New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-26
BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS.
THE NEW CAEsAREA CODEX AND SOME
OTHvRS


teresing account of his attempt TO secure Tor 'he
United States the fine manuscript OF the dospcis
that recently discovered In little village III
Asia Minor, near Cacsarea. together win descr'p-
ton OF the manuscript itself 1t Is not. perhaps. OK
actly accurate to say that the manuscript has been
discovered for the church and village authorizes 10
whom it belonged have always been aware OF It's
existence but until recently were utterly ignorant
OF Its great value fact bythe-way, that suggests
the existence OF other ancient writings. even more
valuable In out-of-the-way monasteres ana
churches OF the East.
1t on June %, 1892, that young Cap
padocian Greek called Professor Long, In
Consantnope, and placed In his hands for inspec-
ton a single velum leaf OF an ancient manuscript
of the Gospels lie explained that the leaf was part
Of volume that was the property Of village COM
munity in the district Of Caesarea. AS the COM
munity was poor, some Of the leading men thought
that they might be able TO sell at a good price this
old book, which had been in the parish church for
many years. and with the proceeds support village
school, Professor Long asked the young man TO
let him keep the leaf for two three days for ex-
animation. to which he readily consented. The re-
suit Of the examination convinced Professor Long
that the manuscript Of great antiquity and
very valuable When the young man returned.
therefore. he asked him II he authorized to SELL
| The young man was not. of course-such a simple
method OF business would be contrary TO all the
traditions Of the Orient. But he authorized TO
q
chaffering during which Professor Long was en-
abled. through the generosity Of j. s. Kennedy. OF
this city. to offer for the manuscript large sum.
proportionaey far exceeding that paid for the great
Sinaitic manuscript, discovered by Professor Ts-
chendorf In 1859 Under these circumstances he
naturally felt hopeful of getting the prize for this
country But he did not know until few weeks
ago that he had a powerful competitor, generally
understood to be the Car of Russia who finally
successful In securing It. While Professor Long
naturally regrets this outcome he feels confident
that the scholarship of the world vii, not lose any
thing by it. Il fully understand he says.
how the owners Of the one treasure would insist
| upon having the other TO place alongside Of IT, III
| the same lberality Is shown with this small codex
as was shown In the publication OF the great
Tlschendcrf manuscript the respectful thanks OF all
lovers of the sacred Word will be due to His Impe
rial Majesty the Car Of Russia. as the august
patron of the science OF Biblical criticism"
APPEARANCE OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Professor Long furnishes the following facts con-
! corning the manuscript. which he learned from
examination OF the sample leaf: 1t is OF the finest
and thinnest vellum in fact. thin what Is
called 'gold-beaters skin" and Is Of aolark red
| dish purple color There are said to be ls4 lSj
leaves altogether The size OF the page Is 90 by &c
centimetres. and OF the text q by 10 centimetres.
| in two columns Of sixteen lines each. the spaces
between the lines being the the height
OF the letters namely. six millimetres The letters
square. upright uncials. In silver. with the alb
brevlations OF the sacred name in gold The aver
age number OF letters in line Is ten. There are
no spaces between words clauses, and no punctu-
alton except occasional triangular mark on
level with the top OF the final letter OF word
similar mark Is used breathing in a few cases
In one instance II appears acute accent.
Initial iota has two dots. and initial upsilon one
dot The letters upsion and rho extend below the
line and their lower extremity Is bevelled of. Az
ter going into other minute peculiarities OF the
manuscript Professor Long says From the above
data | could 20 no other conclusion than
this that the old volume in the keeping OF ignorant
villagers and liable be destroyed by fire or by
rats or TO be carried of BY brigands, or 10 be
| gradually stolen leaf by leaf. as TO be used as
| a charm by ignorant people. Is a valuable codex OF
the holy Gospels not later than the sixth century
I consider 1t also very probable that 1t VIII prove
10 be the original from which the Is folos. known
az Codex y Purpureus have been stolen Those
| ak leaves in the Vatican. the four In the British
| Museum and the two in the Imperial Library in
| Vienna which were colated by Tischendort. were
| declared by him 10 be parts or one volume Upon
the testimony OF sakellar!on he added to them the
thirty-threc leaves found at Patmos, and called
rho whole codex y Purpureus. The resting -place
OF this old volume for very many years having been
near Capsarea Cappadoca. II can very easily De
tho source from which those forty-fve leaves were
carried off The question can easily be settled II
the contents ~ Codex are found also In this
volume then we have not the original OF Codex y,
but have a new Purple Codex or the same age
If not, indeed. older.
There are many intelligent people who have little
or no idea OF the way in which ancient books have
been preserved through the ages In the case or
! ordinary books. this ignorance works no serious
! harm But the Bible is not ordinary book; II Is
believed by most Christians to be divine revela-
/ ton an acceptance OF which. az such. is necessary
IN salvation They ought therefore. and especially
In this age OF critical research TO have some IN
tclgent understanding OF It's history so that they
will know what are the credentials or the voiume
! which they hold in their hands and look upon as
the literal word OF God. Everybody KNOWS OF
course that the English Bible is a translation from
the original Hebrew and Greek But everybody
docs NOT know that there IL copy In existence or
the Scriptures ting from the days or the Apostles
Tn the first and second centuries or the Nhris''a"
era the books OF the Bible were commonly written
| on papyrus with reed. But papyrus was very
| nar,sbab,e and no early copy OF the Bible has
| come down to us. except a small fragment OF ,he
First EpIstle the Corinthians The Oldest copies
~ the Scriptures are generally In quarto or snaiier
form and the material Is parchment. maze iro"
tho skins OF sheep goats. calves or asses OF 'eiu'"
made from the skins of very young calves OF othe'
animals As such writing material was expensive
| {, occaslonallv happened that manuscript was
partially erased and used a second time. ouch
| r,o,uscrin;s were called palimpsests. Cotton paper
hogan 70 be used in the tenth century ana hhe"
naner in the twelfth century. The Oldest MANU-
scr,nts we're written in capital letters whch were
called uncals from the fact that or's"a". '",'
| Dimensions were inch II was not uh'' inc
| .,h century that small letters began 10 be used
nh,ch were called Ourselves. because they were Wit
tsn in a running hand. instead OF being formed
separately. s,,.,s,o,
In the earliest manuscripts there was no division
~, words or sentences. except at the beginning oi
new paragraphs. Neither were there any ae'e
,ry a dot at the top OF the line to divide sem
,ences began to be used In the year ass Enthahus
Do.oor ~ Alexandria, issued copies OF PauTs
EnIstes divided into short lines. according TO the
sense He called this "stichedon grapheh' WIN"