ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2036, 25 July 1885, Page 4

ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Thk style of writing indicates the age of manuscripts. Recently certain manuscripts recowreri fioin the ruins of Herculniiemn have been unrolled and de ciphered with the utmost care, and fifteen folio volumes of them lia\ c been pub lifted. Now we know that Herculaneum aiid Pompeii were overwhelmed in the year a.d. 71) by an eruption of Vesuvius ; htneo there caii be no dispute in regard to the age of the manuscripts rescued from these nuns. They must be more than ISOO years old. But these maim sciijiU ii 1 1 written in " uncial" letters, vei^ in, iily liscnil.ling tlieletteis used in those maiuiicupt copies of the Now Test \iiK_ut which haw been universally csttuiKd tin most ancient. This stjlc of letteis has not been used for centuries, hence the antiquity of these manuscripts is pio\ed bejond a possibility of dispute. Among the " uncial" manuscripts live are generally distinguished from the rest as of pnmaiy impoi tano<\ Of these, the Aloxandriin Known as (%le\ A, was 01 iginally discovered at Alexandua and was sent to King Ch tiles I, in KiJS, seventeen yeirs atter KingJaim-s' \eision w.is punted. It is now in the Butish Museum. The style of the letters mdi cates that this manuscript is of great antiquity, and its date is fixed by cuties at about a.d 4.30 It is much mutilated — twenty-four chapters of the first Gospel, two of the fourth, and eight of one of the Epistles being missing. Code* B, m the Vatican Library at Rome, supposed to have been written a.d 300 and ad. 400 is said to bo the oldest vellum manuscript known. This was not allowed to be copied till 1863, » hen an edition was issued in fac simile type, representing it line for lme'and letter for letter. The condition of this is much more perfect. A third manusciipt is in the National Libiaiy at Pans, wliithei it was biouyht by Catherine de Medici. Tins is called a "palimpsest," from a Greek word which signifies to rub or scrape again — applied to a parchment from which one writing had been eiasrd to make room for another. This unnuseiipt h known as the " Codex- Ephra?mi " Parchment being scarce and \alunble in the twelfth century, the original writing was sponged off, and some productions of Ephr.em Syrus written in its stead. Nothwithstanding this, by the careful application of chemicals, the eailiei writing has been brought out again, so that the original manuscript has now been deciphered This manusciipt is assigned to the early part of the fifth century. The fouith manuscript is Codex Bezie, in the Public Libiaiy of the University of Cambridge, it having been presented by Theodoic Be/.a in 1,181. This is the least valuable, as it is quite incomplete. It belongs to the sixth eentuiy. The Codex Alepli, found February 4th, 1870, in the Convent of St. Cithanne, near Mount Sin.ii, by Tischendorf, and published by him m ISG2, is the most \ .ilualile m the h\e, au it contains the New Testament complete. This is judged to base been written between a.d. 200 and y d, 4UO ; and hundreds of cm lections which cntics had piexiously made in the tuxt by comparing other maniibcnpts have been continued by this ancient and independent witness, which had lain for ages in the library in that eastern monasteiy. To these may lie added, as specially valuable, Codex Glaioinontanus, of the sixth eentuiy, which contains the Epistles of Paul. This was used by Be/a in 1.382, and is deposited iv the National Libiaiy at Pans. These mannscupts carry U 3 back very near the apostles' days ; for they might easily have been copied fioni the originals, or from manuscripts that have boon copied from them ; and by comparing these with the hundreds of other manuscripts, kctionaries, quotations, and ancient tianalations, it is not difficult to asceitain whether the New Testament Books have been seriously coirupted in being handed down to our times. Of course, any coiruptiuns or mistakes which ha\c oeeinied dining the last 1,.">00 ycais are excluded at the outset by the fact that we have manusctipts that date back as far as that ; and if these manuscripts, old as they aie. ha\c euois, they also may in raro instances be corrected from later manuscript*, which may have been copied from manuscripts older than any which aie yet discovered. — Cluistian Aue.

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