Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-05-22
EARLY COPIES OF THE BIBLE
Ways in which the Sacred Words
Have Been Handed Down.
Ancient Manuscripts and Where They
Are Treasured Remarkable Discov-
cry Of Codex Sinaiticus-The Co.
dex Vaticanus Carefully
Guarded-A Forgery
Sensation.

One of the most important and most in
tcrestng religious publications of recent
years is "Our Bible and the Ancient Manu-
scripts" by Frederic G.. Kanyon, M. A.,
being history of the text and its trans
1ations. tracing the manner in which the
words Of the sacred books have been hand
cd down to us from the time when they
were first written in the original Hebrew
or Creek. to their appearance In the Eng
lish Revised Version of to-day.
Nowadays. when an author writes n
book he sends it to the printer from
" hom he receives proofsheets, and he cor
reefs the proofsheets until he Is satisfied
that 1t is printed accurately, and then hum
drcds or thousands of copies, as the case
may be- are struck off from the same
types and distributed to the world. Each
one of these copies is exactly like the rest,
and there can be no varieties of readings.
But before the invention OF printing this
was far from being the case. Each sep
arate copy Of book had to be written by
hand; ana the human hand and brain
have not yet been created which could
copy the whole of Il long work absolutely
without error. Often (and this was doubt
less especially the case in the early days
Of the Christian church. when 1t was n
poor, half-oducated ard prosecuted body),
copies were made hurriedy and without
opportunity for minute revision. Mistakes
were certain to creep in: and. when once
In existence, they were certain to increase
ae fresh copies were made from manu-
scrints already faulty. If the original
manuscripts OF the sacred book were still
preserved, the errors of later copies would
he to us now a matter of Indifference. but.
since the original manuscripts persisted
long ago, We have to try to arrive at their
contents by a comparison of later cop
les. all of which are more or less faulty.
oil t1,.,. Nj
Is the problem of textual criticism. and
II will he seen that its sphere Is large.
Printing was invented in 1454 about A. )
centuries ago, but for all the centuries
oefore that date. books existed only IN
handwritten copies. which were called
manuscripts from the Latin manuscript
tum, written by hand often abbreviated
rs M. So Thus it will be clear that tho
existence of differences of reading in many
passages of the Bible as we have to-day
IS due to the mistakes made in copying
Them by hand during the many centuries
that elapsed between the composition CT
the books and the invention of printing
From the fact that each time II fresh
copy is made some new mistakes will
probably be introduced while only the
most obvious blunders in the manuscript
will be corrected, it may be stated as Il
general rule that the earlier a manuscript
is the better is its text likely TO be.
having long ago disappeared. the problem
Of the teXtual critic is to reconstruct the
I"xt of he originals by comparison of
the later copies which have come down
10 us.
Several of the TRANSACTIONS of the Bible
such AS the Samaritan and Greek versions
of the Old Testament, the Syriac and Lat
In versions of the New-were made Mt n
much earlier date than that at which any
of the manuscripts which we now possess
of the original Hebrew and Greek were
written. The oldest manuscript of tho
Greek New Testament now in existence
was written about A. u. $50 but the ear
Hest Syriac and Latin TRANSACTIONS of the
New Testament were made somewhere
about a. y. $50
TIL" earliest direct evidence which we
posses as to the text current among the
Jews themselves is that provided by the
TarEuins, or paraphrases of the scriptures
into the Aramatic dialect. After their re-
turn from the captivity the Jews grad
ually adopted this language T., tongue
closely related to Hebrew, being a kindred
branch of the same Semitic family of
speech, sometimes called, as in an, mar
;,ins of our Bibles. Chaldce), ard ~ be-
came thenceforth the current LANGUAGE Of
ordinary life. 1t was the Language Of or
binary life 1t was the language common
~ spoken in Judea at the time OF our
Lords life on earth. Meanwhile the an
Client Hebrew remained as the language
in which the sacred books We're written.
being studied and preserved by the cdu-
Gated and literary class among the Jews
but becoming continually less familiar 10
the common folk. Hence arose the rcces-
sity of paraphrasng the scriptures into
the current Aranmatic tongue.
The period of the rargumS Is OVerlapped
by that of the Talmud. While the Tar
Eumists paraphrased the Hebrew text. the
scholars known as the TalmudiSts eX-
planned and commented on il. The fact
that in ancient Hebrew writing the yoWels
were entirely omitted led 10 the occurrence
of many words and phrases in which n
different sense could be obtained according
ms different vowels were supplied. Hence
plenty of scope was left to the ingenuity
Of the Talmudists, who gradually accu-
mulatcd a mass Of tradition concerning
the proper reading and explanation of the
text.
The Talmudist period extends from
about A. d. 20 to 500. and is succeeded
by that Of the Massoretes, scholars who
set themselves to sift out from the mass
or the Talmud the traditions which bore
ON the text Of the sacred books Tho Mas
eorctes numbered the verses, words and
letters OF every book. They calculated the
middle word and middle letter of each
Thoy enumerated verses which contained
All tho letters of the alphabet. or a certain
hummer OF them, and so on. These tri-
'ialites had yet the effect of securing min
ute attention to the precise transmission
or the text. and were an excessive mani
1oStatlon of respect for the sacred scriy-
lures The Massoretes were, indeed aux-
,ous that not one jot or tittlo-not one
smallest letter nor one tiny part of letter
--ot the law should pass away or be lost
The Importance of the Massoretic edi-
ton to us lies In the fact that It is still
the standard text Of the Hebrew Bible. All
the extant manuscripts OF the Hebrew Old
Testament contain substantially a Mas
sorctic text. When once that revision was
completed, such precautions were taken
to secure its preservation, to the exclusion
OF any other form of text, as to make 1t
certain that the text has been handed
down TO us, not indeed, without any er.
rors or variations, but without essential
corruption.
The version of the Old Testament which
possesses the longest pedigree is that
which owes its existence to the Samaritans
Strictly speaking, it is not version ut
all, as IT is in the Hebrew tongue. though
written in Il different character from that
of the cXtant Hebrew MSS. No manu-
script of the Samaritan Bible, so far as
known, Is older than the 18th century
After the submission of Egypt to Alex
ander the Great and the introduction of
Greek settlers under Ptolemy, his lieuten-
ant, Alexandria became the Headquarters
alike of the commerce and the literature
of the cast. It's population, mainly Greek
included also a large colony of Jews
rGak hnna mo tto La.