Please Support the Bible Translation Work of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
$5.00
EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored ninety-two books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
Biblical manuscripts that were written in Greek (whether translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, or copies of the Greek New Testament, or both) can be divided or organized by the writing style, which also helps the paleographer in dating them. The older (earlier) style (especially from the fourth to the ninth century C.E.) is the uncial manuscript, written in large, separated capital letters. Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used by Latin and Greek scribes.
This category can be somewhat confusing because the papyrus manuscripts were written in uncial letters.[50] However, “uncial” is a term used to designate only the parchment manuscripts, written in uncial letters. For a very long time papyrus was used for penning literary works, while parchment was used for business papers, notebooks, and the first drafts of an author’s works. Some very significant Bible manuscripts extant today were originally penned on parchment.
Parchment began to displace papyrus in writing manuscripts from about the fourth century to the fifteenth century C.E. Even though papyrus was used by secular literature up to the seventh century, Christians started using parchment as early as the second century, with continued growth into the third, and almost completely by the fourth century. Constantine the Great ordered 50 copies of the Bible, commissioned in 331, which were produced in the Greek language and on parchment. Constantin von Tischendorf, the discoverer of Codex Sinaiticus, believed that Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were among these fifty Bibles prepared by Eusebius in Caesarea. However, Metzger writes, “there are, however, one or two indications which point to Egypt as the place of origin of Codex Vaticanus, and the type of text found in both codices is unlike that by Eusebius.”[51] The Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF)[52] reports 322 uncial manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, dating from the fourth century C.E. to the tenth-century C.E.
In 325 C.E., Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, giving it equal status to the pagan religions. It was then much easier to have manuscripts copied. Christianity had been treated like a dissident, rebellious, seditious, and destabilizing movement until this time. Christians were persecuted and martyred on the grounds that their beliefs destabilized the pagan religions of the Roman government, thus calling the empire itself into question. Constantine’s actions made it possible for Christians to worship and to copy their manuscripts freely.
The Greek uncial manuscripts of the New Testament are different from other ancient New Testament texts for the following reasons:
The New Testament papyri were written on papyrus and are generally earlier (1st – 4th centuries C.E.)
The New Testament minuscule, as the name indicates, were written in minuscule letters and generally later (9th – 15th centuries C.E.)
Lectionaries were usually written in minuscule (but some in uncial) letters and generally later, on parchment, papyrus, or paper (from the 6th century)
The uncials were written in majuscule letters on parchment (1st – 10th centuries)
In 1751, textual scholar Johann Jakob Wettstein (1693-1754) was aware of only twenty-three uncial codices of the Greek New Testament. A little over 100 years later, in 1859, renowned textual scholar Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874) had brought the number of uncial codices to sixty-four. Some sixty years later, in 1909, Caspar René Gregory (1846-1917) identified 161 uncial codices. Some 210 years from Wettstein, in 1963, Kurt Aland (1915-1994) increased the count to 250 uncial codices. In the 1989, second edition of Kurt and Barbara Alands publication The Text of the New Testament, the authors listed 299 uncial codices.
Wettstein gave us one of the modern methods of classifying these uncial codices. He used the Latin capital letters to identify the uncials. For example, Codex Alexandrinus was given the letter “A,” Codex Vaticanus was designated “B,” with Codex Ephraemi being given the designation “C,” and Codex Bezae was classified with “D.” The last letter to be used by Wettstein in the classification uncial codices was “O.” As time passed, the number of uncial manuscripts became larger than the Latin alphabet, so future textual scholars exhausted the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. It was Caspar René Gregory who moved on to assign manuscripts numerals that began with an initial 0. Codex Sinaiticus received the number 01, Alexandrinus received 02; Vaticanus was given 03, Ephraemi was designated with 04, and Bezae received the number 05, to mention just a few. By the time of Gregory’s death in 1917, the number had reached 0161, with Ernst von Dobschütz increasing the number of uncials codices to 0208 by 1993. As of June 1, 2010, the number of codices had reached 0323 in the Gregory-Aland system, a forgotten 4th– or 5th-century Greek fragment of the Gospel of John in the Syrus Sinaiticus,[53] dating paleographically to 300-499 C.E., cataloged by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF) in Münster, Germany.[54]
Important Uncial Manuscripts
Luke 11:2
Codex Sinaiticus (01, א) alone has a complete text of the New Testament. It is dated to c. 330–360 C.E.
The Codex Sinaiticus Project has described the Sinaiticus as “one of the most important books in the world.”[55] F. J. A. Hort felt that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus (as well as a few other early manuscripts) represented a text that reflected the original writing. Textual scholars have repeatedly told the story of how Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovered codex Sinaiticus. We might begin with a short biography. Tischendorf was born in Lengenfeld, Saxony, near Plauen, in the year 1815. In 1834, he was educated in Greek at the University of Leipzig, and largely influenced by Georg Benedikt Winer. He soon took a special interest in New Testament criticism. However, Tischendorf became troubled by higher criticism of the Bible, which was at the root of German theologians’ efforts to undermine the Greek New Testament as not authentic. To the contrary, Tischendorf was certain that a study of early manuscripts would enable textual scholars to restore the originals. Accordingly, he went on a quest to research all known manuscripts himself, believing that he would find others throughout his travels.
Tischendorf spent four years searching through some of the finest libraries in Europe. It was in May of 1844 that he reached the Monastery of St. Catherine, located 4,500 feet above the Red Sea in Sinai. Gaining access to this impregnable fortress sanctuary was by way of a basket being lowered by a rope through a small opening in the wall.
Tischendorf was given permission to search their three libraries, which produced nothing noteworthy for some days. Then, as he was about to give up and continue his journey, he caught sight of exactly what he was looking for, ancient parchments, which filled a large basket in the hall of the main library. Likely shocking him to his very core, he listened as the librarian told him that they were going to be burned as two full baskets had already met the same fate. He spent hours on the manuscript, poring over the details and Tischendorf was shocked to find 129 leaves from the oldest manuscript that he had ever seen. It was a Greek translation of parts of the Hebrew Scriptures. The librarian gave him 43 sheets but denied him the rest.
Tischendorf came back in 1853 when he found a mere fragment of the same manuscript that we now know dates to c. 330–360 C.E. He “deposited in the library of the University of Leipzig, in the shape of a collection which bears his name, fifty manuscripts, some of which convinced him that the manuscript originally contained the entire Old Testament, but that the greater part had been long since destroyed.”[56] Codex Sinaiticus most likely consisted of 730 leaves. It was written in Greek uncial. Some six years later, Tischendorf returned to visit the monks at Mount Sinai for the third time. Just before he was scheduled to leave, he was shown the leaves that he had saved from the fire some fifteen years earlier, but also many others as well. They consisted of the entire Greek New Testament, as well as part of a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Eventually, Tischendorf was given permission to take the manuscript to Cairo, Egypt, to make a copy, and ultimately, he carried the manuscript to the czar of Russia, to whom it was presented as a gift from the monks. Today, it can be found in the British Museum alongside codex Alexandrinus. Modern textual scholars have identified at least three scribes (A, B, and C) who worked on Codex Sinaiticus, with at least seven correctors (a, b, c, ca, cb, cc, e).[57] James H. Ropes describes the quality of Codex Sinaiticus:
A two-thirds portion of the codex was held in the National Library of Russia from 1859 until 1933 / Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=480037
Codex Sinaiticus is carelessly written, with many lapses of spelling due to the influence of dialectal and vulgar speech, and many plain errors and crude vagaries. Omissions by homeoteleuton abound, and there are many other careless omissions. All these gave a large field for the work of correctors, and the manuscript does not stand by any means on the same level of workmanship as B.[58]
It can still be said that Codex Sinaiticus is considered fairly reliable as a witness to the New Testament text. However, it is true that the scribe of Sinaiticus was not as careful as the scribe of the Vaticanus. Not only was he more inclined to errors, but to creative corrections as well. F. J. A. Hort offered a comparison between the scribe of Vaticanus (B) and the scribe of the Sinaiticus (א): “Turning from B to א, we find ourselves dealing with the handiwork of a scribe of a different character. The omissions and repetitions of small groups of letters are rarely to be seen; but on the other hand, all the ordinary lapses due to rapid and careless transcription are more numerous, including substitutions of one word for another.… The singular readings are very numerous, especially in the Apocalypse, and scarcely ever commend themselves on internal grounds. It can hardly be doubted that many of them are individualisms of the scribe himself.”[59]
2 Epistle of Peter and the beginning of the 1 Epistle of John in the same column
Codex Alexandrinus (02, A) contains a complete text of the New Testament, minus Matthew 1:1-25:6; John 6:50 -8:52; and 2 Corinthians 4:13-12:6, dating to about 400-440 C.E.
Alexandrinus is one of the four Great uncial codices. It is one of the earliest and most complete uncial manuscripts, along with Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. It has a Byzantine text-type in Gospels, Alexandrian in the rest of the New Testament.
Codex Alexandrinus resided in Alexandria for a number of years, the city from which it received its name. Thereafter, in 1621, Patriarch Cyril Lucar took it to Constantinople.[60] It would later be given to Charles I of England in 1627, which was too late for it to be used in the 1611 King James Version. In 1757, George II presented it to the National Library of the British Museum. Alexandrinus was the best manuscript in Britain until 1933,[61] when the British government purchased א for the British Museum for £100,000.
Of possibly 820 original leaves of Alexandrinus, 773 have been preserved, 639 of the Old Testament and 134 of the New. The physical features are as follows:
Dimensions: 320 x 280 mm (text space: 240 x 205 mm). Two columns, generally of 50 or 51 lines; each line usually contains from 20 to 25 letters, but more is often inserted by compression at the end of the line.
Foliation: ff. 144 (+ two unfoliated modern parchment flyleaves: one at the beginning and one at the end; f. 1 is a parchment flyleaf).
Collation: Gatherings originally of eight leaves, numbered at the top of the first page; rebound in modern times in gatherings of six leaves.
Script: Uncial. Written probably by three different hands (III, IV, and V in Milne and Skeat 1938); punctuation by the original scribes.
Binding: Post-1600; gold-tooled leather with the royal arms of England and initials ‘CR’.[62]
The beginning lines of each book are written in red ink, and a larger letter set into the margin marks sections within the book. There are no accents or breathing marks by the original hand. However, there are a few by a later hand. The first hand wrote the punctuation.[63] The letters in Codex Alexandrinus are larger than those in the Vaticanus. While there are no spaces between the words, there are some pauses by way of a dot between the words. The swapping of vowels of similar sounds is quite frequent in Codex Alexandrinus. There is an affinity to increase the size of the first letter of each sentence. The letters Ν and Μ are sometimes confused. The letter combination ΓΓ is exchanged for ΝΓ. Codex Alexandrinus has capital letters to indicate new sections and is the oldest manuscript to do so. Alexandrinus has many iotacisms and other cases of the confusion of vowel sounds, e.g. αι in place of ε, ει for ι and η for ι. However, the number of iotacisms is no greater than other manuscripts from that period. There are many corrections that have been made in Alexandrinus, some of which come from the original scribe. However, most by far come from later hands. The corrected portions of the text agree with codices D, N, X, Y, Γ, Θ, Π, Σ, Φ and the vast majority of the minuscule manuscripts.[64]
The Greek text of the codex is of mixed text-types. On this Metzger writes, “In the Gospels, it is the oldest example of the Byzantine type of text, which is generally regarded as an inferior form of text. In the rest of the New Testament (which may have been copied by the scribe from a different exemplar from that which he employed for the text of the Gospels), it ranks along with B and א as representative of the Alexandrian type of text.”[65]
Second Epistle of John
Codex Vaticanus (03, B) contains the Gospels, Acts, the General Epistles, the Pauline Epistles, the Epistle to the Hebrews (up to Hebrews 9:14, καθα[ριει); it lacks 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Revelation. It is written on 759 leaves of vellum and is dated to c. 300–325 C.E.
Arguably, one could say that Codex Vaticanus is the most valuable witness that we have for the Greek New Testament.[66] It is of course named Vaticanus because it has been stored in the Vatican library from a time prior to 1475.[67] For centuries, the Vatican authorities kept the B (03) a private treasure and discouraged work on it by outside scholars. Paul D. Wegner writes, “At the beginning of the nineteenth century Napoleon carried off this codex to Paris with other manuscripts as a war prize, but on his death in 1815 it was returned to the Vatican library. Constantine von Tischendorf applied for and finally obtained permission to see the manuscript in order to collate difficult passages. He copied out or remembered enough of the text to be able to publish an edition of Vaticanus in 1867. Later that century (1868–1881) the Vatican published a better copy of the codex, but in 1889–1890 a complete photographic facsimile of this manuscript superseded all earlier attempts.”[68]
The writing in Codex Vaticanus is “small and delicate majuscules, perfectly simple and unadorned”[69] as Metzger put it. The Greek runs continuously, with no separation between the words, and all letters are an equal distance from one another so that to the modern eye, each line looks like one long word. Some scholars feel that Vaticanus is a little earlier than Sinaiticus because of its having no ornamentation at all, while others feel that Vaticanus and Sinaiticus were among the fifty manuscripts ordered by Constantine the Great. Skeat, however, goes a step further, arguing that Vaticanus was to be a part of the fifty manuscripts but was a reject, “for it is deficient in the Eusebian canon tables, has many corrections by different scribes.[70] Whether Skeat is correct or not, Codex Vaticanus is one of the most important manuscripts for the text of the Septuagint and especially the Greek New Testament.
Tischendorf claimed that codex Vaticanus was copied by three scribes (A, B, C), suggesting that two worked on the Old Testament while the third copied the entire New Testament.[71] Kenyon accepted Tischendorf’s view, while T. C. Skeat, who had an opportunity to do a more extensive examination of the codex, contested the position of a third scribe (C) and argued that there were only two scribes, both working on the Old Testament (A and B), and one of them copying the entire New Testament (B).[72] Other paleographers agree with Skeat. Scribe (A) wrote Genesis through 1 Kings (pp 41–334) and Psalms through Tobias (pages 625–944). Scribe (B) wrote 1 Kings through 2 Esdra (pp 335–624), Hosea through Daniel (pp 945–1234), and the entire New Testament.[73] One corrector worked on Vaticanus soon after its writing, and another corrector from the 10th or 11th century worked on the manuscript. The latter corrector traced over the faded letters with fresh ink. However, he also omitted words and letters he judged to be wrong, as well as adding accent and breathing marks. Vaticanus is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type, the Alands placing it in Category I, “manuscripts of a very special quality which should always be considered in establishing the original text …. B is by far the most significant of the uncials.” (Aland and Aland, The Text of the New Testament 1995, 109, 109)
Matthew 20:16-23
Codex Ephraemi (04, C) dates to the fifth century C.E., with 209 leaves surviving, of which 145 contain material from every New Testament book except Second Thessalonians and Second John. It is a noted palimpsest, i.e., a manuscript written over a partly erased older manuscript in such a way that the old words can be read beneath the new. Codex Ephraemi is about 12 inches by 9 inches (31 cm by 23 cm), and it is the earliest example of a manuscript containing just one column of writing on each page.
The Scriptural text that had appeared on this fifth-century codex was removed in the twelfth century, being written over with a Greek translation of thirty-eight sermons of the Syrian scholar Ephraem. It was not until the end of the seventeenth century that textual scholars noticed the Bible text beneath. While there was some progress made over the years in trying to decipher the text that lay beneath, it was difficult because of the faint and unclear condition of the ink that had been erased, not to mention the ragged state of many of the leaves, and the other text that overlapped with the original text. In an effort to read the text, some chemicals were applied to the manuscript. Eventually, most textual scholars of the time felt that the erased text was beyond recovery.
However, a name that we have heard before, Konstantin von Tischendorf, went to work on Codex Ephraemi in the early 1840s. It took Tischendorf two years, but he eventual deciphered the manuscript. How was he able to succeed where others had failed? Tischendorf had a good eye for the Greek uncial script and was blessed with excellent eyesight. Moreover, he discovered that if he held the parchment up to the light, the erased text was legible enough for him to make it out. Today scholars would use infrared, ultraviolet, and polarized light to illuminate the ancient text.
Metzger says that even “though the document dates from the fifth century, its text is of less importance than one might assume from its age. It seems to be compounded from all major text types, frequently agreeing with secondary Alexandrian witnesses but also with those of the later Koine or Byzantine type, which most scholars regard as the least valuable. Two correctors referred to as C2 or Cb and C3 or Cc, have made corrections in the manuscript. The former probably lived in Palestine in the sixth century, and the latter seems to have done his work in Constantinople in the ninth century.”[74] Today, Codex Ephraemi is kept in the National Library in Paris, France.
John 3:26-4:1
Codex Bezae (05, Dea) dates to about 400 C.E., consisting of 406 leaves. It contains most of the four Gospels and Acts, with a small fragment of Third John. The codex is about ten by eight inches (25 by 20 cm), and it is an early example of a bilingual text, with Greek on the left page and Latin on the right. Theodore Bezae presented it to the University of Cambridge in 1581.
Paul D. Wegner observes that Bezae “is written in ‘sense lines’ so that some sentences are short and others long depending on the thought in the line. There is one column per page. The codex includes the Gospels (in Western order; i.e., Mt, Jn, Lk, Mk), Acts and a short fragment of 3 John. It was found in 1562 at Lyons, France, by Theodore Beza, the successor of John Calvin at Geneva, who presented it to Cambridge University in 1581 (thus it is sometimes called ‘Codex Cantabrigiensis’).”
Codex Bezae is most likely a copy of a papyrus manuscript with an early text. It is similar to P29 (Alexandrian, Western, Category I), P38 (Western text-type, Category IV), and P48, (Western text-type, Category IV), papyri dating to the third or fourth centuries. The first three lines of each book are in red letters, and black and red ink alternate the title of books. Between the sixth and twelfth centuries, some eleven people have corrected the manuscript (G, A, C, B, D, E, H, F, J1, L, K).[75] Of this manuscript, Metzger writes, “No known manuscript has so many and such remarkable variations from what is usually taken to be the normal New Testament text. Codex Bezae’s special characteristic is the free addition (and occasional omission) of words, sentences, and even incidents.”[76] For example, Luke 23:53 reads in the NASB (NA text), “And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.” Bezae adds the words, “And after he [Jesus] was laid [in the tomb], he [Joseph of Arimathea] put before the tomb a [great] stone which twenty men could scarcely roll.” Acts 19:9 reads in the NASB (NA text), “But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he [Paul] withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.” To this, Bezae adds “from eleven o’clock to four,” which is doubtful because of the heat at that time of day. Codex Bezae is the principal representative of the Western text.
Greek Uncial Manuscripts
LINKED CODEX NAMES below will take you to full articles on that particular majuscule codex manuscript. Some further down have been done, so scroll and see those that are available. We are always adding, so keep checking back. Eventually, we will have articles on them all.
Gospels, Acts, the General Epistles, the Pauline Epistles, the Epistle to the Hebrews (up to Hebrews 9:14, καθα[ριει); it is lacking 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Revelation
[50] Uncial is a letter of the kind used in Greek and Latin manuscripts written between the 3rd and 10th centuries that is similar to a modern capital letter, but more rounded. I use “uncial” because it has been the common term, and out of personal habit; “majuscule” is preferred by many textual critics.
[51] Metzger, Bruce M. (1992). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (in English) (3rd ed.). New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 7-8.
[53] “That the famous Syrus Sinaiticus contains not only the Old Syriac Gospels, but also other palimpsest leaves, among them four leaves of a Greek codex of John’s Gospel, is not a secret. Nevertheless, for 120 years, this Greek fragment, though probably contemporary with the great uncials, was not registered in any list of NT manuscripts and, as a result, completely neglected.” – https://bibil.unil.ch/bibil/public/indexSimpleSearch.action
[57] Aland, Kurt; Barbara Aland (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, trans. Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 107.
[58] James H. Ropes, “Vol. III: The Text of Acts,” The Beginnings of Christianity, Part I: Acts of the Apostles, ed. F. J. Foakes Jackson and Kirsopp Lake (London: Macmillan, 1926), p. xlviii.
[59] Westcott and Hort, Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek, 246–47.
[60] Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux (1856). An Introduction to the Critical study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. London. p. 152.
[61] In 1875 Scrivener called it, “[t]his celebrated manuscript, by far the best deposited in England”. Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (1875). Six Lectures on the Text of the New Testament and the Ancient Manuscripts which contain it. London: Deighton, Bell & Co. p. 51.
[62] Digitized Manuscripts — British Library … – bl.uk,
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_1_d_viii8 (accessed April 11, 2016).
[63] Bruce M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991), 86.
[65] Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (3rd ed.) (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992), 47.
[66] Kurt Aland; Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, trans. Erroll F. Rhodes (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 109.
[68] Paul D. Wegner, A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History Methods & Results (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 260.
[69] Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th ed.) (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992), 67.
[71] Constantin von Tischendorf, Editio octava critica maior, ed. C. R. Gregory (Lipsiae 1884), 360.
[72] Kurt Aland; Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, trans. Erroll F. Rhodes (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 109.
[73] H.J.M. Milne & T.C. Skeat, “Scribes and Correctors” (British Museum: London 1938).
[74] Bruce M. Metzger; Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th ed.) (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992), 68.
[75] David C. Parker, Codex Bezae: An Early Christian Manuscript and its Text, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ss. 35-43, 123-163.
Vaticanus was designated “B,” with Codex Ephraemi being given the designation “C,” and Codex Bezae was classified with “D.” The last letter to be used by Wettstein in the classification uncial codices was “O.” As time passed, the number of uncial manuscripts became larger than the Latin alphabet, so future textual scholars exhausted the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. It was Caspar René Gregory who moved on to assign manuscripts numerals that began with an initial 0. Codex Sinaiticus received the number 01, Alexandrinus received 02; Vaticanus was given 03, Ephraemi was designated with 04, and Bezae received the number 05, to mention just a few. By the time of Gregory’s death in 1917, the number had reached 0161, with Ernst von Dobschütz increasing the number of uncials codices to 0208 by 1993. As of June 1, 2010, the number of codices had reached 0323 in the Gregory-Aland system, a forgotten 4th– or 5th-century Greek fragment of the Gospel of John in the Syrus Sinaiticus,[53] dating paleographically to 300-499 C.E., cataloged by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF) in Münster, Germany.[54]
Tischendorf was given permission to search their three libraries, which produced nothing noteworthy for some days. Then, as he was about to give up and continue his journey, he caught sight of exactly what he was looking for, ancient parchments, which filled a large basket in the hall of the main library. Likely shocking him to his very core, he listened as the librarian told him that they were going to be burned as two full baskets had already met the same fate. He spent hours on the manuscript, poring over the details and Tischendorf was shocked to find 129 leaves from the oldest manuscript that he had ever seen. It was a Greek translation of parts of the Hebrew Scriptures. The librarian gave him 43 sheets but denied him the rest.
It can still be said that Codex Sinaiticus is considered fairly reliable as a witness to the New Testament text. However, it is true that the scribe of Sinaiticus was not as careful as the scribe of the Vaticanus. Not only was he more inclined to errors, but to creative corrections as well. F. J. A. Hort offered a comparison between the scribe of Vaticanus (B) and the scribe of the Sinaiticus (א): “Turning from B to א, we find ourselves dealing with the handiwork of a scribe of a different character. The omissions and repetitions of small groups of letters are rarely to be seen; but on the other hand, all the ordinary lapses due to rapid and careless transcription are more numerous, including substitutions of one word for another.… The singular readings are very numerous, especially in the Apocalypse, and scarcely ever commend themselves on internal grounds. It can hardly be doubted that many of them are individualisms of the scribe himself.”[59]
Leave a Reply