Chapter II: General Character of the Greek Manuscripts of the New (1)

TESTAMENT.

As the extant Greek manuscripts of the New Testament supply both the most copious and the purest sources of Textual Criticism, we propose to present to the reader some account of their peculiarities in regard to material, form, style of writing, date and contents, before we enter into details respecting individual copies, under the several subdivisions to which it is usual to refer them.

1. The subject of the present section has been systematically discussed in the “Palaeographia Graeca” (Paris, 1708, folio) of Bernard de Montfaucon [1655-1741(16)], the most illustrious member of the learned Society of the Benedictines of St. Maur. This truly great work, although its materials are rather too exclusively drawn from manuscripts deposited in French libraries, and its many illustrative facsimiles are somewhat rudely engraved, still maintains a high authority on all points relating to Greek manuscripts, even after more recent discoveries, especially among the papyri of Egypt and Herculaneum, have necessarily modified not a few of its statements. The four splendid volumes of M. J. B. Silvestre’s “Paléographie Universelle” (Paris, 1839-41, &c. folio) afford us no less than 300 plates of the Greek writing of various ages, sumptuously executed; though the accompanying letter-press descriptions, by F. and A. Champollion Fils, seem in this branch of the subject a little disappointing; nor are the valuable notes appended to his translation of their work by Sir Frederick Madden (London, 2 vols. 1850, 8vo) sufficiently numerous or elaborate to supply the Champollions’ defects. Much, however, may also be learnt from the “Herculanensium voluminum quae supersunt” (Naples, 10 tom. 1793-1850, fol.); from Mr. Babington’s three volumes of papyrus fragments of Hyperides, respectively published in 1850, 1853 and 1858; and especially from the Prolegomena to Tischendorf’s editions of the Codices Ephraemi (1843), Friderico-Augustanus (1846), Claromontanus (1852), Sinaiticus (1862), Vaticanus (1867), and those other like publications (e.g. Monumenta sacra inedita 1846-1870, and Anecdota sacra et profana 1855) which have rendered his name perhaps the very highest among scholars in this department of sacred literature. What I have been able to add from my own observation, has been gathered from the study of Biblical manuscripts now in England. To these sources of information may now be added Professor Wattenbach’s “Anleitung zur griechischen Palaeographie” second edition, Leipsic, 1877, Gardthausen’s “Griechische Palaeographie,” Leipsic, 1879; Dr. C. R. Gregory’s “Prolegomena” to the eighth edition of Tischendorf, and especially the publication of “The Palaeographical Society Greek Testament,” Parts I and II, Leipsic, 1884, 1891, “Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions” edited by E. A. Bond and E. M. Thompson, Parts I-XII, London, 1873-82, and a Manual on “Greek and Latin Palaeography” from the hands of Mr. E. Maunde Thompson, of which the proof-sheets have been most kindly placed by the accomplished author at the disposal of the editor of this work, and have furnished to this chapter many elements of enrichment. It may be added, that since manuscripts have been photographed, all other facsimiles have been put in the shade: and in this edition references as a rule will be given only to photographed copies.

2. The _materials_ on which writing has been impressed at different periods and stages of civilization are the following:—Leaves, bark, especially of the lime (_liber_), linen, clay and pottery, wall-spaces, metals, lead, bronze, wood, waxen and other tablets, papyrus, skins, parchment and vellum, and from an early date amongst the Chinese, and in the West after the capture of Samarcand by the Arabs in A.D. 704, paper manufactured from fibrous substances(17). The most ancient manuscripts of the New Testament now existing are composed of vellum or parchment (_membrana_), the term vellum being strictly applied to the delicate skins of very young calves, and parchment to the integuments of sheep and goats, though the terms are as a rule employed convertibly. The word parchment seems to be a corruption of _charta pergamena_, a name first given to skins prepared by some improved process for Eumenes, king of Pergamum, about B.C. 150. In judging of the date of a manuscript on skins, attention must be paid to the quality of the material, the oldest being almost invariably written on the thinnest and whitest vellum that could be procured; while manuscripts of later ages, being usually composed of parchment, are thick, discoloured, and coarsely grained. Thus the Codex Sinaiticus of the fourth century is made of the finest skins of antelopes, the leaves being so large, that a single animal would furnish only two (Tischendorf, Cod. Frid.-August. Prolegomena, §. 1). Its contemporary, the far-famed Codex Vaticanus, challenges universal admiration for the beauty of its vellum: every visitor at the British Museum can observe the excellence of that of the Codex Alexandrinus of the fifth century: that of the Codex Claromontanus of the sixth century is even more remarkable: the material of those purple-dyed fragments of the Gospels which Tischendorf denominates N, also of the sixth century, is so subtle and delicate, that some persons have mistaken the leaves preserved in England (Brit. Mus. Cotton, Titus C xv) for Egyptian papyrus. Paper made of cotton(18) (_charta bombycina_, called also _charta Damascena_ from its place of manufacture) may have been fabricated in the ninth(19) or tenth century, and linen paper (_charta_ proper) as early as 1242 A.D.; but they were seldom used for Biblical manuscripts sooner than the thirteenth, and had not entirely displaced parchment at the era of the invention of printing, about A.D. 1450. Lost portions of parchment or vellum manuscripts are often supplied in paper by some later hand; but the Codex Leicestrensis of the fourteenth century is composed of a mixture of inferior vellum and worse paper, regularly arranged in the proportion of two parchment to three paper leaves, recurring alternately throughout the whole volume. Like it, in the mixture of parchment and paper, are codd. 233 and Brit. Mus. Harl. 3,161—the latter however not being a New Testament MS.

3. Although parchment was in occasional, if not familiar, use at the period when the New Testament was written (τὰ βιβλία, μάλιστα τὰς μεμβράνας 2 Tim. iv. 13), yet the more perishable papyrus of Egypt was chiefly employed for ordinary purposes. This vegetable production had been used for literary purposes from the earliest times. “Papyrus rolls are represented on the sculptured walls of Egyptian temples.” The oldest roll now extant is the papyrus Prisse at Paris, which dates from 2500 B.C., or even earlier, unless those which have been lately discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie reach as far, or even farther, back(20). The ordinary name applied in Greek to this material was χάρτης (2 John 12), though Herodotus terms it βύβλος (ii. 100, v. 58), and in Latin _charta_ (2 Esdr. xv. 2; Tobit vii. 14—Old Latin Version). Papyrus was in those days esteemed more highly than skins: for Herodotus expressly states that the Ionians had been compelled to have recourse to goats and sheep for lack of byblus or papyrus; and Eumenes was driven to prepare parchment because the Alexandrians were too jealous to supply him with the material which he coveted(21). Indeed, papyrus was used far beyond the borders of Egypt, and was plentiful in Rome under the Empire, being in fact the common material among the Romans during that period: and as many of the manuscripts of the New Testament must have been written upon so perishable a substance in the earliest centuries since the Christian era, this probably is one of the reasons why we possess no considerable copies from before the second quarter of the fourth century. Only a few fragments of the New Testament on papyrus remain. We find a minute, if not a very clear description of the mode of preparing the papyrus for the scribe in the works of the elder Pliny (Hist. Nat. xiii. 11, 12). The plant grew in Egypt, also in Syria, and on the Niger and the Euphrates. Mainly under Christian influence it was supplanted by parchment and vellum, which had superior claims to durability, and its manufacture ceased altogether on the conquest of Egypt by the Mohammedans (A.D. 638).

4. Parchment is said to have been introduced at Rome not long after its employment by Attalus. Nevertheless, if it had been in constant and ordinary use under the first Emperors, we can hardly suppose that specimens of secular writing would have failed to come down to us. Its increased growth and prevalence about synchronize with the rise of Constantinopolitan influence. It may readily be imagined that vellum (especially that fine sort by praiseworthy custom required for copies of Holy Scripture) could never have been otherwise than scarce and dear. Hence arose, at a very early period of the Christian era, the practice and almost the necessity of erasing ancient writing from skins, in order to make room for works in which the living generation felt more interest, especially when clean vellum failed the scribe towards the end of his task. This process of destruction, however, was seldom so fully carried out, but that the strokes of the elder hand might still be traced, more or less completely, under the more modern writing. Such manuscripts are called _codices rescripti_ or palimpsests (παλίμψηστα(22)), and several of the most precious monuments of sacred learning are of this description. The Codex Ephraemi at Paris contains large fragments both of the Old and New Testament under the later Greek works of St. Ephraem the Syrian: and the Codex Nitriensis, more recently disinterred from a monastery in the Egyptian desert and brought to the British Museum, comprises a portion of St. Luke’s Gospel, nearly obliterated, and covered over by a Syriac treatise of Severus of Antioch against Grammaticus, comparatively of no value whatever. It will be easily believed that the collating or transcribing of palimpsests has cost much toil and patience to those whose loving zeal has led them to the attempt: and after all the true readings will be sometimes (not often) rather uncertain, even though chemical mixtures (of which “the most harmless is probably hydrosulphuret of ammonia”) have recently been applied with much success to restore the faded lines and letters of these venerable records.

5. We need say but little of a practice which St. Jerome(23) and others speak of as prevalent towards the end of the fourth century, that of dyeing the vellum purple, and of stamping rather than writing the letters in silver and gold. The Cotton fragment of the Gospels, mentioned above (p. 23), is one of the few remaining copies of this kind, as are the newly discovered Codex Rossanensis and the Codex Beratinus, and it is not unlikely that the great Dublin palimpsest of St. Matthew owes its present wretched discoloration to some such dye. But, as Davidson sensibly observes, “the value of a manuscript does not depend on such things” (Biblical Criticism, vol. ii. p. 264). We care for them only as they serve to indicate the reverence paid to the Scriptures by men of old. The style, however, of the pictures, illustrations, arabesques and initial ornaments that prevail in later copies from the eighth century downwards, whose colours and gilding are sometimes as fresh and bright as if laid on but yesterday(24), will not only interest the student by tending to throw light on mediaeval art and habits and modes of thought, but will often fix the date of the books which contain them with a precision otherwise quite beyond our reach.

6. The ink found upon ancient manuscripts is of various colours(25). Black ink, the ordinary writing fluid of centuries (μέλαν, _atramentum_, &c.) differs in tint at various periods and in different countries. In early MSS. it is either pure black or slightly brown; in the Middle Ages it varies a good deal according to age and locality. In Italy and Southern Europe it is generally blacker than in the North, in France and Flanders it is generally darker than in England; a Spanish MS. of the fourteenth or fifteenth century may usually be recognized by the peculiar blackness of the ink. Deterioration is observable in the course of time. The ink of the fifteenth century particularly is often of a faded grey colour. Inks of green, yellow, and other colours, are also found, but generally only for ornamental purposes. Red, either in the form of a pigment or fluid ink, is of very ancient and common use, being seen even in early Egyptian papyri. Gold was also used as a writing fluid at a very early period. Purple-stained vellum MSS. were usually written upon in gold or silver letters, and ordinary white vellum MSS. were also written in gold, particularly in the ninth and tenth centuries, in the reigns of the Carlovingian kings. Gold writing _as a practice_ died out in the thirteenth century: and writing in silver appears to have ceased contemporaneously with the disuse of stained vellum. The ancients used the liquid of cuttle-fish. Pliny mentions soot and gum as the ingredients of writing-ink. Other later authors add gall-apples: metallic infusions at an early period, and vitriol in the Middle Ages were also employed.

7. While papyrus remained in common use, the chief instrument employed was a reed (κάλαμος 3 John ver. 13, _canna_), such as are common in the East at present: a few existing manuscripts (e.g. the Codd. Leicestrensis and Lambeth 1350) appear to have been thus written. Yet the firmness and regularity of the strokes, which often remain impressed on the vellum or paper after the ink has utterly gone, seem to prove that in the great majority of cases the _stilus_ made of iron, bronze, or other metal, or ivory or bone, sharp at one end to scratch the letters, and furnished with a knob or flat head at the other for purposes of erasure, had not gone wholly out of use. We must add to our list of Writing materials a bodkin or needle (_acus_), by means of which and a ruler the blank leaf was carefully divided, generally on the outer side of the skin, into columns and lines, whose regularity much enhances the beauty of our best copies. The vestiges of such points and marks may yet be seen deeply indented on the surface of nearly all manuscripts, those on one side of each leaf being usually sufficiently visible to guide the scribe when he came to write on the reverse. The quill pen probably came into use with vellum, for which it is obviously suited. The first notices of it occur in a story respecting Theodoric the Ostrogoth, and in a passage of Isidore’s “Origines”(26) (vi. 13).

8. Little need be said respecting the _form_ of manuscripts, which in this particular (_codices_) much resemble printed books. A few are in large folio; the greater part in small folio or quarto, the prevailing shape being a quarto (_quaternio_ or quire) whose height but little exceeds its breadth; some are in octavo, a not inconsiderable number smaller still: and quires of three sheets or six leaves, and five sheets or ten leaves (Cod. Vaticanus), are to be met with. In some copies the sheets have marks in the lower margin of their first or last pages, like the _signatures_ of a modern volume, the folio at intervals of two, the quarto at intervals of four leaves, as in the Codex Bezae of the Gospels and Acts (D), and the Codex Augiensis of St. Paul’s Epistles (F). Not to speak at present of those manuscripts which have a Latin translation in a column parallel to the Greek, as the Codex Bezae, the Codex Laudianus of the Acts, and the Codices Claromontanus and Augiensis of St. Paul, many copies of every age have two Greek columns on each page; of these the Codex Alexandrinus is the oldest: the Codex Vaticanus has three columns on a page, the Codex Sinaiticus four. The unique arrangement(27) of these last two has been urged as an argument for their higher antiquity, as if they were designed to imitate _rolled_ books, whose several skins or leaves were fastened together lengthwise, so that their contents always appeared in parallel columns; they were kept in scrolls which were unrolled at one end for reading, and when read rolled up at the other. This fashion prevails in the papyrus fragments yet remaining, and in the most venerated copies of the Old Testament preserved in Jewish synagogues.

9. We now approach a more important question, the _style_ of writing adopted in manuscripts, and the shapes of the several letters. These varied widely in different ages, and form the simplest and surest criteria for approximating to the date of the documents themselves. Greek characters are properly divided into “majuscules” and “minuscules,” or by a subdivision of the former, into Capitals, which are generally of a square kind, fitted for inscriptions on stones like Ε; Uncials, or large letters(28), and a modification of Capitals, with a free introduction of curves, and better suited for writing, like Ε; and Cursives, or small letters, adapted for the running hand. _Uncial_ manuscripts were written in what have frequently been regarded as capital letters, formed separately, having no connexion with each other, and (in the earlier specimens) without any space between the words, the marks of punctuation being few: the _cursive_ or running hand comprising letters more easily and rapidly made, those in the same word being usually joined together, with a complete system of punctuation not widely removed from that of printed books. Speaking generally, and limiting our statement to Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, Uncial letters or the Literary or Book-hand prevailed from the fourth to the tenth, or (in the case of liturgical books) as late as the eleventh century; Cursive letters were employed as early as the ninth or tenth century, and continued in use until the invention of printing superseded the humble labours of the scribe. But cursive writing existed before the Christian era: and it seems impossible to suppose that so very convenient a form of penmanship could have fallen into abeyance in ordinary life, although few documents have come down to us to demonstrate the truth of this supposition.

Besides the broad and palpable distinction between uncial and cursive letters, persons who have had much experience in the study of manuscripts are able to distinguish those of either class from one another in respect of style and character; so that the period at which each was written can be determined within certain inconsiderable limits. After the tenth century many manuscripts bear dates, and such become standards to which we can refer others resembling them which are undated. But since the earliest dated Biblical manuscript yet discovered (Cursive Evan. 481, see below Chap. VII) bears the date May 7, A.D. 835, we must resort to other means for estimating the age of more venerable, and therefore more important, copies. By studying the style and shape of the letters on Greek inscriptions, Montfaucon was led to conclude that the more simple, upright, and regular the form of uncial letters; the less flourish or ornament they exhibit; the nearer their breadth is equal to their height; so much the more ancient they ought to be considered. These results have been signally confirmed by the subsequent discovery of Greek papyri in Egyptian tombs especially in the third century before the Christian era; and yet further from numerous fragments of Philodemus, of Epicurus, and other philosophers, which were buried in the ruins of Herculaneum in A.D. 79 (“Fragmenta Herculanensia,” Walter Scott). The evidence of these papyri, indeed, is even more weighty than that of inscriptions, inasmuch as workers in stone, as has been remarked, were often compelled to prefer straight lines, as better adapted to the hardness of their material, where writings on papyrus or vellum would naturally flow into curves.

10. While we freely grant that a certain tact, the fruit of study and minute observation, can alone make us capable of forming a trustworthy opinion on the age of manuscripts; it is worth while to point out the _principles_ on which a true judgement must be grounded, and to submit to the reader a few leading facts, which his own research may hereafter enable him to apply and to extend.

The first three plates at the beginning of this volume represent the Greek alphabet, as found in the seven following monuments:

(1) The celebrated Rosetta stone, discovered near that place during the French occupation of Egypt in 1799, and now in the British Museum. This most important inscription, which in the hands of Young and Champollion has proved the key to the mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphics, records events of no intrinsic consequence that occurred B.C. 196, in the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes. It is written in the three several forms of hieroglyphics, of the demotic or common characters of the country, and of Greek Capitals, which last may represent the _lapidary_ style of the second century before our era. The words are undivided, without breathings, accents, or marks of punctuation, and the uncial letters (excepting [symbol like capital Roman I] for _zeta_) approach very nearly to our modern capital type. In shape they are simple, perhaps a little rude; rather square than oblong: and as the carver on this hard black stone was obliged to avoid curve lines whenever he could, the forms of Ε, Ξ and Σ differ considerably from the specimens we shall produce from documents described on soft materials. Plate I. No. (1).

(2) The Codex Friderico-Augustanus of the fourth century, published in lithographed facsimile in 1846, contains on forty-three leaves fragments of the Septuagint version, chiefly from 1 Chronicles and Jeremiah, with Nehemiah and Esther complete, in oblong folio, with four columns on each page. The plates are so carefully executed that the very form of the ancient letters and the colour of the ink are represented to us by Tischendorf, who discovered it in the East. In 1859 the same indefatigable scholar brought to Europe the remainder of this manuscript, which seems as old as the fourth century, anterior (as he thinks) to the Codex Vaticanus itself, and published it in 1862, in facsimile type cast for the purpose, 4 tom., with twenty pages lithographed or photographed, at the expense of the Emperor Alexander II of Russia, to whom the original had been presented. This book, which Tischendorf calls Codex Sinaiticus, contains, besides much more of the Septuagint, _the whole New Testament_ with Barnabas’ Epistle and a part of Hermas’ Shepherd annexed. As a kind of _avant-courier_ to his great work he had previously put forth a tract entitled “Notitia Editionis Codicis Bibliorum Sinaitici Auspiciis Imperatoris Alexandri II susceptae” (Leipsic, 1860). Of this most valuable manuscript a complete account will be given in the opening of the fourth chapter, under the appellation of _Aleph_ (א), assigned to it by Tischendorf, in the exercise of his right as its discoverer. Plate I. No. 2.

(3) Codex Alexandrinus of the fifth century (A). Plate I.

(4) Codex Purpureus Cotton.: N of the Gospels, of the sixth century. Plate II.

(5) Codex Nitriensis Rescriptus, R of the Gospels, of the sixth century. Plate II.

(6) Codex Dublinensis Rescriptus, Z of the Gospels, of the sixth century. Plate III.

(7) Evangelistarium Harleian. 5598, _dated_ A.D. 995. Plate III.

The leading features of these manuscripts will be described in the fourth and fifth chapters. At present we wish to compare them with each other for the purpose of tracing, as closely as we may, the different styles and fashions of uncial letters which prevailed from the fourth to the tenth or eleventh century of the Christian era. The varying appearance of cursive manuscripts cannot so well be seen by exhibiting their alphabets, for since each letter is for the most part joined to the others in the same word, _connected_ passages alone will afford us a correct notion of their character and general features. For the moment we are considering the uncials only.

If the Rosetta stone, by its necessary avoiding of curve lines, gives only a notion of the manner adopted on stone and not in common writing, it resembles our earliest uncials at least in one respect, that the letters, being as broad as they are high, are all capable of being included within circumscribed squares. Indeed, yet earlier inscriptions are found almost totally destitute of curves, even Ο and Θ being represented by simple squares, with or without a bisecting horizontal line (see _theta_, p. 35)(29). The Herculanean papyri, however (a specimen of which we have given in Plate iv. No. 10), are much better suited than inscriptions can be for comparison with our earliest copies of Scripture(30). Nothing can well be conceived more elegant than these simply-formed graceful little letters (somewhat diminished in size perhaps by the effects of heat) running across the volume, thirty-nine lines in a column, without capitals or breaks between the words. There are scarcely any stops, no breathings, accents, or marks of any kind; only that >, < or [right-pointing triangle] are now and then found at the end of a line, to fill up the space, or to join a word or syllable with what follows. A very few abbreviations occur, such as [symbol like Pi with Rho] in the first line of our specimen, taken from Philodemus περὶ κακιῶν (Hercul. Volum. Tom. iii. Col. xx. ll. 6-15), the very manuscript to which Tischendorf compared his Cod. Friderico-Augustanus (Proleg. § 11). The papyri, buried for so many ages from A.D. 79 downwards, may probably be a century older still, since Philodemus the Epicurean was the contemporary and almost the friend of Cicero(31). Hence from three to four hundred years must have elapsed betwixt the date of the Herculanean rolls and that of our earliest Biblical manuscripts. Yet the fashion of writing changed but little during the interval, far less in every respect than in the four centuries which next followed, wherein the plain, firm, upright and square uncials were giving place to the compressed, oblong, ornamented, or even sloping forms which predominate from the seventh or eighth century downwards. While advising the reader to exercise his skill on facsimiles of _entire passages_, especially in contrasting the lines from Philodemus (No. 10) with those from the oldest uncials of the New Testament (Nos. 11-14; 17; 18; 20; 24); we purpose to examine the several alphabets (Nos. 1-7) letter by letter, pointing out to the student those variations in shape which palaeographers have judged the safest criteria of their relative ages. _Alpha_, _delta_, _theta_, _xi_, _pi_, _omega_, are among the best tests for this purpose.

_Alpha_ is not often found in its present familiar shape, except
in inscriptions, where the cross line is sometimes broken into an
angle with the vertex downwards ([Symbol]). Even on the Rosetta
stone the left limb leans against the upper part of the right
limb, but does not form an angle with its extremity, while the
cross line, springing not far from the bottom of the left limb,
_ascends_ to meet the right about half way down. Modifications of
this form may be seen in the Herculanean rolls, only that the
cross line more nearly approaches the horizontal, and sometimes is
almost entirely so. The Cod. Frid.-August.(32) does not vary much
from this form, but the three generating lines are often somewhat
curved. In other books, while the right limb is quite straight,
the left and cross line form a kind of loop or curve, as is very
observable in the Nitrian fragment R, and often in Codd. Alex.,
Ephraemi, Bezae, the newly discovered Rossanensis, and in the
Vatican more frequently still, in all which _alpha_ often
approximates to the shape of our English _a_. _And this curve may
be regarded as a proof of antiquity_; indeed Tischendorf (Proleg.
Cod. Sin. p. xxx, 1863) considers it almost peculiar to the papyri
and the Coptic character. Cod. N (which is more recent than those
named above) makes the two lines on the left form a sharp angle,
as do the Cotton fragment of Genesis (see p. 32, note 1) and Cod.
Claromontanus, Plate xiv. No. 41, only that the lines which
contain the angle in this last are very fine. In later times, as
the letters grew tall and narrow, the modern type of A became more
marked, as in the first letter of Arundel 547 (No. 16), of about
the tenth century, though the form and thickness seen in the Cod.
Claromontanus continued much in vogue to the last. Yet _alpha_
even in Cod. Claromontanus and Cotton Genesis occasionally passes
from the angle into the loop, though not so often as in Cod. A and
its companions. Cod. Borgianus (T), early in the fifth century,
exaggerated this loop into a large ellipse, if Giorgi’s facsimile
may be trusted. In Cod. Laudianus E of the Acts and Cureton’s
palimpsest Homer too the loop is very decided, the Greek and Latin
_a_ in Laud. (No. 25) being alike. Mark also its form in the
papyrus scrawl No. 9 (from one of the orations of Hyperides edited
by Mr. Babington), which _may_ be as old as the Rosetta stone. The
angular shape adopted in Cod. Z (Nos. 6, 18) is unsightly enough,
and (I believe) unique.

_Beta_ varies less than _Alpha_. Originally it consisted of a tall
perpendicular line, on the right side of which four straight lines
are so placed as to form two triangles, whereof the vertical line
comprises the bases, while a small portion of that vertical line
entirely separates the triangles ([Symbol]). This ungraceful
figure was modified very early, even in inscriptions. On the
Rosetta stone (No. 1) the triangles are rounded off into
semicircles, and the lower end of the vertical curved. Yet the
shape in manuscripts is not quite so elegant. The lower curve is
usually the larger, and the curves rarely touch each other. Such
are Codd. ANRZ, Rossanensis (sometimes), and the Cotton Genesis.
In the Herculanean rolls the letter comes near the common cursive
β; in some others (as Cod. Rossanensis at times) its shape is
quite like the modern Β. When oblong letters became common, the
top (e.g. in Cod. Bezae) and bottom extremities of the curve ran
into straight lines, by way of return into the primitive shape
(see No. 36, _dated_ A.D. 980). In the very early papyrus fragment
of Hyperides it looks like the English R standing on a base (No.
9, l. 4). But this specimen rather belongs to the semi-cursive
hand of common life, than to that of books.

_Gamma_ in its simplest form consists of two lines of equal
thickness, the shorter so placed upon the longer, which is
vertical, as to make one right angle with it on the right side.
Thus we find it in the Rosetta stone, the papyrus of Hyperides,
the Herculanean rolls, and very often in Cod. A. The next step was
to make the horizontal line very thin, and to strengthen its
extremity by a point, or knob, as in Codd. Ephraemi (No. 24), RZ:
or the point was thus strengthened without thinning the line, e.g.
Codd. Vatican., Rossanensis, N and most later copies, such as
Harl. 5598 (No. 7) or its contemporary Parham 18 (No. 36). In Cod.
Bezae (No. 42) _gamma_ much resembles the Latin r.

_Delta_ should be closely scrutinized. Its most ancient shape is
an equilateral triangle, the sides being all of the same thickness
([symbol]). Cod. Claromontanus, though of the sixth century, is in
this instance as simple as any: the Herculanean rolls, Codd.
Vatican., Sinait., and the very old copy of the Pentateuch at
Paris (Colbert) or “Cod. Sarravianus” and Leyden, much resemble
it, only that sometimes the Herculanean sides are slightly curved,
and the right descending stroke of Cod. Vatican, is thickened. In
Cod. A begins a tendency to prolong the base on one or both sides,
and to strengthen one or both ends by points. We see a little more
of this in Cod. Rossanensis and in the palimpsest Homer of the
fifth century, published by Cureton. The habit increases and
gradually becomes confirmed in Codd. Ephraemi (No. 24), the
Vatican Dio Cassius of the fifth or sixth century, in Cod. R, and
particularly in N and E of the Acts (Nos. 4, 14, 25). In the
oblong later uncials it becomes quite elaborate, e.g. Cod. B of
the Apocalypse, or Nos. 7, 21, 36. On the Rosetta stone and in the
Cod. Bezae the right side is produced beyond the triangle, and is
produced and slightly curved in Hyperides, curved and strongly
pointed in Cod. Z.

_Epsilon_ has its angular form on the Rosetta marble and other
inscriptions in stone; in the oldest manuscripts it consists as an
uncial of a semicircle, from whose centre to the right of it a
horizontal radius is drawn to the concave circumference. Thus it
appears in the Herculanean rolls (only that here the radius is
usually broken off before it meets the circle), in Codd.
Frid-August., Vatican., the two Paris Pentateuchs (Colbert-Leyden
fifth century, Coislin. sixth) and the Cotton Genesis. In Cod.
Alex. a slight trace is found of the more recent practice of
strengthening each of the three extremities with knobs, but only
the radius at times in Cod. Rossanensis. The custom increases in
Codd. Ephraemi, Bezae, and still more in Codd. NRZ, wherein the
curve becomes greater than a semicircle. In Hyperides (and in a
slighter degree in Cod. Claromon. No. 41) the shape almost
resembles the Latin _e_. The form of this and the other round
letters was afterwards much affected in the narrow oblong uncials:
see Nos, 7, 16, 36.

_Zeta_ on the Rosetta stone maintains its old form ([Symbol rather
like a Roman capital I]), which is indeed but the next letter
reversed. In manuscripts it receives its usual modern shape (Z),
the ends being pointed decidedly, slightly, or not at all, much
after the manner described for _epsilon_. In old copies the lower
horizontal line is a trifle curved (Cod. R, No. 5), or even both
the extreme lines (Cod. Z, No. 6, and Cod. Augiensis of St. Paul).
In such late books as Parham 18 (A.D. 980, facsim. No. 36) _Zeta_
is so large as to run far below the line, ending in a kind of
tail.

_Eta_ does not depart from its normal shape (Η) except that in
Cod. Ephraemi (No. 24) and some narrow and late uncials (e.g. Nos.
7, 36) the cross line is often more than half way up the letter.
In a few later uncials the cross line passes _outside_ the two
perpendiculars, as in the Cod. Augiensis, twenty-six times on the
photographed page of Scrivener’s edition.

_Theta_ deserves close attention. In some early inscriptions it is
found as a square, bisected horizontally ([Symbol]). On the
Rosetta stone and most others (but only in such monuments) it is a
circle, with a strong central _point_. On the Herculanean rolls
the central point is spread into a short horizontal line, yet not
reaching the circumference (No. 10, l. 8). Thence in our uncials
from the fourth to the sixth century the line becomes a horizontal
diameter to a true circle (Codd. Vatican., Sinait., Codd. ANRZ,
Ephraemi, Claromont., Rossanensis, and Cureton’s Homer). In the
seventh century the diameter began to pass out of the circle on
both sides: thence the circle came to be compressed into an
ellipse (sometimes very narrow), and the ends of the minor axis to
be ornamented with knobs, as in Cod. B of the Apocalypse (eighth
century), Cod. Augiensis (ninth century), LX of the Gospels, after
the manner of the tenth century (Nos. 7, 16, 21, 36, 38).

_Iota_ would need no remark but for the custom of placing over it
an _upsilon_, when they commence a syllable, either a very short
straight line, or one or two dots. After the papyrus rolls no copy
is quite without them, from the Codex Alexandrinus, the Cotton
Genesis and Paris-Leyden Pentateuch, Cod. Z and the Isaiah
included in it, to the more recent cursives; although in some
manuscripts they are much rarer than in others. By far the most
usual practice is to put two points, but Cod. Ephraemi, in its
_New_ Testament portion, stands nearly alone with the Cotton
Genesis (ch. xviii. 9) in exhibiting the straight line; Cod.
Alexandrinus in the Old Testament, but not in the New, frequently
resembles Codd. Ephraemi and the Cotton Genesis in placing a
straight line over _iota_, and more rarely over _upsilon_, instead
of the single or double dots; Cod. Sinaiticus employs two points
or a straight line (as in Z’s Isaiah) promiscuously over both
vowels, and in Wake 12, a cursive of the eleventh century, the
former frequently pass into the latter in writing. Codd. Borgianus
(T) and Claromont. have but one point; Codd. N and Rossanensis
have two for _iota_, one for _upsilon_.

_Kappa_ deserves notice chiefly because the vertex of the angle
formed by the two inclined lines very frequently does not meet the
perpendicular line, but falls short of it a little to the right:
we observe this in Codd. ANR, Ephraemi, Rossanensis, and later
books. The copies that have strong points at the end of _epsilon_
&c. (e.g. Codd. NR and AZ partly) have the same at the extremity
of the thin or upper limb of _Kappa_. In Cod. D a fine horizontal
stroke runs a little to the left from the bottom of the vertical
line. Compare also the initial letter in Cod. M, No. 32.

_Lambda_ much resembles _alpha_, but is less complicated. All our
models (except Harl. 5598, No. 7), from the Rosetta stone
downwards, have the right limb longer than the left, which thus
leans against its side, but the length of the projection varies
even in the same passage (e.g. No. 10). In most copies later than
the Herculanean rolls and Cod. Sinaiticus the shorter line is much
the thinner, and the longer slightly curved. In Cod. Z (Nos. 6,
18) the projection is curved elegantly at the end, as we saw in
_delta_.

_Mu_ varies as much as most letters. Its normal shape, resembling
the English M, is retained in the Rosetta stone and most
inscriptions, but at an early period there was a tendency to make
the letter broader, and not to bring the re-entering or middle
angle so low as in English (e.g. Codd. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus).
In Cod. Ephraemi this central angle is sometimes a little rounded:
in Codd. Alex. and Parham 18 the lines forming the angle do not
always spring from the top of the vertical lines: in Arund. 547
(No. 16) they spring almost from their foot, forming a thick
inelegant loop below the line, the letter being rather narrow:
Harl. 5598 (No. 7) somewhat resembles this last, only that the
loop is higher up. In the Herculanean rolls (and to a less extent
in the Cotton Genesis) the two outer lines cease to be
perpendicular, and lean outwards until the letter looks much like
an inverted W (No. 10). In the papyrus Hyperides (No. 9) these
outer lines are low curves, and the central lines rise in a kind
of flourish above them. _Mu_ assumes this shape also in Cod. T,
and at the end of a line even in Codd. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.
This form is so much exaggerated in some examples, that by
discarding the outer curves we obtain the shape seen in Cod. Z
(Nos. 6, 18) and one or two others (e.g. Paul M in Harl. 5613, No.
34), almost exactly resembling an inverted pi. So also in the
Isaiah of Cod. Z, only that the left side and base line were made
by one stroke of the pen.

_Nu_ is easier, the only change (besides the universal transition
from the square to the oblong in the later uncials) being that in
a few cases the thin cross line does not pass from the top of the
left to the bottom of the right vertical line as in English (N),
but only from about half-way or two-thirds down the left vertical
in the Cotton Genesis, Codd. A, Rossanensis, Harl. 5598 (No. 7),
and others; in Codd. אNR Parham 18 it often neither springs from
the top of one, nor reaches the foot of the other (Nos. 4, 5, 11b,
12, 36); while in Cod. Claromont. (No. 41) it is here and there
not far from horizontal. In a few _cursives_ (e.g. 440 Evan. at
Cambridge, and Tischendorf’s loti or 61 of the Acts), H and N
almost interchange their shapes: so in Evan. 66 and Wake 34 at the
end of a line only.

_Xi_ in the Rosetta stone and Herculanean rolls consists of three
parallel straight lines, the middle one being the shortest, as in
modern printed Greek: but all our Biblical manuscripts exhibit
modifications of the small printed ξ, such as must be closely
inspected, but cannot easily be described. In the Cotton Genesis
this _xi_ is narrow and smaller than its fellows, much like an old
English [Symbol: yogh] resting on a horizontal base which curves
downwards: while in late uncials, as B of the Apocalypse, Cod.
Augiensis (l. 13 Scrivener’s _photographed page_), and especially
in Parham 18 (No. 36), the letter and its flourished finial are
continued far below the line. For the rest we must refer to our
facsimile alphabets, &c. The figures in Cod. Frid.-August. (Nos.
2, 11a, ll. 3, 8) look particularly awkward, nor does the shape in
Cod. Rossanensis much differ from these. In Cod. E, the Zurich
Psalter of the seventh century, and Mr. W. White’s fragment Wd,
_xi_ is the common Z with a large horizontal line over it,
strengthened by knobs at each end.

_Omicron_ is unchanged, excepting that in the latest uncials (No.
16, 36) the circle is mostly compressed, like _theta_, into a very
eccentric ellipse.

_Pi_ requires attention. Its original shape was doubtless two
vertical straight lines joined at top by another horizontal,
thinner perhaps but not much shorter than they. Thus we meet with
it on the Rosetta stone, Codd. R, Vatican., Sinaiticus, Ephraemi,
Claromontanus, Laud. of the Acts, the two Pentateuchs, Cureton’s
Homer, and sometimes Cod. A (No. 12). The fine horizontal line is,
however, slightly produced on both sides in such early documents
as the papyri of Hyperides and Herculaneum, and in the Cotton
Genesis, as well as in Cod. A occasionally(33). Both extremities
of this line are fortified by strong points in Codd. N and
Rossanensis, and mostly in Cod. A, but the left side only in Cod.
Z, and this in Cod. Bezae occasionally becomes a sort of hooked
curve. The later oblong _pi_ was usually very plain, with thick
vertical lines and a very fine horizontal, in Arund. 547 (No. 16)
not at all produced; in Harl. 5598 (No. 7) slightly produced on
both sides; in Parham 18 (No. 36) produced only on the right.

_Rho_ is otherwise simple, but in all our authorities except
inscriptions is produced below the line of writing, least perhaps
in the papyri and Cod. Claromont., considerably in Codd. AX (Nos.
12, 38), most in Parham 18 (No. 36): Codd. N, Rossanensis, and
many later copies have the lower extremity boldly _bevelled_. The
form is [Symbol like sans-serif bold Roman capital P] rather than
[Symbol like serif Roman capital P] in Codd. אA. In Cod. D a
horizontal stroke, longer and thicker than in _kappa_, runs to the
left from the bottom of the vertical line.

_Sigma_ retains its angular shape ([Symbol] or Σ) only on
inscriptions, as the Rosetta, and that long after the square
shapes of _omicron_ and _theta_ were discarded. The uncial or
semicircular form, however, arose early, and to this letter must
be applied all that was said of _epsilon_ as regards terminal
points (a knob at the lower extremity occurs even in Cod. א, e.g.
Acts ii. 31), and its cramped shape in later ages.

_Tau_ in its oldest form consists of two straight lines of like
thickness, the horizontal being bisected by the lower and vertical
one. As early as in Cod. Sinaiticus the horizontal line is made
thin, and strengthened on the left side _only_ by a point or small
knob (Nos. 3, 11): thus we find it in Cod. Laud. of the Acts
sometimes. In Cod. Alex. _both_ ends are slightly pointed, in
Codd. Ephraemi, Rossanensis, and others much more. In Cod. Bezae
the horizontal is curved and flourished; in the late uncials the
vertical is very thick, the horizontal fine, and the ends formed
into heavy triangles (e.g. No. 16).

_Upsilon_ on the Rosetta stone and Herculanean rolls is like our
Υ, all the strokes being of equal thickness and not running below
the line: nor do they in Hyperides or in Codd. XZ and Augiensis,
which have the upper lines neatly curved (Nos. 6, 9, 18, 38). The
right limb of many of the rest is sometimes, but not always
curved; the vertical line in Codd. Vatican. and Sinaiticus drops
slightly below the line; in Codd. A, Ephraemi, Cotton Genesis,
Cureton’s Homer, Laud. of the Acts and Rossanensis somewhat more;
in others (as Codd. Bezae NR) considerably. In the subscription to
St. Matthew’s Gospel, which may be by a somewhat later hand, a
horizontal line crosses the vertical a little below the curved
lines in Cod. Rossanensis. In later uncials (Nos. 7, 36) it
becomes a long or awkward Y, or even degenerates into a long V
(No. 16); or, in copies written by Latin scribes, into Y reversed.
We have described under _iota_ the custom of placing dots, &c.
over _upsilon_. But in Tischendorf’s Leipzig II. (fragments from
Numbers to Judges of the seventh or eighth century) _upsilon_
receives two dots, _iota_ only one. Once in Cod. Z (Matt. xxi. 5)
and oftener in its Isaiah a convex semicircle, like a circumflex,
stands over _upsilon_.

_Phi_ is a remarkable letter. In most copies it is the largest in
the alphabet, quite disproportionately large in Codd. ZL (Paris
62) and others, and to some extent in Codd. AR, Ephraemi,
Rossanensis, and Claromont. The circle (which in the Cotton
Genesis is _sometimes_ still a lozenge, see above, p. 32, note 1),
though large and in some copies even too broad (e.g. No. 18), is
usually in the line of the other letters, the vertical line being
produced _far_ upwards (Cod. Augiens. and Nos. 16, 41), or
downwards (No. 10), or both (No. 36). On the Rosetta stone the
circle is very small and the straight line short.

_Chi_ is a simple transverse cross (Χ) and never goes above or
below the line. The limb that inclines from left to right is in
the uncial form for the most part thick, the other thin (with
final points according to the practice stated for _epsilon_), and
this limb or both (as in Cod. Z) a little curved.

_Psi_ is a rare but trying letter. Its oldest form resembled an
English V with a straight line running up bisecting its interior
angle. On the Rosetta stone it had already changed into its
present form (Ψ), the curve being a small semicircle, the vertical
rising above the other letters and falling a little below the
line. In the Cotton Genesis _psi_ is rather taller than the rest,
but the vertical line does not rise above the level of the circle.
In Codd. ANR and Rossanensis the under line is prolonged: in R the
two limbs are straight lines making an angle of about 45° with the
vertical, while oftentimes in Hyperides and Cod. Augiensis
(Scrivener’s _photograph_, ll. 18, 23) they curve _downwards_; the
limbs in N and R being strongly (slightly in Rossanensis) pointed
at the ends, and the bottom of the vertical bevelled as usual. In
Cod. B of the Apocalypse, in Evan. OWdΞ, and even in Hyperides,
the limbs (strongly pointed) fall into a straight line, and the
figure becomes a large cross (No. 7). In Evan. 66 the vertical is
crossed above the semicircle by a minute horizontal line.

_Omega_ took the form Ω, even when _omicron_ and _theta_ were
square; thus it appears on the Rosetta stone, but in the Hyperides
and Herculaneum rolls it is a single curve, much like the w of
English writing, only that the central part is sometimes only a
low double curve (No. 10, l. 6). In the Cotton Genesis, Codd.
Vatican., Sinaiticus, Alex., Ephraemi, Bezae, Claromont.,
Nitriens., Rossanensis, there is little difference in shape,
though sometimes Cod. Vatican. comes near the Herculanean rolls,
and Cod. Alex, next to it: elsewhere their strokes (especially
those in the centre) are fuller and more laboured. Yet in Cod. N
it is often but a plain semicircle, bisected by a perpendicular
radius, with the ends of the curve bent inwards (No. 14, l. 2). In
the late uncials (Nos. 7, 16) it almost degenerates into an
ungraceful W, while in Cod. Augiensis (_photograph_, l. 18) the
first limb is occasionally a complete circle.

These details might be indefinitely added to by references to other codices and monuments of antiquity, but we have employed most of the principal copies of the Greek Testament, and have indicated to the student the chief points to which his attention should be drawn. Three leading principles have perhaps been sufficiently established by the foregoing examples:

First, that the uncials used in writing differ from the capitals cut in stone by the curved shapes which the writing hand naturally adopts(34).

Secondly, that the upright uncials of square dimensions are more ancient than those which are narrow, oblong, or _leaning_(35).

Thirdly, that the simpler and less elaborate the style of writing, the more remote is its probable date.

Copies of a later age occasionally aim at imitating the fashion of an earlier period, or possibly the style of the older book from which their text is drawn. But this anachronism of fashion may be detected, as well by other circumstances we are soon to mention, as from the air of constraint which pervades the whole manuscript: the rather as the scribe will now and then fall into the more familiar manner of his contemporaries; especially when writing those small letters which our Biblical manuscripts of all dates (even the most venerable) perpetually crowd into the ends of lines, in order to save space.