IV. The
PAPYRI
and
OSTRACA.
Besides the Greek text mention
ought to be made of these,
although it concerns the
interpretation of the text
rather than the text itself.
We have only to think of the changes which have taken place in our own English language during the last 300 years, to understand the inexpressible usefulness of documents written on the material called papyrus, and on pieces of broken pottery called ostraca, recently discovered in Egypt and elsewhere. They are found in the ruins of ancient temples and houses, and in the rubbish heaps of towns and villages, and are of great importance.
They consist of business-letters, love-letters, contracts, estimates, certificates, agreements, accounts, bills-of-sale, mortgages, school-exercises, receipts, bribes, pawn-tickets, charms, litanies, tales, magical literature, and every sort of literary production.
These are of inestimable value in enabling us to arrive at the true meaning of many words (used in the time of Christ) which were heretofore inexplicable. Examples may be seen in the notes on "scrip" (Matthew 10:10. Mark 6:8. Luke 9:3); "have" (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16. Luke 6:24. Philemon 15); "officer" (Luke 12:58); "presseth" (Luke 16:16); "suffereth violence" (Matthew 11:12), etc.¹ V. THE MANUSCRIPTS of the Greek New Testament dating from the fourth century A.D. are more in number than those of any Greek or Roman author, for these latter are rare, and none are really ancient; while those of the New Testament have been set down by Dr. Scrivener at not less than 3,600, a few containing the whole, and the rest various parts, of the New Testament.
The study of these from a literary point of view has been called "Textual Criticism", and it necessarily proceeds altogether on documentary evidence; while "Modern Criticism" introduces the element of human opinion and hypothesis.
Man has never made a proper use of God's gifts. God gave men the sun, moon, and stars for signs, and for seasons, to govern the day, and the night, and the years. But no one to-day can tell us what year (Anno Mundi) we are actually living in! In like manner God gave us His Word, but man, compassed with infirmity, has failed to preserve and transmit it faithfully.
The worst part of this is that man charges God with the result, and throws the blame on Him for all the confusion due to his own want of care!
The Old Testament had from very early times official custodians of the Hebrew text. Its Guilds of Scribes, Nakdanim, Sopherim, and Massorites elaborated plans by which the original text has been preserved with the greatest possible care (see Appendix 93).² But though, in this respect, it had advantages which the Greek text of the New Testament never had, it nevertheless shows many signs of human failure and infirmity. Man has only to touch anything to leave his mark upon it.
Hence the Manuscripts of the Greek Testament are to be studied to-day with the utmost care. The materials are:—
i. The Manuscripts themselves in whole or in part.
ii. Ancient versions made from them in other languages.³
____________________________
¹ The examples given in the notes are from Deissmann's Light from the Ancient East, 1910; New Light on the New Testament, 1901; Bible Studies, 1901. Milligan's Selections from the Greek Papyri, etc. Cambridge Press, 1910.
² Ancient copies of the Septuagint reveal two other orders: that of Diorthotes (or Corrector) and the Antiballon (or Comparer). But these attended chiefly to "clerical" and not textual errors.
³ Of these, the Aramaic (or Syriac), that is to say, the Peshitto, is the most important, ranking as superior in authority to the oldest Greek manuscripts, and dating from as early as A.D. 170.
Though the Syrian Church was divided by the Third and Fourth General Councils in the fifth century, into three, and eventually into yet more, hostile communions, which have lasted for 1,400 years with all their bitter controversies, yet the same version is read to-day in the rival churches. Their manuscripts have flowed into the libraries of the West, "yet they all exhibit a text in every important respect the same." Peshitto means a version simple and plain, without the addition of allegorical or mystical glosses.
Hence we have given this authority, where needed throughout our notes, as being of more value than the modern critical Greek texts; and have noted (for the most part) only those "various readings" with which the Syriac agrees. See § VII, below.
We have only to think of the changes which have taken place in our own English language during the last 300 years, to understand the inexpressible usefulness of documents written on the material called papyrus, and on pieces of broken pottery called ostraca, recently discovered in Egypt and elsewhere. They are found in the ruins of ancient temples and houses, and in the rubbish heaps of towns and villages, and are of great importance.
They consist of business-letters, love-letters, contracts, estimates, certificates, agreements, accounts, bills-of-sale, mortgages, school-exercises, receipts, bribes, pawn-tickets, charms, litanies, tales, magical literature, and every sort of literary production.
These are of inestimable value in enabling us to arrive at the true meaning of many words (used in the time of Christ) which were heretofore inexplicable. Examples may be seen in the notes on "scrip" (Matthew 10:10. Mark 6:8. Luke 9:3); "have" (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16. Luke 6:24. Philemon 15); "officer" (Luke 12:58); "presseth" (Luke 16:16); "suffereth violence" (Matthew 11:12), etc.¹ V. THE MANUSCRIPTS of the Greek New Testament dating from the fourth century A.D. are more in number than those of any Greek or Roman author, for these latter are rare, and none are really ancient; while those of the New Testament have been set down by Dr. Scrivener at not less than 3,600, a few containing the whole, and the rest various parts, of the New Testament.
The study of these from a literary point of view has been called "Textual Criticism", and it necessarily proceeds altogether on documentary evidence; while "Modern Criticism" introduces the element of human opinion and hypothesis.
Man has never made a proper use of God's gifts. God gave men the sun, moon, and stars for signs, and for seasons, to govern the day, and the night, and the years. But no one to-day can tell us what year (Anno Mundi) we are actually living in! In like manner God gave us His Word, but man, compassed with infirmity, has failed to preserve and transmit it faithfully.
The worst part of this is that man charges God with the result, and throws the blame on Him for all the confusion due to his own want of care!
The Old Testament had from very early times official custodians of the Hebrew text. Its Guilds of Scribes, Nakdanim, Sopherim, and Massorites elaborated plans by which the original text has been preserved with the greatest possible care (see Appendix 93).² But though, in this respect, it had advantages which the Greek text of the New Testament never had, it nevertheless shows many signs of human failure and infirmity. Man has only to touch anything to leave his mark upon it.
Hence the Manuscripts of the Greek Testament are to be studied to-day with the utmost care. The materials are:—
i. The Manuscripts themselves in whole or in part.
ii. Ancient versions made from them in other languages.³
____________________________
¹ The examples given in the notes are from Deissmann's Light from the Ancient East, 1910; New Light on the New Testament, 1901; Bible Studies, 1901. Milligan's Selections from the Greek Papyri, etc. Cambridge Press, 1910.
² Ancient copies of the Septuagint reveal two other orders: that of Diorthotes (or Corrector) and the Antiballon (or Comparer). But these attended chiefly to "clerical" and not textual errors.
³ Of these, the Aramaic (or Syriac), that is to say, the Peshitto, is the most important, ranking as superior in authority to the oldest Greek manuscripts, and dating from as early as A.D. 170.
Though the Syrian Church was divided by the Third and Fourth General Councils in the fifth century, into three, and eventually into yet more, hostile communions, which have lasted for 1,400 years with all their bitter controversies, yet the same version is read to-day in the rival churches. Their manuscripts have flowed into the libraries of the West, "yet they all exhibit a text in every important respect the same." Peshitto means a version simple and plain, without the addition of allegorical or mystical glosses.
Hence we have given this authority, where needed throughout our notes, as being of more value than the modern critical Greek texts; and have noted (for the most part) only those "various readings" with which the Syriac agrees. See § VII, below.
iii.
Citations made from them by
early Christian writers long before
the oldest Manuscripts we possess
(see
Appendix 168).
iv. As to the Manuscripts themselves we must leave all paleographical matters aside (such as have to do with paper, ink, and calligraphy), and confine ourselves to what is material. 1. These Manuscripts consist of two great classes: (a) Those written in Uncial (or capital) letters; and (b) those written in "running hand", called Cursives.
The former are considered to be the more ancient, although it is obvious and undeniable that some cursives may be transcripts of uncial Manuscripts more ancient than any existing uncial Manuscript.
This will show that we cannot depend altogether upon textual criticism. 2. It is more to our point to note that what are called "breathings" (soft or hard) and accents are not found in any Manuscripts before the seventh century (unless they have been added by a later hand). 3. Punctuation also, as we have it to-day, is entirely absent. The earliest two Manuscripts (known as B, the Manuscript in the Vatican and
the Sinaitic Manuscript,
now at St. Petersburg)
have only an occasional dot,
and this on a level with
the top of the letters.
The text reads on without any divisions between letters or words until Manuscripts of the ninth century, when (in Codex Augiensis, now in Cambridge) there is seen for the first time a single point which separates each word. This dot is placed in the middle of the line, but is often omitted. None of our modern marks of punctuation are found until the ninth century, and then only in Latin versions and some cursives.
From this it will be seen that the punctuation of all modern editions of the Greek text, and of all versions made from it, rests entirely on human authority, and has no weight whatever in determining or even influencing the interpretation of a single passage. This refers also to the employment of capital letters, and to all the modern literary refinements of the present day.¹ 4. Chapters also were alike unknown. The Vatican Manuscript makes a new section where there is an evident break in the sense. These are called titloi, or kephalaia.²
There are none in
(Sinaitic),
see above.
They are not found
till the fifth
century in Codex A
(British Museum),
Codex C
(Ephraemi, Paris),
and in Codex R
(Nitriensis,
British Museum)
of the sixth century.
They are quite foreign to the original texts. For a long time they were attributed to HUGUES DE ST. CHER (Huego de Sancto Caro), Provincial to the Dominicans in France, and afterward a Cardinal in Spain, who died in 1263. But it is now generally believed that they were made by STEPHEN LANGTON, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1227.
It follows therefore that our modern chapter divisions also are destitute of Manuscript authority. 5. As to verses. In the Hebrew Old Testament these were fixed and counted for each book by the Massorites; but they are unknown in any Manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. There are none in the first printed text in The Complutensian Polyglot (1437-1517), or in the first printed Greek text (Erasmus, in 1516), or in R. Stephens's first edition in 1550. Verses were first introduced in Stephens's smaller (16mo) edition, published in 1551 at Geneva. These also are therefore destitute of any authority.
____________________________
¹ Such as are set forth in the Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford.
² There are sixty-eight in Matthew; forty-eight in Mark; eighty-three in Luke; and eighteen in John.
iv. As to the Manuscripts themselves we must leave all paleographical matters aside (such as have to do with paper, ink, and calligraphy), and confine ourselves to what is material. 1. These Manuscripts consist of two great classes: (a) Those written in Uncial (or capital) letters; and (b) those written in "running hand", called Cursives.
The former are considered to be the more ancient, although it is obvious and undeniable that some cursives may be transcripts of uncial Manuscripts more ancient than any existing uncial Manuscript.
This will show that we cannot depend altogether upon textual criticism. 2. It is more to our point to note that what are called "breathings" (soft or hard) and accents are not found in any Manuscripts before the seventh century (unless they have been added by a later hand). 3. Punctuation also, as we have it to-day, is entirely absent. The earliest two Manuscripts (known as B, the Manuscript in the Vatican and
the Sinaitic Manuscript,
now at St. Petersburg)
have only an occasional dot,
and this on a level with
the top of the letters.
The text reads on without any divisions between letters or words until Manuscripts of the ninth century, when (in Codex Augiensis, now in Cambridge) there is seen for the first time a single point which separates each word. This dot is placed in the middle of the line, but is often omitted. None of our modern marks of punctuation are found until the ninth century, and then only in Latin versions and some cursives.
From this it will be seen that the punctuation of all modern editions of the Greek text, and of all versions made from it, rests entirely on human authority, and has no weight whatever in determining or even influencing the interpretation of a single passage. This refers also to the employment of capital letters, and to all the modern literary refinements of the present day.¹ 4. Chapters also were alike unknown. The Vatican Manuscript makes a new section where there is an evident break in the sense. These are called titloi, or kephalaia.²
There are none in
(Sinaitic),
see above.
They are not found
till the fifth
century in Codex A
(British Museum),
Codex C
(Ephraemi, Paris),
and in Codex R
(Nitriensis,
British Museum)
of the sixth century.
They are quite foreign to the original texts. For a long time they were attributed to HUGUES DE ST. CHER (Huego de Sancto Caro), Provincial to the Dominicans in France, and afterward a Cardinal in Spain, who died in 1263. But it is now generally believed that they were made by STEPHEN LANGTON, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1227.
It follows therefore that our modern chapter divisions also are destitute of Manuscript authority. 5. As to verses. In the Hebrew Old Testament these were fixed and counted for each book by the Massorites; but they are unknown in any Manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. There are none in the first printed text in The Complutensian Polyglot (1437-1517), or in the first printed Greek text (Erasmus, in 1516), or in R. Stephens's first edition in 1550. Verses were first introduced in Stephens's smaller (16mo) edition, published in 1551 at Geneva. These also are therefore destitute of any authority.
____________________________
¹ Such as are set forth in the Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford.
² There are sixty-eight in Matthew; forty-eight in Mark; eighty-three in Luke; and eighteen in John.
