The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-06-30
How the New Testament was
Found and Translated.

We shall not here discuss the vexed
question touching the date at which
the several documents contained IN the
New Testament canon were m
to writing. II is tru that the ques-
zion has an important bearing on ne
value of the oldest Greek manuscripts.
as compared with the Latin translation
known "a the Nulgate. and with the
,SyrIac version called the Peshito. Such
and inquiry must he waived. however,
both hectu,c il would carry Us too far.
aud because 1t belong, more property
to the story Of the Councils, tich
formed the cdnnn a. II now exists. ana
aft med the Authenticity and author
ship Of the com .usitIpn~ embraced III
il. For our pr, sent pIfppse, 1t i
enough oeay hat ~ ry a OF the can
onical Writings must hive been In eXi-
tence at least Crptufy before the old
est Greek manusS'ip, now eAtaut WIS
transcribed by The c'pNIst. Not o1e
of the documents. tnolrf-rc. which XIII
tie the characters formed by the hand
Of apostle Or evangelist, or taken down
from his lips by IN ~atnauuensls, Is
known to have survived. Everything
that We hav,: is Il copy, and copies, oil
course. differ in valGe according as they
have been taken at Lr,t or second or
tenth hand.
1t has been estimated that there are
more than two thousand manuscripts
containing IL New Testament or parts
of it. scattered among the great libra
RES Of Christcndom. They arc divided
into two classes according To the man
ntr in which they are written. Inc
term ulcial from unclt, an inch, he
caus, the e ter. ave sometimes ali men
LONG, is gwen to those codIces whose
characters are OF tbs same size ana al
CAPITALS. and which are written. Tor the
most part, without breaks or stops.
This method of writing, which employ
el capital letters throughout. which lett
no space between words, and introduc
ed scarcely any distinction at the be
ginning of sentences, was practlsed
for many centuries after the Christian
era. Gradually j character of larger
size would be inserted TO mark The De
ginning of a sentence; subsequently!
spaces bet wcen the words began to APP
pear. and me whole text was punctua-
led with more or less accuracy. The
final change in the process o. chrogra
phy was effected 10y sllnting and CON
II, citing the letters. which could Their
be transcribed more rapidly, or, as we
now say, in Il running hand IL was
not until after the tenth century that
the unclal scheme of writing began 20
be extensively superseded bV the run
ing or cursive mode. Speaking gene
rally, then, we may regard the curslve
as of much less authority than the un
cial manuscripts, being so much further
removed in date from the original com
positions.
SiXty-four uncial manuscripts relating
to the New Testament have been tabu-
lated by Biblical scholars, tifty-seven
of which contain the Gospel, or parts
of them. Some of these u%ncials, how
ever, are the merest fragments, one
comprising but six leaves, and another
containing but SIX verses. There IS
but one uncial manuscript which con
tains the entire New Testament. OF
the cursive manuscripts, on the other
hand, 623 present the gospals, 232 the
Acts and General Epistles of St. Paul.
The Book of Revelations is found in
only ) uncials and 100 Ourselves; only
80 manuscripts of all kinds (%unclal,
cursive, and intermediary contain all
of the canonical books.
The thee manuscripts of greatest
authority now known to scholars, are
the Alexand:ine, the Vatican, and the
SinaitiG. Then come the BeZa, and
the Ephraem, to which shOnld perhaps
be added the Rossanensis, discovered,
two years ago, at Rossano, in southern
Italy. If no early Latin, Syriac, or
Armenian versions were e~xtaut, and il
we had no means Of confirmation, OF
correction through citations Of the
Fathers-if, in other words, u teXtual
apparatus were made up of manuscripts
alone, we should be justified in affirm
ing that the concurrent volce OF these
five or six codices, if not of the first
three alone, would outweigh all the
other testimony that is forthcoming,
Now, when King James translation
was made only one Of these six, VIZ.
the codeX of BeZa, was accessible, and
curiously enough, it was turned to
slight account by any of editors who
prepared the tectaS receptaS. The mail
feature, therefore. in Mr. Merrill's
Story of the Manu-, cripts' is, very
properly, an account OF the great o II
dices above mentioned.
The A~lrxandrine manuscript, tech
~nicaily known rs Codex A. was the first
to be thoroughly studied 10y scholars for
the purpose of correcting the text OF
the New Testament. 1t is, however,
only the third III point of value and
antiquity, being outranked in both
respects by the vatican and Sinaitic
documents. The A~lexandrine manu-
script, which is now in the British
Museum, was presented to Charles l.,
in 1923 10y the Patriarch of CONSTANT
nople, who, according to his W aver
ment, had brought il from Egypt. but
who, according to II Of his d~eacons.
had obtained il at Mount Athos. 1t is
in four volumes, and the fourth con
tains the New Testament; not however
without many defects. 1t commences
with v. Is of the twenty fifth chapter
Of Matthew oniitS the equivalent of the
the two chapters Johns Gospel. ana
about eight chapters from the second
Epistles tothe Corinthians. Nor should
it be over looked that this manuscript
embraces W. documents no longer in
Guided i'll the canon 10 wit. the Epistl,
of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians.
and part OF another ep:stle whose au
thor>hip is doubtful. This codex IS
written upon vellum, and The letters.
which, of course, are %uncial, are roundeI
and larger than those in the Vatican
codex to lie presently noticed. Their,
Is no space between the words, nor are
there any accents or spirares, but here