the New
Testament has demonstrated, that even the current
translations in the English language are wholly trust
worthy for all Christian doctrine. Dr. Davidson
writes: "No new doctrines have been elicited. Critics,
with all their research, have not been able to show
that the common text (the Textus Receptus, from
which the current English version is made), varies
essentiaUy from what they now recommend as coming

196 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
nearest to its earhest form. We may boldly chaUenge
the opponent of the Bible to show that the book
has been materially corrupted  Let the ilUterate
reader of the New Testament take comfort by learning
that the received text to which he is accustomed is
substantially the sarae as that which men of the great
est learning, the most unwearied research, and the
severest studies, have found in a prodigious heap of
docuraents." And the great English scholar, Bentley,
in a discourse often quoted, says : " The real text of
the sacred writers does not now lie in any MS. or
edition, but is dispersed in thera all. 'Tis corapetently
exact, indeed, in the worst MSS. now extant ; nor is
one article of faith, or raoral precej)t, either perverted
or lost in them ; choose as awkwardly as you wiU,
choose the worst, by design, out of the whole lump of
readings  even put thera into the hands of a
knave or fool, and yet vdth the most sinistrous and
absurd choice he shall not extinguish the light of any
one chapter, nor so disguise Christianity but that every
feature of it will still be the same." It will be easy,
perhaps, for opponents of the Bible to offer an un-
studious criticism against its stateraents here or there;
but it is worthy of reraark that all the great scholars
whose lives have been devoted to textual research and
whose names have been rendered forever famous by
their labors, are unanimous in their reverence for its
truth ; while their very labors themselves are a testi-
raony to their convictions of the supreme value of the
original Word. They show us the wonder that our
text is so correct, considering the antiquity of the

CONCLUSION. 197
documents, and they express unhesitatingly their faith
that the Bible was never made merely by raan, but
that God was its Inspirer, and that it speaks for Hira.
Their work has been raost iraportant. The Church is
the stronger to-day because the strength of her bul
warks has been proved to her. The most ancient
Scriptures, the most modern criticism, have united to
show her, that now with a firmer faith than ever be
fore, she may face her foes with the unfaiUng weapon :
"It is WRITTEN."

198 THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.

APPEI^DIX.

List of the Uncials op the New Testament.

F^JRTH CENTURY.
Sinaiticus, Sign H, described page 97. The only uncial of
the New Testament entire.
Vaticanus 1209, Sign B, described page 67.
fifth century.
Alexandrinus, Sign A, described page 68.
Ephraemi, Sign C, described page 101.
GUELPHERBYTANUS, Sign Q, described page 116.
BoEGiANUS, I., Sign T, at Rome, in two fragments, T and
T""', containing parts of Luke and John. The two parts
have been reckoned as one MS. tliough they really be
long to separate codices.
TisCHENDORFiANUS II., Sign I, at St. Petersburg, three
fragments, 1, 2, 3, containing verses from Matt., Mark,
John, Acts, 1 Cor., and Titus.
MusEi Britannici, Sign I^ at London, fragments of John's
Gospel.
MS. without name. Sign Q', at St. Petersburg, parts of 1
Cor. i. vi. vii. SIXTH CENTURY.
Bezae, Sign D, described page 117.
Guelphehbytanus A., Sign P, contains 486 verses from
Gospels.

APPENDIX. 199
Niteiensis, Sign R, London, fragments of Luke. See
page 111.
DuBLiNENSiS, Sign Z, at Dublin, 290 verses of Matt. See
page 114.
Laudianus, Sign E*, at Oxford, Acts almost entire. See
page 126.
Claromontanus, Sign D^ Paris,. Paul's Epistles except 22
verses. See page 124.
Coislinianus, Sign ff, in five parts deposited at Paris, St.
Petersburg, Moscow, and Mount Athos. See page 132.
Tischendorfianus II., Sign I, at St. Petersburg, fragments
4 and 5, containing verses of Matt., Luke, and John.
MS. without ¦name. Sign T, at St. Petersburg, two parts T'
and T°, a few verses of Matt, and John.
MS. without name, at St. Petersburg, in five parts. Signs
gb, 0. e. t, e, containing portions of Matt., Mark, and Jolm.
MS. without name. Sign O', at St. Petersburg, one double
leaf containing 2 Cor. i. 20-ii. 12.
MS. without name. Sign 01, at Moscow, Eph. iv. 1-18. with
omissions.
Purpureus, Sign N, at London, Rome, Vienna, and Patmos,
containing parts of the Gospels. See page 128.
Rossanensis, Sign S, described page 145.
seventh century.
Tischendorfianus I., Sign ©*, Leipzig, fragments of Matt.
Coislinianus I., Sign F', at Paris, small fragments from
Gospels and Epistles. Not one has more than two con
secutive verses.
Tischendorfianus II., Sign I, at St. Petersbm-g, fragments
6 and 7, a few verses from Acts.
MS. without name, Sign T*, at Rome, parts of Matt., Mark,
and John.
MS. without name. Sign G^ at St. Petersburg, Acts ii. 45 -
iii. 8.
Ceyptoferratensis Z. §. 1., Sign R^ at Monastery of
Grotta Ferrata; 2 Cor. xi. 9-19.

200 the story OF THE MANUSCEIPTS.

EIGHTH CENTUKY.
Basiliensis, Sign E, at Basle ; the four Gospels with a few
omissions in Luke.
Regius, Sign L, at Paris ; the Gospels with omissions.
Zacynthius, Sign S, at London ; parts of Luke.
Vaticanus 2066, Sign B^ at Rome ; the Revelation entire.
Barberini, Sign Y, at Rome; six leaves containing 137
verses of John
Regius 314, Sign W, at Paris; Luke ix. 34-37; x. 12-22.
MS. without name. Sign W, at Naples ; fragments of Matt,
Mark, and Luke.
MS. without name, Sign W° ; three leaves containing Mark
ii. 8-16, Luke i. 20-32, 64-79.
MosQUENSis, Sign V, at Moscow ; larger part of four Gos
pels to John vii. 39.
MS. without name. Sign 0^ at St. Petersburg; Luke xi. 37-41,
42-45.
Vaticanus 9671, Sign R'^, at Rome ; parts of Acts.
NINTH CENTURY.
Rheno Tra jeotinus. Sign P, at Utrecht ; Matt. ix. 1, to John
xiii. 34, with many omissions.
Cyprius, Sign K, at Paris ; Gospels entire.
Campianus, Sign M, at Paris ; Gospels entire.
Monacensis, Sign X, at Munich; Gospels "with serious
defects."
Tischendorfianus IV., Sign r, at Oxford and St. Peters
burg ; Gospels except 215 verses from Matt, and Mark.
Sangallensis, Sign A, at Monastery of St. Gall ; Gospels
except John xix. 17-35.
Boeenerianus, Sign G'', at Dresden; Epistles of Paul, with
breaks.
Augiensis, Sign F^, at Cambridge; Epistle of Paul, with
breaks.
Tischendorfianus III., Sign A, at Oxford ; Luke and John,
and subscription to Mark.

APPENDIX. 201
Petropolitanus, Sign n, at St. Petersburg; Gospels, with
defects.
PORFIRIANUS, Sign P-^™, at St. Petersburg; Acts, Epistles,
Revelation, with defects.
WOLFII B., Sign H, at Hamburg; Gospels, with defects.
MUTINENSIS, Sign ff, at Modena ; the Acts with defects.
Biblioth. Angligai;, A. 2, 16, Sign L^'', at Rome ; part of
Acts and Epistles.
MOSQUENSIS S. S. 98, Sign K"'', at Moscow; Epistles with
defects.
Ruber, Sign M^ at Hamburg and London ; parts of Heb.
and 1 and 2 Cor.
MOSQUENSIS, 120, Sign O, at Moscow ; seventeen verses of
John.
MS. without name. Sign W^ at Cambridge ; parts Of Mark.
MS. without name. Sign W°, at Oxford ; John iv. 9-14.
MS. without name. Sign @\ at St. Petersburg; nineteen
verses of Matt. TENTH CENTURY.
Harleianus, Sign G, at London and Cambridge; Gospels
with omissions.
Vaticanus 354, Sign S, at Rome ; Gospels entire.
Nanianus, Sign U, at Venice ; Gospels entire.
Sangermanensis, Sign E^, at St. Petersburg; Epistles of
Paul, with omissions.
Note. — For more detailed descriptions of these Uncials see the
Tables prepared under Dr. E. Abbot's revision in Mitchell's Critical
Handbook, and an article by Dr. Frederic Gardiner in the Bibliotheca
Sacra, April, 1875, with an accompanying diagram, — from which the
above list is compiled. Of special value is the list in Dr. F. H. Scriv
ener's Plain Introduction.

Il^DEX.

Abbot, Ezra, 10, 185, 190.
Abitina, 17.
Abyssinia, 160.
Acts of Paul and Thecla, 60.
Adrets, 118.
^detius, 160.
.aSlfred, X.
JEliria, x.
Aldhelm, x.
Alexander, 150, 161.
Alexander II, 96.
Alexaniler of Jerusalem, 28.
Alexandria, 29, 52, 85, 150, 162, 158.
Alford, 73, 140, 158, 173, 190.
Allix, 101, 102.
Ammonian Sections, 42, 61, 98, 105,
119, 146.
Ammonius, 42, 161.
Anglo-Saxon Translations, Ix.
Antioch, 159.
Autonelii, 73, 76.
Antony, 160, 161.
Aramaean, 155.
Arnold, A. N., 45, 169.
Athanasius, 161.
Athos, Mt., 29, 59, 99, 131, 139.
Augustine, 173.
Austin, 59.
Authorized Version, See English
Bible.
Aymont, J., 125.
Babylon, 155.
Barnabas, Epistle of, 7, 94, 98.
Barrett, 114, 115.
Bartolocci, 71.
Eashmuric. See Version.
Basil, St., 144.
Basle, xxiii, 53, 133.
Beaumont, Francis, 118.
Bede, x.
Bengel, 165.
Bentley, 54, 71, 102, 169, 196.
Bessarion, 68.

Bethlehem, 154.
Beza, xxiv, 53, 117, 118, 121, 124, 171.
191.
Bible, superior to other Scriptures,
2,7. Divine-Human, 4.
first printed, 36.
how written, 5.
inspired, 6, 18,
trustworthy, 19.
See English Bible.
Biblical Criticism, 14, 61, 54.
canons of, 166 sq.
examples of, 171 sq.
sources of, 16.
value of, 170, 193.
Bibliolatry, 3.
Birch, 70.
Blanchini, 70.
Bleek, 158.
Bodleian Library, xl, 45, 56, 60.
Bologna, 122.
Books, ancient, 23 sq., form of, 24,
26; materials, 25; valued , 30.
Bradshaw, 131.
British Museum, 24, 58, 112, 114, 128.
Buddha, 3.
Bunsen, 180.
Burdett-Coutts, 32.
Csedmon, x.
Calabria, 29.
Calamus, 139.
Oalligrapher, 27.
Cambridge, xi, xiv, xix, 117, 118,
131.
Canon, 6, 7, 12, 13.
Canterbury, Convocation of, xxv,
163 ; Protest to Archbishop of,
xxviii.
Capperonier, 103.
Carthage, 52, 162.
Chark, W., 138.
Charles 1, 68, 66.

INDEX.

203

Chrysostom, 59, 131, 172, 173, 175.
Cilento, 145.
Classics, heathen, 21.
Clement XI, ill.
Clement of Eome, 7. 59.
Clement, T., 138. '
Clermont, 121, 122.
Codex, 46.
Alexandrinus, 58, 68, 69, 104,
167, 171.
• /?', 121, 123.
Bezse, 43, 117, 118, 158, 159, 171.
Borgianus, 131.
Carolinus, 116.
Claromontanus, 124.
Coislinianus, 132.
Cursive 1, 133.
" 13, 139.
" 33, 136, 171.
" 61, 137.
" 69, 138.
" 95, 139.
" 124, 139.
" 346, 139.
Duhlinensis, 114, 171.
Ephraemi, 50, 79, 104, 115, 159,
171, 183.
Friderico-Augustanus, 91, 92.
Guelpherbytanus, 116.
Laudianus, 43, 126.
Leicestrensis, 138.
Montfortianus, 137.
Mosquensis, 131.
Nitriensis, 113.
Purpureus, 127.
Regius, 127, 159, 171.
Ruber, 130.
Rossanensis, 29, 38, 48, 146.
Sangallensis, 173.
Sinaiticus, xxiv, 38, 39, 58, 69,
75, 78, 79, 88, 97, 105, 111, 118,
153, 165, 167, 171, 175, 184.
Vaticanus, xxiv, 39, 58, 61, 67,
76, 88, 98, 105, 114, 117, 127,
153, 159, 165, 167, 168, 169,
171.
W'l, 131.
Zacynthius, 188.
Coligni, 117.
ColinseuSj 53.
Commumon, xxvii.
Complutum, 53.
Complutensian Text, xvii, xxiii, tS.
Conde, 117.
Confucius, 1, 3.
Constantine, 28, 84, 85.
Constantinople, 28, 29.
Constantius, 99.
Copyist, 27, 28.
Cotton, 128.
Council, of Ferrara and Florence,
68; of Nice, 69, 84; of Trent,
121, 122.
Coverdale, xvi, xvii.

Cozza, 77.
Cross, Invention of, 84.
Cureton, 112, 113, 157.
Curetouiau Syriac. See Version.
Cursives, 40, 132, 134.
Curzon, 139.
Cuthlac, X.
Cyprian, 59.
Cyprus, 29.
Cyril of Athos, 93.
CyrU of Jerusalem, 172.
Davidson, 15, 18, 61, 164, 167, 169, 173,
178, 195.
Damasus, 153, 154.
Diocletian, 17, 18.
Dionysius, 144.
Dublin, 114, 137.
Dupuy, 124.
Edessa, 155.
Edward VI, xvii.
Eichhorn, 134.
Elizabeth, xviii.
Elzevir, 53.
English Bible, opposition to, xiii,
xv; flrst printed, xv. Revision of
1881. See Bevision.
Authorized or King James's,
xix, XX, xxii, xxiv, xxv.
Bishops', xviii, xix.
Coverdale's, xvi, xix.
Cranmer's, xvii.
Douay, xviii.
Genevan, xviii. xix, xxiv.
Great, xvii, xviii, xix.
Matthew's, xvi, xvU, xix.
Ehemish, xviii.
Taverner's, xvi.
Tyndale's, xv, xvi, xix, xr,
xxiii.
Wyclif's, xii, xx.
Ephraem, 101, 103, 166.
Epiphanius, 59.
Erasmus, xvii, xxiii, 53, 133, 137, 138,
174.
Euclid, 113.
Eugenius IV, 68.
Eusebian Canons, 42, 69, 98, 105, 119,
146.
Eusebius, 28, 59, 85, 123.
EuthaUus, 42, 43, 50, 62, 125.
Evangelistaria, 41.
Ewald, 168.
Fatliers, 10, 51, 163.
Faust, 35.
Fleck, 103.
Frith, xvi.
Froy, 138.
Frumentius, 160.
GaSta, 72.
Gebhardt, 144, 146.

204

INDEX.

Geneva, xviii.
Giobertme Tincture, 103, 115.
Gospels, Apocryphal, 7.
Canonical, 10.
Green, W., xxxiii.
Gregory, C. E., 186.
Gregory of Nazianzum, 59, 60, 115,
131, 175.
Gregory XVT, 76.
Griesbach, 54, 128, 157.
Gutenberg, 35.
Hamburg, xiv, 128.
Harkel, 158.
Harley, 125, 128.
Harnack, 144, 146.
Hayne, 138.
Helena, 84.
Herculaneum EoUs, 34, 69.
Herodotus, 22.
Hilarianus, 17.
Hilarion, 160.
Hilary, 173, 175.
Hippolytus, 144, 175.
Homer, 21, 113.
Hort, 190.
Howson, xxviii.
Hug, 70, 80, 123.
Humboldt, 66.
Huntington, 111.
Ignatius, 109.
Imposture, 65, 99.
Irenams, 18, 118, 175.
James I, xix.
Jebb, xxvii.
Jerome, 119, 163, 154, 175.
Justinian, 85.
Justin Martyr, 175.
Kahnis, 182.
Koran, 1, 2, 110.
Lachmann, 64, 103, 123, 166, 175, 180,
189.
Laotse, 1.
Larroque, 137;
Lectionary, 41.
Leipzig, 45, 56, 91, 97, 144, 146, 182,
183.
Leipziger Zeitimg, 74, 78.
Leo VI, Emperor, 133.
Librarius, 27.
Lightfoot, 162.
Lucar, 58.
Luther, xvi.
Lykurgos, 66.
Lyons, 117, 121,122.
Mai, 71, 75.
Malpica, 148.

Manuscripts, age of, 22, 49; classes,
39; divisions, 42; signs, 46; errors
in, 32; form, 44; fragments, 48,
127; Greco-Latin, 119, 120, 126; il
lustrated, 133, 147; number of, 21,
22, 47, 48; valued, 30; various read
ings, 20, 21, 168, 170; where depos
ited, 45; where made, 29. See
Codex.
Marcion, 11.
Mary, Bloody, xvii.
Maximin, 85.
Medici, 101.
Michaelis, 20.
Mico, 71.
Mill, 21, 71, 102.
Mohammed, 1, 3.
Montfaucon, 70.
Montfort, 137, 138.
Moscow, 131.
Muratori, 10, 11.
Napoleon I, 80.
Nero, 8.
Nicholas of Hereford, xii.
Nicholas V, 67.
Niebuhr, 90.
Nitria, 111.
Origen, 28, 51, 127, 156, 172, 173.
Orm, xi.
Ormulumj xi.
Oxford, xii, xiii, xiv, xix, 45, 46.
Pachomius, 160, 161.
Palimpsest, 33, 50, 101.
Papias, 123.
Papyrus, 16, 25, 37.
Patmos, 46, 128.
Philodemus, 69.
Philoxenus, 158.
Piaggi, 34.
Pitra, 77.
Plato, 22.
Porfiri, 98, 132.
Praxapostolos, 41.
Printing, 36.
Punctuation, 43.
Reuchlin, 133.
Revision, xiv, xx, xxv, 153; reasons
for, xx-xxv; publication of, xxix.
Committee, xxv, 164; lists of,
xxix-xxxii; rules for, xxvi;
Communion celebrated,
xxvii; faith of, xxxiii.
Rheims, xviii.
Eolle of Hampole, xii.
Eome, 53, 79; ascendency in Eng
land, xvii.
Eossano, 143.
Schaif, xxviii, xxxiii.
Schoeffer, 35.

INDEX.

205

Scholz, 54, 137, 174.
Schulze, 180.
Scrivener, 32, 48, 50, 67, 60, 83, 120,
124, 127, 133, 137, 139, 154, 168, 169
173, 175, 176, 180, 190.
Severus of Antioch, 113.
Shepherd of Hermas, 56, 94, 98.
Simonides, 66, 56, 57, 99.
Stanley, A. P., xxviii, 86.
Stephens, xxiv, 63, 121.
St. Catherine, Convent of, 85, 92, 97,
St. Maria Deipara, 31, 112.
St. Maria de lo Patire, 144.
St. Petersburg, 45, 96, 97, 132.
Stichometry, 43, 126.
Tachygrapher, 26.
Tattam, 112.
Tertius, 26.
TertuUian, 42, 60, 152.
Testament, Old, 6.
New, when written, 7-9 ; mate
rial of MS., 37 ; copies dis
covered, 38; order of hooks,
44.
Textus Eeceptus, 53, 192, 195.
Thecla, 69, 62.
Theophylact, 173.
Tischendorf, 9, 54, 56, 68, 74, 75, 77,
80, 88 sq., 103, 104, 113, 123, 125, 126,
145, 166, 169, 173, 176, 182 sq., 189,
190.
Titloi, 42, 61.
Titus of Bostra, 173.
Traditores, 17.
Tregelles, 64, 61, 69, 73, 74, 80, 113,
123, 134, 139, 140, 157, 166, 169, 173,
187 sq., 190, 192.
Trent, 121, 122.

Tyndale, xiv, xvi, xxiii, xxiv.
Uncial, 39, 40, 47.
Usher, 110.
Vatican Library, 22, 67, 68, 71, 77
83, 111. ¦">>..,
Vedas, 1, 2.
Vellum, 25, 37.
Venice, 68.
Vercelli, 153.
Vercellone, 73, 77.
Versions, 18, 38, 150 sq.
Bashmurlc, 162.
Curetonian Syriac, 31, 156, 157,
172.
Jerusalem Syriac, 158, 169.
Memphitic, 160, 162.
Old Latin, 152, 153, 154.
Peshito, 12, 165, 157.
Philoxenian, 127, 168.
Thebaic, 160, 162.
Vulgate, xii, xvi, xviii, 18, 121,
153, 154.
Westcott, 190.
Westminster, xxvii.
Wetstein, 102, 120.
William a Prato, 121.
William of Shoreham, xi.
Wiseman, 73, 152.
Woide, 66.
Woolsey, xxxiii.
Wyclif, xii.
Ximenes, 53.
Young, 65.
Zend Avesta, 1.

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