Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-06-18

had its scriptorium, or copying4roUm,
and its scribes, who gave their time reg
ularly and industriously to an employ
ment better suited than any other that
can be imagined to the rules and usages
of monastic life. The churches, libra
ries and converts of Asia Minor, the
islands of the Egean and Eastern Medi-
terranean were rife with copyists. The
multitude of religious establishments on
the sides of Mount Athos, the monas-
teries of the Morea, Calabria, Western
Europe and the British Islands contrib
ute large numbers of manuscripts.
During the last century extensive ex-
plorations were made throughout Eu.
rope and the East in these old monas-
teries, and the collections have been
large and invaluable. Undoubtedly
many important Scripture manuscripts
remain undiscovered, or are inaecessi-
BILE because of the unwillingness of their
present owners to part with them.
OF late European scholars have found
far more difficulty in purchasing Scrip
ture manuscripts from Eastern CON
vents than formerly The monks,
though unable to use them, have n SUI.
perstitious reluctance to parting with
them, which is probably stimulated by
the evident desire of scholars to secure
these decaying books and place them on
the safer and more useful shelves of
European libraries.
At Cairo, in the library of the patri-
arch of Alexandria, there are FIVE copies
of the Gospels, ranging from six hun
bred to nine hundred years in age, with
three copies of the Acts and Epistles.
The patriarch of Jerusalem has at least
seven ancient manuscripts of the Cos
pels. In the monastery of the Holy
Sepulcher, at jerusalem, there, are,
known to be at least twenty-four copies
of different portions of the New Tesla
ment.
The gloomy convent of Mao Saba lies
in wild and rocky ravine between
Jerusalem and the Dead Sea- This
strange group of buildings is placed in a
, situation of singular grandeur, clinging
to the steep sides of the precipices,
springing from the sharp points of the
. rocks and connected bv a labyrinth of
J covered galleries and narrow stairways.
, The deep chasm below, down into which
the buildings seem about to plunge, is
shrouded in gloom. The massive and
: heavily buttressed walls are surmounted
by a stately square tower commanding
the strong iron gate which is the princi-
/ pal entrance.
The large dome of the church, which
is very solidly built, rises from the point
of the rock. Within the church tray
eler who was there forty years ago climb
ed a rickety ladder rising about ten feet
9 to small door, which opened into a
square closet followed out from one OF
= the great buttresses supporting the walls.
,, This was the library. He found there
! about thousand old manuscript books,
1 many enormous folios, a copy of the first
. eight books of the Old Testament, and a
q Bulgarian volume in ancient letters.
+, Since then visitors have experienced
great difficulty in getting permission tC
q see the library. tits, however, known
. that the monks hold at leasttwenty- three
manuscripts of portions of the Bible
: some of them nearly thousand year,
: old. They are in wretched keeping and
u condition, some of them falling into rap
II id decay in the old lumber-room, mis-
) called the tower library, But they arr
a tenaciously retained and left to fade anC
: pass away untouched by their presen
/ keepers.
|. The little island of Patmos, rugged
II and bare, rises to commanding heigh
s. at its southern end, which is crowned b,
IL the celebrated monastery of "St. Johl
s. the Divine" Here was once great Ii
IS brary, which contained until lately owe
n GOO more or less valuable manuscripts
OF these only about 200 remain, anon.
II them five ancient Gospels, two copies o
3 the Acts and Epistles, one of the Apoca
IS lypse, and a number of Interesting Gree
Is Church service books dating variousl
81 between the tenth and fourteenth centu
4 ries. The patriarch of Jerusalem, a
&c Constantinople, has at least seven. an
cent Gospels, some of which were one
s. brought to England by Mr.. Carlyle, bu
r had to be restored in 1917. There ar
s. known to be over two hundred of thes
We antique Bible manuscripts in the differ
De ent Oriental monasteries of Turkey
W The number of the Christian ScriE
y, lures transmitted to us by the industr
o~ of these ancient copyists is remarkabl,
20 Notwithstanding the vast mass of ScriI
~ ~ ture manuscripts which have persisted
b 9o and without considering those yet to b
ho recovered from unexplored localitie
~ we have many more ancient copies
" the Bible in Greek than of all I'll
~ writers of classical antiquity togethe
y A law of the Jewish Talmud, comman,
~ ing the destruction of any synagogr
10 roll as soon as it became torn or impe
bo feet through age, has deprived us of II
nc brew copies of the Old Testament Old
eS than the tenth century. But we ha,
~ two Greek Bibles, undoubtedly copit
ross more than fifteen hundred years ag
~ and several written within n centul
~ later. From that time the number
~ a our copies increases so rapidly that thu
~ are counted first by scores then. by hl
M, dreds.
.sh The libraries of Europe now conta
~ nearly two thousand ancient copies
' Ho the Bible, entire or fragmentary. =
49,. .ln these more than hundred are writ,
,TTS in the antique uncial letters. Everyye
Wy adds to the number by its new gain
eu Since the wonderful discovery of 4
nna Sinai Bible, by Tischendorf, we m
~ well suppose that other copies of Scri
- - 7vr0try7 Tr7TT
ga
tlv Business Before Pleasure.