Parchment

NT manuscript for the 5th century called the Codex Washingtonianus.

Papyrus Manufacture

·         Made on flat board

·         Vertical strips

·         Horizontal strips (both strips were pressed together)

·         Dried in the sun

·         Multiple sheets for a document

·         Writing on the horizontal strips

   Recto (writeable side)

O Pisthen = from behind & grapho) written on both sides such as the seals in the book of Revelation.

  Animal skin

·         Also called vellum (higher quality. Oldest and best NT MSS written on this)

·         Came into common use around 300 AD

·         Oldest and best NT MSS are on vellum

·         Papyrii MSS were still produced into the 7th century

·         Parchment Manufacture developed in Pergamum due to Egyptian trade embargo and refusal to ship them any papyri.

2 Parchment Manufacture

a.       Removal of animal’s (goat, sheep, cow) hairs

In vats with slaked lime for 3-10 days

Draped on beam and hair scraped off with curved knife

Flesh scraped off other side

b.      Rinsed in fresh water over a 2-day period

c.       Skin dried and stretched on wooden frame

d.      Scraped with lunellum (sharp crescent-shaped knife)

e.      Skin is dried (on a frame perhaps exposed to the sun)

f.        Scraped again to make it thin

g.       Pegs undone, parchment rolled up and sold

were actually still on papyri from the 2nd century AD.

was introduced from China in the 11th century AD. Parchment was largely replace by paper. By middle of 14th century parchment was largely replaced by paper.

Papyrus AD 1 TO 700. Parchment 300 to around 1400. Paper from 1100 to present.

Writing materials

    First century writing pot and pen

·         Ink –charcoal or lampblack, water, gum Arabic

·         For parchment –oak gall (from oak leaves from the insect nest formed there) and ferrous sulfate ink became known as copperas. Exposure to light made the ink darker.

NT Documents

   All written in the 1st century

·         Paul’s letter first 50s – 60 s

·         Gospels and General Epistles later 50/60s and later?

·         John and Revelation -90’s

Important Textual Criticism Concept

    None of the autographs survive

·         We only have copies of copies

Documents are dated by the style of writing and the way words were spelled etc

None of the autographs are extant. As the result corruption entered the texts such as hearing the wrong words and writing them down as well as even some theological errors too. We only have copies of copies.

2nd century

Quoting the Gospels as Scripture

·         Paul’s letters around 180 AD

·         Oldest MSS

approximately 125 AD from Egypt and were written on papyrus (P52).

In it, the eiserxomai, is so because N, I, u, E’ oi and ui all sounded the same. Itacism and homophones characterize this.

are the most popular ones –mainly 3rd centuries possibly into early 4th and cover a large portion of the NT.

The scholars were saying that the NT documents were revisionist. But the discovery of these manuscripts proved there were no major differences in the words and they had to “eat their words!”

the Orthodox corrupted Scripture and simply popularized it as that view was around long before him.

3rd century

   More versions

·         Persecution

·         Dealing with heresy

The early church was not without problems and heresy was a big thing and because Paul could not be with them, he wrote.  The heresy mainly surrounded Gnosticism which is like a slippery fish as it took many forms. Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas are examples of Gnostic literature.

4th century

 Christianity official Religion

·         Big Consequences

.         Christianity legal

.     Scriptures in open

.  available for copying Bible

written around 350 AD) was found at Orthodox monastery at Sinai) and Vaticanus (also written around 350 AD) found in the Vatican Library (in 1481) came from this period of copying. Constantine ordered 50 copies of the Bible productions and it is believed the Vaticanus is one of them.

The early church destroyed the heretical documents but these were not and one of the reasons they survived.

Results of the Edict of Milan

 Increase in missions, more Bibles

·         Scriptoriums

How they worked?

 Made many copies

  Text read aloud, others copy

  Knew Greek characters, not the language  

Dilemma

We have no autographs

.  Oldest copy of any MSS, regardless of size, is dated around 200 AD

.  Of the 5,700 plus copies of the NT or portions of it, NO two agree 100 %

.   How do we know when we have the original reading?

This discovery was the goal of textual criticism for 300 years until recently. Adding to the Bible may be taking away like “The Clear Word.” Mark left out details for contrast between the unnamed woman and Judas who was one of the Twelve!

In making a movie, you take a lot of shots but select the best for the finished product. The rest are discarded. The NT critics wants to view the discarded –not with the beautiful finished product.

Greek MSS

Papyrii -118 [P67]

 Majuscules -306 of them (uncial written in all capital letters, no division of chapters and verses and no division between letters. [067] carry the zero. Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus are uncial too.

 Minuscules  -2,856 [67] carry no zero.

 Lectionaries -2, 403

Andrews University has some 500 + facsimiles of the manuscripts.

(Textual critics say the Greek always take precedence)

 Latin

 Syriac

 Coptic

 Armenian

 Georgian

 Etc.

Translation problems

 Latin has no article

 Latin and Syriac confuse tenses.

 Latin has not middle/passive voice

 Coptic has a middle/passive voice

 Yet the Greek has middle/passive voice

Latin

 Old Latin goes back to the (3rd century) – has good age but many problems

 Vulgate –Jerome says there are as many versions as there are man MSS. He was tasked to prepare the finest version. He made the Vulgate from the Alexandrian Text-Type.

 Vulgate became the “Received Text” of the RC Church (as opposed to the Greek Textus Receptus)

 Old Latin and Western Text type. (Vulgate has no book of Revelation either)

Syriac

Tatian’s Diatessaron (early Christian church rejected his work) 2nd century.

 Most MSS of Diatessaron are 5th century copies of this 2nd century work.

Peshitta (Syriac standard version) of the Bible that had strong anti-Jewish elements to it.

Coptic

 Early 3rd century, Egypt. Special branches of Coptic language used

 Sahidic from Upper Egypt

 Bohairic from Lower Egypt

 Text Type

 No book of Revelation in the Coptic MSS

(1st Christian nation)

§  Living language still today

§  Most accurate in form and translation

§  Dates to around 400 AD

§  Basis for the Georgian versions of the NT

Church Fathers

Serious limitations (none used that corresponds to the Textus Receptus)

  Quotations

  Paraphrase

  From memory

 Differing copies of NT used by the same church father

 We have no autographs

Value of Church Fathers

Date for a witness

  Geographic location

 Evidence of variant reading

Text Types

Alexandrian

·         Byzantine ·         (the unfortunate gospel harmonizer)

·         Western

·         “Mixed”

Group of texts with common ancestor

How are they discovered? Through commonality of reading.

Variation in One Manuscript

Copy of entire NT rare

Different text types in the same MSS

Example of Alexandrinus

Many names

Syrian, Antiochene, Koine, Byzantine

Produced in Antioch, Syria

Most minuscules discovered are of the Byzantine Text-Type

Preserved by Greek Orthodox Church

Used almost universally after the 8th century

Erasmus’ Greek text (1st published Greek text)

Translators of KJV

Combined earlier texts’

Effort to remove all problems

Byzantine Majuscules

Codex Alexandrinus in Gospels

·         Majority of late majuscules and minuscules (discovered are of the Byzantine Text-Type)

Alexandrian Text-Type

 Westcott and Hort called it Neutral and Alexandrian

·         Today subdivisions named –Alexandrian and Egyptian –same as Aland’s categories I & II

Kurt Aland’s Text Type List

 Category I –Highest quality –Alexandrian

·         Category II High Quality –Egyptian (some Byzantine influence, Mixed)

·         Category III Independent distinctive text (f1 & f13).

·         Category IV Manuscripts of the D text [codex Bezae] (Western text)

·         Category V Manuscripts of the Byzantine text type

The further you get from f1 the less dependable they are in depicting what the original might have been.

Western Text-Type

 Linked to Church in Italy and North Africa

·         Back to 2nd centire likely

·         Use by early Church Fathers

Western non-Interpolations

Considered original because of shortness

·         Old Latin, Syriac, and Church Fathers

·         Code Bezae D in Acts

Mixed Text-Type

 Replaces the Caesarian Type-Text

·         MSS have readings found in the Alexandrian MSS

·         MSS have readings found among the Byzantine MSS

·         MSS have readings unique to themselves, that is, not in any other text

Scribal Activity

Great variation in quality

·         MS1241 (at the beginning of Mark’s gospel)

·         Question of “misspelling”

Reading aloud and errors of hearing

·         Homophones (some words sound alike but mean something else)

·         Scribal fatigue

·         Colophons as a window

   Number of MSS

  Papyri 118 p67

  Majuscules 306 [067]

  Minuscules 2,856 [67]

  Lectionaries 2,403 [I67] (L67)

  Total 5,683

More than 2000 have to do with the Gospels. Paul is second with more than 700, Acts and the General Epistles follow next then Revelation.

We do not allow our theology to determine what the MSS say. We start with the MSS and end up with theology –not vice versa.

How many Variants? Most textual variants do not change the meaning of the text.

Varieties of Unintentional Textual Variants

Errors of the ear –Itacism

ü  Vowel sounds

ü  English examples: there and their. To, too and two

ü  Greek examples: Romans 5:1.

ü  Greek vowel That Sound Alike

Short E sound (bed) E ai

Long E sound (bee) I n u, ei oi ui

Long O sound (boat) o w

Errors of the eye –Parablepsis

ü  “Eye Skip” –the scribe in copying skips over some part of the text and does not copy it.

ü  Homoioteleuton –“same ending of the line” type of Parablepsis Matthew 5:19

ü  Homoioarcton –“same beginning of the line” type of Parablepsis John 16:23-24

ü  Haplography –Dropping out of letters/words. 1 Thessalonians 2:7

ü  Dittography –dubbling letters/words –the same word or letter repeated. Acts 19:34

ü  Errors due to eyesight –confusion of letters.

Errors of the Mind

ü  Substitituion of synonym (was it intentional? May be used for literary artistry)

Syriac Versions

• Tatian’s Diatessaron

• Four Gospels combined into one narrative

• Early church rejected it - didn’t want one but four unique stories