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.
This manuscript is in quarto, 12-¾ inches high and 10-¼ broad, and
consists of 773 leaves (of which 639 contain the Old Testament), each page
being divided into two columns of fifty or fifty-one lines each, having
about twenty letters or upwards in a line. These letters are written
continuously in uncial characters, without any space between the words,
the uncials being of an elegant yet simple form, in a firm and uniform
hand, though in some places larger than in others. Specimens of both
styles may be seen in our facsimiles (Plate v, Nos. 12, 13)(127), the
first, Gen. i. 1, 2, being written in vermilion, the second, Acts xx. 28,
in the once black, but now yellowish-brown ink of the body of the Codex.
The punctuation, which no later hand has meddled with, consists merely of
a point placed at the end of a sentence, usually on a level with the top
of the preceding letter, but not always; and a vacant space follows the
point at the end of a paragraph, the space being proportioned to the break
in the sense. Capital letters of various sizes abound at the beginning of
books and sections, not painted as in later copies, but written by the
original scribe in common ink. As these capitals stand entirely outside
the column in the margin (excepting in such rare cases as Gen. i. 1), if
the section begins in the middle of a line, the capital is necessarily
postponed till the beginning of the next line, whose first letter is
always the capital, even though it be in the middle of a word (_see_ p.
51). Vermilion is freely used in the initial lines of books, and has stood
the test of time much better than the black ink: the first four lines of
each column on the first page of Genesis are in this colour, accompanied
with the only breathings and accents in the manuscript (_see above_, pp.
45, 46). The first line of St. Mark, the first three of St. Luke, the
first verse of St. John, the opening of the Acts down to δι, and so on for
other books, are in vermilion. At the end of each book are neat and unique
ornaments in the ink of the first hand: see especially those at the end of
St. Mark and the Acts. As we have before stated this codex is the earliest
which has the κεφάλαια proper, the so-called Ammonian sections, and the
Eusebian canons complete. Lists of the κεφάλαια precede each Gospel,
except the first, where they are lost. Their titles stand or have stood at
the top of the pages, but the binder has often ruthlessly cut them short,
and committed other yet more serious mutilation at the edges. The places
at which they begin are indicated throughout, and their numbers are
moreover set in the margin of Luke and John. The sections and Eusebian
canons are conspicuous in the margin, and at the beginning of each of
these sections a capital letter is found. The rest of the New Testament
has no division into κεφάλαια, as was usual in later times, but paragraphs
and capitals occur as the sense requires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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