The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-05-25
Freer Collection of Gospel
Copies Are Marked by
Many Interesting Features.
Candle Grease Stains Cause
Speculation.

The painstaking pride of scholars of
| the older world. stories of devoted wise
men who guarded their treasures with
| their lives and suggestions OF monkish
cupidity and ignorance are all to be
read in the wonderful manuscript OF the
| Gospels which Charles L. Freer found
| in Egypt in 1876.
| To the scholar perhaps these things
| are OF less Importance than the biological
side of the manuscripts, but Prof. Henry
w. Sanders. of the University of Michi-
gan, hints at them in his book called
The New Testament Manuscripts in the
| Collection" which accompanies a fac
smile Of the manuscripts received re-
| Gently by the Union Theological Semi
nary.
Copies Of this book containing the
! reproduction Of the original manuscripts
| have been issued by the University Of
Michigan through the generosity Of Mr..
Freer.
Those who go TO the seminary library
| to see the beautiful reproduction of the
manuscript, including color reproduc-
tons Of the covers and pictures of four
evangelists, will be interested in viewing
| a set of l64 sheets of vdlum copies which
| the Rev. DIR. Newell dwight Hills, pas
| tor OF Plymouth Church. will place on
| exhibition at the church next Sunday.
I'll SATURDAY LII. VIII suO"
| these copies at the meeting of the
Brooklyn Clerical Union at the Mon
tank Club, and will read a paper describ-
ing them. The reproductions presented
here are two pages from the copy in Mr.
Hills possession, Mark XIV, IS; xvi, l,
and xxi, 1870.
One Man Accomplished Work.
Prof. Sanders, in his notes of explain
alton to the fac-simile volume received
by Union Theological Seminary. says
that the main part OF the manuscript
was written in the fourth century in
Egypt and that the same scribe did all
of the work with the exception of the
first sixteen pages of John. He remarks
that the text differs so decidedly in
various parts that We may infer that
the parent or some near ancestor was
made up of parts of different manu-
scripts
Prof, Sanders tells of the difficulties
that beset him in his study of the manu-
scripts. First of all, a working knowl-
edge of Syriac. Coptic, and Gothic was
necessary in making comparisons, and
the condition of the parchment itself
made the work one in which the scholar.
had often to turn detective.
The human story locked up in the age
Drowned pages is partly revealed by
Prof. Sanders He finds that the scribe
who did most of the work was some
thing of blunderer, but careful to cor
rect his mistakes. There are to be seen
seventy-eight places in which the scribe
corrected his own plumbers, using a full
round dot to delete letters. He never
drew line through a word, but carefully
placed his dots over each letter to in
dictate that the word or passage was to
be stricken out.
There are few erasures, and Prof
Sanders infers that the scribe. saw his
blunders quickly al times and then
washed or wiped of the still moist ink
from the smooth surface of the parch-
ment.
Blots Were Found.
On the first pages of each Of the gos-
pels Prof. Sanders noticed queer looking.
blots. He had a colleague In the univer-
sity's department Of chemistry made an
analysis and they decided that the blots
had been made by candle drippings. This,
together with the fact that bit of wool.
used by some reader centuries ago to keep
his place, was found in the manuscript,
leads Prof. Sanders to conclude that the
was kept for a time In some |
where the monks were shep- !
herds.
He believes that the parchment volume |
was hidden in some dark corner Of the |
place and that careless monk dropped |
candle grease on the pages while showing |
the treasure to visitors. The frequency
Of blots on the first pages of Matthew |
and John he explains by the suppcs;tion |
that usually only the first pages were !
shown. More curious or distinguished |
guests were allowed TO examine the manu- /
script more at length. and this. he thinks, |
explains the scattered blots found in other |
portions Of the gospels.
The edges Of the leaves Of the manu- i
script are very brittle and from This Prof |
Sanders draws the conclusion that they |
we're baked by sand and sun for many /
years. That was probably long before I
they became the property of the sheep !