New Testament Autographs 9781463221416

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New Testament Autographs

A n a l e c t a Gorgiana

311 Series Editor George Kiraz

Analecta Gorgiana is a collection of long essays and

short

monographs which are consistently cited by modern scholars but previously difficult to find because of their original appearance in obscure publications. Carefully selected by a team of scholars based on their relevance to modern scholarship, these essays can now be fully utili2ed by scholars and proudly owned by libraries.

New Testament Autographs

J. Rendel Harris

1 gorgia* press 2009

Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2009 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2009

1

ISBN 978-1-60724-543-8

ISSN 1935-6854

Extract from The American Journal of Philology, vol. 3 (1882).

Printed in the LTnited States of America

NEW TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

A. i . In the course of the first lecture, which I had the honor of delivering in this University, on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, I pointed out that the material of the second and third Epistles of St. John was probably a sheet or series of sheets of papyrus ; and not only so, but that in the two documents mentioned, the sheet of paper was of a given size, capable of holding a given quantity of uncials. T h e first of these statements was based upon the allusion which the writer makes to paper, pen, and ink (Sia Xaprov Kai ¡ie\avos,

I I I o l i n . 1 2 ; 8ia peXavos Kal Ka\iifioi::

I I I J o h n . 1 3 ) ,'

while the second statement was an inference from the equality in the contents of the two Epistles, which in Westcott and Hort's edition of the New Testament occupy twenty-nine lines of type apiece, and from the evidence that in each case the writer had completely filled the sheet on which he was writing, since he complains of the ins u f f i c i e n c y o f h i s w r i t i n g m a t e r i a l s (noXka %xaiv vfuv ypaeiv, iraXka elxov

ypayjsai aoi). From this point we are led to the enquiry as to the usual size of the sheets of paper employed in the New Testament documents, and the number employed in the autographs of the several books. 2. In order to make the enquiry carefully, we will first tabulate the number of columns and lines occupied by the uncial letters of the separate texts, as they are presented in the oldest known manuscripts. W e begin, then, with the Vatican Codex, B. This manuscript is written in columns, three to the page, and each column contains 42 lines of uncial writing. Omitting the Epistle to the Hebrews, the latter part of which is in a later cursive hand, and the Apocalypse which is also supplied in cursive character, 1 we construct the following table: 1 Scrivener adds the Pastoral Epistles (Introduction, p. 96), apparently following Cardinal Mai, but I can find no trace of them in the Roman edition. T h e Palaeographical Society,in the description accompanying their facsimile, follow Scrivener.

2

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

T a b l e I. Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans I Corinthians I I Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians I Thessalonians I I Thessalonians James I Peter I I Peter I John II John III John Jude

Columns 127 77 136 97 130 49 46 31 15 16 11 11 10 5 12 12 8 13 1 1 3

Lines

Total Lines

9 31 41 6

5343 3265 5753 4080

3 16 6 28 27 22 0

5463 2074

15 28

477 448

34 26

244 530 534 368

1938 1330 657 694 462

30 32 27 27 27 27

573 69 69 153

T h e first thing that strikes us on examining this table is that the compositions do not end, as one might suppose, at different points of the page according to random distribution, but they show a preference for ending at particular points, and especially at the 27th line. Out of the 21 documents cited, five end on the 27th line of the page, two on the 28th and one on the 26th. This is very remarkable. 3. If the compositions were of arbitrary length, the probability that five out of the twenty-one should end on the same particular line is small indeed. Unless I am mistaken, it would be represented b y the fraction 21.20.19.18.17 ( / ' l l Y 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 ' \42 J ' \ 4 2 /

6

which is evidently much less than 1 . 8 . 8 . 1 . t • r2 or ¿ 5 . W e m a y be sure then that the odds are at least four thousand to one against such a conjunction of endings being the w o r k of chance.

NEW

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AUTOGRAPHS.

3

It is evident that the eight compositions alluded to, viz. I I Corinthians, Galatians, I Thessalonians, James, the three Epistles of John, and J u d e , are each written on an integral number of sheets of a given size ; and further, this sheet of given size must bear a peculiar relation both to the whole column of the Vatican C o d e x consisting of 42 lines, and to the fractional column of 27 lines ; for, otherwise, it would not be possible for documents of different length, even though written on sheets of given size, to end at the same place on the Vatican page. If we allow a line for the subscription of those Epistles which end at the 27th line, we have to seek a submultiple of 28 and 42 ; and we at once see that 14 lines of the Vatican Codex bears some multiple proportion to the size of a page of the original writing, and in all probability, in the cases referred to, we may say that 14 lines of the Vatican C o d e x represents exactly the page of the autograph, the only submultiples of 1 4 being 7 and 2. This provides us with a unit upon which to base our calculations, which for convenience we will denominate a V - p a g e . 4. W e see, then, that of the Epistles especially referred to, I I Corinthians Galatians I Thessalonians James I John

= = = =

95 47 32 38 41

V - p a g e s exactly. V-pages, wanting one line. V-pages exactly. V-pages, wanting two lines. V-pages, wanting one line.

5 V-pages, wanting one line. Jude

1 1 V-pages, wanting one line.

With regard to these conclusions, the single line left blank in the letter is probably left for subscription ; in the case of the Epistle to the Galatians we have the additional explanation that there was a sentence in it written in large letters by the Apostle Paul's own hand, and when this sentence is copied there is a slight contraction in the copy as compared with the original. W i t h regard to St. James, we find two lines wanting; either, therefore, his handwriting is larger than ordinary, or we may assume that he actually left a somewhat larger blank space than was usual with the other writers, who evidently economized every inch of paper. T h e sheet of paper, too, is noticeably a small one ; it is only capable of containing 14 lines of average length, about 17 letters e a c h : this also is explicable by the supposition of economy, for the cost of a sheet of papyrus increases with the size of a sheet, but

4

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AUTOGRAPHS.

in a m u c h greater ratio than the sheet, on account of the difficulty o f finding plants or reeds of a v e r y great length and section. We can see, then, that the cheapest paper is used, and no space s p a r e d . N o w turn to the table again, and observing that our manuscriptunit is fourteen lines of the V a t i c a n C o d e x , w e see that in the autograph Philippians = 33 V - p a g e s e x a c t l y . W e come, then, to a g r o u p of three Epistles which run slightly o v e r an exact number of p a g e s ; thus : R o m a n s occupies 148 V - p a g e s and two lines. Colossians 33 V - p a g e s and one line. I Peter 38 V - p a g e s and two lines. W i t h regard to the Epistle to the R o m a n s , it is not inconceivable that in 148 p a g e s the c o p y should h a v e gained t w o lines on the a u t o g r a p h ; the study of the Epistle is, however, complicated b y the existence of important various readings, and b y the doubtful character of its concluding portion, w h i c h seems rather to be addressed to an Ephesian than a R o m a n community, and b y the questionable authenticity of its d o x o l o g i e s . W e content ourselves, for the present, b y s a y i n g that the Epistle, as it stands in C o d e x B, probably represents 148 p a g e s of the autograph. W i t h regard to the Epistle to the Colossians the question is m o r e simple, as the d o c u m e n t is shorter. F o u r lines of this Epistle, at least, are from the hand of Paul himself, and would therefore be in larger characters than u s u a l ; this would m a k e the original d o c u m e n t l o n g e r than 33 V - p a g e s and one line. Either, therefore, the greater part of a p a g e was left blank, which is u n l i k e l y ; or C o d e x B has inserted w o r d s in the text, or the amanuensis of Paul ( T y c h i c u s , O n e s i m u s ?) must h a v e written a smaller hand than was normal. W e leave the matter for the present undecided. Similar r e m a r k s will apply to the 1st Epistle of Peter. W e annex the 2d Epistle of John, as w e imagine it to h a v e stood on the original sheets. W h e n w e turn to the G o s p e l s w e h a v e a m u c h m o r e difficult question to examine, on account of the multitude of various readings. W e shall s i m p l y r e m a r k that the Gospel of L u k e , in C o d e x B , is within a line of the end of a column, so that L u k e = 4 1 1 V - p a g e s , wanting a single line.

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AUTOGRAPHS.

5

In the G o s p e l of St. John, if w e omit the last verse, w e find, ourselves at the end of a p a g e , and John = 291 V - p a g e s exactly. It will have been noticed that the number of V - p a g e s occupied b y the documents discussed is more often o d d than even, w h i c h is more consistent with the hypothesis of p a p y r u s sheets written on one side only, than with the supposition of a material capable of being written on both sides. 1 5. W e shall now turn our attention to the Sinaitic C o d e x , which is written in columns, four to each p a g e , and in lines, 48 to each column. 2 T h e difficulty in this case will arise from the fact that the lines of the text are not nearly so uniform as in the C o d e x Vaticanus, and in the first two G o s p e l s in particular the text is b r o k e n up into paragraphs, and the recurrence of short lines, unless it be a genealogical feature of the successive M S , will prevent us from tracing the structure of the original documents. W e proceed, however, to form our second table, constructed in the same w a y as the previous one, and containing a larger collection of books. T h e lines in this manuscript are shorter than in B, b y several letters. 1

T h e more d e l i c a t e p a p y r i are quite unsuited to the r e c e p t i o n of w r i t i n g

on b o t h s i d e s : that s p e c i e s , in particular, w h i c h was held in the

highest

R o m a n estimation, and h o n o r e d with the n a m e of A u g u s t u s , w a s so fine as to be a l m o s t transparent, so that its e x t r e m e tenuity came to be r e g a r d e d as a defect. F o r a d o c u m e n t to be written on b o t h s i d e s s e e m s to be a m a r k of the p o v e r t y of the writer or the o v e r - p r o d u c t i v e n e s s of his b r a i n : thus w e find in J u v e n a l I 5 : " S u m m a pleni j a m m a r g i n e libri S c r i p t u s et in t e r g o , n e c d u m finitus O r e s t e s . " L u c i a n , V i t . A u c t . 9, r e p r e s e n t s D i o g e n e s as s a y i n g ft tti/pa (it mt 06p/tuv

EOTU aearr/ no! OTTiadoypd^Giv ;j';j'/i(jt!. S c r i p t u r e students will call to mind an illustration of a s i m i l a r k i n d in the A p o c a l y p s e , w h e r e the p l e n i t u d e of c o m i n g j u d g m e n t s and tribulations is r e p r e s e n t e d by a b o o k or paper-roll written b o t h outside and inside ( R e v . V 1). 2 T h i s is not always true ; in the Catholic epistles the scribe has frequently contented himself with a column of 47 lines. I do not k n o w whether this peculiarity has ever been noted. Scrivener, in his collation of the Sinaitic M S , does not seem to allude to it. Our results, as given in the table, must be corrected for the aberration of the scribe, w h e n we come to analyse the documents more closely.

6

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AUTOGRAPHS.

T a b l e II. Columns

Lines

Total Lines

Matthew

139

I

6672

Mark Luke John Acts Romans I Corinthians II Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians I Thessalonians II Thessalonians Hebrews I Timothy II Timothy Titus Philemon James I Peter II Peter I John II John III John Jude Revelation Barnabas

85 149 107 146 53 5i 35 16 18 12 12 11 6 40

4 24 35 10 6 12 6 45 5 9 13 21

4084 7176

Three letters only in the residual line.

13 10 5 2 13 14 9 15 1 1 4 68 53

3 24 40 3 37 24 33 9 24 12 39 39 6 12 18

5J7i 7018 255° 2460 1686 813 869 585 589 549 291 1944 664 483 277 120 657 681 456 732 87 87 198 3276 2562

The first thing we notice is that the distribution of the concluding lines of the books is much more varied and irregular. The only thing that is remarkable is the recurrence of the multiples of twelve; three books end at the twelfth line, viz. I Corinthians, I John, Revelation ; four end on the 24th line : Luke, Hebrews, Philemon, and II Peter; the Gospel of John ends on the 35th line, which may practically be counted as the 36th.1 This, again, can hardly be 1

It may be asked why, in discussing this table, we pay no attention to the repetition of the sixth line as an ending of three books, nor to the double recurrence of the number three. I have no theoretical objection to urge

NEW

TESTAMENT

7

AUTOGRAPHS.

accidental; we may assume that in the cases alluded to, with the exception of the ist Epistle of John, which, on account of the irregular length of the columns, furnishes an accidental coincidence, there is a unit sheet of paper employed, capable of containing 12 lines of the Sinaitic Codex ; we shall therefore have a new leaf of paper, (for reference to which we adopt the expression S-page, in order to distinguish it from the previous V-page), by means of which to measure our documents. With regard to the comparative sizes of the two pages, it is evident at a glance that the S-page is smaller than the V-page, for it contains twelve lines where the other has fourteen, and has a smaller number of letters to the line. 6. W e thus get the key to the method by which the text of the papyrus leaves was reduced into the shape in which we find it in the oldest manuscripts. Codex B selects the larger type of page, and arranges them nine on a page, or three in a side ; while the Sinaitic Codex selects the smaller leaf, and arranges them sixteen on a page, a g a i n s t e i t h e r of these n u m b e r s , s e e i n g that t h e y are both s u b m u l t i p l e s of the w h o l e c o l u m n of 48 l i n e s ; but p r a c t i c a l l y t h e y are t o o s m a l l v i s i o n s , and their r e c u r r e n c e is accidental.

subdi-

T h e p r o b a b i l i t y that out of 28

b o o k s , one n u m b e r s h o u l d r e c u r in the l i n e - e n d i n g s t h r e e t i m e s (I do not say this t i m e a particular number) is r e p r e s e n t e d by 28 . 27 . 26 w h o s e v a l u e is n e a r l y

Gs) • CO

It is almost certain, then, that s u c h an event as the r e c u r r e n c e a l l u d e d to w i l l be f o u n d in our table.

T h o s e w h o are i n t e r e s t e d in o b s e r v i n g

these

r e c u r r e n c e s m a y study the f o l l o w i n g table from the C o d e x Sinaiticus : Tobit

e n d s on line

3

Jonah

3

Nahum

e n d s on line 45

Judith

2

Macc. I

38

Habakkuk

Macc. I V

37

15 21

Zephaniah

Isaiah

14

16

Haggai

Joel

19

Zachariah

Obadiah

28

Malachi

3

H e r e e v e r y e n d i n g is f o r m e d b y r a n d o m distribution (unless w e e x c e p t the b o o k of J u d i t h and the M a c c a b e e s ) , f o r the w o r k s r e f e r r e d to are translations, and h a v e t h e r e f o r e no pattern ; y e t t h e r e is a d o u b l e r e c u r r e n c e of t h e 3, and of t h e 38 with its s u b m u l t i p l e 19. T h e s e are, of course, p u r e l y accidental. T h e r e c u r r e n c e w o u l d h a v e to be more f r e q u e n t b e f o r e w e s h o u l d notice it, or l o o k f o r any c o n c e a l e d cause at w o r k to p r o d u c e s u c h a result.

8

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

four in a side. A n d it is this arrangement which E u s e b i u s 1 describes w h e n he s a y s that the accurate M S S , prepared b y order of Constantine, were written rpia-a-a Kai xerpacro-d; i. e. as w e should say, in a square whose side is three, or in a square whose side is four. T h e V - p a g e s , then, are arranged Tpia-a-a, and the S - p a g e s TeTpaiTO" a. 7. N o w , examining our second table, w e see at once that the Sinaitic C o d e x g i v e s G o s p e l of Matthew G o s p e l of L u k e I Corinthians Hebrews Philemon II Peter Revelation

= = = = =

556 S - p a g e s , and three letters. 598 S - p a g e s . 205 S - p a g e s exactly. 162 " ' 10 " "

=

38

=

273

W e m a y perhaps conjecture that T i t u s should be a d d e d to the list, as containing 23 S - p a g e s a n d one line ; while the Epistle to the Colossians is again doubtful, comprising 49 leaves and one line. W e h a v e thus d e d u c e d the t y p e of almost all the Epistles, some of them with great e x a c t n e s s ; and w e observe that they fall into t w o groups, with the exception of some four or five Epistles, w h i c h either are not written so as to fill the paper, or are written on paper of a different size to the two sorts w e have been considering, or on a different pattern. 8. W h e n w e turn to the G o s p e l s w e h a v e a harder p r o b l e m to solve, but I think w e m a y say that if the two principal t y p e s of the early M S S are those indicated as rpicrcra and rerpao-o-a, then it is far more likely that those t y p e s were found in the G o s p e l s than that t h e y were merely adopted from the Epistles. W e m a y therefore e x p e c t to find some of the G o s p e l s written rpio-o-a and some rnrpaa-a-a, or rather some on the V - p a g e and some on the S - p a g e . T h e question is, how shall w e determine the t y p e of the autograph for any particular Gospel ? A n d here an important remark must be made. I am aware that e v e r y one of these results and suggestions is subject to a disturbing factor of the greatest moment, viz. the question of various readings in the text, and of accidental omissions or insertions of passages or lines in the great Codices. T h e disturbance will b e most to be apprehended in the case of the longer compositions, and with regard to these all our results must be l o o k e d upon at first as 1

Eusebius, Vit. Const. IV 37.

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

9

tentative. But in the smaller writings the various readings are generally so few and unimportant that the majority of our results m a y be r e g a r d e d as unaffected b y them. W e will, however, e x a m i n e the effect of these various readings in each of the separate books. It is the more important to do this carefully, because the Sinaitic and V a t i c a n C o d i c e s are k n o w n to contain a number of apparent insertions and omissions and repetitions, which have been held up b y a certain school as convincing p r o o f of their unreliable character as witnesses to the text of the N e w Testament. D r . D o b b i n g a v e in the Dublin University M a g a z i n e for N o v e m ber, 1859, a calculation o f the omissions of C o d e x B in the different b o o k s of the N e w Testament, in which w e find for Matthew Mark Luke John

330 omissions. 365 439 357

Acts 384 James 41 I Peter 46 II Peter 20 I John 16 II John 3 III John

"

"

Jude Romans I Cor. II Cor. Gal. Eph. Philip. Coloss. I Thess. II T h e s s .

11 omissions. 106 146 74 37 53 21 36 21 10

"

2

A n appalling table, certainly, and one which, if w e did not remember that the figures are the result of a collation with the T e x t u s R e c e p t u s , and that the majority of them refer to wholly insignificant readings, w o u l d almost m a k e us despair of finding in the Vatican or Sinaitic M S S any traces of the original style and size of the b o o k s of the N e w Testament. W e will, however, discuss any important readings that may occur, and after having first carefully dissected the text of St. John, and examined the bearing of our investigation upon the stichometry of the N e w Testament, we will proceed to the Epistles, beginning with the smaller ones, and so w o r k i n g up to the longer Epistles, the A c t s and the Gospels. A n d no result of the previous tentative examination is to be allowed to pass unchall e n g e d or unverified. 9. W e begin with the Gospel according to John. In the Vatican C o d e x this occupies 97 columns and six lines. In the Sinaitic C o d e x it occupies 107 columns and 35 lines. A t first sight, therefore, it seems that the G o s p e l is written on the S - p a g e , with only a

IO

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

deficiency of one line from a total of 431 S-pages. But here comes in the question of the last verse of the Gospel, which Tischendorf observed to be written in the Sinaitic M S S by a different hand, and many scholia to different M S S affirm to be an addition. Removing this verse, eight lines of the Codex, the S-page is of course no longer apparent. But strange to say, when the verse is also removed from Codex B, in which it occupies six lines at the top of a page, we are left with a Gospel terminating at the end of a page, and in our notation occupying exactly 291 V-pages. The Gospel of John is, therefore, probably written on the V-page, and the apparent contradiction of this statement by the Sinaitic Codex may be due to the fact that in the type of M S S which that Codex has been following some one has utilized part of the blank space at the latter half of a column for the insertion of a sentence as to the number of books that might have been written. The addition must have been earlier than the age of vellum MSS, and may have arisen in the transcription of the Gospel of John from the larger-sized paper to the smaller, since it nearly fills the blank in a smaller sheet, and that sheet not the lowest in a Sinaitic column. 10. This conclusion with regard to the autograph of St, John leads to very important consequences with regard to the celebrated pericope of the woman taken in adultery. An examination of this passage shows that there are 908 letters either inserted in the text or dropped from it. Now the average number of letters to the line in St. John's Gospel in the Codex Vaticanus is 16.4, from whence we conclude that the passage in question is equivalent to about 56 lines of Codex B, i. e. to four V-pages exactly. Now it is obvious that four such pages could not by any possibility have been excised from a document in which the V-pages are arranged nine in a square. They must, therefore, have been lost from the original document before it came into the shape represented by Codex B. Their reinsertion has been characterized by great awkwardness in later manuscripts, and breaks the continuity of the narrative. They have been, in fact, restored to a place which they did not previously occupy. Before going further we insert a reproduction of the four pages which we have reason to believe the lost passage to have occupied. As a restoration of the text of B, it is not quite a successful effort. I have not, I find, done justice to the syllabic division followed by the scribe, who has a distinct custom in ending his lines and dividing his words, and prefers, if possible, to write a seven-syllabled line.

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I NK ATCúKy f j)6N6 tCT HN

AC

e K e j NOI Ol K AT H p o p o

H

icoyoYAeic c e k a t s

3A KO y C A N T G C

KpiNGfM H A G e i T r e N o y A

KONTOS IC K A

e i e Ky p i e e i r r e N A e o ic

k pi A M 6 N O I A F

oyAe e p c o c e K A T A K j 3

i T T p e c B y T e pa>N

¡N c o t t o p e y o y ^ A i / ^ H

" c o h î e c ^ ATCONKA

K6TI AMA

pTANe

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

Moreover, some of the most capriciously concluded lines are meant to be syllabically divided, such as those which end with ov and leave the k of the OVK to be carried to the next line. This division occurs so frequently that it is evident that the scribe, in writing such words as ovk fanv, really regards the k as a sort of prefix to the verb. W e may now proceed to determine the place where the celebrated pericope should be reinserted. Turning to the end of the fifth chapter, we find that it closes with the words : " There is one that accuseth you, even Moses on whom ye trust. For if ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed me ; but if ye do not believe his writings, how can ye believe my words ? " The scene then changes abruptly to Galilee: " A f t e r these things Jesus departed to the other side of the sea of Galilee from Tiberias." It is between these chapters that I would locate the pericope. The fifth chapter narrates how Jesus found in the temple the man whom he had healed at the pool of Bethesda; it describes the long subsequent discussion with the Pharisees, which must have taken nearly all day, after which they depart, each man to his own house, but Jesus to the Mount of Olives. Appropriately the Pharisees bring him next morning the woman for judgment, with the remark that " Moses in the law said . . . but what sayest thou ? " Codex D, which gives the pericope in somewhat shorter form, is even more forcible, n 8e vvv \ey«r; we conclude, then, that this is a far more likely place to locate the pericope than at the end of the seventh chapter. This readjustment of the text at once removes many of the objections urged against its authenticity, and it also helps to fill up that unsightly chasm at the close of the fifth chapter. It is unnecessary to discuss in detail the objections which had been raised by critics to the passage as it originally stood, but we will quote a single one out of many difficulties urged, as given by Davidson in his Introduction to the New Testament, I 363. He says: " The greatest perplexity connected with the passage lies in the reason for bringing the case before Jesus. No adequate motive appears to induce the Scribes and Pharisees to employ this woman for the purpose of embarrassing the Redeemer, and thence extracting a ground of accusation against him. It is evident that they wished to entrap him; the narrative itself states that they tempted him in order to procure a tangible charge, but how they expected to do so by means of the adulteress is exceedingly obscure." I hope the obscurity disappears in the new arrangement of the text, and

12

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

that the passage is more harmoniously placed with r e g a r d to the context than previously. M o r e o v e r there is this difficulty, that in the ordinary supposition these lost V - p a g e s w o u l d begin four lines from the top of the p a g e , and w e should have to assume that C o d e x B had either a d d e d four lines to the autograph, or lost ten lines in the first seven chapters, before w e could rectify the p a g e s so as to reintroduce the lost columns of the p a p y r u s . Neither of these suppositions seems likely, as the text of John in these chapters is remarkably g o o d , and the text of B is more likely to be m a r k e d b y omissions than insertions. O n our hypothesis t h e y begin on the last line of the left-hand column of the page, and w e have only to assume that a single line has been lost from C o d e x B in the first five chapters. W e proceed to g o in search of this lost line. T h e G o s p e l of John in B has comparatively few various readings in the shape of insertions or omissions. The majority of them consist of transpositions and c h a n g e s of merely verbal importance. W e proceed to tabulate those of them which affect our enquiry, from the principal editors and M S S . Letters I

5-

avdpamav

I

13*

ovde

I

27.

os epirpotrdev

II

€K QeXi^aros

avdpos

. . .

Text. Rec. X

B.

W. H.

T.

11

-(-

-(-

—

21

-f-

-(-

—

-j-

—(-

21

-f-

—

—

—

—

Tr.

-f-

—

2. A long variant in the Sinaitic, but v e r y doubtful.

Ill

13.

o i>v ¿v t w ovpavf

III

31.

ewavw yap

wavrwv

I V

9*

I V

14.

ov pi) Si^ar/

V

12.

TOV

13

CCTT'LV

trvvxpoii>ral

tcpafiaTTOv

.

16 .

.

—

"4""

"I-

-f-

-)-

—

-)-

+

+

+

+

"j"

—

— —

— +

—

+

34

. . .

40

aov

15

25 V 16. icai ef'iT0VV • • • V 45. WPOS TOV NAREPA repeated 13

R e v i e w i n g the variants of the text of probable omission, and two of right in omitting tov Kpa^aTTov a-ov, to be added, which suits our case

"4"" -f-

—

—

+

—C-!-] —' —

— —

— —

of B thus far, w e find four cases insertion. If we allow that B is the result is a balance of a line exactly.

1 1 . W e must now examine the remainder of the G o s p e l in the same manner. V I

11.

TOiS fiadrjTcus

. . .

V I

22.

tKeivo

.

V I I

30.

ayiov

V I I

46.

t o r OVTOS o iivdpamos

eis

0 .

.

Mopevav

23 27

+

14

+

1 6

-)-

+ [+ -f-

—

—

-)-

] [-(-]

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

13

V I I I 52. B reads incorrectly, but the passage is 9 — X I I I 10. €i FIR/ TOVS uatiai' 13 X I I I 14. B repeats two lines and a half. X I I I 24. B has a slightly longer reading. 21 X I I I 32. €L 0 Sœç . . . — +[+] X I V 4- Kai oiôare 9 — — — — 8 X I V 5- ëvyàfieûa 21 X V I 16. ort vTïâyw . . . X V I I i5- (k}oo"/liou àXXà.. . omitted 35 + + + — — • X V I I 18. Kàyà> ànta-TeiXa r e p e a t e d 31

+ + + + +

+ - [+] + +

+

+ + + + + + +

+ [+] -

+

+

T h e total result of our examination of this passage is that perhaps one or two lines might be added to the text of B, but the text has repeated more than five lines and dropped only three, so the total result is hardly affected. It will be seen that we have made no allusion to the account of the troubling of the waters at Bethesda, which does not occupy a distinct number of V-pages. But we must not altogether pass the passage by, for it enables us to see why the pericope de adultera came to be inserted in the wrong place. There is no doubt whatever that the gloss in question is very early, seeing that we find a striking reference to it in Tertullian, De Baptism. 9. Written on the V-pattern, the passage John V 3, 4 would occupy about 10 lines of manuscript. Bearing in mind that the passage to which the pericope de adultera has been wrongly restored is four lines from the beginning of a column, and adding the gloss on the Troubling of the Water to the fifth chapter, we have now moved the inserted pericope to the beginning of a V-page. Each of the three errors, viz. the omission of the pericope, its reinsertion, and the insertion of the gloss in chapter V, is therefore anterior, to the age of vellum manuscripts, and we can even arrange the errors in their proper chronological order. Perhaps we ought to have added that in the same interval of time a balance of a single line was lost from the first five chapters of B.

14

NEW

TESTAMENT

AUTOGRAPHS.

The majority of the errors are of the V-type, that is, there are more V-lines than S-lines inserted or omitted. And this is just what we should expect, if the M S S were originally of the V-pattern ; and we may lay down the following general principle : A manuscript originally written on a certain pattern will generally show a majority of errors of the pattern on which it is written. The advantage of this proposition is that it will help us to determine the original character of a MS, whether the M S occupy an exact number of pages of its pattern or not. W e are now in the position to print the Gospel of John, approximately, from the original sheets. No one can study the Gospel carefully without noticing the discontinuity of many of its sequences. The probability is that some passages are still lost from the 500 original sheets of the Gospel. 12. Now let us turn to the close of the Gospel and examine the endings of the 20th and 21st chapters : the similarity of the 30th verse of the 20th chapter to the last verse of the 21st chapter is unmistakable. The Gospel has apparently two endings. And here comes in the remarkable fact that Tertullian calls the 30th verse of the 20th chapter the close of the Gospel, although he quotes from the 21st chapter in at least two places : " Ipsa quoque clausula Evangelii propter quid consignât haec scripta, nisi, ut credatis, inquit Iesum Christum filiurn Dei ? " 1 The proper place for the two closing verses of the 20th chapter is most likely at the end of the 21st chapter. For the expression that there were " many other signs not recorded which Jesus wrought " implies (just as the expression " I had many things to write to you " in the II and III of John) an insufficiency of writing material ; we are close to the end of the roll of paper. In the next place, the restoration of the closing verses of the 20th chapter to the end of the 21st is strikingly harmonious with the introduction of the Gospel, to which it returns as a keynote, and with the 24th verse of the 21st chapter which precedes it. And thirdly there is room for a single conjectural emendation which adds vividness to the narrative. In X X I 30, after ivimiov Tnv ¡ladrjTtop, many important M S S , especially those which exhibit a Western text, insert alrov. It is a lawful suggestion that the original reading was simply ¿vamiov alrov, which was altered as soon as the verse had become severed from its proper connection. 1

T e r t u l l i a n , A d v . Praxeam, 25.

NEW

TESTAMENT

15

AUTOGRAPHS.

The Gospel now closes as follows: OVT6S

etmv

6

fiadr)T>)f

Kai o ypa\fras ravra, avrov T) fiaprvpla

6

fiapTvpäv

Trepi

rovroiv

/cat o'Safiev on a\r)drjs

icrriv ' noWa ¡xev ovp Kat

(TTJfltta €irOLJ](7€V 0 17](T0VS €VO>77LOV

CTVTOV

€OTiv yeypafifjJua

'

ytypairrai

Iva

iv

T