Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1881-07-07
How the New Testament was
Found and Translated.

vexed question touching the date
at which the several documents
contained in the New Testament
canon were committed to writing.
1t is true that the question has an
important bearing on the value of
the oldest Greek manuscripts. as
compared with the Latin transla>
ton known as the Vulgate, and
with the Svriac version called the
Peshito. Such an inquiry must be
waived, however, both because it
would carry US too far, and because
it belongs more properly to the
story Of the Councils, which
formed the canon as it now exists,
and affirmed the authenticity and
authorship of the compositions en-
braced IN it. For our present pur-
pose, it is enough to say that every
one of the canonical writings must
have been in existence at least a
century before the Oldest Greek
manuscript now extant was tran>
scribe6 by the copxist. Not one
Of the documents, therefore, which
exhibited the characters formed by
the'hand of apostle or evangelist,
or taken down from his lips by an
amanuensis, is known to have sur
vived. Everything that we have
is a copy, and copies, of course,
differ in value according as they
have been taken at first or second
or tenth hand.
1t has been estimated that there
are more than two thousand man =
uscripts containing the New Tes-
lament or parts of it, scattered
among the great libraries of Chris
tendon. They are divided into two
classes according to the manner in
which they are written. The term
unical (from unica, an inch, be
cause the letters are sometimes an
inch long) is given to those codices
whose characters arc OF the same
size and all capitals, and which are
written, for the most part, without
breaks or stops. This method of
writing, which employed capital
letters throughout, which left no
space between words, and intro
duced scarcely any distinction at
the beginning Of sentences, was
practiced for many centuries after
the Christian era. Gradually q
character Of larger size would be
inserted to mark the beginning Of
a sentence subsequently spaces
between the words began to ap-
pear, and the whole text was pune.
tuated with more or less accuracy.
The final change in the process Of
chrography was effected by slant
ing and connecting the letters
which could then be Transcribed
more rapidly, or, as we now say
in running hand. 1t was not un
Ill after the tenth century that the
unical scheme Of writing began te
be extensively superseded by the
the running or cursive mode
Speaking generally, then, we re
gard the cursive as Of much les
authority than the unical manu-
scripts, being SO much further re.
moved in date from the origiua
compositions.
Sixty-four unical composition
relating to the New Festamen
! have been tabulated by Bibles
scholars, ffty-seven of which con
tain the Gospel, or parts Of then
Some of these unicals, however
are the merest fragments, one com
prising but six leaves, and anothe
containing but six verses. Thel
is but one unical manuscript whic
contains the entire New Testamen
Of the cursive manuscripts, on tt
other hand, 623 present the gospel
y. 232 the Acts and General Epistl
Of st. Paul. The Book of Revt
lations is found in only 5 unica
and 1O5 cursives only 80 man,
scripts of all kinds (unical. cursiv
. and intermediate) contain all Il
+! canonical books.
The three manuscripts
greatest authority now known
scholars, are the Alexandrine. t
Vatican, and the Sinaitic. Th
comes the Beza, and the Ephrae
to which should perhaps be add
the Rossanensis, discovered t,
years ago, at Rcssano, in southe
Italy. If NO early Latin, Syris
,r or American versions were extal
VI and if we had no means of conf
nation, Or corrections through : {
tations of the Fathers if, no OF
er words, cur textual appara1
we're made up of manuscri]
alone, we should be justified
ith affirming that the concurrent vo
ain- of these five or six codices, if I
ns of the first three alone, would Q,
weigh all the other testimony tt
a. is forthcoming. Now, when Hi
James translation was made OF
one of these six, viz: the codex
asar 'onr Beza, was accessible, and curious
nth enough, it was turned to slight
ane count by any Of the editors W
prepared the tentus recepta1s. I
an.e ,ase main feature, therefore, in \