A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. I.Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose
Religion
A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. I.
Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose
Bible. New Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
length of the clauses is very unequal; some (e.g. Cod. Bezae, _see_ the
description below and the facsimile, No. 42) containing as much in a line
as might be conveniently read aloud in a breath, others (e.g. Cod. Laud.
of the Acts, Plate x. No. 25) having only one or two words in a line. The
Cod. Claromontanus (facsim. No. 41) in this respect lies between those
extremes, and the fourth great example of this class (Cod. Coislin. 202, H
of St. Paul), of the sixth century, has one of its few surviving pages (of
sixteen lines each) arranged _literatim_ as follows (1 Cor. x. 22, &c.):
εσμεν | παντα μοι εξεστι | αλλ ου παντα συμφερει | παντα μοι εξεστιν | αλλ
ου παντα οικοδομει | μηδεισ το εαυτου ζη | (_ob necessitatem spatii_)
τειτω | αλλα το του ετερου | παν το εν μακελλω πω | (_ob necessitatem_)
λουμενον | εσθιετε μηδεν ανα | κρινωντες δια την | συνειδησιν | του γαρ κυ
η γη και το πλη | ρωμα αυτης. Other manuscripts written στιχηρῶς are
Matthaei’s V of the eighth century (though with verses like ours more than
with ordinary στίχοι), Bengel’s Uffenbach 3 of St. John (Evan. 101),
Alter’s Forlos. 29 (36 of the Apocalypse), and, as it would seem, the Cod.
Sangallensis Δ. In Cod. Claromontanus there are scarcely any stops (the
middle point being chiefly reserved to follow abridgements or numerals),
the stichometry being of itself an elaborate scheme of punctuation; but
the longer στίχοι of Cod. Bezae are often divided by a single point.
18. In using manuscripts of the Greek Testament, we must carefully note
whether a reading is _primâ manu_ (*) or by some subsequent corrector
(**). It will often happen that these last are utterly valueless, having
been inserted even from printed copies by a modern owner (like some
marginal variations of the Cod. Leicestrensis)(61), and such as these
really ought not to have been extracted by collators at all; while others
by the second hand are almost as weighty, for age and goodness, as the
text itself. All these points are explained by critical editors for each
document separately; in fact to discriminate the different corrections in
regard to their antiquity and importance is often the most difficult
portion of such editor’s task (e.g. in Codd. Bezae and Claromontanus), and
one on which he often feels it hard to satisfy his own judgement.
Corrections by the original scribe, or by a contemporary reviser, where
they can be satisfactorily distinguished, must be regarded as a portion of
the testimony of the manuscript itself, inasmuch as every carefully
prepared copy was reviewed and compared (ἀντεβλήθη), if not by the writer
himself, by a skilful person appointed for the task (ὁ διορθῶν, ὁ
διορθωτής), whose duty it was to amend manifest errors, sometimes also to
insert ornamental capitals in places which had been reserved for them; in
later times (and as some believe at a very early period) to set in stops,
breathings and accents; in copies destined for ecclesiastical use to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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