The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-08-18
The Discovery of an Ancient
Manuscript of the Gospels.

The general feeling of scholars in re-
gard to manuscripts of ancient writers is,
that almost all has been discovered that
there is any hope of discovering This
feeling, however, has been happily disap-
pointed in several cases. The recent find
of a manuscript of Clemens Romanus and
other early ecclesiastical writer's in Con-
stantinople gave an agreeable surprise to
students of Church history. In no de
partment have such discoveries been
more surprising and more valuable than
those In connection with the New Tesla
ment Tischendorf, in his wanderings
among libraries in all parts of the world,
came upon many leaves of old New Tes-
lament manuscripts, and crowned his in
vestigatiors by unearthing in the Sinaitic
monastery the most complete manuscript
OF the New Testament in existence belong
ing to an early date This issuing of
trustworthy edition of the "Codex Vati-
canus In our age may also be deemed a
real discovery. In this way the two
manuscripts which will be held in future
as most valuable in determining the text
of the New Testament have become
known to scholars only within the last
twenty years, We have now to record
the discovery of another manuscript of
portion of the New Testament written at
a very early period The merit of the
discovery is due to two German scholars
V. Gebhardt and Adolf Harnach
whose edition of the Apostolic Fathers
has deservedly received the warmest
commentator. These scholars were en-
abled, through the munifcence of the
German Government and an endowment
attached to Leipzig University, to make
a journey in March of this year to South
ern Italy and Sicily, in which they re-
solved to search for manuscripts Their
attention was specially directed to notices
of a monastery at Rossano, near the Gulf
of Tarentum, in which important manu-
scripts were said once to have been.
They could find no traces of the mo-
mastery, but they heard that there was a
very old book preserved in the place of
the Archbishop of Rossano According
ly, they asked permission to see it, and
to their great JOY found that it was
very valuable manuscript of the Gospels
of st. Matthew and ST. Mark. They now
issue an account of it in volume lust
published, EU0ngeJioruna C0der GrdcalS
P~rpureuS RosSaaaeaSis Litte11S ArQenteis
sectO ut U1detaIr Scecatlo Scriptats pictatris-
que o171ataIS, seine -Entdeck1G7aq sem ais
se'a8chqtthcher md KnastIeriScher,W erth
dargestelH Voaa Oscar q. Ge6hardt ind
4doG Ha1mach. (Leipzig: Giesechc oG
DeU7ient)
The leaves of this manuscript are
made Of purple parchment, and the ma
terial used throughout in writing is sill
yer, except in the first three lines of each
gospel, where the letters are golden.
There is only one other manuscript of
this kind in existence containing any por-
ton of the New Testament, and it is in
mutiIated condition, four of its leaves
being in Lnodon, six in Rome, two in
Vienna, and thirty-three have been more
recently discovered in the island of Pat
mos. The present volume, on the other
hand, consists of 1873 leaves, and contains
the whole of the gospel Of st. Matthew
and the gospel of st. Mark down to the
middle Of the 18th verse of the 10Th
chapter. All the criteria used in iudg-
ing of manuscripts indicate the end of
the fifth or beginning of the sixth century
as the date OF this The manuscript is
written in uncial characters with two
columns in each page There is no sepa-
ration Of words, no breathing, no accent,
and only the slightest attempt at pune
tuation. There are capitals double the
size of the uncials, the Ammonium sections
are indicated, and the Eusebian canons
must have been given for it contains
portion of the letter of Eusebius to Car
Pianus and there is good reason for con-
occurring that this was followed by q
table Of the Eusebian canons The let
ters bear the closest resemblance to those
occurring in manuscripts Of the fifth and
sixth centuries.
The editors reserve their remarks on
the nature of the text till they publish it
in full All that they state now is, that
it bears a striking resemblance to that
found 10 the other manuscript of purple
parchment that it contains some UNIQUE
readings, and that it rather goes with
the later manuscripts where the Sinatic
and Vatican differ from them. Consider |
able interest attaches to this manuscript
from the circumstance that it contains a /
number Of painted miniatures illustrating |
the life of Christ. These are among the |
earliest works Of this kind that are extant.
The editors have prepared outlines of
them, and discuss their merits. The
subjects are the Resurrection of Lazarus